I did a presentation for the MFSA at their annual meeting entitled, "Steps to Take Before Purchasing a Digital Press." The presentation focused on the total cost of investment and how to calculate a return on investment. It also talked about how to identify your STEP gaps (staff, training, equipment, procedures). The presentation went well and I thought the MFSA put a great program together. They are a lean, mean fighting machine.

During the presentation I talked about utilization rate, which is one of the most important considerations in achieving a return on investment. I mentioned a philosophy I use called, “Cannibalize ASAP and AMAP” (As Soon As Possible—As Much As Possible).” If you’re like most companies that have added digital capabilities, you have probably cannibalized some of your offset work and transferred it to your digital press. It’s not unusual for me to visit a company a few months after it has installed a digital press and witness two or three hours of work that was previously done on offset presses now being moved to the digital equipment. That’s about 25%-37% utilization of an 8-hour shift. While that’s not bad … that’s usually not break even!

If you’re like most companies, you may not have focused enough attention to this strategy, because you’re afraid to take work off your offset presses and have them sit idle. With all due respect to this traditional theory, it’s dangerous and it may be wrong!

Why? The reason is surprisingly simple. Most printers have spent years selling and servicing commercial printing work and have developed a skilled sales force with the ability to sell more offset or fill the sales gaps and get much more commercial work than digital printing work.

That means, for most companies with a traditional sales force, if you take work off your offset presses and shift it to your digital presses, you may be more likely to sell more offset work. Some may argue that this is only a temporary fix, as opposed to increasing selling skills for digital printing and I agree. I have found that it takes at least 1 year of sales training to see increased digital sales.

But why not do both? Why not cannibalize more offset work while you train sales staff to better understand and sell the advantages of digital printing.

One more point in defense of the “Cannibalize ASAP and AMAP” philosophy comes from a web blog by Mike Docherty, CEO of Venture2 Inc., and it talks about the importance of cannibalizing your own work or losing it.  Notes Docherty: “If there's value that's being held back, someone (customers or competitors) will free it. So, worry less about how your potential innovations might cannibalize your existing products, and focus on eating your own young before your competitors do.”

But the whole idea of cannibalizing work is controversial. In presentations I get both praise and criticism. Some may say “Are you crazy, cannibalize my core business?” While others say, “If you’re not seeing growth in your core services, maybe you should look for new products and services.” What do you think?

Howard Fenton is a Senior Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research.