To address these new and changing realities, it is important to develop workflows that support the products and product mix with optimal efficiencies. Currently, most work is handled on an exception basis. This means that most jobs require manual handling whether needed or not. While manual handling is probably needed for a small percentage of work, companies really need to focus on automated workflows with exception handling as needed. In many printing plants, I have found there are overlapping (competing) production software solutions creating some “islands of automation,” especially in prepress, which adds complexity, creates production silos, and inhibits streamlined and automated production.

Developing this type of workflow can be accomplished minimally with the combination of an MIS/ERP solution in addition to at least one flexible W2P solution and a good rules-based pipeline production workflow system like the Enfocus Switch platform. There are other tools that could be required, and there are other systems available, which I will cover in a future article.

One of the most important things to remember when you design and implement an infrastructure that will support your short- and long-term needs is that it will always need to support disparate solutions from different vendors. That being the case, open and flexible are key attributes.