In the last article, I proposed a high-level view of the infrastructure that you could use to build your intelligent workflow within your plant and with your customers and partners. When working with any data driven system, and today that includes print manufacturing workflows, you need to maintain a single source of truth where all of the production and business data can be managed. Now, I did say “managed” and not necessarily stored, and in this article I will help you better understand what that means.

When looking at transforming a business the old adage is, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” and today this statement has even more relevance. While print service providers rightfully tend to focus on production and the purchase of new and more efficient hardware, it is equally important to have a workflow information infrastructure that can support current and future business and production processes. Today’s business decisions should be made based on real-time data and facts, combined with strategic direction and perceived opportunities, and the only way to get to all of this is by implementing an ERP or MIS solution. In fact, this is the key to successful implementation of machine learning and AI.

This type of system is crucial to any print production business that exceeds 10 people, and could also benefit smaller companies as well. While a notepad, an Excel spreadsheet, or a scheduling board filled with Post-It Notes may suffice for smaller companies, there is a point at which it becomes very difficult to manage a company with this type of manual, disconnected, paper-based process, especially when you take skilled labor challenges into account.