Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series.

In the previous articles in this series, 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 be able to support getting the jobs into the plant (onboarding) in as efficient and painless ways for both you and your customers. Since all printers and converters have specific markets they serve and products that they produce, it is important to understand the issues and options, since one size does not fit all.

Bridging the client and the service provider can really be divided into two separate operations. Bringing a new customer into your production ecosystem and, once accomplished, entering the jobs into that ecosystem. There probably isn’t a one-box solution that can satisfy all of the requirements for all customers, since the clients each have unique business systems and production processes, although many have tried.