Next month (April 3-6), PIA/GATF will hold its annual Continuous Improvement Network Conference in Charleston, South Carolina. As its name implies, this conference focuses on the various process improvement tools and techniques that graphic communications companies can use to increase operational efficiency and productivity. The theme of this year’s conference is “Lean Manufacturing,” and the four-day event will include six keynote and general sessions, as well as ten case study presentations. During the conference, I’ll be conducting a general session that will discuss the role of activity-based costing (ABC) in supporting process improvement efforts. More generally, the theme of this session will be, “How to Make Smart Investments in Process Improvement.” Given recent developments in the graphic communications industry, this topic is both highly relevant and very timely.

One of the hottest buzzwords in the graphic communications industry today is workflow automation. It’s become almost impossible to pick up a trade magazine or industry newsletter without encountering an article that deals with automating or otherwise improving workflows or business processes. Much of the current discussion about improving workflow revolves around JDF technologies. Long before it actually opened, last year’s drupa was dubbed the “JDF drupa,” and the label proved to be accurate. During the show, virtually all industry equipment vendors and other technology suppliers announced JDF-related products and/or demonstrated JDF-enabled workflows. In making these announcements, the vendors were practically unanimous in proclaiming the benefits that automated workflows will bring to printers. Last fall’s Graph Expo provided more of the same praise for JDF and other workflow technologies.

The recent industry focus on JDF and workflow automation highlights the critical importance of effective process improvement efforts to the future of the graphic communications industry. Many managers of graphic communications companies, as well as a host of respected industry economists and observers, have acknowledged that graphic communications firms must increase their productivity if print is to remain competitive with other, less costly, methods of communication. The real issue now facing company managers is not whether they should invest in improved business processes, but how to decide what investments to make and how to obtain the greatest economic benefits from the investments they do make. With business conditions still challenging, managers of graphic communications companies must be able to measure the real economic value of improved processes before they make substantial investments in process improvement technologies or projects.