Big Picture - June/July 2020 - 17

FIGURE 2:

Level of Workflow Automation in Sign and Graphics Shops

TODAY'S BIG WORKFLOW CHALLENGES
The reality is most sign and graphics shops are based on
manual processes with few having automated their production
workflows. In fact, research found almost half (49 percent) of

respondents had mostly or completely manual processes. (See
figure 2.) Customer requests are likely sent through email,
manually quoted, and then a job ticket is created once it's
accepted by the customer. The job ticket carries instructions
from department to department, with each operator manually
adding comments, instructions, and production counts. The
artwork may be inspected in prepress, but many tasks like
tiling/nesting are commonly performed at the RIP by the
printer operator. These manual processes start to crack, then
break as the number of orders increase.
There are three critical areas that need software and
workflow automation to streamline production: Job onboarding, a single system of record, and a single view of operations.
Today, customers can order and submit artwork through many
methods from email, which is the most popular, to online
storefronts (web-to-print). Job onboarding needs structure to
capture the critical information required to produce the work
according to the customer's specifications. Receiving orders
through email is anything but structured because the
information provided is at the discretion of the client. This
forces customer support representatives (CSRs) or other staff
to waste time tracking down missing information, such as
quantities, due dates, materials, and shipping instructions.
Many sign shops are also lacking a single system of record:
A system to track and monitor all customer details and orders.
A single system of record acts as the brain and central clearing
house for work as it comes in and leaves the shop. It's also the
foundation for providing accurate information to other
processes like scheduling and shipping. A print management

BIGPICTURE.NET

The good news is there are lessons that can be learned
from other segments of printing that have already gone
through this shift. Commercial printers, whose primary focus
is typically document-based applications, had to pivot their
businesses through the introduction of digital printing devices
and the disruption of online communications. The result is
many commercial printers have continued to expand the
range of products and services to target new vertical markets
that expanded the use of multiple printing technologies. The
expanded production complexity - coupled with the increase
in average number of orders (now averaging almost 4000 per
month in the US compared to 613 for sign shops) - forces
automation to enter the production processes. At a point,
throwing additional staff at tasks becomes impractical, not to
mention costly, when margins are often in the single digits for
commercial printers.
Sign and display shops, in comparison, still have healthy
margins for the top two applications - between 55 percent and 63
percent, according to recent research conducted by Big Picture
and Keypoint Intelligence. (See figure 1.) Higher margins can
result in complacency to keep the same manually intensive
production processes in place, thinking the good times will
continue to roll. Now is the time to start building automation into
your production workflows to succeed in the shift.

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Big Picture - June/July 2020

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