Real print quality understanding

While increasing production efficiency, how to make mass customization become your winning formula

When the quality of the linear film output satisfies the exchange standard under the general number of screen lines (150 to 175 lpi), printing has become a commodity. As technology continues to evolve and new prepress technologies such as desktop publishing, scanners and inkjet printing emerge, the mysteries of prepress technology are constantly being uncovered, and the status of printed goods is even more unshakeable. Technological advances are also being used by print buyers, who demand lower prices and shorter delivery times. This forces printers to find ways to find unique selling points. Some printing plants have added ancillary services such as digital asset management and design. However, the core of the printing business is still printing ink on paper. The smart printer's approach is to make itself more unique in the printing process, and to re-examine the meaning of the word “quality” with different processing and sales perspectives. This needs to challenge some "truth".

The two “truths” of the printing industry (actually fallacy)

1, print buyers buy printing

2、Printers sell printing

Without print, print buyers will not buy printing at all; they use printing as a medium for meeting communication needs. To a certain extent, it is more effective than other media, and it is inexpensive and easy to operate. Like the Internet. What they buy is the unique value that only ink on paper can deliver. As a result, different buyers and different projects have different expectations. Today, customers demand that the flyers have vivid colors. Tomorrow, the clients demand that the annual report be of high fidelity. A specification can no longer meet the needs of everyone. Similarly, successful printers are not simply selling prints. They established a good relationship with their buyers and made them the supplier of their customers' printing solutions. Tailoring customer's products and providing personalized services provides printers with excellent opportunities. Whenever printing is required, print buyers will think of them. Therefore, the printer is no longer just a commodity, but also an important partner in solving the communication needs of the printing buyer. However, satisfying each customer's unique needs will make any printing company quickly bankrupt. Only by implementing standardized production can print production achieve maximum profitability. This obviously runs counter to the concept of tailored manufacturing. The traditional mass production model is inconsistent with personalized production. How do printers deal with the conflict between the user's individual needs and standardization?

Standardized customer customization

Many companies are improving their production lines to make them more flexible to accommodate the different needs of thousands of users of the same product. This model is collectively referred to as "mass customization". Its purpose is to synthesize the advantages of two opposing processing models - mass production and custom production. Mass customization is not only trying to reduce production costs through standardization but also gaining competitive advantage through customization. Mass customization can deepen market penetration, increase user loyalty, shorten production cycles, and increase profits. In mass customization, there are six key concepts:

1. Put yourself in place to evaluate printing

This is to understand the customers and their needs, and to make sure that the products you provide are what they expect. For example, one day, you might like to enjoy a casual hamburger in a stylish restaurant, but the next day you only have fast food hamburgers, the same is true for print buyers, and some of their jobs are important. Some are not. In this way, you will consider standardizing several different production processes in your project. This allows you to determine the level of production and cost based on the needs of a customer's specific project. For example, different production processes for color may include:

1 important color production path (high fidelity). This may include high-fidelity scanning/customized CMYK conversion settings, traditional proofing, specified range of printing color differences, frequent detection of print consistency, and binding quality.

2 bright color production path (medium fidelity). This may include basic digital scanning/general automated CMYK conversion settings, inkjet proofing, industry-standard printing chromatic aberrations, medium-frequency print consistency checks, and random bookbinding quality checks.

3 basic production path (low fidelity). This may include user-supplied scanning, laser proofing or soft proofing, and industry-standard printing ink density deviations.

2. Provide the right amount of choice

Effective mass customization depends not only on the understanding of the user's expectations but also on the conversion of this information into the right number of choices. Print buyers may require the catalogue to achieve ordinary printing effects, and annual reports will achieve high fidelity. Such a print standard is not enough, you need to consider giving customers more choices of standardized products. E.g:

1175 lpiGRACoL standard.

2175lpi Dmaxx standard. This is to obtain a higher dry film density than the standard for more saturated colors.

The 3 Best Plus FM screening provides details close to continuous fidelity and similar photos.

4C2MYK. This is CMYK's addition of a magenta note, which allows printers to choose between red and orange or blue and purple.

5 Get high fidelity by expanding the color settings. This can extend the color gamut, or replace spot colors, just like Creo's Spotless? Spotless system.

3. Create a modular production system

Volkswagen is a successful example of mass customization. Volkswagen only has four alternative platforms, but it produces more than 30 different vehicles worldwide. Believe it or not, Volkswagen's Beetle and Audi are the same with Jetta, Golf, Audi A3, and all European Skoda models. The secret lies in the fact that in different models of cars, customers do not see parts that use standardized configurations, and customers can use unique designs. In terms of printing, printers can standardize several key product features to provide maximum visible user customization. These features should be pre-checked and then integrated into the production workflow. When a sales representative discusses a project with a client, he can propose one of the standardized options for the client to “customize” on the special needs of the client project. The key lies in the development, pre-screening, and standardization options, rather than waiting for customers to request or experiment on site.

4. Information sharing

Everyone in the company should be able to get information about customer orders and production processes. If you have this preparation, you can get great flexibility, because everyone from the implementation to the production can understand the progress of the order and what needs to be done to adapt to new customer needs. It also enables each employee to "stand in the same place" in supporting the company to meet customer needs. Keeping all job information as much as possible in the database can avoid making the same mistakes.

5. Establish direct contact with customers

When a customer orders a product, the printing company can find many market messages that are not available from traditional market research. Build as many customer information databases as possible – Building relationships with customers is the key to success, and customer relationships depend on a deep understanding of the customer. Printers can categorize customers, workflows, and prints so that they can tailor production and services for each customer and product. With reference to this information, it can also facilitate valuation, purchase of new equipment, and stimulate new service opportunities.

6. Retain customers

In addition to providing product choices for users, mass customization also creates a custom user interface, which in turn enhances customer loyalty. If you want to make the customer's experience with your company consistent as your print product, then every contact between your company and the customer – whether it is personnel or technical communication – should make the customer feel as easy as possible.

What about quality?

Quality, as defined by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a business management expert, is "meeting customer expectations." Therefore, truly "high-quality" printers can understand that the quality is not the difference between high and low, but the expectations of customers. The ability to effectively adjust its standardized production platform to meet customer expectations becomes the weight of competition.

Reprinted from: Print Vision