Capabilities and performance of printing machines have made remarkable progress over the past few years, enabling printing firms to shift their focus from enhancing their competitiveness to the implementation of an integrated digital workflow. This trend is beginning to show in surveys on the intention for equipment deployment in the Japanese/U.S. printing industry. The printing industries in both nations also face in common the situation where addressing the extended printing fields that are closely related to the manufacturing of printed materials is essential to customer satisfaction and enhanced competitiveness.

In the survey on management potential in the printing industry for fiscal 2002 conducted by JAGAT, the present ownership of equipment and the intention for new installation, expansion, and retirement of equipment were examined. The figure below shows a comparison between 2001 and 2002 survey results on the plans to install/expand equipment within three years.

The figure indicates clear priority areas in the installation/expansion of equipment and in implementation of technologies among respondents.

Highest priority was given to the prepress system and computer systems for business management, each of which had four relevant items ranked among the top 10. Network-related systems were the next, as all of the three items listed in the questionnaire were placed between 11th and 20th places. The sheet-fed press and the digital press ranked below 21st and 31st, respectively. Note that the gap between these two technologies is small in terms of the degree of eagerness for adoption.

The number of votes naturally reduces as the amount of investment required for the equipment rises, resulting in a smaller number of votes given to printing machines. Therefore, when reviewing the figure, attention should be paid to the change in priority.

One noticeable feature this year compared to last year is increased interest in new business fields and operations such as electronic order/purchase management for printed materials (23 firms), remote proofing (20 firms), variable data printing business (18 firms), the development of new products (15 firms), and outsourced shipping of printed matter (10 firms).

●Steady progress toward the next phase

Even a look at the past one-year changes alone is sufficient to acknowledge the technological trends toward implementation of integrated digital workflows and steady moves toward providing additional values through businesses such as the shipping of printed matter as an outsourced service.

It has become the norm that the latest printing machines allow operators to complete a plate change within five minutes regardless of size and the number of units. The same applies to color adjustments and register adjustments. The center of attention in terms of cost cutting, time saving, and staff downsizing is shifting to extension of the digital workflow. According to estimations by JAGAT, domestic demand for offset presses for 2002 declined to as low as 33% of the peak period (1990). Aside from a slowdown in equipment investment due to lower profitability, significant improvement in equipment capability and performance has extensively contributed to this drop. To build competitiveness, efforts toward production rationalization combined with the ability to allow one-stop shopping, a function that additionally covers processes before and after print manufacturing and helps differentiate the company, has become indispensable. This explains why an increased number of companies are providing shipping services for printed materials.

As demonstrated in JAGAT's survey results on business management potential, a change in balance between functionality and performance of machinery may be a major factor behind this, aside from the reluctance to install new equipment under the sluggish economy. One undeniable fact is that major trends in technology are heading in the same direction as expected.

2005/02/28 00:00:00