Issue No.17 DIGITISATION IN PRINTING - IMPLICATIONS FOR PACKAGING KEY POINTS: The Future of Printing is Digital. Accordingly, in the future packaging industry: All data will be digital. All print processes will be fully integrated into manufacturing operations. Businesses will be as much concerned with information management for customers as with materials and equipment. The public’s perception of printing will be of an environmentally responsible office type business. Issues Papers produced by the Packaging Council of Australia are intended to address topical issues of interest to companies in the packaging supply chain. The Issues Papers are designed to be stimulating and provocative. This Issues Paper is no exception. The issues canvassed are fundamental to the future of printing for packaging. The views expressed are those of the author, Averil Horton, whose details are contained at the end of the Paper. Whether you agree with them or not, the Packaging Council believes they certainly need to be considered. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The single key driver for the future of printing is digitisation. No other technical change approaches digitisation in significance and its implications are widespread. Digitisation - not just of pre-press activities but of every stage of the printing process - will change the whole nature of the print process, the use of printing in packaging, the work that needs to be done, the services that will be offered to customers and the skills that will be required. The Future Fully digital pre-press, which means all the data received, stored, handled and outputted will be done so digitally and will require much lower skill levels than required for traditional pre-press. It will also be faster, cheaper and better than traditional, non-digital techniques. Old arguments that digital pre-press for package printing is too slow, too complicated, too expensive, unsuitable and of poor quality have been thrown out. Over the next few years the distinctions between the various separate pre-press operations will disappear completely. For packaging companies, digital pre-press will be a prerequisite rather than a competitive advantage. So if you haven’t yet got it, get it. Digital printing has perhaps been rather over-hyped in the past few years and so has suffered from a backlash when new users found that it did not quite match up to the extravagant claims made for it. However, the arguments against digital printing - too slow, too complicated, too expensive, unsuitable and of poor quality - will eventually go the same way as they have done for digital pre-press. Ignoring the arrival of digital print is not an option even if the equipment currently available leaves something to be desired. Eventually, even the distinction between digital pre-press and digital printing will disappear. Digital printing should be considered as simply another way of producing current and some new future products alongside more traditional methods, at least for the next few years. In many packaging operations, flexo is the current ‘hot’ technology, especially as its quality is fast approaching that of litho. However, the improvements in digital printing mean that flexo’s apparently bright future will be somewhat less certain in a few years time. Packaging company managers who know little about digital printing should start learning now. When the next opportunity to invest in new equipment arrives, they should invest in something that is at least compatible with direct digital pre-press output. The Implications for Companies... Digitisation of the print process, however, goes hand in hand with increasing automation and computer control of the whole packaging process. As a result, in the future packaging industry all print processes will be fully integrated into the manufacturing operations and will not be seen as separate processes. One day all packaging will be printed ‘on-demand’ as the packaging material is manufactured or as the product is packed. This has major implications for the design and operation of packaging lines, the staff required and the services which can be provided for customers. In terms of equipment for packaging lines it will be worth thinking carefully before buying any further ‘standard’ equipment. Instead, companies ought to be investing in equipment that can become part of an automatic integrated production line - the print part of the process will be no different from any other part and controlled digitally in the same way as all other processes. In terms of skills, it will be IT skills that are most needed – by all staff. All new recruits must be IT literate and current staff will need to be trained if they are not if already competent. In terms of the services which can be provided to customers, it will be ‘information management’ which will be the most lucrative. Digitisation of the whole print process not only allows more control over the process, but allows changes to be made very easily and quickly to the information that is printed. Theoretically it will be possible to print every package with a different image, rather as a different bar code or sequence number can be printed now. Whether this extreme ability is desirable or not remains to be seen, but the ability to print very small batches with different information (whether text or images) will become important. However, looking into the future it is not always easy to imagine why this might be so, or who might want such specialist services, but there are some pointers available. Their Products... For example, the same packaged product may be sold into very different market segments, with different requirements as to the information which will be required about the package contents or the languages that must be used. Imagine, for example, a pharmaceutical product, perhaps in a very small box, aimed at the Vietnamese or Chinese community. Each group may not only prefer the product in its own language (as well as English), but may be interested in different information about that product. Digital printing can make this entirely feasible. Digital printing will also allow, for example, very local variations on ‘special offer’ flashing, making it possible for a retail store to have its own local flash or respond to a changing situation such as a local medical news story or even the results of an important sporting fixture. Another example is in the area of processed food packaging where customers are increasingly demanding to know not only what is in the product, how it was produced and by whom and where the raw materials came from. Food product manufacturers who buy raw materials from a range of different sources which are different at different times of the year and at different currency values, face the nightmare of controlling what raw material data goes onto which packaging. Even assuming that the raw material data can easily ‘accompany’ the raw material though the food production process as some sort of ‘electronic’ tag, this "mountain" of data (which grows at every stage) needs to be managed and the relevant data for each product selected to go onto the relevant package. Then, of course, there is the need to make allowances for different legislative requirements, different market segments preferences, and of course different language needs. So what the customer wants is for the packager, or packaging producer, to manage all this data actively and ensure that the right data gets onto the right package for the right market. The Consumer... It will therefore be possible to use digital printing (together with digital pre-press and digitisation of data throughout the supply chain) to provide end users with a range of on-demand variations in the printed image on a package with the possibility of providing the packaging customer with a higher value product. In time, the ‘information management’ required will become an important part of the service offered to customers and the future packaging industry will be as much concerned with information management for its customers as with materials and equipment. High margins will only be achieved by provision of added benefits, such as customisation, flexibility of response and information management. Packaging itself will be a low margin activity. Packaging companies will therefore need to recognise that resources will need to be invested in equipment that will bring a higher added value to products, through information management, in order to increase profits. ...and the Environment Finally, digital printing can also provide some help with environmental issues as is it generally a less wasteful process, both in terms of the volume of inks and substrates used (as set-up requirements are much reduced) and in the absence of printing plates, films and chemicals, etc. This will help improve public perception of the packaging industry and contribute to its being an environmentally responsible business. Imagine that your packaging business will look, feel, sound and smell like a nice, clean, quiet, office, run by staff who look like they work in a designer clothes shop - not (quite) an impossible dream, with the help of digital print. CONCLUSIONS Digital pre-press will be a prerequisite - so if you haven’t yet got it, get it. Start learning about digital print now. When the next opportunity to invest arises, ensure you get something that is at least compatible with direct digital pre-press output. Try to invest in equipment that can become part of an automatic integrated production line, including print, which will be controlled digitally in the same way as all other processes. Treat your production lines as being pre-requisites for being in business rather than the main product. Look to management of your customers’ information requirements as the one sure way of increasing the value of your products and services and of generating profits. Use digital to help achieve the impossible - a packaging business that looks, feels, sounds and smells like a nice, clean, quiet, office, run by staff who look like they work in a designer clothes shop. This Issues paper was written by Averil Horton of "Alpha to Omega Ltd ... and beyond". She can be contacted at 120 St Margarets Road, Twickenham TW1 2AA UK, Tel: +44 181 580 0730, Fax: +44 181 580 0731, Email: Averil@alphaomega.demon.co.uk. Read other Issues Papers: No.01 - "Combustion with Energy Recovery" No.02 - "Life Cycle Analysis" No.03 - "Managing Packaging Waste in Europe - Lessons for Australia" No.04 - "Waste Management " No.05 - "Litter" No.06 - "Mandatory Deposits" No.07 - "Excessive Packaging" No.08 - "Recycling" No.09 - "Australian Packaging - How Competitive?" No.10 - "The Packaging Council of Australia" No.11 - "Mandatory Minimum Recycled Content" No.12 - "Eco-Labelling" No.13 - "Packaging - Ten Trends for The Next Ten Years" No.14 - "Packaging - It's Essential Role" No.15 - "The Internet - What it Means for Australian Packaging" No.16 - "Single, Active, Post-Materialistic and Grey? " No.18 - "Australian Packaging: Issues and Trends"