by Pat McGrew | Operations, Print Sales, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
Continuing our adventure through the wilds of workflow, the next stop is that messy process of codifying the order and getting it on board so that it can move almost seamlessly through your production workflow. We look at this process as part of Job Entry and...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
The promise for this next series was to go back to basics, so this edition is all about the magical role of the creative development tools in your workflow. It is an important topic. If the file that will pass through the workflow is not developed so that it can print...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
Sometimes it is good to go back to the basics, so let’s start with defining workflow in 2018. It’s a tall order because how you define workflow depends on where you come from in the print world, the jobs you’ve done, and the things you need to manage. Let’s divide the...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
The last of the decorations are neatly in their boxes and the new calendars have been organized to get the new year started. What are you doing to make sure that you work will flow in 2018? What should you do first? What are the trends? What are the quick fixes to...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
What a year of workflow wizardry! We started the year advising everyone to take a close look at their production shop floor to determine where the bottlenecks were holding up the natural flow of work. Many of you did just that and shared stories of finding things that...
by Pat McGrew | Print Media, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Tools, Workflow
A while back I wrote a blog on how it wasn’t yet possible to walk up to an Echo Dot or Alexa tower and ask where your print job was. In the blink of an wizard’s eye the RSA folks showed their demo of Alexa reading information passed to her in a news brief format, and...
by Pat McGrew | #Print17, Operations, Print Services, Printerverse, Software, Software and Systems, Tools, Training, Uncategorized, Workflow
There are only a few tradeshows that attracts not only printers and print buyers, but an entire range of hardware and software providers. This year the organizers for Print 17 attracted new and existing exhibitors and in the neighborhood of 20,000 attendees to browse...
by Deborah Corn | #Print17, #PrintSales, Buyers, Consumables, Design, Digital Print, Direct Mail, Education, Featured, GRAPH EXPO, Inkjet, Marketing, Operations, Packaging, Paper, Print Buying, Print Media, Print Media Centr, Print Sales, Print Services, Printers, Printerverse, Publishing, Sales, Software, Software and Systems, Tips, Tools, Training, Trends, Web to Print (W2P), Workflow
Q: How many Printers does it take to print a light bulb? A: You don’t know, you don’t print light bulbs… right? Because anyone can print a light bulb. You don’t want to be in the light bulb business. If you are, then you compete with everyone – including...
by Pat McGrew | Digital Print, Finance, Operations, Print Services, Sales, Software, Software and Systems, Tools, Workflow
If you own a digital print device, somewhere in your life is a Digital Front End. The Digital Front End (DFE) is the workflow touchpoint that accepts a print file, commonly a PDF or PostScript file in today’s print environment, and turns that file into a format that...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Software, Software and Systems, Tips, Tools, Training, Workflow
The print hardware often gets the blame when there is a shop slowdown. Misfeeds, wrong stock loaded, paper transport issues, and even finishing equipment glitches can pose some challenges. But when the workflow has a problem the challenges can be greater because...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Workflow
When you think about workflow (and I know you do!), how much do you think about automation? The two should go hand-in-hand. But what is a reasonable amount of automation? Should you be waiting until there are Alexa and Echo devices throughout your shop so that you can...
by Pat McGrew | Operations, Print Services, Software, Software and Systems, Tools, Workflow
A question came up over in the Print Production Professionals Group on LinkedIn that came down to this: there is a lot of guidance for larger companies and corporate printers when it comes to workflow, but what are smaller printers supposed to do? What workflow...