Digital Printing Update: The impact of COVID-19

Cover Story Canada's adaptable digital printers respond and the acceleration of digital trends

The month of May is usually when Graphic Arts Magazine shares an update on digital printing and its impact on our industry. This year would have made for a great overview opportunity since this is the year that we would have attended drupa 2020, which was originally scheduled to start next month.

Every four years major vendors consider this event as a major jumping-off point to launch or announce their latest hardware and software products, setting their evolutionary tone for the years to come. This in turn drives the printing industry to consider the impact of these evolving technologies on their business models and adjust their strategies and business plans accordingly. With digital printing, especially inkjet, reaching the tipping point of going mainstream, many in the industry were looking forward to attending drupa 2020 with the intent to use this event as their ideal platform for research and development efforts.

Then COVID-19 hit. In a matter of weeks, the virus threat went from a growing concern in January and February, to a full-blown worldwide crisis with a complete lockdown in Canada in the second half of March – except for essential services. Almost overnight the graphic arts industry, as many other industries, went from contemplating their next mid-term to long-term strategic planning, to survival mode. However shell-shocked, the printing industry showed a remarkable agility to adapt as parts of the industry got designated as an essential service. Think of packaging printing for food and pharmaceuticals, commercial printing for direct-marketing messaging, wide-format printing for floor decals, banners and posters, etc. What struck me even more so was the printing industry’s ability to transform its manufacturing capabilities to provide tools to help the fight against COVID-19. Here are a couple of examples that really stood out.

The creativity and agility of the printing industry

C17media in Richmond Hill repurposed its wide-format equipment to make thousands of face shields for healthcare workers.

On March 31, C17media, a printmedia shop based in Richmond Hill, set up to help in the fight against COVID-19 and started a campaign called “Support Canada’s Frontline.” Spearheading the effort was Chris Pereira, President of C17 Group. He decided to repurpose the company’s wide-format equipment fleet to make medical face shields for healthcare workers. By mid-April they delivered their first batch, and soon received their Health Canada license as a medical device manufacturer. Chris revealed what drove his organization to such a drastic change: “It’s surreal how much has changed since mid-March. I have spoken with a lot of entrepreneurs and now is not the time to sit back and ride out the storm. Plan, adapt and execute. Most businesses will not return to normal for a very long time – and no one is coming to save you.”

PDI modified its production lines to produce protective shields and visors. Another example is PDI, based in Kirkland, Quebec. Right from the beginning of the lockdown PDI got involved in helping to fight the crisis and repurposed part of its Wide-Format Division. They modified their production line in record time to deliver protective shields to essential services. These shields are being used, for example, at reception desks at hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, as well as at cash registers and checkouts in grocery stores, etc. Next to these protective shields they also produce protective visors for face shields. Jamie Barbieri, President and co-owner of the PDI Group, and Martin Blais, Vice President of PDI Wide-Format Solutions, were impressed by how their employees put their heart, ingenuity and great dedication into producing more protective shields and visors each and every day. On the west coast it’s equally remarkable how sustainable printing leader Hemlock Printers, based in Burnaby, BC, had stepped up its efforts early on to help fight COVID-19. Regarded as a social, purpose-driven organization, the company also used its manufacturing capabilities to help its

PDI Group

communities. They’re printing Public Health Agency of Canada COVID-19 workplace posters for businesses and non-profits free of charge. Hemlock’s social-purpose partner, Novex Delivery Solutions, is donating the “no-contact” carbon-neutral delivery of those posters. Hemlock is also using its wide-format equipment to print floor decals (to indicate proper space apart while physical distancing), plexiglass shields and other signage products that protect employees and customers.

Richard Kouwenhoven

As Richard Kouwenhoven, President & COO of Hemlock Printers, said: “It has become clear that our fight against this virus will take place over the weeks and months ahead, and we remain committed to doing our part, working in close partnership with our staff, suppliers, customers and the wider community.” Mi5 Print & Digital, based in Mississauga, Ontario, turned their design capabilities into creating medical visors, safety shielding and even flat-pack corrugated folding emergency beds.

“I was confident that with our technology and capacity to design and manufacture retail POP products quickly, that we could be very helpful right now in the COVID-19 crisis,” said Derek McGeachie, President & CEO of Mi5. Hueneye, based in Montreal, partnered with Imprimerie Maxime, also based in Montreal, to produce single-use, recyclable face shields for front-line grocery workers.

The Team at Mi5 help with the Co-Vid 19 relief efforts

Michael Green, President of Hueneye mentioned that they can increase their weekly production to 100,000 units. Ellis Packaging Limited based in Pickering, Ontario, produced 10,000 meal boxes for front line medical workers…..and the list goes on. These are just some examples of organizations that have repurposed their equipment fleets and offered products and services to help in this time of crisis.

There are obviously many more that used their equipment in a creative way to come up with solutions helping the fight. The question one can now ponder is, what will all this mean for the printing industry once we get back to “normal” – whatever that “normal” might be. There’s no doubt that this crisis is having – and will have – a profound impact on society as well as on our industry. Until recently we were projecting 3 to 5 year trends based on the digitization of the overall communication process, of which our printing industry is part. It’s our belief that the current crisis will accelerate some of the digital printing trends we’ve been identifying. In the next section we’ll take a closer look at five trends and their possible impact on the future of the digital printing industry.

1. Faster turnaround times and shorter run lengths

The astounding speeds by which the above-mentioned organizations were able to adjust, retool and manufacture “non-common” print products, is a clear indication of their overall adaptability. Those companies that are now proving their agility will be the ones sourcing equipment and systems that will further enhance that advantage. These printers understand more than ever that they are part of the omni-channel communications universe, and speed (i.e. faster turnarounds) and personalization/versioning (i.e. shorter run lengths) will more than ever become a distinct competitive advantage. We’ll notice an increase in the adoption rate of digital printing presses, especially inkjet-based platforms, as well as integrated workflow systems.

2. Increased automation – machine learning and artificial Intelligence (AI)

The goal of automation is to eliminate as many “hand-offs” or “touchpoints” in the production process as possible to increase the efficiency of the production process while reducing or eliminating errors and waste. The automation acceleration will occur on both the equipment level (hardware) and the workflow level (software). At the equipment level we’ll see an increasing adoption rate of high production digital presses and finishing equipment, both demanding high uptime ratios. At the workflow level we’ll see an accelerated demand for highly automated, fully integrated workflow systems. The combination of both a highly automated equipment fleet and a fully integrated workflow system is at the origin of an acceleration in machine learning and AI.

When the complete print manufacturing process (from order intake to shipping/edelivery, fulfillment and billing) is fully integrated, the complete process will be mapped with data points. This in turn makes it a lot easier for the system to interpret the collected data gathered from each of these data points, “learn” from it, and The acceleration of digital printing trends due to COVID-19

improve both the workflow and the manufacturing process. This means that we no longer can see equipment and workflow isolated from each other. As stated, the goal of automation is the elimination of errors and waste. One aspect of waste that will get much more emphasis is the notion of time. Too often, equipment performance is linked to only “speeds and feeds”, ignoring the actual uptime of the equipment. Uptime is defined as how often the equipment is available for production. With the trend of “faster turnaround times and shorter run lengths” gaining in importance, uptime will become one of the defining characteristics in the choice of digital presses and finishing equipment. Uptime of 90% and higher is becoming the norm, supported by an ever-increasing degree of self-diagnostics and self-maintenance.

Integrated workflow is the other major contributing factor of time saving. There’s no better example of that than the automated workflow modules for packaging, where sizes, forms, run lengths, colours, substrates, deadlines, etc. vary substantially by project. Advanced workflow software is already available that will select and imposition jobs based on the above criteria, mapped against the available presses and finishing equipment, while maximizing number-up by sheet.

In some cases, different jobs with different sizes, different colours, different run lengths, different forms and different schedules can be impositioned and nested on the same sheet, and be allocated to a specific press and/or finishing equipment. This complex process of calculating the numerous combinations with the sole intent of maximizing equipment fleet utilization and minimizing waste will be done in seconds, rather than hours. So, expect an acceleration of the automation processes and an increase in the leveraging of machine learning and AI.

3. Accelerated shift of skill-set requirements

Given the above, there’s no doubt that we’ll see an accelerated shift of human intervention away from the manufacturing floor to the pre-manufacturing and post-manufacturing area. We have already seen the introduction of robots in the production process of wide-format products, where they execute and speed up the repetitive work, increasing efficiency and productivity. Digital presses now require almost no operator intervention compared to conventional offset presses. Remote diagnostics can monitor these digital presses and help prevent costly breakdowns – in some cases even eliminating them before they happen. The human factor is clearly shifting towards the added value of the production program development, the controlling and monitoring of the manufacturing process, and the integration of the pre-manufacturing and post-manufacturing functions.

4. Accelerated convergence of business verticals

Before the impact of COVID-19, we were already witnessing an accelerated phase of convergence in the printing industry. The advances in technology and the digitization of the printing process had already set in motion a convergence of business verticals. The lines between commercial printing, direct-marketing printing, wide-format printing, packaging printing and label printing, started to blur.

The previously mentioned examples of companies reaching outside of their comfort zones to manufacture products to help front line workers with medical face shields, single-use face shields, protective shields and other print and display products to keep the public informed, revealed how our industry is indeed able to convert to non-standard production in absolute record times.

This clearly underscores the dynamics and flexibility of the printing industry to adapt. In the aftermath of this crisis, we’ll see the lines between the verticals further deteriorate and the different verticals will converge even faster, creating new business opportunities.

5. Increasing management sophistication

There’s no doubt that over the last couple of decades, the printing industry has gone through accelerated technological changes that have fundamentally altered the conventional business model. We went from a “heavy iron on the floor” mentality to becoming part of a sophisticated communications industry. Considering the business impact of the previously mentioned trends, one can only imagine the challenges managers in the printing industry will face.

Add to this the accelerating factors caused by the COVID-19 crisis, plus the uncertainty of what the new “normal” will look like while navigating these continuous technological evolutions, and it’s easy to see how managing a printing business will be an increasingly sophisticated undertaking – and it will only get more sophisticated. In conclusion, there’s no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis is wreaking havoc on our society and our economy, including the printing industry.

The crisis lays bare the underlying trends in our industry as described above. It will require management sophistication to get through this pandemic, to restore your business, and to continue the transformational change from a graphic “arts” model to a graphic “science” model.

Alec Couckuyt is an experienced printing executive who’s held key roles at Canon Canada, Agfa Graphics (Belgium, Canada, Germany), Transcontinental Printing, Symcor and U.S.-based EDS. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and can be reached at aleccouckuyt@gmail.com.