By Mark Bohan, Director, Prinect and CtP, Heidelberg USA The print industry is currently embracing change through the adoption of Industry 4.0, which is all about driving productivity while ensuring and verifying the quality of printed materials. Combining seamless integration with business decision making allows for achieving this kind of smart manufacturing facility. At the heart of this change, we need a business intelligence platform (also known as a fully integrated workflow) that evaluates and analyzes a company’s production as a linked process rather than individual activities. What we are seeing with the fourth industrial revolution is the use of cyber-physical systems. These systems and processes communicate with each other (both inside and outside company boundaries) to provide a smart production system throughout the entire value chain. This builds on individual systems using the Internet of Things (IoT) and the cloud to provide connectivity and integration. Big data can be collected, analyzed and acted upon so that systems can utilize simulations and models to adapt, reconfigure and carry out steps in the manufacturing process. To facilitate this change, a business intelligence platform removes the obstacles by integrating production processes and making them measurable from the initial customer inquiry through to delivery and invoicing. As a job passes through the stages of production, the software knows where it is, who is doing what to it, how close to schedule it is moving along, and what kinds of costs/time it is accumulating as it progresses. Now, your company has a continuous feed of real-time information that it can use to: Reduce touchpoints Drive productivity and uptime Optimize consistency and repeatability Reduce waste and inventory A true business intelligence platform will significantly impact the future strategy and profitability of your company. The discussions and value propositions are now centered on how to rewrite the business operation as a whole rather than focusing on individual manufacturing centers (such as estimating, prepress, press, digital and postpress). The platform now connects all parts of the manufacturing process. Consider a car manufacturing operation. Changes to the production process are never made based on individual employees. Instead, the impact of each change is analyzed to assure that it will not degrade productivity or lead to costly failures and potential recalls. The same philosophy should apply to print manufacturing environments where the use of materials, software and equipment must be measured throughout the entire production cycle. Print production is transforming. The smart factories of tomorrow are becoming the reality of today. Systems that leverage Industry 4.0 are available throughout the whole production cycle, offering significant improvements to the manufacturing process. This is redefining the marketplace and cost structure. Exploiting these systems allow reduced manufacturing costs and cycle times...

By Mark Bohan, Director, Prinect and CtP, Heidelberg USA The print industry is currently embracing change through the adoption of Industry 4.0, which is all about driving productivity while ensuring and verifying the quality of printed materials. Combining seamless integration with business decision making allows for achieving this kind of smart manufacturing facility. At the heart of this change, we need a business intelligence platform (also known as a fully integrated workflow) that evaluates and analyzes a company’s production as a linked process rather than individual activities. What we are seeing with the fourth industrial revolution is the use of cyber-physical systems. These systems and processes communicate with each other (both inside and outside company boundaries) to provide a smart production system throughout the entire value chain. This builds on individual systems using the Internet of Things (IoT) and the cloud to provide connectivity and integration. Big data can be collected, analyzed and acted upon so that systems can utilize simulations and models to adapt, reconfigure and carry out steps in the manufacturing process. To facilitate this change, a business intelligence platform removes the obstacles by integrating production processes and making them measurable from the initial customer inquiry through to delivery and invoicing. As a job passes through the stages of production, the software knows where it is, who is doing what to it, how close to schedule it is moving along, and what kinds of costs/time it is accumulating as it progresses. Now, your company has a continuous feed of real-time information that it can use to: Reduce touchpoints Drive productivity and uptime Optimize consistency and repeatability Reduce waste and inventory A true business intelligence platform will significantly impact the future strategy and profitability of your company. The discussions and value propositions are now centered on how to rewrite the business operation as a whole rather than focusing on individual manufacturing centers (such as estimating, prepress, press, digital and postpress). The platform now connects all parts of the manufacturing process. Consider a car manufacturing operation. Changes to the production process are never made based on individual employees. Instead, the impact of each change is analyzed to assure that it will not degrade productivity or lead to costly failures and potential recalls. The same philosophy should apply to print manufacturing environments where the use of materials, software and equipment must be measured throughout the entire production cycle. Print production is transforming. The smart factories of tomorrow are becoming the reality of today. Systems that leverage Industry 4.0 are available throughout the whole production cycle, offering significant improvements to the manufacturing process. This is redefining the marketplace and cost structure. Exploiting these systems allow reduced manufacturing costs and cycle times...

This post was contributed by Ricardo Roman, VP of Strategic Alliances and Caliper Sports, Caliper. For more information about the National Buying Program with Caliper, visit www.printing.org/caliper. Managers and leaders share many similar qualities, but the performance of a manager carries far fewer risks than the performance of a leader. In addition, there seems to be a difference in the underlying motivational characteristics of these two groups. In a recent Caliper study, more than 300 presidents and chief executive officers told us what they considered to be the most important—and the most difficult aspects—of being a leader. Among the choices we asked them to rank were: Creating the right vision Getting people to embrace that vision Maintaining momentum (motivating, influencing, and persuading others) Managing change (strategic planning, problem solving) Surrounding oneself with the right people Developing staff (coaching, managing performance, transforming teams) Delegating authority Surrounding oneself with the right people was selected 41% of the time, second only to creating the right vision, as one of the most critical parts of leadership. Surrounding oneself with the right people was also selected as one of the three most difficult aspects of being an effective leader, just behind maintaining momentum and developing staff. These chief executives said there are three main factors that keep most managers from becoming leaders: not understanding others well enough, not solving problems quickly enough, and not taking necessary risks. We also asked the perennial question, is leadership predominantly something you are born with or that you develop through experience? These same chief executives told us they felt they were born with 40 percent of their leadership ability and developed the remaining 60 percent through experience.  What are the personality qualities that account for this 40 percent of innate leadership ability? When we assessed the personality strengths of these chief executives, we found they were adept at influencing and directing others, skillful at building relationships, and masterful at solving problems and making decisions. In essence, these leaders are extremely bright, assertive, driven to persuade, empathic, and resilient. Having a need to get things accomplished, they are willing to take risks. They are also moderately sociable, demonstrating a healthy level of skepticism, and are motivated to come up with new ideas. Identifying and developing future leaders is one of the most important challenges facing chief executives today. Yet most organizations have a tendency to suffocate potential leaders. Certainly a hallmark of an effective leader is to create a vision for the company’s future. Essential to that vision is: recognizing the potential in future leaders, mentoring, coaching and developing them, giving them responsibility early, and realizing that a very different type of leader may be needed for tomorrow than...

This post was contributed by Ricardo Roman, VP of Strategic Alliances and Caliper Sports, Caliper. For more information about the National Buying Program with Caliper, visit www.printing.org/caliper. Managers and leaders share many similar qualities, but the performance of a manager carries far fewer risks than the performance of a leader. In addition, there seems to be a difference in the underlying motivational characteristics of these two groups. In a recent Caliper study, more than 300 presidents and chief executive officers told us what they considered to be the most important—and the most difficult aspects—of being a leader. Among the choices we asked them to rank were: Creating the right vision Getting people to embrace that vision Maintaining momentum (motivating, influencing, and persuading others) Managing change (strategic planning, problem solving) Surrounding oneself with the right people Developing staff (coaching, managing performance, transforming teams) Delegating authority Surrounding oneself with the right people was selected 41% of the time, second only to creating the right vision, as one of the most critical parts of leadership. Surrounding oneself with the right people was also selected as one of the three most difficult aspects of being an effective leader, just behind maintaining momentum and developing staff. These chief executives said there are three main factors that keep most managers from becoming leaders: not understanding others well enough, not solving problems quickly enough, and not taking necessary risks. We also asked the perennial question, is leadership predominantly something you are born with or that you develop through experience? These same chief executives told us they felt they were born with 40 percent of their leadership ability and developed the remaining 60 percent through experience.  What are the personality qualities that account for this 40 percent of innate leadership ability? When we assessed the personality strengths of these chief executives, we found they were adept at influencing and directing others, skillful at building relationships, and masterful at solving problems and making decisions. In essence, these leaders are extremely bright, assertive, driven to persuade, empathic, and resilient. Having a need to get things accomplished, they are willing to take risks. They are also moderately sociable, demonstrating a healthy level of skepticism, and are motivated to come up with new ideas. Identifying and developing future leaders is one of the most important challenges facing chief executives today. Yet most organizations have a tendency to suffocate potential leaders. Certainly a hallmark of an effective leader is to create a vision for the company’s future. Essential to that vision is: recognizing the potential in future leaders, mentoring, coaching and developing them, giving them responsibility early, and realizing that a very different type of leader may be needed for tomorrow than...

The following blog post was contributed by Kristina Iorio, Copywriting Manager, Printing Industries of America. This is the first in an upcoming series of posts focused on small business marketing tips.  You have heard “Content is King,” but what does that really mean? With an endless amount of information available online, your customers are more informed than ever. According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” It’s delivering valuable content to your customers, including white papers, blogs, video, podcasts, digital publishing, etc. But for small businesses however, providing a steady stream of quality content is time consuming, and your company may lack sufficient resources or personnel to dedicate to such a project. Here are five tips your small business can use to develop meaningful, effective content to promote your business and engage customers—all in the midst of day-to-day operations.   Create a Strategy Strategy is essential to effective content marketing. What are your goals? What content does your company already have? Who is your main audience? How can you fill their needs for information? Your content strategy will help you plan how you’re going to attract more business. A great source for creating a content strategy, I found, is this article from Content Marketing Institute. Developing Valuable Content Once you have a strategy in place and you’ve taken inventory of the content you already have, it’s time to create and collect new content. The easiest, most efficient way to do this is to repurpose information. Do you receive customer inquiries? Create a blog or video where you answer some of the most popular questions. If you’ve written a white paper, send it to your top clients as a free resource along with information on your products and services. Be resourceful and keep an eye open for content that will benefit your customers. Blogging A blog is a low-cost way to engage customers and establish your expertise. You can find free templates online from WordPress.com and other sites. Your blog can allow you to reach a wider audience, boost brand awareness, sell something, or connect you to your customers and community. Your blog content should be appealing to your audience and include keywords and information (see SEO below).Try to blog on a regular basis, whether that’s every week, bi-weekly, or every month, to keep your audience coming back for fresh content. This can take a big investment of your time, so have your content strategy in place before you tackle blogging. Get Social With limited resources you want to reach as...