Have you ever had to place an order for preprinted labels where the
minimum quantity was significantly higher than your requirements? Do you have any SKU’s with multiple years of label inventory on hand?
You
may remember my earlier post on this type of situation, Minimum Order
Quantities Cost Money: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2013/02/minimum-order-quantities-cost-money.html.
According
to Mark Brimstone in his editorial in “The Universe Is Changing Again” at Printing
Impressions (http://www.piworld.com/blog/the-universe-changing-again-noel-ward#), you will soon have greater flexibility in label order quantity as more
printers move from flexographic (offset) to digital presses. Let me explain why this greater flexibility is
occurring; as well as giving you my opinion on how this trend will grow the
print on-demand color label market.
You may be wondering, “why the requirement for large order sizes?” With an offset press, set up time may take as
long or longer than it takes to print a small quantity of labels (Mark’s Statement: changeover time between
shorter run jobs can keep productivity per machine well below 50 percent). Therefore, the fix cost of the press includes
both the setup and run time. When
printing large quantities of labels, the setup time becomes a minor portion of
the overall costs. Paraphrasing Mark, “Conventional label printing prints large
runs well. For less popular products or regional brands, shorter print runs
increase set-up times and production costs or require maintaining inventories
of printed materials that are subject to waste and obsolescence.” Amen; one of my key points on why
companies should move to print on demand color.
But Mark makes a slightly different interpretation. Again paraphrasing Mark,
“By comparison, digital presses can
produce labels in short and moderate run lengths—with virtually no on-press
changeover time. This efficiency can fulfill the needs of big brands, niche
products, local brands, regional offerings, different languages, test
marketing and promotional offers. Digital labels are effective for virtually
any opportunity where a shorter run can reduce the total cost of packaging,
increase production efficiencies, take advantage of market opportunities, and
enhance brand awareness.”
Mark argues that digital presses like the HP Indigo WS 6600 (which may
cost up to a $1 million as well as per impression click charges) are the answer. These digital presses will, according to
Mark, “increase the range of new
applications, offer shorter runs and enable customized jobs—will take some of
the offset label printing business.” “Some”
of the label printing business moving from offset presses to digital presses
seem reasonable. As the global label
business equals $57 billion, “some” could be a lot of money!
But I content another portion of the global label printing business will move
to on-demand color. With the new
technology available, end users can print the exactly the labels they require
when they need them.
During my trip to Pack Expo, I featured a few
companies for in-plant prime labels: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2013/09/pack-expo-2013.html.
Or
my follow up post on the Affinia L-801:
As these ~$10,000 printers produce labels with up to 1,600 x 1,600 dpi
at speeds up to 12” per second at prices per label comparable to digital
presses, end users can realistically afford print on-demand color label
solutions. Even if the price per label
is more, an end user will reduce waste, administration, inventory and potential
error costs by printing only what they need when they need it. Combining the new technology with the benefits
of print on-demand color labels, many manufacturers will move to this process. Thus print on-demand color will capture “Some”
of the $57 Billion label market as well.
Offset to Digital to On-Demand seems like the logical progression to
reduce the costs while increasing the flexibility of producing color
labels. If you have ever purchased too
many preprint labels, contact me to discuss moving your label production “in-house”.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
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