The event focused primarily on label printing, which has had greatest successes in adoption. Dr. Sean Smyth, Pira Consultant and Editor of Digital Labels and Packaging magazine, projected that the flexibles market would likely be another area of growth in the future. Most of the speakers agreed that obsolescence is a driver for digital packaging because it allows you to print just in time. The cost of printing and warehousing products that you do not use right away is high. More importantly, the cost is very high if the labels are never used and end up in a landfill. As an example of the impact Jim Goldman, Consultant from Global Innovation Professionals and a Coca-Cola veteran, shared that on average 10% of packages are never filled. For a company as large as Coca-Cola that translates to 1.5 billion labels! Just in time also allows companies to be more responsive, which is increasingly important with today’s rates of change.
Connected to the concept of moving jobs between flexo and digital was a lot of conversation about managing client expectations in terms of colour and quality. The difficulty is that jobs that start digital are difficult to convert to flexo because of the quality challenges. Some of the attendees explained that jobs that were hopefuls for future long-run production would be simulated with some of the flexo difficulties put into the digital jobs (by applying flexo traps, for example). Michael Naughton from Ekso also talked about using better solutions on the flexo side to match the digital quality at the outset.
Shoshana Burgett, Strategic Marketing Director at X-Rite, discussed managing colour in the cloud using Pantone Live as a way to manage quality. Chris Yanko, Workflow Solutions Manager at Xeikon North America, further explored the need for integrated workflow solutions using technology such as JDF to cope with the increased number of jobs that digital offers.
In addition to speaker sessions there were also some great panel discussions. The room buzzed about how likely it would be that label printing would be absorbed by the fillers, as well as what this would mean for the converters. Near-line printing for straightforward products is not far-fetched; it does in fact occur in industry already. We also discussed the need for a holistic supply chain management system. Packaging has a complex workflow with many handoffs and stakeholders.
The room was full of digital believers from both traditional and digital sectors. In particular, it was interesting to see attendees who are traditionally focused in the commercial sector. For example, Alan McLean, Sales Director at Duplo USA, attended to further explore what type of finishing requirements digital would create. Eric Frank, VP of Marketing at KBA North America, also attended with a vested interest in understanding the space. Chris Echevarria, the Customer Experience Center Manager at Canon Solutions America, explained that the packaging sector holds definite promise for the vendors, growing more rapidly in Europe and thus gaining speed in North America. She shared that many digital offerings are now catering to this market, using the Océ Infinistream digital packaging press, which just had its showroom installation in Poing, Germany this spring.
Attendance from a variety of areas is critical because as many agreed, the consumer is process-agnostic as long they are happy with the end result. Thus, Bruce Miller from Schawk! pointed out that “digital print can be a disruptive innovation depending on how we use it.” One of the steering committee members, Kevin Karstedt, CEO of Karstedt Partners, summed up the event beautifully. He shared that while a couple of years ago the big question of the event might have been “If digital, then when?” this year the focus has shifted to “If it’s now, then how?”
