The Print Industry After COVID-19

What will the printing industry look like after we get rid of the global pandemic? The news media referred to it as "recovery." According to a report in the Wall Street Journal，the United States expects that by the end of 2029, quarterly economic output will not catch up with previous forecasts. That is a dull picture, it may take us 10 years to get back the level at the end of 2019, because it is related to real GDP.

I don’t think we should treat the problems after COVID-19 as a recovery. We will not return to previous standards. We will have a very different set of specifications. The experience of this global pandemic will change the printing industry forever. Some changes will be judged as positive and other changes will be judged as negative. One of the main forces behind these changes is the weakness of what I call "this is the way we always do defense". I am seeing it in printer machine of various shapes and sizes. Business processes involving many people, many face-to-face interactions, and too much time and labor will be replaced. The simple fact is that in almost every state in the United States, front desk employees work from home, which makes this new reality emerge in printing companies of all sizes.

I think this has a very positive impact on the industry because it will accelerate the digital transformation of the printing business to catch up with expectations in 2020 and beyond. This is an interesting psychological experiment. You are in a business where everyone gathers in the same space (an open office). This is because some tech geek thinks this is how people can collaborate. Are they more efficient or less efficient? I have been to these printing industries. After spending a day in this environment, I want to know how anyone can accomplish anything, especially tasks that require continuous attention (for example, complex estimation, production optimization/planning, and collaboration with customers).

Now that these production planners, customer service representatives, and estimators are all at home, they can (hopefully) control their working environment. They don’t have to commute to get off work or go out for lunch. They can decide when they need to concentrate by turning off the interrupted digital device. Consider reducing the impact of interruptions on your overall productivity. Also consider how to eliminate all reliance on paper-based workflows. You can't go to the production workshop to see the printed work jacket. The entire business must rely on the content entered into the printed MIS. This is the value of "digital work control". The moment the job jacket is printed, this information is a snapshot of the job printed at a specific time (just call it obsolete).

Even if your employees return home, this development can make them more efficient. When you can check the work progress without traversing the production workshop, you can complete more work on your desk. Rear-mounted COVID-19 printers will have to operate in this way, because the competitive pressure of price and turnaround time must exclude all inefficiencies from the workflow.

For the printing industry, the weakness of "this is our consistent defense" is that printing customers will evaluate their business processes based on these new "criteria". In the past few decades, we have been experiencing the transition from print communication to digital communication. COVID-19 will accelerate further. When I interacted with the portable printer, I was shocked when I asked them what their most commonly used printing products were, because I thought that many of the products listed (such as pocket folders) stopped printing some time ago. Living in San Francisco for decades has greatly distorted my perception of technology adoption rates across the country. I think COVID-19 has opened up all parts of the business process to be reshaped. The downside is that during the "reinvention" period, printed matter can be discarded as a substitute for digital communications. We all see this when the next generation of leaders slowly control the marketing budget.

Think of the post COVID-19 as a new printing industry, not an industry trying to recover from the global pandemic. The market conditions will not be comparable to 2019. This is not a recovery. This is reshaping. There will be drawbacks. Every printing business will face a strategic decision on how to minimize and utilize the disadvantages. Of course, you know my opinion on this: your success will depend on your ability to deploy, implement and optimize the use of software in the digital transformation of your business.

ASCONN PRINT TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD was established in 1999, located in jiaxing. We are a leading high-tech company specializing in R&D, production and sales of printer consumables. The major products include toner cartridges, ink cartridges, ribbons and other related accessories, covering more than 1,000 models of printers including HP, Canon, Samsung, Brothers, Lexmark, etc.