COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING -- Making Customers' Work Flow

Striving to build a Smart Factory and implementing CIM-based production are worthwhile goals, but the full benefits only come when the definition of workflow is extended beyond the walls of a printing plant. Connecting to customers' upstream processes is required to achieve true integration.

That's a tall order. The range of print customers and applications encompasses a tremendous variety of workflow requirements, points out Mark Jones, senior vice president, Customer Solutions, at Quebecor World in Charlotte, NC. Publication and catalog work is fairly easy to get a handle on because the details are spelled out in contracts and the specs typically don't change very often or by much, he says. "The commercial printing space is wide open, though."