New Research Demonstrates Production Inkjet’s Benefits

Production inkjet printing is delivering on its initial promise of being print’s future. Since first capturing the printing industry’s attention over 15 years ago, many factors have enabled production inkjet to become a disruptive force of positive change. Steady advances in press technology, substrates, inks, and print customer acceptance have expanded adoption and application possibilities.

NAPCO Research conducted a study to quantify the value production inkjet printing is delivering to print providers, assess the migration of print applications to inkjet presses, identify adoption drivers and barriers to inkjet investment, and define print customer requirements driving demand for inkjet printing. The study, titled “The Production Inkjet Revolution”, is based on the survey responses of 219 print providers (both commercial printers and in-plants), 167 communication buyers and influencers involved in purchasing or influencing print, and five in-depth interviews with print providers that invested in production inkjet.

The research revealed the following three key takeaways:

Takeaway 1: Inkjet is Delivering Significant Results

Production inkjet presses are delivering significant advantages to respondents’ operations. On average, the 55 respondents working at print-for-pay organizations indicate their investment in production inkjet yielded a:

• 9% decrease in paper costs/consumption
• 9% decrease in production waste
• 8% increase in profits
• 1 person decrease in press operating staff

In addition to surveys, the inkjet study incorporated in-depth telephone interviews with organizations operating inkjet presses. Here is a sampling of in-depth interview responses, which are reported anonymously at the request of participants, highlighting the profitability benefits inkjet is delivering:

• A general commercial printer with three to five years of experience printing with inkjet said, “Production inkjet presses offer increases in productivity, reduce waste, and don’t need a high level of expertise to operate — it is a challenge to find offset press operators.”
• According to a printer of direct mail, “The inkjet business provides some real adrenaline to our earnings when the inkjets are busy.”
• A commercial printer with direct mail capabilities reported that the productivity from the addition of inkjet enabled his company to eliminate a press shift.

Takeaway 2: Solid Investment in Production Inkjet

Over half (54%) of survey respondents report operating production inkjet presses. Of those that operate a production inkjet press, 25% report operating a sheetfed inkjet press,16% a webfed inkjet press, and 13% both sheetfed and webfed inkjet presses. Of those that do not operate a production inkjet press, 23% plan to invest in one in the future.

When asked why their company invested in or plans to invest in production inkjet, respondents cited the following top 5 reasons:

1. Increased productivity (faster run speeds) 45%
2. Accommodate customer demand for short runs 43%
3. Shorter turnarounds 39%
4. Looking to move offset volume to production inkjet 36%
5. Three-way tie at 35%
   • Lower cost of ownership compared to toner digital
   • Migrating toner work to inkjet
   • Print more personalization /VDP work

Takeaway 3: Print Customers Specifying Inkjet

Production inkjet printing offers print customers many benefits including expanding versioning and personalization capabilities, the ability to use more color, printing shorter run work, faster speeds, and producing new products. An essential component of this research study was surveying print customers to identify opportunities inkjet printing offers their organization and their knowledge of inkjet. Over half of communication buyers and influencers that specify the processes used to print their organization’s work use inkjet (57%) and digital electrophotographic/toner printing (55%). Meanwhile, 37% specify offset printing.

Inkjet Delivering Profitable Benefits

Today, production inkjet presses are enabling print providers to improve their business results, produce a wide array of applications, and meet ever changing print customer requirements. The survey results are a testament that production inkjet presses are delivering profitable benefits to those organizations operating them. As the report concludes,” Production inkjet is no longer a ‘wait and see” investment, as print providers with these presses are winning in the market.”

Download the 24-page report to learn more about the print applications migrating to production inkjet and how inkjet is delivering significant business results to print providers and meeting new customer demands.