The Digital Bindery

In commercial printing, on-demand finishing is not necessarily in-line finishing. This is not to say that bindery automation is always wrong—it's only wrong if it is implemented before the requirements of the business and manufacturing process are understood.

Moving downstream from the finishing operation, fulfillment is a natural extension for a digital printing business. Although generally characterized as "print-on-demand," most digital color printing today is short-run production, followed by bulk shipping to the customer. On the other hand, most of the highest-value digital print applications involve production and direct fulfillment of print and related products, in quantities and cycle times driven by actual end-user demand.