— Graphic Arts Online, 5/11/2009 3:42:00 PM

Reston, VA— Among a commercial printer’s ‘critical core technologies,’ topping the list was information technology (IT), along with the effective use of Management Information Systems
(MIS)

and print buyer interfacing via the use of Web-to-Print software, in
a three-waytie identified by the Selection Committee for the PRINT 09 MUST SEE ‘EMS technology/product recognition program.
According to the Committee, today’s print production operation is a computer-centric manufacturing process, built around interfacing with the print buyer, that handles content material, controls manufacturing and distribution operations, and also provides information used as the basis for managing a print business.
In today’s evolving print business, the computer is frequently the entry point, starting with print buyers placing inquiries, receiving quotations from the printer and placing orders over the Internet. Web-to-print utilization is, with the exception of well established MIS-based estimating, the number one application for printers’ computer use.
Whether a printer-created approach, or via CIP4’s Job Definition Format (JDF), computers and MIS are the key components of integrated automation. Production floor feedback to MIS offers a wide range of information that, if acted upon, can improve operations. However, often lacking, the Committee notes, are the analytical software skills and computer savvy to turn available data into actionable improvements by utilizing the data in follow-on applications such as statistical process control. Other functions that benefit from IT competency are, for example, addressing/mailing and digital asset management operations

Continues @http://www.graphicartsonline.com

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