By Erwin Busselot, Director Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe
Versatile digital inkjet print production is now easily accessible as we saw at drupa 2024. High quality, colour rich and luxurious results can be achieved quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively.
While productivity remains the number one priority in 2025 for 82.7% of respondents in the 2024 PRINTING United Alliance State of the Industry Survey (SOI), strengthening core services by focusing on business fundamentals is next. In fact, 65.4% of American commercial printers surveyed planned to “pay closer attention to everything that affects profit” from maintaining accurate budgeted hourly cost rates to capturing more positive sales.
In highlighting the buoyant outlook for digital inkjet printing Smither’s global The Future of Inkjet Printing to 2029 report identified a number of ways the technology can positively impact business fundamentals.
These include:
Enhanced connectivity through web to print portals for smooth job ordering.
Seamless integration with conversion processes compared to alternative systems.
Optimised workflows for inkjet that drive cost competitiveness.
It is clear digital inkjet printing’s ability to easily integrate with hardware and workflow processes has the power to drive growth and profitable success.
We will be exploring how to harness that power at next month’s Hunkeler Innovationdays 2025.
The event’s theme is ‘Connect’ and we will demonstrate how commercial printers can create a more joined up approach. We will:
Show what can be achieved when they link every step of the end to end process to streamline their operations. We will share how efficient and profitable order to dispatch production begins with software solutions including RICOH TotalFlow BatchBuilder™, that simplifies and automates many steps in short run digital production, and RICOH ProcessDirector™, that captures, transforms, and manages production information and print processes with precise tracking.
Expand on how up to the minute data can aid understanding about operational efficiency. RICOH Predictive Insight™ uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities to provide data driven insights into device utilisation and operator productivity.
Discuss how a highly connected approach can be further enhanced with new automation protocol Print Line and Finishing Interface (PLF-I). This open source interface provides a step change in communication between web fed technology and pre- and post-processing equipment.
The integration of connected systems also fosters creative co-innovation. For instance, Graham Lycett, CEO of Green Gift Cards, partnered with Ricoh to disrupt the gift and loyalty card market. By using Ricoh’s technologies, his company now provides fully recyclable cards with an associated carbon impact of just 4.28gCO2e per card, a dramatic reduction compared to the 46.97gCO2e impact of non-recyclable PVC cards.
www.ricoh-europe.com
