What is killing offset printing?

[Keith]

...Don't blame the manufactures for killing offset, blame your customers...

Exactly. Most of my customers walk in wanting 100 or 200 and they want to know if there is a price break at 500. I say, "not really, but if you want at least a 1000, there can be". But often times, they don't want want that many. With the rising costs of real estate and a lot of businesses going mobile, they have no where to store thousands of printed products. And even though the per piece price may be less, they still have to write a bigger check for a large offset run versus a small digital run which puts pressure on their capital; which is getting more precious and harder to come by as we all know. For an example, just look at the auto industry. Suppliers and manufacturers is beyond the point, people are looking for less costly and more fuel efficient vehicles so now the car companies are building less trucks and more small cars.

That's just my uneducated viewpoint based on observation.

To look at it from a manufacturers perspective, as opposed to a market perspective, didn't press manufacturers try to respond the market with DI presses? And then all these "pressman" turned their nose up at it saying it's "not a real press"? I also think the DI presses were too little, too late with offset runs getting shorter and digital runs getting longer.

 

[jbeniston]

Well, I think the printing industry is pretty spectacular. It has managed to mass produce all kinds of printed materials and get it into the hands of the user with phenomenal 'ease' for a very, very long time. No one thinks what it takes to get the morning newspaper on the breakfast table day in and day out or how the worlds libraries are so stacked with books or even how that can of baked beans got a label on it or how the box of cereal was created. It's a performance second to none. No matter what people say about automation if you don't have a skilled man to operate the equipment then all you have on the shop floor is a chunk of iron. Despite the much vaunted methods of automobile manufacturers they still have not matched the performance of the printing industry. Silly comparison really but what the heck. The problem with Lithographic Printing, partjcularly in North America is the lack of adequate training facilities and the necessary will to finance them, send trainees or "apprentices" to use them. There will always be a need for skilled operators, just the same as there will always be a "Pilot in Command" on the flight deck of our much automated airliners. Would you fly with no one at the controls. I damn well wouldn't.
Automation will help us do our jobs better. After all what are we Lithographers or paper handlers or press mechanics? So let's concpentrate on what it is that we do best, be printers and leave all the mundane stuff to the helpers, acolytes and 'so called' managers. I have read many times how the Digital onslaught is going to put us all out of work, that's nonsense. What we have to do is get better at what we do. I have been in the business all my working life about 50 years to date. I started in Europe and had the benefit of all that training. But the methods we used back then and still pretty much use today have got to change and change now. Lithographic printing is a beautiful subtle process, but unfortunately the business part of the process has not seen fit to embrace a culture of change. Tradition is cool but somewhere along the path we must get more efficient and make better use of the equipment we have. I for one think we have been a bit let down by the press manufacturers. We seem to think they are some kind of God and look to them for innovations etc. We let them drive the industry instead of the industry telling them what it needs and driving them. For example take the Ink Ductor Roller the mechanism, such a key factor for controlling ink and therefore color, was designed in 1860 and is still the same with little in the way of change since then. Why? It's the key to consistency and as Erik Nikkanen would say predictability
Does no one care to ask why anything is like it is? Why do side frames have to be made of iron why are the cylinders not made from synthetic materials. Why do I need a press that will last 25 years. It's not efficient and not driving our industry forwards. We are stagnant and that is what is giving the digital machines the opportunity.
Lack of change and lack of the will to drive it is chasing the industry into panic mode. It's time to get in to the drivers seat make demands, embrace new methods and stop being afraid of shadows
If we had done this as a continuous part of our evolution we would not be facing this nonsensical digital craze.
Don't tell me we cannot do very short runs because I know different and. I have seen first hand just how much money can be made by getting the general act together.
Anyone else got any ideas feel to join in.