BMI Publishes “The Role of Inkjet Printing in Powering Industry 4.0 in Book Publishing"
[ORMOND BEACH, FL—January 8, 2020] The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) has published “The Role of Inkjet Printing in Powering Industry 4.0 in Book Publishing,” the findings of a research study, conducted by NAPCO Research (a unit of NAPCO Media LLC) and commissioned by BMI. The paper focuses on how book printers are transitioning from offset to inkjet printing, creating new efficiencies and improving productivity, and resulting in greater profits for publishers.
In the context of this joint study, Industry 4.0 is defined as: “the fourth major industrial revolution, brought about by artificial intelligence (AI), big data, mobile devices, Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, automation and more.”
The report details key benefits of digital book printing, and suggests that the economics and flexibility of short-run and print-on-demand are part of the appeal of inkjet to survey respondents, and includes analysis of methods currently employed by book printers, expectations for future investments in plant hardware, and an evaluation of the size of the opportunity for printers and publishers.
Matt Baehr, Executive Director of BMI, said, “In many ways, the results of this research confirm what we have suspected in recent years, that printers who’ve invested in building digital processes into their manufacturing workflows have been able to serve their customers with a cost-effective option that responds to current market conditions.”
“For those who live by the mantra ‘show me the data,’ this report really makes the case for manufacturers—and for book publishers—to experiment with inkjet printing techniques to improve their workflows, and bottom lines,” said Nathan Safran, Vice President, Research at NAPCO Media.
The study was sponsored by Canon Solutions, HP, Ricoh USA and Screen Americas. BMI members have full access to the study. Non-BMI members can access an executive summary at BMIBook.com under the Resources tab.