Print Workflow Automation Software: Streamline Your Printing Processes

Summary: The global print industry is becoming competitive day by day due to the rising number of print businesses adopting automation-driven smart workflows. We will be discussing the guide to one such solution i.e. print workflow automation software, which provides capabilities for optimized print production processes, faster turnaround times, enhanced productivity and profitability. Read on to explore!

The print industry is constantly evolving and with the changing demands of customers it has become crucial to automate the print production workflow for optimal efficiency. A robust print workflow automation software enables the streamlining of print production processes with end-to-end automation, ensuring maximum productivity.

As per research, the digital printing market is projected to grow from USD 35.56 billion in 2025 to USD 48.40 billion by 2030 with an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.36% over the forecast period from 2025 to 2030.

Due to the rising demand for automation and efficiency in print operations, the global print workflow software market size is expected to reach USD 4.8 billion by 2032. This research-based data proves that print workflow automation is the future and implementing it in your print business will help you stay competitive.

In this comprehensive guide to print workflow automation software, we will be discussing everything in detail ranging from benefits to the types of software available, equipping you with a world of valuable insights. Let’s begin.

What is Print Workflow Automation?

Print Workflow Automation is the process of adopting automation-based software to streamline your print production operations from order intake to delivery. It increases your print business productivity, reduces costs, material wastage, errors due to manual intervention and helps achieve faster turnaround times.

A. Why Do You Need to Automate Print Shop Workflows?

Automating print shop workflows simplifies and optimizes the entire print production process, minimizes manual errors and increases business efficiency. It drastically lowers expenses and reduces material wastage while maintaining consistent print quality.

Print shop workflow management also enables print businesses to scale their operations, reduce turnaround times and achieve a competitive advantage.

B. Key Components of Print Workflow Automation

The several key components of print workflow automation are discussed below -

1. Automation of Print Order Management

With automation-based print order management, you can simplify order processing, track as well as manage print jobs quickly and effectively.

2. Streamlining Pre-Prepress Operations

This involves automating pre-press operations such as pre-flighting, proofing and other preparations for rectifying errors before the design goes into production.

3. Production Scheduling and Management

This involves scheduling the print jobs based on their priority, optimizing resource allocation and tracking them to effectively meet deadlines for timely delivery of orders.

4. Automation of Post-Press Operations

This involves automating the post-press tasks such as cutting, binding, finishing and packaging of print products, ensuring reduced manual errors and swift print operations.

5. Optimization of Shipping and Fulfillment

Automating shipping and fulfillment includes adding labels to products for order tracking, enabling customers to stay updated on their orders on a timely basis and accurately complete the delivery.

C. Challenges in Print Workflows and How Automation Addresses Them

Traditional print businesses follow outdated workflow practices leading to several critical challenges that cause a negative effect on the business. Automation-driven print workflows can act as a game changer to solve these challenges. Let’s have a quick look at what these include.

1. Repetitive Errors in Print Workflow due to Manual Operations

Manual operations on complex tasks like file preparation, job scheduling, or production management can cause repetitive errors, hindering the productivity of your print business. Automation of print shop workflow can address these challenges as it eliminates manual intervention from the workflow, ensuring error-free print operations.

2. Inefficiencies in Print Jobs and Delays in Order Fulfillment

Manual print production processes are slow paced and do not have a streamlined workflow, leading to significant errors in print jobs and delays in order fulfillment. A print fulfillment software that provides automated workflows can solve this issue and helps complete the print jobs with accuracy and achieve faster turnaround times.

3. No Tracking Capability for Viewing the Order Status

Traditional print workflows make it challenging for customers and businesses to track the status of print jobs, causing customer dissatisfaction and harming the business reputation. An automation-based printing workflow software helps to track the print order status in real-time enabling businesses and customers to stay informed about their orders throughout the process.

4. Absence of Design Version Control for Future References

Without an automated version control system, it becomes challenging for businesses to keep track of multiple versions of the print design files, leading to excessive time consumption searching for the correct file. An automation-based system ensures all the design files are readily accessible which can be used for specific purposes such as reordering.

Benefits of Automation-Driven Print Shop Workflow Management

The benefits of automation-focused print shop workflow management are discussed below. Let's explore them one by one.

A. Increased Efficiency and Productivity of Print Workflows

Automating Print Workflows allows print businesses to take on more high-volume print jobs effortlessly as the system automates the entire process from initial order placement to fulfillment, ensuring efficiency and productivity.

A robust solution such as OnPrintShop provides features like automation-based dashboards for order tracking, creation of defined workflows for different product profiles, order management boards for every customer, updating task status with dedicated role-based access and task prioritization capabilities to achieve quick order fulfillment, highly satisfied customers and repeat business.

B. Cost Reduction and Waste Minimization with Automation

Automation-driven print production workflow software can help to reduce labor costs and optimize resource allocations by leveraging standards & protocols, ensuring elimination of material wastage, reduced reprints and significant cost savings in the print production process.

With a print cost estimating software that provides automated workflows, customers can estimate prices accurately and quickly, saving time, effort and maximizing profits for both the print business and customers.

C. Improved Consistency and Quality of Print Jobs

Maintain consistency in print jobs by providing uniform output and reduced errors with accurate prepress processes.

Ensure seamless operations of color separation, imposition and equipment setup for pushing orders directly to production for the creation of high-quality prints.

D. Enhanced Tracking and Reporting Capabilities of Print Orders

With printing workflow automation software, you can view all the essential metrics and critical data related to your print jobs such as product sales information, orders in pipeline, inventory levels all in a centralized dashboard.

This in-depth visibility about your print orders enables you to effectively track, get notified with alerts, make better decisions and refine print workflow strategies for improved outcomes.

E. Enhanced Collaboration & Communication for Managing Print Jobs

Leveraging a unified dashboard for assigning and managing print job tasks, ensure transparency, enhanced communication and collaboration among all departments involved in the printing process.

This collaborative approach using print workflow automation can significantly process the print jobs quickly without any hassle, ensuring to meet deadlines effectively.

Steps to Automate Print Shop Workflows

Here’s a step-by-step approach to automate your print shop workflows. Let’s dive in.

A. Analyze Current Print Processes and Identify Areas for Improvement

Collaborate with all the departments and stakeholders involved in the printing process to analyze your current print processes effectively. With a collaborative approach, identify the repetitive tasks, inefficiencies and complex manual tasks that need to be addressed for efficient workflows.

B. Choose the Right Print Workflow Automation Software

With several automation-powered print workflow solutions available in the market, shortlist the best ones that align with your business goals and requirements. You may consider the automated-workflow providing web to print software like OnPrintShop to streamline your workflows and have a 360-degree view of print production management.

C. Integrate Automation into Your Existing Print Workflows

Integrate the automation-based solution into your existing CRM and MIS for smooth print operations, ensuring to manage tasks like invoicing, shipping and customer relationships from a centralized location. As OnPrintShop provides over 300+ third-party integrations, you can also seek other integrations like 4over that can expand your business or give a boost to your print production management.

D. Set Up Customizable Design Templates and Job Scheduling

Leverage the features in the automation-focused print workflow management software including product templates and PDF block templates to create pre-defined designs for your customers, simplifying the artwork creation process for them. You can also determine the start and end dates of your print jobs, prioritize them and push it to production for meeting deadlines effectively.

E. Implement Quality Control Checks and Print Error Detection

Conduct accurate quality control checks for preflighting to detect any errors like wrong graphics, low-resolution images, RGB colors instead of CYMK, margins and bleeds to remove inaccuracies in the digital files before production. This step is crucial as it will eliminate the need for reprints and guarantee smooth production, ensuring timely order fulfillment.

F. Train your Team on the New Automated Print Production Workflow

Ensure effective implementation by providing in-depth training of the new automated print production workflow to your entire team and make them familiar with the process and capabilities. Provide ongoing support and encourage feedback from all the departments to detect any gaps in their learning process or recognize additional requirements for optimizing the workflow.

Best Practices for Print Workflow Automation

To get the most out of implementing a new solution, it’s always recommended to follow best practices. Here are a few essential points you shouldn’t miss when implementing print workflow automation -

A. Start Small and Scale Up Your Workflow Automation Gradually

When starting initially with your automated print workflow, implement automation in a small section of your operations to familiarize your team with the new process. Once your team is proficient with the process, you can gradually automate the other areas of your print workflow, ensuring a smooth transition.

B. Regularly Review and Adjust the Automated Print Process

Gather feedback from all the departments to review the performance of your print business workflow management software and identify potential areas for improvement. The ongoing process of recognizing issues and refining the workflows will help you to stay adaptive with your unique business requirements for ensuring optimal performance.

C. Leverage Data and Analytics for Continuous Improvement

Monitor your performance metrics with actionable and data-driven insights from analytics of the software to identify bottlenecks and issues that need to be addressed for optimizing workflows. With complete visibility into your print production and its performance, you can enhance your decision-making process for reducing errors and increasing productivity.

D. Maintain Strong Communication with your Team and Stakeholders

Communication gaps among all departments, including your team and stakeholders, can hinder your print shop workflow productivity, leading to inefficiencies in print operations. To avoid this, ensure effective communication, so that everyone is informed about the stages in your workflow automation, fostering a supportive environment for smooth transition.

E. Stay Up to Date with New Technologies and Print Industry Trends

To remain competitive in this evolving print landscape, it is necessary to stay informed about the upgraded versions of the implemented print workflow automation software, emerging trends and technologies that are booming in the print market. Also, ensure to participate in print industry conferences and webinars regularly for optimizing your print production processes.

Different Types and Functions of Print Workflow Automation Software

There are various types of print workflow automation software. Let’s discuss them.

1. Prepress Automation Software

This print shop workflow software manages the pre-press operations in print production which involves tasks such as file preparation, color management and imposition.

These processes are used to convert digital file-format into print ready format, manage color settings across devices for accurate prints and automatically arrange print layouts for reducing material wastage and cut costs, respectively.

2. Production Management Software

The production management software helps to streamline the production workflow which involves production scheduling, resource allocation, tracking of workflows and reporting.

The key functionalities of these tasks include prioritizing and scheduling print jobs for timely order delivery, managing resources like material and ink for enhanced print results, allowing tracking the status of print jobs in real-time from order placement to delivery, and providing the capability to generate reports with insights on workflow optimization, respectively.

3. Web-to-Print Solutions

W2P solution enhances customers satisfaction by providing capabilities for seamless print ordering through a web-based platform that includes features like design personalization, approvals, accurate price estimating, previews, tracking of print orders and much more. The web to print-driven print production workflow management solution allows customers to upload their own design files, customize artworks with pre-designed templates, proof digital files to meet design expectations, preview designs in 3D formats and place orders with ease.

Over to YouIn conclusion, automating your print shop workflows is essential to resolve bottlenecks in your existing workflow and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving print industry. By adopting advance printshop workflow automation software like OnPrintShop, you can streamline your print operations from start to end, significantly boosting productivity and efficiency.Automated workflows reduce manual errors, minimize costs, and ensure production of high-quality prints, helping your business scale and meet the growing demands of customers. Request a demo today with OnPrintShop to optimize your print production processes, serve your customers in a better way and maximize profits.