In 2024, the printing industry will continue to be guided by digital intelligent technology, make progress in collaborative innovation and technological innovation, further improve the production efficiency and product quality of printing enterprises, meet the individual needs of consumers, and promote the realization of high-quality development.

Collaborative innovation

Form a closer industrial chain

With the continuous evolution of digital technology, printing enterprises will rely more on distributed resource collaboration to achieve efficient cooperation at home and abroad. From design to production, all aspects of the collaboration will be closer, through cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things and other technical means to achieve real-time monitoring and management of the production process.

The remote collaboration model will also become one of the key trends in the printing industry. Through remote collaboration, printing companies can better leverage global expertise to optimize production processes and reduce costs. Cross-regional cooperation will promote innovation and technology sharing, and promote the printing industry to form a closer industrial chain on a global scale.

In order to realize the distributed resource collaboration and remote collaboration mode, the book printing industry can build a more flexible and efficient production and cooperation system by making full use of digital technology and information technology. Digital publishing intelligent platform and intelligent online collaboration tools can enable editing, design, printing and other links to achieve remote collaboration. Cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies are used to establish distributed publishing resource libraries and large models, so that practitioners in all aspects can easily access and share needed resources, including text, pictures, audio, video and other multimedia elements. Through the centralized management of the digital platform, real-time analysis of sales data, reader feedback and other information can be achieved, and a global digital cooperation network can be established.

In this process, enterprises also need to work hard on characteristic differentiation. In domestic printing enterprises, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have convergence, business model, business structure, manufacturing process and model convergence. In the long run, in order to achieve the transformation of a printing power to a printing power, we must change this highly convergent industrial structure, and adhere to differentiated development, characteristic development and complementary development.

Technological innovation

We will move faster towards the medium-high end of the value chain

Innovation is the soul of enterprise development and the key to moving to the high end of the value chain. It is estimated that China has become a big country in research and development investment, and the total investment in research and development (RD) in China will reach 3.09 trillion yuan in 2022, ranking second in the world. The main position of innovation in Chinese enterprises has further emerged, and the proportion of enterprise RD funds in the whole society has reached 76.9%, and the main position of innovation has been further consolidated. In the context of this innovation environment, in 2024, the printing industry will make great progress in digital intelligent innovation, and more and more enterprises will adopt digital and intelligent technologies.

Digitalization and networking are the core of printing intelligent manufacturing. In terms of management, based on lean management concept, enterprise Resource management plan (ERP) and advanced scheduling plan (APS) are widely used; In terms of production, the process parameters are collected to form a data intelligence space, and the manufacturing execution system (MES) is used to control the production. In the material management and product side, the use of intelligent warehouse management system, the use of unlimited radio frequency technology (RFID), robots, automatic transportation platform (AGV), three-dimensional warehouse and other digital technologies, printing enterprises can achieve seamless connection from design to production, improve production efficiency and print quality. At the same time, through networking technology, printing enterprises can better realize remote monitoring and management, and improve the operational efficiency of enterprises. Through intelligent technologies, such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis, the production process is further optimized to improve production efficiency and product quality.

However, due to the personalized printing industry, changing batch sizes, fast process changes, and high customer requirements, the process of digital intelligent printing will not be smooth. It is necessary to further carry out research and industrial application demonstration of key common technologies, such as high-end sensors and data acquisition technology suitable for the printing industry, key nozzle and control technology of digital printing equipment, printing color management and quality intelligent control technology.

In the process of digital intelligence, many enterprises have experienced many pains, the main reason is that digital intelligence is a systematic project, there are a variety of interference factors, and it is time-varying. Therefore, it is necessary to build a pilot test and application verification platform for digital intelligent technology integration, maturation and engineering. At the same time, in order to meet the opportunities brought by artificial intelligence, the printing industry needs to build an artificial intelligence data processing center, build a large model of the printing industry, provide intelligent analysis, decision support, generative artificial intelligence tool development and other services, and promote artificial intelligence to empower the printing industry. With the transformation and upgrading of the industry, there is an urgent need for talents in the field of digital intelligent printing, and it is necessary for colleges and universities and enterprises to work together to cultivate senior composite talents with intelligent manufacturing theory and application capabilities, and can undertake the implementation of digital intelligent in the front line of enterprises.

(Author: Qi Yuansheng, Dean of the School of Printing and Packaging Engineering, Beijing Institute of Printing)

Source: China Press and Publication Telegraph