The whole flexographic-printing industry is facing increasing pressure to produce a higher-quality product and still maintain a relatively low cost when compared to offset and gravure. This is true of all the variations of flexo printing including narrow web, wide web and corrugated.

It's a challenge to get the costs of the consumables—such as substrates, plates, inks, and yes, even computer-prepress expenses—much lower than they are right now. In fact, more expense can be incurred by the use of better inks and newer technologies for plates and prepress. Don't even explore cutting wages and benefits. That will only lead to a less-skilled workforce, as the talent will leave to go elsewhere.

That leaves only one avenue for cutting expenses—becoming more efficient in how a print job is created, plated, printed and converted.

The first step in expenditure reduction will be to select those vendors that have shown a history of providing continuing good

service to the organization and partnering with them. In this type of a relationship, the lines of communication tend to remain more open and potential problems tend to be solved before they become too much of a drain on profitability.

The second step in cutting expenses is to meet with the prepress people to make sure that the information from any press characterizations is current. This would be necessary for all the presses in a given print shop and would need to include dot-gain curves and print densities. This would be also a good time to make sure that the anilox rolls used for these characterizations are still in good shape and in inventory.

Step two leads to step three. The designated anilox-roll partner should do an audit of all aniloxes in the facility for wear, damage and volumetric measurement. Documentation of condition, organization of inventory and ease of access to that inventory is critical to efficient press operation later on.

The fourth step in expenditure reduction is to make sure the proper documentation is in place for the type of plates that are being used and the way they are processed. No matter how well the computer prepress has been done, if the plates are not made correctly, print reproduction will be compromised.

The fifth step involves the chosen ink supplier-partner. Their role is probably the most critical once a particular job makes it to press. Color-matching can always be a bottleneck, so procedures need to be implemented that will lead to less downtime for color adjustment. There should be no excuse for a color not to match if it was matched before. Working conditions of the various ink systems must be readily available for press personnel. There should be standard procedures for ink returns, labeling and rotation.

The sixth step in expenditure reduction is often overlooked or simply forgotten. Preventative maintenance of the presses and related equipment could lead to hundreds of saved hours of downtime throughout the year, which of course means higher profits. Routine maintenance schedules need to be generated and implemented. A byproduct of this routine is the increased probability of not only more timely printing due to fewer breakdowns, but also a higher-quality flexo-printed product.

The final step to reducing expenses involves streamlining the press-printing production process. Documentation, communication, and education are all critical here to improve efficiency and productivity. Staging, setup, running and cleanup procedures should be thoroughly documented and followed by all the people involved in the operation of the various flexo presses.

Efficiency in expenditure reduction is the responsibility of all partners within a printing organization. There will, of course, always be fixed costs regardless of the printing company and partners involved. The companies that will thrive are those that maximize press-production time by maintaining open lines of communication, implementing documentation and standardizing their operations.