Digital Printing vs Silk Screen: A Difficult Choice

When people evaluate whether a job is suitable for digital printing technology or screen printing technology, many factors must be considered. In fact, at this time, the printing cost is not the most important.

Whether it is digital printing or screen printing, it is an abyss where salespeople have to jump because they have to evaluate projects for their customers. Many people want to find a simple way, they will tell the customer the price of the two imaging methods, and let customers choose which one is cheaper. cheaper? From a negative point of view, the cheap means the reduction of income and the reduction of profits. Choosing the cheapest way may allow you to hand over the benefits to others. What does it mean to be cheaper? I really can not imagine. The pursuit of cheap ideas will make every businessman become timid and afraid to let go. Does your assessment only calculate the prices of labor, materials, and external services? Where do you put the value of the product? Rethink our approach

Please listen to my suggestions and remove the idea that "Let me calculate the cost of screen printing and digital printing and see which one is cheaper." On the contrary, people should focus their decision on substantive issues. When choosing the right imaging method for the live job at hand, there are four parameters that can help us: the required quality, commitment to the equipment and staff, actual assessment and time. The required quality. Here we have many factors to consider. If screen printing cannot achieve the resolution required for halftone images, digital printing should be chosen. If the text in the image is too small to print clearly with a digital press, then you can look for the help of a screen printer. For a job, is PMS color matching important? Is it time-demanding? If it is not high, you can choose between digital printing and screen printing. Before making a major decision, you must never compromise on quality. Screen printing and digital printing have their own advantages and disadvantages, so we must always consider the function of these two devices when we examine the images.

committed to. Does the manager intentionally or unintentionally maintain a bias in order to keep expensive equipment running? If we don't know if the equipment that is worth millions of dollars is still working, then we can't fall asleep safely anyway. Then we can make decisions based on our own ideas. Our hourly rate guarantees the realization of a special imaging method? I see that many companies are using hourly rates to determine the price level. Their reference is based on the percentage of billing time, equipment capacity, or competition usage.

Actual assessment. This assessment should be conducted in a rigorous manner, in a 1+1 manner, and must not be ambiguous: employee wages + equipment costs + external costs + management costs + premiums. The cost of equipment depends entirely on the time we want to recover the return on investment. So what is the return? Is the balance of payments? Or profit 20%? These factors can double the device's hourly rate or triple it. Screen printing quotes take into account many details—prepress, screen printing, preparation, and printing. In digital printing, the cost of prepress and printing preparation is usually included in the printing cost. Calculating the cost per square foot is a common pricing method for digital printing, but it has ruined our market. I know we can complain that there are many unreasonable places in our industry. Customers will throw a lot of terrible boxes to us and let us quickly fill them with products. Square footage is always unchanged. The prepress and boot setup costs should also be increased. So, what is the setup cost? Is the boot setting of each job the same? This will be based on feelings.

time. Time is the decisive factor in our choice of digital printing or screen printing. Its influence exceeds our imagination. The number of print editions, the number and type of proofs, pre-press and printer setup considerations, and the final delivery date are all important considerations. Understanding the product's requirements for delivery time when assessing the printing price not only helps us decide which imaging method is more appropriate, but also allows us to find other ways to add value to the project. How should a printing company decide

I recently visited four different types of screen printing companies with digital printing capabilities and wanted to see how they chose imaging technology. Of course, our investigation is not necessarily scientific, but these four printing plants have high-end digital and screen printing equipment.

The fleet-graphics printing plant uses digital printing for all color jobs. Screen printing is just a backup option for people in special situations. Silk-screen color printing is technically demanding and must be practiced daily to achieve the best results. Since the majority of color printing jobs do not meet the standard for using screen printing technology, the digital imaging mode is directly used to simplify the operation. There are two reasons why people choose this: Panel matching and the production of press proofs. Both of these processes require higher accuracy and repeatability of the printing, and digital printing is easier to achieve at this point. The POP printers that I came in contact with generally use digital technology for short-lived and custom printed jobs. In the case of printing less than 200 sheets of paper, these printers do not consider using screen printing equipment because people do not want small jobs to hold their own online printers.

The direct number is the focus of banner printing. Banner printing is a very profitable and highly competitive market. The quantity determines the success or failure of a company. The last thing to say is a textile printing factory. The textile printing plants I visited have replaced traditional color screen printing with digital printing. Digital printing allows them to produce accurate proofs and customized clothing. In addition, it is also very suitable for producing short-run jobs. value

Now that we have found important decision parameters and learned about some of the printing plant options, let's take a look at the real value. I really understand that many customers want a list of devices and features. Companies whose value is at the core of sales can respond to people's questions through the final product, which can fully demonstrate the strength of a company. Its strength may be reflected in the transfer time, customer service, custom images and one-stop shopping. Just keeping your eyes on the equipment will make the printing plant a frog.

The next step is information. Do we really know what an image is? We will hardly ask such a question, that is: Can we see the value of an image in the pricing stage? In other words, is our grasp of timing appropriate? Some people may think that time is not important, but if we can have a deep understanding of the timing, it will add value to the entire production process.

Now, numbers are numbers, right? Digital printing may create more value, and the market can accept it at slightly higher prices. We must avoid using money to measure an imaging method. We must ask ourselves the question: Can we add value to our own business? All in all, we must determine our own goal is to become a low-cost supplier within the industry, or to fully promote their own corporate services and values?

People should not only evaluate the level of price to choose imaging methods. Managers should check print pricing to see how much value their products can bring to customers and businesses. Sales staff should base their value proposition on explaining their own price structure. At the same time, we must also find the lowest product price for bidding. Focusing on the sales of product value, not cost, the cost will always exist; and the success of value sales will bring you greater success. Salespeople are reluctant to lose orders on price, so prices are just a matter of sales. Those value-conscious sales staff are able to deal with all the problems mentioned above, and they can explain to the customer why the job is being evaluated.

I am not naive to think that all customers will not make choices based on price. Of course, a large part of people want to shop around. I think information is the most important. If we want to be ahead of our competitors, we must be able to create value for our customers. The buyer made a list of all printers so they could easily compare. However, if we have more expertise, such forms will lose their original meaning. Therefore, we must insist on issues related to image evaluation, delivery time, and resolution levels (remember, I'm not talking about quality). A comprehensive quote allows potential customers to make accurate comparisons and correct decisions. Screen printing and digital printing have little difference in price, but for our customers, they are powerful weapons for creating value.

Source: Network Author win: Yu Peng / compiler