The knowledge required by the printing industry

As already reported, the publication "The Intermediate Station" on the development of the future potential of the printing industry was presented at the drupa printing expo. This is a loose-leaf collection created in collaboration with Man Rowland at the initiative of the Print and Media Academy in Stuttgart. The purpose of the loose-leaf pages is to be able to constantly update and supplement content. In order to investigate the demand for knowledge, the printing and media academy's design team conducted (not representative) investigations at the drupa fair.
In order to further develop this work, and to provide “intermediate stations” one after another according to the needs of the clients, the students of the college asked the subscribers of the professional publication at the drupa fair the following questions:
* What are the processes that companies use to create value?
* Which aspect has the greatest information needs?
* In which areas are you planning to hire people?
* How to meet corporate information needs at present?
As envisaged, most of the 241 printing companies that were asked showed the key processes of value creation: prepress, printing, and postpress. Only 51 companies in question have specialized binding finishing processes. One-third of companies value how their companies can become a reality for media providers because these 83 companies use cross-media data processing.
In terms of information requirements, the pre-press technology has an advantage. In addition, printing and cross-media data processing have also attracted widespread attention.
It is hoped that the information on the digital workflow will be ranked first, followed by the optimization of the printing process and the network printing plant and the provision of additional services for the Internet.
The demand for information on the economy is very balanced. Whether it is sales, management information systems, or management and organizational issues, we hope to gain more knowledge. Only in terms of personnel management is the demand for information significantly less. This is undoubtedly the role played by the nature of SMEs.
Taking into account the interrelationship of these issues, the following conclusions can be drawn: Printing companies that have mastered cross-media data processing have great interest. When we look at all companies that use the printing process, we find that this interest is less, but it remains high.
Discussions of management issues and management information systems are active in all types of printers.
The demand for digital workflow information is particularly large. Most companies expressed great or greater interest. However, companies that have not engaged in the post-press finishing and distribution process so far are not very interested in this information. The top hirers are in the field of printing technology and interactive media.
The demand for information was mainly met by professional magazines (85%), and seminars accounted for 50%, ranking second.
The Association’s information and interactive media accounted for 38% and 36% respectively, ranking third and fourth, with textbooks accounting for only 20%. Maybe textbooks don't provide enough information yet.
"Intermediate Station" should fill this gap so that now and in the future can provide constantly updated and reliable information.