Hudson Printing Embraces Data-Driven Business Approach

With its impressive lineup of web offset and digital presses running 24 hours a day, and annual sales of more than $30 million, Hudson Printing is the picture of a successful family-owned commercial printing business. It was the first site in the world to install two Landa S10P Nanographic perfecting presses, which it added to keep up with the growing demand for long-run variable data jobs. Last year the 114-year-old company was named one of Printing Impressions’ “Innovators of the Year.”

That innovation goes far beyond the cutting-edge printing technology inside the company’s 120,000-sq.-ft. facility, however. Hudson Printing’s focus on collecting and monitoring data, and using it to improve its workflow and processes, has been integral to the company’s progress. Without management software in place, acknowledges CEO Paul Hudson, life at the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company would be a bit more challenging.

“It would be utter chaos,” he clarifies. “From a production level, there are so many parts, pieces, and processes moving at any one time that we absolutely could not manage it without a system.”

Pictured, from the left, Paul Hudson, owner and CEO; Andy Anderson, lead Landa press operator; and Steve Furlong, vice president of operations, stand with the first of the company’s two Landa S10P Nanographic perfecting presses.

That system gives Hudson crucial insights into his business with just a few keystrokes, letting him quickly see invoicing trends, top customers by revenue, orders in progress, press schedules, and much more. It also allows him to spot when a job is more labor-intensive than expected, resulting in lower revenue per man-hour. Having access to this data enables him to take action to ensure the profitability of every job.

“At a glance, I can see where we are in the day,” he says.

Despite how critical management systems have become for commercial printers like Hudson Printing, countless print service providers are trying to run their businesses without such insight. They are missing out on the opportunity to add efficiency, cut waste, and ensure that they’re focusing their attention on the customers that will bring them the most profit.

Essential Tools

In today’s world, data and software have become essential tools for commercial printers. Print Management Information Systems (Print MIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software are proving invaluable, driving operational excellence and fostering stronger customer relationships.

Print MIS software provides end-to-end management of print production workflows, optimizing processes from estimating to job tracking, scheduling, and invoicing. ERP software goes a step further by integrating various core business functions, such as finance, accounting, inventory management, and HR, enabling seamless coordination and data-driven decision-making. CRM software complements these systems by centralizing customer information, facilitating personalized interactions, and enabling targeted marketing campaigns. Together, these software solutions empower print providers to streamline operations, enhance productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainable growth.

Though numerous off-the-shelf commercial software systems are available, Hudson Printing relies on software designed internally. It uses one system, written and modified over the course of several decades, to manage its traditional web offset business, and a newer system to handle the more fast-paced digital printing business.

The first system, dubbed JMS (job management system) internally, was developed by a scientist the company had on staff. As the system — and its creator — aged, Hudson says he looked into commercial software offerings, and even attempted implementation of a commercial ERP system, but eventually found the system’s front end did not integrate well with its core ERP engine, so the company abandoned that system. It ended up sticking with JMS, which is maintained by an engineer who understands the legacy code and enjoys finding solutions whenever a problem arises. Hudson lauds the system and says if he needs a specific type of report he can get it within the hour.

‘Command Center’ for Digital Work

Andy Anderson (left) and Jack Allen run the Goss M-500 web offset press at Hudson Printing.

As good as JMS is for long-run web offset work, however, “it fails if you’re talking a book of one,” he admits. “It’s not fast enough for digital production. We needed to build a faster-reacting system capable of handling variable data.”

That need resulted in the creation of what the company calls “Command Center” to manage the digital business. Command Center interacts with the legacy system and with accounting, and all of that data is available to Hudson in a master dashboard. He can check invoicing trends compared to targets; see a pie chart of top customers according to revenue; compare a current month’s figures with the previous month's; monitor trends at an individual customer level; and much more.

“These daily visualizations that I share with my executive team are a really critical part of how we make decisions about what work is good for us — and what work is not,” Hudson says.

The company is currently at capacity, with every machine running 24 hours a day, five days a week. There is little room for unprofitable customers. The management system can alert Hudson to jobs that are more labor-intensive than anticipated and thus not as profitable.

“It certainly highlights inefficiencies,” he says.

Tracking Profitability

The system will list current jobs and show the total invoice amount for each, the total variable costs, and the resulting throughput value. It then breaks that down into throughput per man-hour, which the company tries to keep above a set dollar amount. When that number is low, it shows up in red on the dashboard, alerting Hudson to look further into that situation.

“You can’t overreact,” he warns. “Sometimes you have a basically good customer, but something happened in production.”

Perhaps there was a problem with the press or a reprint had to be done. Maybe a different paper had to be substituted. But he can track whether the customer continues not to perform at target levels, and then discuss it with the sales rep. If the price needs to be raised because the jobs are too labor-intensive, they can show the customer why.

“I have data,” he says. “I can back that up.”

Hudson can also view the press schedule for each press so he knows when a press is behind and can find out why. He can see whether a job that is due today has already shipped or is still being printed. He can view the status of all the major components of a single job. The system also lets him see production inventory, cash projections, daily sales, and much more.

“This smart software is able to take data from lots of sources, build relationships, and then visualize it to help [us] make business decisions quickly,” he says.

He can also use this data when planning new equipment purchases by checking how much they could have sold a job for if the new equipment were in place. This helps inform ROI decisions.

Planning to Implement Strong CRM

As Hudson looks to the future, he notes that one of his initiatives is to implement a best-in-class CRM. “I want to buy a CRM system with a strong API [application programming interface] that will integrate into the accounting system,” he says.

Despite the benefits management software has brought to the company, Hudson is reluctant to criticize those commercial printers without such systems.

“In the current world, speed is currency; if you can react very quickly in whatever method you choose to control in your shop, then you’re probably O.K.,” he says. “But if everything requires human interaction and you have no opportunities for automation, that probably doesn’t bode well for the future.”