Spanning the JDF Generation Gap

Through RIT and my experiences interning at three commercial printing companies, I have had the opportunity to work in almost every department within a print shop. What I took away from each experience was an understanding of how each company is run and the unique workflow that took place.

In this blog, I will discuss my prediction for the future of the print production workflow powered by JDF (Job Definition Format) and how this will reshape the way companies structure their workflows—from start to finish—in the near future.

The power of automation is something that has driven essentially every industry to higher efficiency and further development. Within printing, JDF presents the opportunity for increased efficiency throughout an entirely automated workflow.

It’s one thing for a company to use JDF for just ink-key presetting, but by implementing the same underlying technology from estimating to delivery, that same company is able to operate at a much higher level of efficiency and thus support a much better print operation.

JDF is nothing new to the industry and was in development even before Drupa 2000. The CIP4 organization manages JDF with the mission of promoting the adoption of process automation. The goal of encompassing the entire life cycle of a print job is something that CIP4 fully supports, along with a wide variety of vendors.

However, I feel that a large majority of the top 100 printers in the United States don’t yet take advantage of the technology to its fullest extent. It might take longer to catch on with people, but I believe that it’s extremely worthwhile for every company to review its current workflow with the intent of targeting areas that are completed manually to be replaced by automation. A quick search on Google will lead to a plethora of vendors available to offer a customized solution.

If we look at the digital shift in the industry, increasing amounts of offset companies are putting digital equipment on their floor. Offering combined print services requires integration of the two distinct processes. This leaves organizations in need of transforming their workflow processes to successfully implement a “hybrid workflow.”