Labor shortage

Another challenge facing packaging printing suppliers is the lack of skilled workers. Currently, Europe and the United States are facing widespread resignations, with many workers in mid-career leaving their former organizations for other development opportunities. Retaining these employees is important because they have the experience and knowledge needed to mentor and train new employees. It is good practice for packaging printing suppliers to provide incentives by ensuring that employees stay with the company.

What is clear is that attracting and retaining skilled workers has become one of the biggest challenges facing the packaging printing industry. In fact, even before the outbreak, the printing industry was experiencing a generational shift, making it difficult to find replacements for skilled workers who were retiring. Many young people do not want to spend a five-year apprenticeship learning how to operate flexographic presses; instead, young people are more comfortable using the digital presses they are more familiar with. In addition, training will be easier and shorter. In the current crisis, this trend will only accelerate.

Some packaging printers retained employees during the outbreak prevention and control period, while some were forced to lay off employees. Once production began to fully resume and packaging printers began hiring again, they would find a significant shortage of workers and still do. This has prompted companies to continually figure out how to get the job done with fewer people, including evaluating processes to figure out how to eliminate non-value-added operations and investing in systems that help automate. Digital printing solutions have a shorter learning curve, making it easier to train and onboard new operators, and companies need to continue to bring new levels of automation and user interfaces that allow operators of all skills to improve their productivity and print quality.

Overall, digital presses offer an attractive environment for a young workforce. Traditional offset press systems are similar in that computer control systems with integrated artificial intelligence (AI) run the presses, enabling less experienced operators to achieve excellent results. Interestingly, using these new systems requires a new management model to instill methods and processes that leverage automation.

Hybrid inkjet solutions can print inline with offset presses, adding variable data to fixed prints in one process, and then personalizing color boxes on separate inkjet or toner units. Web-to-print and other automation technologies address worker shortages by increasing efficiency. However, it's one thing to discuss automation in the context of cost reduction. It becomes a market presence when it is almost impossible to find any workers to receive and fulfill orders.

A growing number of companies are also focusing on software automation and equipment to support workflows that require less human interaction, which is driving investment in new and upgraded hardware, software, and complimentary workflows and will help companies meet customer demand with fewer people. The packaging printing industry is experiencing labor shortages and a push toward agile supply chains, the rise of e-commerce, and short-term growth to unprecedented levels that will undoubtedly be a long-term trend.