Why Should You Bring Production Print In-House?

If your business relies on printing marketing materials or large volumes of documents, outsourcing print jobs can get very expensive. Bringing production print in-house can offer many benefits, not the least of which are cost-saving opportunities.

LDI Connect’s team of Production Print Specialists enables clients to identify their printing needs and recommend solutions that can help them short and long-term. LDI Connect works with independent clients and commercial printers and therefore understands when insourcing might provide an advantage over outsourcing. Many clients can benefit from bringing production print in-house, but it may not be for everyone.

This article will detail four considerations that can help you evaluate whether bringing production printing in-house can benefit your company. By the end of this article, you will better understand the criteria you need to evaluate and if you are ready to proceed.

What Does Production Printing In-House Entail?

Bringing production print in-house requires that your business buy or lease all of the equipment and tools necessary to produce finished print projects.

Commercial printing companies are usually outfitted with extensive production print and finishing equipment designed to produce any project that a client brings to them. When designing your production print department or area, you get the opportunity to focus on your independent print needs and simply focus on the production print equipment necessary to produce your customized projects.

Your production print department would require a robust printer or digital press, in-line or post-production finishing equipment, and measuring tools to ensure consistent production quality from the first print to the last.

Let’s evaluate how bringing production print in-house can help your business.

How Will Bringing Production Print In-House Benefit Your Business?

Let’s examine four ways bringing production print in-house may benefit your business.

1. Cutting Costs with In-house Production Print.

Generally, on a project basis, in-house production print can save your business more than 30% of the total job or project cost. Factors contributing to the savings may include saving on material and consumable costs, only printing what you need, and often using staff that has functions other than production print to produce the jobs.

In most cases, you are only buying what you need to produce your jobs with no other cost overruns. You also save on supping associated with having the finished work transported to your office or facility.

2. Gaining Control of Your Turnaround Times 

Time is money, and controlling projects from their inception to completion is a real benefit. Based on your own schedule, you get to decide when and how a job is produced.

With in-house production printing, your creative staff and production team will be able to test different specialty media, fine-tune print jobs on the fly and make sure the output meets your expectations. There are no surprises, and on a good day, some unexpected effect that occurs in printing enhances the output.

3. Branding Colors and Consistent Quality

For many businesses, consistent branding is a necessity. Your brand strategies can become an impossible task without considering how you maintain consistent, high-quality color. Bringing production print in-house reduces the possibility that your printing instructions will be misinterpreted and ensures that your brand’s colors, messaging, and overall quality represent a snapshot of who your company is and what it offers.

4. Print-on-Demand or On-Demand Printing

An essential part of in-house product print is producing only the quantity you need for a particular job or project. When you rely on outsourced print, you generally order more quantity than you need, increasing your overall project cost and using valuable real estate to stock and store the print jobs. When you print on demand, you always have the most current version of your project, eliminate wasted, outdated copy, and only print what you need, creating the most cost-effective print process possible.

Ready To Find The Right Production Print Equipment For Your Business?

While upfront costs of bringing in-house print can deter some businesses and individuals from bringing their print jobs in-house, keep in mind that there can be significant time and cost savings in the long run.

If your business does not rely heavily on print marketing or printing large volumes of documents, bringing your production printing in-house may not be the right choice for your business. However, if your company has been outsourcing large volumes of print jobs and is interested in seeing where you can cut costs, exploring the option of bringing your production print in-house would be helpful.

LDI Connect has helped several clients move their production print in-house, improve their projects’ quality, and optimize their document workflow. Book a Meeting to learn more about production print solutions.