Buying a digital asset requires a deep dive into the ROI. The investment is big, and the technology is game changing. The return on investment isn’t always obvious. In some cases, transitioning work from Flexo and measuring the improved profit from those jobs on digital can make the case on its own. In other cases, digital brings new markets and customers who have new business that shows the clear benefit. Calculating the numbers on this can be overwhelming and confusing since the process and related costs are very different.
Typically, shorter runs are more efficient on digital where there is drastically less waste in materials and setup/change over time. Depending on the technology, speeds widths and downstream processes the point where Digital beats Flexo can increase in length where even longer runs are more efficient.
Ink coverage can also make or break your digital efficiency. One job with low ink coverage may make sense with digital and an another with heavy ink coverage may cost more if run digital. It can be a very dynamic cross over point that makes or breaks the investment.
Understanding these nuances and looking at what digital production will do for your business overall is where you can find the game changing savings. Often times you can find that not only will digital run some of your Flexo jobs more profitably you will find added capacity on those Flexo presses that you can fill with profitable Flexo jobs. Increasing the throughput of your operation by moving jobs to the most profitable machine generates profit quickly.
In some cases, using the digital press to produce samples for your customers can lead to larger runs that ideal for your Flexo presses. These small runs may not on their own create profit from the digital asset, but they are essential in gaining new business for the higher volume Flexo presses.
Measuring profit improvement from the investment of a digital press involves much more than measuring the performance of the digital press on its own.