Just when you thought you were up on the latest digital print marketing phrases here comes Micro Run?
In Flexo and every other print process, the word RUSH has been so overused that it basically means nothing these days since every job is a RUSH. Rather than figuring out a new term for RUSH, like Hot RUSH or Super RUSH, someone simply made the job run length shorter.
Okay, you may have heard the term Partial Run and a Short Run, but what the heck is a Micro Run?
- Partial run - is a small amount (unfortunately sometimes not so small) that the sales rep says their customer can live with and then you print the balance of the job at some other time.
- Short Run - is something less than a normal run which nowadays is hard to even quantify what is normal?
- Micro Run - is basically a press run of 1 or more labels.
With new digital technologies theoretically, you can produce a label production run of 1. The key word being theoretically, as in theoretically your password with a number, symbol, and capital letter, is secure 😉
While some may argue a run of 1 is not practical, there may be times a run of 50, 100, 200, 500 labels is attractive. Thus the term Micro Run is here to stay.
The Flexo market has seen several 'desktop' digital products that could essentially print Micro Runs, however, they all had certain exceptions
- print quality was not considered good enough for a Prime Label
- had to use pre-die cut labels
- had to print roll-to-roll and then finish offline.
A few new products have recently hit the market that address all of these issues and make a Micron Run not only practical but profitable. These are complete digital systems (unwind, digital print, laminate, die cut, waste removal, rewind) at prices a fraction of a full-blown digital label press.
So Micron Runs are here to stay. I can't wait for the first time I hear .... 'No you don't understand, its a RUSH Micro Run'