Challenges and Opportunities in Printing Industry

 

Scattered operations along the supply chain

The printing industry is among the three biggest manufacturing sectors in Hong Kong. Responding to the industry's restructuring and the revision of regulations on printing announced by the State Council, large-scale printing factories in Hong Kong have gradually moved to the Pearl River Delta (PRD) for their printing operations with products exported to markets all over the world.

In order to form an extensive business network to fulfill customer orders, Hong Kong printing industries cooperate closely with dozens of suppliers, sub-contractors, warehouses and logistics service providers across the PRD and other provinces. This dynamic business network or so-called "supply chain" within the region is regarded as one of three biggest publishing centres in the world

 

Customer demands are unpredictable

Many Hong Kong printers operate in a "make-to-order" mode for which they could respond quickly according to customer demands without building up inventories. Yet, customers expect them to promptly confirm orders and make on-time delivery. Meanwhile, packaging of printed matters are also of great concern, it lengthen the post-print working process and in turn increase the burden of the printers.

It is always at the last minute for customers to decide on drafts, paper materials, packaging and order quantities. Without prior customer demand information and forecast, it is impossible for Hong Kong printers to achieve a concrete plan on procurement and production scheduling; coupled with the difficulties of geographic distance, this makes real-time monitor and prompt adjustment of operations very difficult tasks. In addition to smaller production volume that down to a thousand, tighter schedules and deadlines for each order, how to make the manufacturer more adaptive to the market becomes the first priority task for today's top management.

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