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Building big printing industry
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深圳做大印刷蛋糕 全市每四家企业就有一家与印刷出版有关
Liu Fuzhong
HE knew what the well-printed document means for both China and his company when he handed it over to the Beijing Olympics Bid Committee.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a printing company to serve the country and make a name for itself," said Wan Jie, president of Shenzhen Artron Colour Printing Co Ltd, of the document detailing Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
The company's stunning ability to print the three-volume document in only four days was a great accomplishment, not only for the company itself but also the city of Shenzhen, which hosts several of China's leading printing firms
There are currently over 800 printing businesses specializing in almost all areas of the business, making Shenzhen the best-equipped city to meet any printing request. Despite only a decade of development, Shenzhen's printing industry has established a reputation for high quality and reliable service.
The city now supplies over 90 per cent of the country's high-end printing materials. Some leading companies in the city have attracted customers in Japan, the United States and Hong Kong, the most competitive markets in the world, demonstrating the ability to compete globally.
Strength is the deciding factor
Printing the nation's official bid document is definitely among the most important orders a printing firm can ever receive. Yet, behind this moment of glory lie years of hard work and an obsession with improvement.
"The sole deciding factor in the bidding committee's selection process was strength and merits of the printing firm, as no one wants to compromise on quality when it comes to national image," Wang said.
According to Wang, the task was extremely demanding. When officials from the Beijing Olympics Bid Committee arrived in Shenzhen on January 9, Artron had only four days to complete all printing, proofreading and packaging with many pending problems to be resolved along the way. Artron made it in four sleepless days and nights and came up with beautiful, top-notch documents.
Just a few days before the order was awarded, Artron won the Hong Kong Printing Art Award, which is the highest printing accolade in Hong Kong, a region with one of the world's best-developed printing industries.
Artron specializes in printing high-end arts books, accounting for over 90 per cent of auction catalogues of art works in China. "One of Artron's strategies is to build up competitiveness in high-end picture books," he said. By pursuing top quality, the company has secured its position in this segment of the market.
Other leading printing firms in Shenzhen, including Donnelley Bright Sun and C & C Colour Printing Co Ltd, also employed the same strategy of playing to their advantages. Donnelley Bright Sun focused on printing high-end books and magazines in large quantities. C & C Colour Printing Co Ltd provides across-the-board services catering to a wide variety of clients.
In addition, a large number of smaller printing firms provide low-cost printing services for lower- and middle-end clients.
Behind them, in addition, strong technical and design companies backup the whole industry. It is estimated that one out of four companies in Shenzhen contribute directly or indirectly to the local printing industry
Expanding services
Traditional printing businesses do nothing but print. But modern printing firms in Shenzhen have expanded their services into a number of new areas. Content management is one such new area.
As modern printing is almost entirely handled electronically, local printing firms have realized the importance of providing value-added content support for clients. Donnelley Bright Sun offers file storage and management for clients, who may retrieve their files at any time and in both electronic and physical form. According to officials with Donnelley Bright Sun, their service saves their clients time and money and gives them easy access to their files.
Donnelley Bright Sun, which prints yellow pages for many cities in the country, has begun offering publishing logistics services. Officials with the company say that logistics and distribution are the next step for publishers to add value to their services. The idea allows publishers to confine their worries to the content, leaving the rest of the value chain to be filled by their printers, according to Donnelley Bright Sun officials.
Artron, however, concentrates on developing designing and layout skills. “We understand that our clients do not have the expertise or the energy to work out sophisticated layout designs for their content. We want them to do what they are good at, that is, content selection," Wang said.
Every year, Artron sends its top layout and printing specialists to training programmes in Japan, exposing them to the latest layout and printing techniques. “We must ensure that we stay on top of the trends in this trade," he said.
Wang also said the company has developed an archive for each client, offering continued and tailored designs for their content. “In our business, we must understand the meaning of those pictures, which are mostly well-known art pieces, in order to match the best possible layout for them," Wang said. Probably for this reason, the company now prints chronicles for leading Japanese museums and art galleries.
“Sometimes clients expect their printing firms to solve problems for them," Wang said. In fact, Beijing's bidding document was designed by four design firms in different electronic formats. “We had no choice but to work out solution plans to unify the four different formats in a few hours. It requires a lot of technical know-how, which comes only with years of experience," Wang said.
Good management means leadership
Most of the leading printing firms in Shenzhen are young companies, which means they are more open to new and effective management practices. While older printing firms further inland still rely on a few master workers and their apprentices, these new printing companies have imported a new set of process management systems from abroad.
A few Sino-foreign joint ventures in the 1980s brought in not only modern equipment, but also a management style that focuses on effective control instead of experience.
C & C Colour Printing Co Ltd was among the first in the industry to embrace the Japanese management concept of Kaizen, which means continued improvement. One senior manager with C & C explains the concept as pursuing endless heights in quality.
Managers committed to Kaizen believe that all work processes can be streamlined and product quality can be continuously improved.
“We study every work process along the production line to make sure all intermediate deliverables meet or exceed specifications," the C & C manager said.
With the development of the networking technology, some printing companies like Artron have digitized their entire printing process.
“We do not accept the word good or OK. We want our engineers to look at the data and specifications to tell us whether our product is strictly up to standard," Wang said.
“Technology gives us more power to control each process along the way and the management's work is to make sure that all control system is working properly," Wang said.
In many ways, the local printing industry is the best example of development by utilizing foreign experience. It took only a decade to develop an entire vertical structure of printing business in Shenzhen thanks to the city's openness to new thinking.
Now leading firms in Shenzhen are preparing for their next move, the overseas market. Most big printing firms are certified by International Organization of Standards, enabling them to compete at the same level with competitors in foreign markets. Some of them are developing printing technologies to conserve paper. Experts believe that local firms should set up long-term objectives to further upgrade and expand their operations.
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