The hottest analysis on the operation mode of Amer

An analysis of the operation mode of American on-demand publishing printers

as the saying goes, stones from other mountains can be used to attack jade. When European and American book printing enterprises are facing the digital wave (4) control switch failure: what kind of response and thinking have they had? Recently, China publishing daily interviewed rby best, former president of lightningsource (LSI), one of the world's famous on-demand publishers and printers. According to Kirby, the company could only print four books in two hours at first, but now it has more than one million copies, with more than 13000 publishers cooperating globally. In the company's book database, there are more than 5million books stored. There are 1.5 million copies printed every month, and 100million copies have been printed since 1997. It is hoped that through the experience of the company in the process of digital exploration, we can understand the digital exploration path of European and American peers, which can be used for reference by domestic book printing enterprises

concept change

enterprises must realize this from the concept, which has to be changed

Colby has repeatedly stressed that it is not easy for traditional book and periodical printing enterprises to carry out digital transformation. In Europe, there will be a phenomenon of jaw slipping, and the United States is the same. However, enterprises must realize this from the concept, which has to be changed. First of all, compared with the past, customers have higher and higher requirements for quality and greater challenges from customers. Secondly, the printing volume of the publishing industry is getting smaller and smaller. Without digital change, there will be no competitiveness. Whether you like it or not, this trend forces enterprises to change. In addition, we should not only pay attention to the improvement of printing equipment or process, but also focus on the change of the whole production system and links, and establish an automated process

business model

after a long time of exploration, the company's working model is mainly in two forms, namely, printing according to orders and printing according to the requirements of publishers

Colby said that according to the publisher's requirements, the printing method is similar to the traditional printing method. The company prints books for the publisher and delivers them to the publisher. The difference is that the adoption of digital printing technology ensures that the books in the hands of publishers will never be out of print, which not only meets the needs of readers to buy at any time, but also brings economic benefits to publishers and enterprises to the greatest extent. In addition, the number of orders can be very low, from hundreds to thousands. The cycle from receiving orders from the company to receiving books from customers is very short. It is reported that some customers receive the book printing order at 6 p.m. and can get the finished books the next morning. As a result, publishers free up more money from the consumption of inventory

printing to order is the company's first method, which completely subverts the traditional way from publishing to printing. It has become a publishing distributor. The net profit of its own part is all the sales of the books sold minus the manufacturing cost. We can truly achieve zero inventory and 24-hour supply

communication mode

the cost of digital printing is high. In communicating with customers, the first thing customers face is to challenge traditional ideas

in fact, LSI finally embarked on the road of publishing on demand, and it has also gone through a very difficult process to form the above two working methods. Kirby said that the company's initial sales were very difficult. At the beginning of sales, as a digital printing supplier, the first contact was with the printing design and procurement personnel. The general attitude was: why should I spend 4 yuan on your product from you, while others spent 3 yuan? After hitting the wall, the CEO who continued to visit the publisher received the same less optimistic response

finally, they found that communication with the publisher's chief financial officer was effective. At least they began to listen and have a good response. When they further communicated with the publisher's sales team, they found that the sales staff could be their breakthrough. Because the publishers' sales were discovered by Geim of the University of Manchester in 2004, the staff used digital printing to find more sales opportunities, and through such cooperation, the publishers gradually gained more revenue, so they would actively promote the printing demand of digital printing

cooperate with each other

more work is to guide their own customers and publishers. The long-term working method makes publishers not willing to change, but makes them realize that what they can gain from it is the key to open their hearts

after experiencing the digital wave, as a printing enterprise, LSI realized that excellent talents and strong production capacity are important from the whole digital transformation, but it means, financial and legal team support is its strong backing. The introduction of appropriate equipment, which is very simple, practical and easy to use, can shorten the adaptation period of the enterprise and enter the efficient working state as soon as possible

lsi's experience is that in the whole process, after feeling the benefits, publishers will gradually consciously start to put the books that may have been out of print or long tail into the digital printing database, so that they can be supplied according to production needs in the future; When they continue to feel really good, publishers will put new titles in this process to prepare for future on-demand publishing, and then integrate all on-demand books into their own workflow

Colby believes that the benign cooperation between the two sides is crucial. Publishers appoint special personnel to be responsible for the books published on demand, and publish books in standard sizes and specifications, which are consistent with the operating data of printing enterprises. Only in this way can we improve efficiency and give full play to the advantages of digital and on-demand publishing. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively establish a set of data exchange interface in the middle. Realize data exchange with publishers, effectively improve and simplify the process from publishers to printers due to excessive deformation