The Internet and its associated technologies were to make paper obsolete and do away with printing plants. Let's face it, the Internet has not been a blessing for the Printing Industry.

But today, it would be better, according to Michael Porter (2001), not to speak any more of “Internet industry”, “e-business strategies” or of “new economy” and see Internet technology for what it really is: “an enabling technology - a set of powerful tools that can be used, rightly or wrongly, in almost any industry and as part of almost any strategy.” And this is the case with the graphics industries, the Internet and its associated technologies have entered fully. We are just now starting to analyse their impact on this industry.

The key question today for printers is no longer whether or not to deploy Internet technology within their companies, they no longer have a choice if they want to remain competitive, but how to deploy it (Porter, 2001).

“The Internet in itself is rarely a competitive advantage," says Michael Porter (2001), “but it offers these companies far better opportunities to establish distinctive strategic positioning than information and communication technologies have done in the past.”

The Internet, especially with web-to-print, has propelled the graphic chain into a new dimension by making it possible to transmit information, data and content anywhere, anytime, and thus to print, personalise, and also to bind anywhere, anytime, to customers, clients and/or business partners.

However, limiting the impact of the Internet to the arrival of web-to-print within companies in the graphic industries would be reductive, as the Internet and more broadly the digital technologies have prompted printing companies to reconfigure their value chain at the time of Industry 3.0 and today invite or even force them to think about transforming and accelerating their supply chain with the advent of the Internet of Things and Services at the origin of Industry 4.0.

The basic tool for understanding the influence of the Internet and more specifically the impact of yesterday's and today's industrial revolutions on companies in the graphic industries is the value chain developed by Michael Porter (1985). It represents the company as a chain of primary and support activities allowing to transform and in the case of graphic industries companies, to print products and sell them in order to generate a margin, a profit for the company.

Figure 1 gives you an illustration of a printing company value chain. Of course, in the real world, printing value chains can be much more complex and different for each printing company. They depend on the culture, strategy, and markets in which the company is positioned.

Figure 1 - Value chain of a printing company (From Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press.)

In the era of Industry 3.0, the Internet is mainly impacting printing companies on how to sell their printed output with the emergence of web-to-print, or web-to-pack platforms for packaging.

With these systems, customers can order any printed product 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without having to leave their office or pick up the phone.

These web-to-print systems have had the effect of moving some of the physical activities online such as specifying the product to be printed and drawing up quotes, but mainly to provoke a radically different approach whether in B2C or B2B. The use of the Internet automates order entry and saves time for both customers and the company.

In the era of Industry 4.0, that of the Internet of Things (IoT), it will mainly be the production activities (printing and finishing) but also and above all logistics and more broadly the supply chain with cyber-physical systems (SCP) that will be disrupted.

Computers, automation and even robotisation with automatic plate make-ready already existed in printing plants in the era of Industry 3.0, but the possibilities offered in particular by the Internet of Things are revolutionising their use.

Industry 4.0 with the implementation of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in industrial production, i.e. networks of microcomputers, sensors and actuators integrated in materials, printing presses, finishing devices or printed products connected along the value chain, will promote in these printing and finishing shops a self-regulated production, more precise and agile planning. By making print shops much more flexible at all levels, it will be possible to take advantage of the ability to print by the unit or in very small quantities.

Figure 2 - Industry Tools 4.0 in the Corporate Value Chain.

Source: Judit Nagy, Judit Oláh, Edina Erdei, Domicián Máté, and József Popp - The Role and Impact of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things on the Business Strategy of the Value Chain - The Case of Hungary.

The smart print shop 4.0 of tomorrow will use the data collected and analysed at every link in their value chain to make the right decisions (for example, in the event of a breakdown, the press itself indicates which spare part should be brought in) to grow and thus differentiate and gain a competitive advantage over printing companies that only focus on the performance of their presses and other production peripherals.

An acceleration of the supply chain

The reduction in lead times, reactivity, personalisation, printing per unit in the days of Industry 3.0 and today, mass personalisation with Industry 4.0 are putting great pressure on all the parties and the supply chain, the resources of the printing company, but also the activities involved in marketing or distribution by which a book, a campaign, a mailing ... reaches the consumer, the customer or the final target.

Supply chain structures in Industry 4.0 will be characterised by flexible processes and high efficiency that should not only bring cost savings, but are also expected to offer benefits such as improved management for complex products, reduced time to market and production on demand. Normally, differentiation and cost leadership are seen as contradictory competitive strategies, but Industry 4.0 takes on the challenge of leading them simultaneously.

In the days of Industry 3.0, and even more so with Industry 4.0, printers and their customers are increasingly looking to save time and money on all elements of the print supply chain. With Print on Demand, then unit printing, and tomorrow mass personalisation, there is an acceleration at every link in the value chain to enable faster reproduction, higher print run figures and therefore shorter production times. Thus, waste is generally seen as the major enemy, and closer and longer term working relationships, even partnerships, with suppliers at all levels of the chain are recommended to provide exceptional value to customers. Individual companies, including printing companies, are no longer competing as stand-alone entities, but rather as supply chains. They are now entering the era of "network competition" where awards will be given to organisations that can better structure, coordinate and manage relationships with their partners.

Thus, Industry 4.0 is not limited to the technical dimension of the digitisation of the most modern companies. Rather, through this concept, it describes a new organisation and coordination of a global network of value and supply chains (Platform I4.0, 2015).  Virtually every aspect of the business will ultimately be transformed through the vertical integration of R&D, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and other internal operations. Indeed, tomorrow's graphics and manufacturing companies will evolve and move towards a complete digital ecosystem.

Figure 3 - The impact of industrial revolutions on production methods and tools ‘Based on Strategy & analysis © PwC.)

This ecosystem will be based on the full implementation of a wide range of digital technologies - the cloud, big data, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, augmented reality, and mainly cyber-physical systems.

The result will enable these networked print shops of the future to respond to disruptions in the supply chain.

The integration of order processing within web-to-print systems has accelerated the link between sales activities and order processing in these printing plants, forcing them to link multiple activities through tools such as customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The Internet is rapidly becoming a key tool in the supply chain for the production of books, campaigns, flyers and other printed products.

In the days of Industry 4.0, the different players in the supply chain are increasingly interconnected. Printing companies and their customers are focused on improving the total performance of their supply chain so that they can offer better value to customers. The greatest impact on the structure of the graphic chain can be expected from the Smart Logistics and Smart Factory concepts. With their implementation, the entire supply chain will be affected from a structural and technological point of view.

Based on RFID and AIDC technologies, the supply chain will be able to be further digitised and benefit from the information collected in real time on the current status of logistics activities. Thus, the delivery truck for specific products, for example, can be optimised; and the delivery information of the products transported can be modified in real time and whenever necessary.

On a technological level, one can imagine that smartphone applications will undoubtedly have an impact on the organisation of supply chain activities and that each employee equipped with this type of mobile device will be able to interact with his colleagues and make schedule changes or perform specific activities in the manufacturing process.

Smart print shops in Networks

At the age of Industry 4.0 and Print 4.0 for printing companies, the entire graphic 4.0 chain must then be able to print and manufacture personalised, or even individualised, goods ordered by the customer.

Industry 4.0 through an increasingly growing demand for personalised, even individualised products, is leading to a reorganisation of the graphics chain and an even stronger interweaving between customers and printing companies and other suppliers the networks of the value creation chain.

Through its value chain, the graphic chain 4.0 puts the customer at the centre by assessing his personalised or even individualised needs and organises his supply chain to modify his processes accordingly.

This new industrial strategy with this ever-greater need for personalisation in the graphics industry must encourage printers and other manufacturers to understand their production and work space and organisation differently.

The customer's move up the value chain should encourage printers, but also the other players in the new chain to organise themselves to respond as quickly as possible to a demand for printing and personalised products. Printers and other manufacturing companies are thus invited to transform themselves into integrated networks, in which companies from the same sector, but also from different industries, combine their core competencies. In concrete terms, the aim is for these companies to take advantage of the skills of the network partners in order to meet market needs and thus achieve sustainable benefits, and to be able to easily recompose their value chain to adapt to market and technological developments, while developing a digital intimacy with their suppliers and customers to maintain trust and promote innovation.

Figure 4 - Integrated Networks of smart print shops

Successful printing companies will thus be able to quickly adapt their physical and intellectual infrastructure to take advantage of technological changes as manufacturing becomes faster, more responsive to changing global markets and closer to customers.

Networked, guided by responsiveness to personalised requests, these companies, “smart” and “autonomous” printing companies, will be able to redefine their logistics flows, very often with a new location expected from the printing sites (on demand).

In this way, the Graphic Chain 4.0 will transform into a network of connected, mutually interdependent organisations working together and in cooperation to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end consumers and customers. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is a good example of the benefits of Internet technologies allowing printers to no longer worry about ordering, stocking, storage space, etc. These printing departments can take advantage of “just-in-time” (JIT) inventory, with replenishments of their raw material inventory at regular intervals.

The future graphics 4.0 chain will rely on instantaneous information transmission and real-time communication to monitor and act on the physical systems of the production tool. In this new environment, information technology (IT) is the key to dealing with many operational issues, from design to logistics to distribution.

In the future graphic chain 4.0, systems will communicate and cooperate with each other, but also with people, to decentralise decision-making. The Graphic Supply Chain 4.0 therefore emphasizes connectivity, thus supporting the development of new processes, products and services. Its deployment requires the integration of different know-how specific to digital technologies.

This revolution will thus be accompanied by a more advanced networking of companies. The networks thus created between companies will promote the co-creation of value. Collaborative partnerships based on interoperability, transparency and decentralised intelligence will develop, ensuring operational coherence in multi-vendor environments.