As wide format print service providers employ lean production principles to deal with faster turnaround time requirements, price restraints, and limited brand power, it is more important than ever for leaders in the wide format digital printing market to manage the supply chain effectively to achieve profits.
InfoTrends’ study, Disruptive Supply Chain Strategies for the Wide Format Printing Market, is designed to identify new ways to approach managing the supply chain to improve customer loyalty, provide better brand messaging, and maximizing profits.
“The shift to digital wide format printing has partly been fueled by the printers desire to manage assets more effectively. This in turn has meant that many PSPs don’t want to buy any equipment or supplies until they know they need them, and they often only know they need them 24-48 hours before they have to deliver printed graphics. Effective supply chain management includes making sure that products are available to end users as needed, but also priced properly and represented accurately by distributors,” says Tim Greene, Director of InfoTrends’ Wide Format Printing Service. “Manufacturers have to develop strategies to deal with different sized accounts, different geographic regions, and different types of distributors.” Through a combination of email surveys, phone interviews and desk research, InfoTrends intends to:
Quantify industry value chain profit and cost pools
Identify other critical bottlenecks and sources of friction in the graphics products supply chain
Identify opportunities for e-commerce and organized supply chain management
Illustrate companies that are developing alternative and successful supply chain strategies
Describe “best practices” that improve supplier and distributor profitability, distribution coverage, inventory visibility, distributor training, and pricing strategies
Report ratings of the reseller and communications programs for subscriber vendors
Identify “hot buttons” for future loyalty and market development programs, and determine thresholds for more efficient reseller management
InfoTrends
www.Infotrends.com
