On-Demand Labor Guide for Printing Companies

One day you might get a rush order and need to work around the clock until the next morning to fulfill the request. And if the print job is for an event, the customer is not going to be happy about delays, meaning you’ll get an earful about how they don’t need the signs anymore because they can’t go back in time.

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Veryable offers an online marketplace for on-demand labor for manufacturing and logistics, so that businesses can meet demand quickly and precisely. We’ve worked with other printing companies who have made on-demand labor part of their strategy for handling the volatile demand they face.

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In this article, you’ll learn how on-demand labor helps printing companies respond to demand volatility, what types of work on-demand workers do in other printing companies, and how to get started with on-demand labor in your company.

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How on-demand labor helps address volatile demand in printing companies

Volatile demand runs rampant in the printing business. It’s the nature of the work, because people have come to expect a quick turnaround on printing. With a project-based demand like yours, having the ability to respond quickly to demand is key.

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While people might assume that every printer works just like the self-serve kiosks at the supermarket, you know that certainly isn’t the case. On top of the skilled workers you need to operate your specialized machinery, you have plenty of additional work to put into each order that’s time consuming.

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That’s where on-demand labor can help. If you need to rush an order and have setup and packaging work to do, then you can find on-demand labor to assist you for that order. That way your employees can focus on keeping the machines running and doing what they specialize in, while on-demand workers help rush the order by handling the other work that goes into the project.

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Using on-demand labor, you can scale instantly to rush orders without delays and delight customers. And you’ll only pay for the work you need done, because on-demand workers are looking for short-term agreements. You can even pay by the piece so you can easily control your cost per unit.

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Common tasks for on-demand labor in printing companies

On-demand workers commonly tackle tasks that enable specialized printing machine operators to focus on their work and keep production humming. Since the machines are doing the bulk of the value-add work, you want to be sure they’re always fed with materials to print on. And whatever steps of the process come after printing will benefit from extra workers because the final steps are typically labor intensive and can be learned quickly.

• Kit & envelope packing
• Paper folding
• Paper cutting
• Machine operator assistant
• Loading and unloading
• Cleaning/sanitation

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Real World Example

When Vivid Impact landed a contract to deliver promotional kits to over 7,000 convenience stores across the U.S., the opportunity was clear but the path to delivering was not.

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The challenge was, meeting the requirements of this contract necessitated a 3X increase in output during the last 2 weeks of each month. Trying to address this with traditional methods meant choosing between compromising service levels, or inflating fixed labor costs, neither of which was acceptable to leadership.

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By adopting Veryable's on-demand labor model, Vivid Impact has been able to seamlessly handle these 300% volume spikes and meet the requirements of this contract without the need for costly expedited shipping. But that's not all. With a flexible portion of their workforce, Vivid Impact is able to maintain a leaner full-time headcount. This helps them minimize fixed labor costs during slower periods and keep costs low for their customers.

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To learn how they achieved these results, read the full case study.

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How to get started with on-demand labor

Getting started with on-demand labor is easy. You can sign up for a business profile with Veryable and post your first work opportunity today. You only pay when the work is completed, so you can control your cost per unit. Create your free business profile to get started.

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Want to learn more? Visit our homepage for printing & paper companies