Can AI benefit print businesses?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining traction in all businesses, including print. Industry experts believe although print has adopted AI in certain areas in a big way, some areas are yet to be automated. In a virtual meeting conducted by All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP) on 9 June 2021, industry experts shared how AI can benefit print businesses by decreasing downtime and increasing efficiency.

The session began with an introduction from Kamal Chopra, president, AIFMP. Dr TKS Lakshmi Priya of Avinashilingam Institute introduced the panelists. The chief guest of the meeting, Dr TV Geetha, UGC-BSR faculty research fellow and retired professor at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, gave a short lecture on the basics and fundamentals of AI in her keynote address. Additionally, she also spoke about the ‘wow factors’ of AI.

“AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The ideal characteristic of AI is its ability to rationalise and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal,” explains Geetha. “Machine learning is a subset of AI that focuses on providing algorithms with the ability to learn how to complete tasks without explicit instructions, allowing them to adapt in the presence of new data.”

She says machine learning enables a computer to act and take data driven decisions to carry out a certain task. “Machine-learning tools that analyse data about sales estimates and planned promotions, which can increase sales, forecast how much to produce and when,” she adds.  

AI can be beneficial to detect print defects such as print inconsistency, print growth, reflectance, damage or distortion, grid non-uniformity and more. “Machine learning combined with AI will allow printers to create network-level analytics and real-time anomaly detection,” says Geetha.

AI, vital in printing
Surya Ramanathan, associate director at Chennai-based UNBXD AI – an AI-based eCommerce product discovery platform – explains the roles of AI in printing.

“AI is vital in some processes of the print industry whereas some are gaining traction and we could witness a surge in AI adoption in those areas in the coming years,” says Ramanathan. “Looking at the current printing pipeline, smart algorithms can recommend layouts and provide suggestions to reduce paper waste.”

He says using AI models, a printer can automatically choose which two jobs need to be combined based on the layouts and borders, paper size, and paper standard. It can predict which two jobs need to be printed together based on the offset/digital printing machine size, and current jobs on hand.

Surya Ramanathan of UNBXD AI

In a pre-press setting, an AI model uses sensors to read printed images for comparison with the original PDF file from the designer. “This allows the operator to check for missing or added characters in the initial printing stage, preventing production losses,” says Ramanathan.  

Automated quality check models will understand the approved print and create association models, thus checking for variations, he says.

“Looking at the preview image, AI based models can convert the digital data from pre-press into a PQC-format ink profile for the press. With the usage of elements such as the CIP3 and CIP4, we can smartly calculate the ratio and preset ink keys,” he adds. “Also, get the press ready by looking at the next job in the pipeline and automatically increase efficiency in ink resetting, cleaning and other such advanced high precision reset function that optimises the preset data according to change in materials and printing environment.”

He also elaborated on how workforce automation and predictive maintenance could give a boost to the print operations.

How printers can deploy AI
Ashish Mittal, director at Haryana-based Yugasa Software Labs explains how the adoption of AI could improve client relationships, fight competition, and improve productivity. For this, he gave an example of chatbots.

Ashish Mittal of Yugasa Software Labs

“A chatbot is an AI- and NLP-based software, which can be integrated inside any website or mobile app, to automate the pre-sales and post-sales communication and provide senseful analytics in the backend to help humans make appropriate decisions,” says Mittal.

He explained how big companies have integrated chatbots into social media apps to maintain customer interaction and help them with their desired products. He also elaborated on how chatbots could help in customising products and convert handwritten documents to text to enable user friendliness and hassle-free operations.

AI for process monitoring
Balaji D Loganathan, managing director and co-founder, Spritle Software explains in detail how AI can be made use of in process monitoring.

Explaining how computer vision can be used in the printing industry, Loganathan says, “The goal of computer vision is to give computers a powerful facility for understanding its surroundings. Here, AI helps the computer understand what they see through the attached cameras and sensors.”

Balaji D Loganathan of Spritle Software

He elaborated on how sensors and cameras connected to AI can help in detecting scenarios such as detecting falling objects or identifying whether an employee at the shop floor is equipped with all safety equipment. He says his company mainly focuses on resolving major industrial pain points such as under-utilised resources, high production quality rejection, accident prone environment, and uncontrolled access violations.

In a sigh of relief for small printers, Loganathan says even small factories can afford AI solutions without burning a hole in their pockets.

The session ended with a vote of thanks from Harjinder Singh, treasurer, AIFMP.