Here’s a question, what do capital equipment companies do during a recession? Well, if the screen and digital imaging industry is any measure, they innovate: and I think I know why.
Having started my own career in product design and then worked in and around the manufacturing sector I have witnessed firsthand the process capital equipment companies operate during the economic cycles. Put simply, original equipment manufacturers are duty bound to listen to their customers’ wants and need and respond by challenging their research and development departments to engineer solutions.
If OEM’s abandon this process they become little more than assembly lines, adding significantly less to their long term brand value. Thus, provided OEMs’ sustained innovation is matched by careful cost reduction in other areas of the business, recessionary periods can provide the breathing space for more fundamental leaps in technology.
A classic example is the cover story of this issue of SPDI. For the first time, YES is offering garment decorators the opportunity to simultaneously apply white and colour when printing a dark garment. This will save time, and time is money. What better way for printers to start clawing back profit as growth steadily returns to the UK market.
I expect a steady flow of new technologies over coming months and years as printers reverse their cost reduction processes and invest in new equipment designed to deliver sustained growth. Keep your eyes on SPDI as new products emerge.
Jon Barrett, Editor
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