Context
High volume production describes the manufacturing capability to process thousands or tens of thousands of individual print orders per day, enabled by industrial-scale equipment, automated workflow systems, and sophisticated logistics operations. Companies with high volume capability have invested heavily in production infrastructure, from high-speed digital and offset presses to automated finishing lines, robotic sorting systems, and integrated shipping stations. This scale of production is what separates major web to print operations from traditional commercial printers, allowing them to offer competitive pricing through economies of scale while maintaining fast turnaround times.
Operational Requirements
Achieving high volume production requires investment across the entire production chain, not just printing equipment. Automated preflighting software must process thousands of incoming files per hour without manual intervention. Imposition software batches compatible orders onto press sheets to maximize efficiency. High-speed industrial presses, both digital inkjet and offset, run continuously with minimal downtime. Automated cutting, folding, and binding equipment processes finished sheets without bottlenecks. Conveyor systems and robotic sorters route completed jobs to packing stations where orders are assembled and labelled for shipping. Enterprise-grade MIS software orchestrates the entire workflow, tracking each order from receipt through production to dispatch and providing real-time visibility into capacity utilisation.
Web to Print Context
The largest web to print companies process extraordinary volumes daily. Cimpress (Vistaprint's parent) produces millions of items per day across its global facilities. Flyeralarm processes over 25,000 orders daily at its German production sites. Shutterfly's manufacturing facilities handle peak volumes exceeding 100,000 orders per day during the holiday season. CEWE processes 2.5 billion photo prints annually. This production scale creates significant competitive moats: the capital investment, operational expertise, and supply chain relationships required to build high volume capability take years to develop and cannot be easily replicated by new entrants.