IMPACT OF PRINT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ON THE DIGITAL PRINTING ENTERPRISE IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study assessed the impact of Print MIS systems  on digital printing  enterprise  in Nigeria. Four purposes and four research questions were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive  survey research  design was adopted.  The researcher  conducted  the study in six cities selected from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria namely:  Jos,  Kaduna,  Abuja,  Enugu, Port Harcourt and Lagos.   The selection was based on the fact that the cities have high concentration   of printing   firms   and  therefore   have  beehive   of printing   activities.   The population  of the  Study was  1315  print managers.  The sample  size of 306 was used.  This sample was statistically  obtained using  Taro Yamane’s  formula.  The instrument  adopted  for data collection was a 60-item  structured  questionnaire  on a 5-point Likert  Scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. The instrument validated by three experts;  one from the Department  of Fine and Applied  Arts,  University  of Nigeria,  Nsukka, another one from the Department  of Art Education,  University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the last one from the Department  of Printing  Technology,  Kaduna  Polytechnic.  Mean  and  standard deviation were adopted to analyze the data, and the calculated mean score of 3.00 as the cut-off point of either to reject or accept any rated opinion. The findings – human capital development, capacity building and organizational restructuring  strategies identified were all required for the implementation  of the Print MIS with mean (x) rating score of 4.1. The effects of utilization of Print MIS on workers who had no computer  skills was rated with mean (x) score of 3.9.  The impact of implementation  on the DPE was high,  with mean (x) rating score of 4.1.  The major conclusion   drawn   from  this  study  is  that  the  DPEs  were  found  not  to  have  the  full understanding  of Print MIS and therefore did not implement it as a core communication tool in the workplace. This is a serious setback for the printing industry in Nigeria  and therefore  the industry has to come to terms with realities in the sector to address these issues by embracing the technological  changes going on globally in the print industry.

CHAPTER I

1.0    INTRODUCTION

1. 1       Background to the Study

Printing Industry is a communication  service industry that produces print media which is at the core of all human  communication  especially  in education  and training institutions,  industries,  commerce,  governments,  religious   institutions,  the  arts  and sciences.  All  rely  on  the  products  of the  industry  (books,  newspapers,  magazines, brochures, newsletters, paper bags, cartons, packs, labels, fabrics, paper  currencies and cions) to communicate and fuel the economic,  social and technological development of a nation (PIA, 2000). The products of the printing industry have been man’s important tool of communication  from generation to generation  (Rodman, 2006;  Bugi,  2007).  These products  form  the  entire  mass  communication  print  segment  of man’s  information society.  Karsnitz  (1993)  pointed  out  that  much  of our  progress,  both  socially  and technologically,  is directly  linked to the exchange  of printed  information.These communication  print  media  are  usually  customized  and  client  initiated.  Akinsoyinu (2004) categorized these communication print media into:

1.     Mass communication media (books, journals,  magazines,  newspapers, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, etc)

11.     Packaging  media products  (Paper bags,  packs,  cartons,  plastics,  metals,  labels, confectionery, etc).

iii.  Fabrics (textile print products)

iv.  Currencies (paper currencies and coins)

Speirs (1994) and Kipphan (2001) pointed out that although printing industry was a  ‘closed’  craft-based  industry  (highly  restricted  skill practicing  profession  for print

media    production)    but    today,    it   has   become    part    of   the    wider    multi-media communications’ industry  where publications,  documents  and records  can be produced  in so many different  ways apart from the traditional  forms of print production (Speirs,  1994; Kipphan,  2001). Printing  industry has become  one of the largest manufacturing industries and  the  largest  employer  of labour  (Speirs,  1994;  Luttropp  &  Greenwald,   2009).  The industry    employs    different    practicing    professionals   such    as    graphic    designers, technicians,   technologists,    engineers,  scientists,  marketers,  educators,  and     business managers  all performing  complementary roles  to produce  the print information. Printing industry  is notably  different  from other industries  in:

1.        its long history as a communication industry;

11              its  structure   which  includes  relationships  between   print  workers,   employers, customers   and the states;

111     the internal relationships as in trade unions which develops  its social factors;

1v   its external  significance  to the society;  and

v    The overall  fact that these  features  have been  in existence  for over five hundred years,  (Parnell, 2006).

Printing   industry   is  highly   structured   having   many   different   processes    and sections  that  each can engage  a good number  of workers  to make  it operate  maximally. Some  of these  printing processes   include:  offset   lithography,  letterpress;  flexography, gravure  and screen printing (Prust,  1989; Karnitz,  1993). However, due to technological changes  especially  in Information and  Communication Technology  (ICT),  the  industry has  witnessed  tremendous   technological   changes.  These  changes  include  Computer-to• Plate (CtP), Direct Imaging  (DI) and Digital Printing  Technologies.  These are considered

new technologies and are seen to be having some serious impacts in the industry leading to  restructuring  and  integrating  digital  work  flow  system.  This  integrated  workflow system uses electronic information-based working tools such as Print Production Format (PPF), Job Messaging Format (JMF), Job Definition Format (JDF), Job Production Ticket Format (JPTF), Portable Job Format (PTF) and International Co-operation for Integrated Processes  in Prepress,  Press  and Postpress  (CIP4).  These tools  are fast changing  the conventional   printing   industry   that   is   characterized   by   mechanically    analogue technologies  to  digitally  integrated print  manufacturing  technologies  (Kipphan,  2001; Romano,  2004).  These  evolving  technologies  provide  the basis  for this  study  on the Impact  of Print Management  Information  System  (Print MIS)  on the Digital  Printing Enterprise.

Print MIS is a planned system of collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information that is needed to carry out the functions of management. Therefore Print MIS was explored here in historical perspective  of printing industry as discussed below.

History of printing can be traced back to the invention of writing which was the first revolution in human communications.  This event took place in ancient kingdoms of the Middle East when the rulers were using written word to publish declarations,  while the merchants used  it to keep track of their trade activities,  myths  and tales (Simeon,

2004; Thompson, 2009). Mayor (1976) said that Walter Ong called this period as Scribal Culture (manuscript culture) when human communication transited from the oral to the written culture.

The second revolution  in human communication  history was the transition from the scribal  culture  to print  culture  that took place  in  China around  800 A.D.  (Irvine,

1999).  The  Chinese  engraved  characters  in reversed  for block  printing  including the production  of seals and stamps impressed  upon locally made paper. While the Chinese continued  with  this  practice  of creating  literary  and  scholarly  works  using  wooden blocks,  the Koreans  by  13″Century have replaced  wood block printing  with movable metal types (Thompson, 2009;  Berthold,  1973).

Parnell, (2006)  and Simeon, (2004) pointed  out that from this point, not much progress  in  printing  took  place  until  in  the  15″  Century  when  Johann  Gensfleish Gutenberg  through  his ingenuity combined  the existing technologies  at that time  (the wine press, textile and paper making devices) to achieve the technology that has been attributed  to  him      the  invention  of movable  type  and  the  production  of the  first commercial printing press.

Much  progress  in  the  printing  industry  was  not  recorded  after  Gutenberg’s invention  until  the  period  of Industrial  Revolution  in  the  18″ century (1780)  which brought  about  some  significant  changes  in  the  industry.  These  changes  were  the replacement  of the wooden press with the iron press,  utilization of steam power (steam press), perfecting press, rotary printing press, web machine and the prepress   equipment (intertype,  monotype  and  linotype)  composing  machines  (Clair,  1965;  Child,  1966; Smith, 2014; Parnell, 2006;  Walker, 2008).

In a study conducted by the Printing Industry America  (PIA,  2000),  it reported that  between  1950s  and  1960s,  prototype  setting  machines  were  introduced  into  the industry  to  generate  types  for  print  production.   The  application  of these  machines

gradually  replaced  the hot metal  types  setting  technologies  and  in the 50s and  60s, the advancing  technology  led to computerization  of the prepress in which  type composition was completely  done electronically  in the 80s. This marked  the beginning  of the computerization (or otherwise  called digital technology)  of the printing industry and this provided  the basis  for the  study  which  is to  assess  the  impact of Print  MIS  on digital printing enterprise in Nigeria.

The  evolution  of Print  MIS  in the printing  industry can be  traced  back  to the time when the first generation  keyboard  of phototypesetters were introduced  in the 50s which replaced   the   typewriters    and   the   manual   estimating    functions   (Chakravarty,   n.d; Rodriquez,  Gogula,  Kharalkar  & Kamar,  2006).  The growth and development  brought  in by  ICT,  made  the  industry  witnessed   a  paradigm   shift.  The  conventional   system  of mechanical  print production  was changed  to a digital  system  of print production  in the early  80s.  Thus  the  technology  of converting  print  jobs  into  electronic  form  evolved which  ushered   in  a  new  trend  of print  manufacturing   and  information  management system  for  printers  in  the  industry.  Consequently   Romano  (2004)  and  Walker  (2008) identified  the following as the evolving trends in the printing industry:

1.    Digitization  of  data in the industry:

i  Digital Colour Separation ii  Computer-to-Film

iii Computer-to-Plate

iv Computer-to-  Press (Direct Imaging)

v Digital Printing

2.    Hybrid Printing (conventional+  digital printing)

3.   Cross-media printing (from one media to another media)

4.   Variable data printing (print on demand)

5.   Integrated digital workflow print environment (eg Web2Print)

6.   Enhanced general systems integration: the enhanced general systems integration, according  to  Canadian  Printing  Industries    Sector  Council  (CPISC,    2008)  is divided into two:-

(a) Technical  integration  which  enables  one machine  to  communicate  with  other machines and is largely the purview of equipment manufacturers

(b) Business-level integration that involves taking several system components – from prepress all the way through the client billing and linking them together to create larger systems (e.g use of Print MIS solution)

The  change  in technology  is continuously  making  the printing  industry to evolve   into   new   and   exciting   electronic   image-driven  by   digital   technology. According  to Thompson  (2009), digital technology,  economic  restructuring, global competition, marketing  changes,  emerging new media  and other market  forces are combining  to  dramatically  change  printing  industry  operating  environment.    The study  into  the  cmpetitiveness  of the  UK  Printing  Industry  conducted  by  British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF,  2002),  concluded that printing industry trend is fast moving  towards  computer  integrated  manufacturing  (CIM)  system.  This  new digital system is characterized by digitally integrated workflow system using information working tools such as the JDF, PPF, and JMF.

₦5,000.00 – DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT Added to cart

---

---

---

---

Related Project Topics :