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.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
IMPACT OF PRINT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ON THE DIGITAL PRINTING ENTERPRISE IN NIGERIA>
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