The Truth About Gang Run Printing

Gang-run printing is a term we hear used quite a bit in the industry these days. If you have been dealing with smaller, local print shops, this is something that is probably new to you. Major online printing companies can offer this type of printing because of the sheer volume of printing they do. It creates a win/win scenario for both the client and the printer.

The actual term used to describe this type of printing, gang run, is about what it seems. When doing a printing job in this fashion, printers are able to take a group of jobs and print them out all at the same time. Because they are able to do this, less paper is used, less manpower is used, less prep time is needed, less…well, you should get the idea by now, it is literally less of everything. With the printer able to save so much money, the client is rewarded with incredible savings.

As with anything, there are pros and cons involved in gang run printing, but the pros far outweigh the cons. A small business is driven by its budget. The fact that printing costs can often be reduced by 80 percent or more is pretty significant. This is especially true for a business that floats in a sea of paper advertising. Take a look at your printing budget from last year and then think of how useful eighty percent of that money could have been in other facets of the business.

One of the disadvantages to using this type of printing is that there can sometimes be a wait in regard to the job starting. The reason for this is the printer needs enough jobs using the same coatings, finishes and stock in order to begin the actual printing process. Of course, if a person is using an online printing company, this wait will be negligible because of the volume of business they are doing. Actually, online companies will more than likely have a gang run printing job completed before a local shop could get a custom job completed.

Any company looking to lower their overall printing costs needs to seriously consider gang run printing for some, if not all, of their printing needs. By using an online purveyor, the choices will be far greater and the turnaround time is reduced significantly compared to a local print shop. All of that money saved has to go somewhere. Worst-case scenario is that the money stays in your bank account, which really is not all that bad after all, is it?