Author of Report Alvise Cavallari Heads Nestlé’s corporate digital printing programme.

Drupa Report on Digital Packaging .  Nowadays it is all about digitalisation. .The  underlying the promise of digital printing has to do with variability in the printout (output) as well as flexibility in the printing (process). Print jobs are more and more related with data management as each output is potentially unique with its own variable data that is managed flexibly within an agile printing process. Data is the fuel of today’s economies, as shown so quickly and efficiently by the famous “GAFA” companies.

Article 9 of Drupa Reports on the printing industry

The ability to create, collect, handle, combine, extract, analyse, process and convey data is what will drive the most efficient businesses. Printing is no longer about accurate colour-matching and process-efficiency. It is rather about conveying to buyers and consumers digital information that hasbeen applied physically on the pack. Some call it the blended reality, it is nonetheless a paradigm-shift enabled by combining digital printing with connectivity. Such a shift is a prerequisite for achieving personalisation and customisation, the “holy grail” of the digital transformation in Consumer Package Goods (CPG) and it envisions the connected production-floors and factories of the future.The main print-press vendors are well advanced on their digital roadmaps and newer players are entering the scene on the same road.