In all industrial sectors, including the printing industry, there are three factors that remain in constant tension: time, cost and quality.
Since these factors have a direct relationship, when you attempt to adjust any one of them, the other two feel the effect. You can’t reduce the time needed to print a job without affecting its quality or increasing its cost. You can’t reduce the price without sacrificing quality or deadlines. You can’t increase print quality without incurring extra costs (newer presses, better paper,..) and time spent (longer drying time, slower press speed,…).
‘Price, speed, quality – pick any two‘ is a well known saying that implies that at best one factor is going to suffer badly. Businesses can only expect to have a positive outcome of two of the three at any given time.
In December 2007 I asked the visitors to this site in which order their customers value these three factors.
What do your customers value? (most important first)
- Price > Quality > Speed (23%, 16 Votes)
- Price > Speed > Quality (22%, 15 Votes)
- Quality > Speed > Price (20%, 14 Votes)
- Quality > Price > Speed (16%, 11 Votes)
- Speed > Price > Quality (10%, 7 Votes)
- Speed > Quality > Price (9%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 69