Bonjour #2· Andrew Gunn/Fujifilm and Johan Laurent/Standard Finishing · PRINTING United 2026

Day two at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas starts with Wayne Beckett and Pat McGrew meeting Andrew Gunn from Fujifilm and Johan Laurent from Standard Finishing for a conversation about automation, workflow — and why partnerships between technology suppliers are becoming increasingly important.

Digital presses are faster, quality continues to improve, and many processes that once required highly skilled operators are increasingly automated. But producing a great printed sheet is only part of the job. The customer needs a finished product, and that means workflow, printing and finishing have to communicate.

Andrew explains that customers are increasingly asking Fujifilm how its presses can integrate with technology that Fujifilm doesn’t manufacture. Lights-out production requires exactly that: different suppliers working together rather than expecting one company to provide everything.

Johan sees the same development from the finishing side. The bindery can easily become the bottleneck when increasingly productive digital presses feed work into finishing processes that still require manual setup and intervention.

And automation without workflow doesn’t solve the problem.

Barcodes, job information, imposition and production instructions need to travel with the job so binders, stitchers and cutters can automatically configure themselves for what comes next. That requires cooperation between press manufacturers, finishing suppliers and workflow companies long before the equipment arrives on the customer’s production floor.

The conversation also looks at convergence. Commercial printers are moving into books, packaging and other applications, while photo businesses are beginning to adopt digital production technologies that enable them to move beyond traditional photographic output. Customers increasingly expect their print providers to offer more — and being a one-product printer is becoming increasingly difficult.

Both Andrew and Johan see automation as fundamental to making that diversification profitable, particularly as skilled labor remains difficult to find.

The machines matter.

But increasingly, the real competitive advantage comes from how well everything works together.

Watch Wayne Beckett and Pat McGrew with Andrew Gunn from Fujifilm and Johan Laurent from Standard Finishing at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.