What Happens When an Automation Guy Starts a Label Company? · Adam Seiz · Brightline Labels and Pack
For years, Adam Sides has talked about automation.
Now he gets to prove it.
At LOUPE Americas in Chicago, Wayne Beckett meets Adam just weeks before the launch of his new Atlanta-based labels and packaging company, Bright Line.
After 12 years with Bennett Graphics, Adam decided it was time to do something he had thought about for years: build his own business.
And when somebody with Adam’s background starts from a completely blank sheet of paper, the approach is perhaps predictably different.
Rather than buying an MIS and then adapting the business around it, Adam has spent much of the past year building his own.
Using AI-assisted development, he has created an interconnected ecosystem covering MIS, CRM, lead generation, estimating, customer communication, and production workflow.
The objective is ambitious.
Adam wants jobs to move through the administrative side of the company, through quoting and preflight, with as little human intervention as possible.
Ideally, the first time somebody really needs to touch a job is when it reaches production.
That doesn’t mean ignoring security either. Before putting the system into use, Adam brought in an external company to test and validate the environment.
On the production side, Bright Line is starting digitally, with two HP Indigo presses, a GM 350 finishing system, JetFX embellishment, and additional rewinding equipment.
Equipment installation is planned for October, with the business based in Atlanta.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about Bright Line isn’t the equipment.
It is the opportunity to build an automation-first printing company without decades of legacy processes determining how things have always been done.
Adam can ask a different question:
If we were starting a label company today, knowing everything we know about automation, AI, workflow, digital production, and customer expectations — how would we build it?
LOUPE also gives him the opportunity to explore technologies and markets he doesn’t yet know well, including pouch production, while talking with suppliers, peers, and people throughout the industry who can help shape what comes next.
There may be robots eventually.
But not yet.
In this INKISH film, Wayne talks with Adam Sides about leaving a secure career, starting Bright Line, building his own MIS, using AI in software development, automating administration, investing in digital production, and what it feels like when years of talking about automation suddenly become very real.
Now comes the interesting part.
Practice what you preach.
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Thu September 17th
Why Run Your Dryer at 100% If You Don’t Nee...
Walk into many printing plants, and there is a simple approach to curing: Turn the dryer up to 100%. It works. Nobody wants to risk insufficient curing. But it isn't necessarily the smartest or most energy-efficient way to produce. At LOUPE Americas in Chicago, Wayne Beckett meets Anne from IST METZ to talk about the company's new SwapCure platform — shown publicly for the first time at the event — and several technologies that could change how converters think about curing. Flexibility is central to SwapCure. The platform is designed to enable converters to switch between different curing technologies, including infrared, LED, and conventional UV, depending on the application and production requirements. But perhaps one of the most interesting developments is FreeCure. Developed in collaboration with BASF, FreeCure enables UV curing without conventional photoinitiators, addressing a challenge that has traditionally limited UV technology in sensitive applications such as food packaging. IST METZ already has installations operating with the technology in flexible packaging, where reducing concerns around migration and odor can open opportunities for UV in applications where converters may previously have been reluctant to use it. Then there is SmartCure. Rather than simply setting every dryer to maximum power, SmartCure uses production information to predict the curing energy required for a particular job. Job parameters can be used to establish the dryer settings before production begins, and those settings can subsequently be stored and reused when the same work returns. That potentially means lower energy consumption, more repeatable production and — particularly for companies operating multiple sites — a more standardized approach to curing. It is another example of how AI can play a very practical role in print production: not generating content, but using production data to make equipment operate more intelligently. In this INKISH film, Wayne talks with Anne about SwapCure, FreeCure, SmartCure, LED, conventional UV, food packaging, energy consumption, and why curing technology is becoming considerably more flexible — and considerably smarter. Because sometimes improving production isn't about adding more power. It's about knowing exactly how much power you actually need.