Articles By Pat McGrew

Pat is a well-known evangelist for inkjet productivity. At McGrew Group, she uses her decades technical and marketing experience to lead the industry toward optimized business processes and production workflows. She has helped companies to define their five-year plans, audited workflow processes, and developed sales team interventions and education programs. Pat is the Co-Author of 8 industry books, editor of A Guide to the Electronic Document Body of Knowledge, and a regular contributor to Inkjet Insight and WhatTheyThink.com.

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Featured image for “What Support Should You Expect When You DIY Inkjet?”
September 28, 2022

What Support Should You Expect When You DIY Inkjet?

In the last episode, we recommended that before you begin a DIY inkjet project, a best practice is to define your needs and establish your expertise levels concerning the elements
Featured image for “Five Questions to Ask When Buying Inkjet Heads”
September 21, 2022

Five Questions to Ask When Buying Inkjet Heads

Looking at you DIY’ers! When you are building an inkjet system, why reinvent the wheel? Do a self-assessment to understand where your expertise is highest and where you need more help. Then begin to work through these questions to begin your project from the best base.


Featured image for “Reconfiguring the Inkjet Roadmap with the Right Software”
September 7, 2022

Reconfiguring the Inkjet Roadmap with the Right Software

How we work is changing dramatically. It’s the reality of doing business in 2022. Enabling all-shore processes means embracing multiple locations, various time zones, and countless individual work environments while servicing them all seamlessly.
Featured image for “What’s in YOUR Disaster Recovery Agreements?”
August 17, 2022

What’s in YOUR Disaster Recovery Agreements?

Understand the agreements you have, review them with your legal counsel and vendors so that everyone is on the same page. Disasters don’t appear by appointment!
Featured image for “Any Idea What’s in YOUR Business Continuity Wallet?”
August 3, 2022

Any Idea What’s in YOUR Business Continuity Wallet?

Who is accountable for your Business Continuity Plan today? When was the last time it was carefully reviewed and tested? What is your confidence level?
Featured image for “So – You Think You Have A Business Continuity Plan?”
July 27, 2022

So – You Think You Have A Business Continuity Plan?

We live in a time when security breaches are a problem, but so are physical events that can disrupt internet access, power, and water due to cut lines, main breaks, and accidents.
Featured image for “OOPS! Production Stopped and You Even Have a DR Plan!”
July 13, 2022

OOPS! Production Stopped and You Even Have a DR Plan!

For many companies, the Disaster Recovery Plan was put together in the past to check the box on RFPs, but if you aren’t practicing with it and updating it in a regular cadence, you may be missing key elements
Featured image for “Hardening Data Driven Print – Part 2”
June 8, 2022

Hardening Data Driven Print – Part 2

While you may not consider your business a likely target, talk to your peers the next time you get together. You’ll find that many printing companies have already been targeted with malware and ransomware. We get practical and build some actionable guidelines for data protection.
Featured image for “Hardening Data Driven Print – Part 1”
June 1, 2022

Hardening Data Driven Print – Part 1

Hardening is a process that IT and cybersecurity people use to guard against threats like malware and ransomware, but also to ensure that customer data remains unexposed as it is gathered, processed, used in business applications, and included in customer-facing communications.
Featured image for “Folding Carton and Inkjet”
May 4, 2022

Folding Carton and Inkjet

Printing solutions are available in many configurations and price ranges, from those that print a single box at a time to those supporting high volume production printing. They all share a common goal to produce a package that is functional and ensures the consumer of the brand and product it contains.
Featured image for “How to Build Sustainability into Your Strategy – Part 2”
April 27, 2022

How to Build Sustainability into Your Strategy – Part 2

Inkjet printing and marking technology in late-stage manufacturing has been around for decades, enabled by the integration of print modules within the manufacturing environment.
Featured image for “How to Build Sustainability into Your Strategy – Part 1”
April 20, 2022

How to Build Sustainability into Your Strategy – Part 1

In the print industry, sustainability is often equated with the creation, use, and recycling of substrates, but there are many other elements to consider.
Featured image for “When Something Goes Wrong – Business Continuity 102”
April 6, 2022

When Something Goes Wrong – Business Continuity 102

How common is business disruption in print? How fast can you recover? Is there a specific metric for knowing when you are recovered? You have questions and Pat McGrew has answers.
Featured image for “When Something Goes Wrong – Business Continuity 101”
March 23, 2022

When Something Goes Wrong – Business Continuity 101

With bucket loads of things that can disrupt your business. Pat McGrew recommends a strategy to identify the mission-critical elements of your business and a set of plans to invoke to ensure your survival.
Featured image for “Finishing Differentiates Your Opportunities”
March 2, 2022

Finishing Differentiates Your Opportunities

Finishing can be your differentiator, but you will have to think differently to make it fly. The goal is to find the things your customers want to buy and set a path to supply it.
Featured image for “High-Speed Finishing for High-Speed Inkjet”
February 23, 2022

High-Speed Finishing for High-Speed Inkjet

Learn about new unwind and rewind options, cutters, folders, stackers, perforators, stitchers, and wrappers, as well as full inline booklet makers and book manufacturing solutions for inkjet. While press manufacturers cranked up the speed on continuous presses and added sheetfed inkjet, the finishing vendors went into overdrive.
Featured image for “There’s a Wizard in my Ear – And That’s Good!”
February 9, 2022

There’s a Wizard in my Ear – And That’s Good!

Just about every vendor has or is working on solutions that make it easy to interact confidently with their technicians using virtual and remote solutions. They are only half of the equation. What’s the other half?
Featured image for “The Wizards Are Coming to A Machine Near You – and That’s Good!”
January 27, 2022

The Wizards Are Coming to A Machine Near You – and That’s Good!

Even with the training and documentation at hand, the processes, procedures, and parts orientations on large inkjet machines can be confusing.
Featured image for “Wizardly Workflow Guidance for 2022”
January 12, 2022

Wizardly Workflow Guidance for 2022

Automation, integration, and education are your three missions for 2022. Evaluate where you are and start moving toward a more optimized workflow to unlock maximum margin from every job.
Featured image for “Wild Workflow Learnings of 2021”
January 5, 2022

Wild Workflow Learnings of 2021

During 2021 we have seen interest in workflow automation grow from several directions.

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