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 “Three Experiments to Try with your Inkjet Press (Part 2)”
September 17, 2019

Three Experiments to Try with your Inkjet Press (Part 2)

Experimenting with your inkjet press is something that should be part of your monthly plan. Here is the second of three experiments to help you really get to know your press. The first experiment was about paper. Today we talk about ink volume.
Featured image for “The Big Push: 3 Experiments to Try with your Inkjet Press (Part 1)”
September 11, 2019

The Big Push: 3 Experiments to Try with your Inkjet Press (Part 1)

In honor of back to school season, we’ve kicked off a new series with Pat McGrew on experimenting with your inkjet press that ties in nicely with tools available on Inkjet Insight. Experiment 1 discusses experimenting with paper to drive new opportunities.
Featured image for “Three Ways to Be a Successful Inkjet Printing Company”
August 13, 2019

Three Ways to Be a Successful Inkjet Printing Company

There are three things that will move the needle toward success with inkjet printing. Companies who are adopting production inkjet would do well to take stock of their current status across these vectors.
Featured image for “Print Enhancement is Hot!”
July 31, 2019

Print Enhancement is Hot!

Can inkjet-printed work be enhanced with foil, varnish and added-on spot colors, especially now that inkjet print quality is capturing more commercial work? The answer is an enthusiastic… perhaps! Learn about the opportunities and costs of print enhancement and inkjet.
Featured image for “Advances in Maintenance Protocols”
July 17, 2019

Advances in Maintenance Protocols

This 5th post in the inkjet maintenance series looks at OEM apps for smartphones and tablets, and the questions to ask about the availability of advanced maintenance capabilities using augmented or virtual reality.
Featured image for “Who Ya Gonna Call for Inkjet Press Maintenance?”
July 9, 2019

Who Ya Gonna Call for Inkjet Press Maintenance?

A fully trained operator is central to a maintenance protocol that ensures the machine will perform its best in your environment.  If you spend the necessary time and consumables during ramp up, you will reap the rewards of efficiency and fearlessness as new types of jobs come into the shop.
Featured image for “Zen and the Art of Inkjet Press Maintenance”
June 25, 2019

Zen and the Art of Inkjet Press Maintenance

In the third installment of her series on inkjet maintenance, Pat McGrew talks about maintenance considerations as you add work or shifts to your press. Like Motorcycle Maintenance, your mileage may vary.
May 30, 2019

Top Two Maintenance Questions to Ask

What is and is not included in the maintenance contract sound like basic questions – but listening for the RIGHT answers to these important questions is more nuanced than you might think. This is the second in a series on inkjet maintenance agreements.
Featured image for “Are You Asking the Right Questions About Maintenance?”
May 15, 2019

Are You Asking the Right Questions About Maintenance?

Whether you already own inkjet presses or you are in the market looking for your first, one of the big questions in the due diligence process revolves around maintenance programs. Pat McGrew provides top questions to ask and explains why they matter.
Featured image for “Which Inkjet Innovation is For You? Commercial Edition”
April 17, 2019

Which Inkjet Innovation is For You? Commercial Edition

Commercial printers fall into two groups: those who haven’t adopted inkjet and inkjet technology users. For those who haven’t looked at inkjet technology, the reasons are manifold. It may be that none of the work they do has required variable content, which is a common reason to look at inkjet.
April 8, 2019

Which Innovation is for You? Transaction Edition

Inkjet technology serves a vast array of segments. While the needs of each segment vary, the continuous announcement cycle might leave you confused about which innovation applies to the type of business you operate. Not every announcement you read nor every innovation that gets the spotlight may apply to your business. What fits for Transaction and Transitional printing?
March 26, 2019

Why Consider Specialty Inks and Print Modules?

Since the dawn of the age of high-speed inkjet presses buyers of those presses have been encouraged to buy their ink from the hardware vendor. Good reasons were given, including concerns about contaminating print heads and print quality. The reasons still stand – but options are emerging.
February 19, 2019

Building your own Inkjet Press Solution

Building your own inkjet press might seem like a radical approach. Each year brings more options for speed, print resolution, and finished print sizes in both cut-sheet and web-fed formats. For some companies the option of building a custom press provides opportunities for differentiation that are worth considering.
February 12, 2019

Field Guide to Living with Your Inkjet Press: Ghostbusting

By Pat McGrew Last week I introduced a new series on Living with Your Inkjet Press where I promoted to share some tricks to help you to maintain your inkjet
February 5, 2019

Ghosts in the Machine

After the trainers leave and before you develop buyer’s remorse, there are tricks to living with your press that will allow you to maintain your inkjet excitement. That is the purpose of this series, starting with this first episode on dealing with ghosts.

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