中文A persistent shortage of skilled labor is reshaping how manufacturers think about decoration. According to Engineered Printing Solutions (EPS), companies across plastics, packaging, medical, industrial and promotional product markets are increasingly investing in automated direct-to-object (DTO) printing, not merely to improve image quality but to engineer people out of the production process entirely. The company says it has now surpassed 100 installed single-pass DTO systems, a milestone it frames as evidence of a broader change in how manufacturers evaluate printing technology.
The old calculus was simple: buyers compared print resolution, color and speed. The new calculus adds automation, workflow integration and the ability to standardize production while reducing dependence on manual labor. For many plants, labor has become the single largest contributor to total cost per part, with training, turnover, manual setup and process variability often exceeding the cost of consumables. When that is the arithmetic, a printing system that needs fewer hands looks dramatically more attractive than one with marginally better dots per inch.
EPS argues that today’s decoration systems are evolving into integrated production cells rather than standalone printers. A modern DTO cell can combine single-pass UV inkjet with robotics, machine vision, pretreatment, curing, inspection and automated material handling. The result is a line where a part moves from infeed to finished, inspected and tracked output with minimal human intervention, what the industry has begun calling “lights-out” decoration.
The labor pressure is not anecdotal. EPS cites industry data showing that nearly half of plastics manufacturers reported that labor shortages negatively affected their operations in 2025, while 57% planned to invest in robotics or automation equipment during 2026. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures also point to continued employment pressure across plastics and rubber products manufacturing. Together, those signals reinforce the business case for technologies that lift efficiency, consistency and throughput at the same time.
“Manufacturers are not just looking for a better way to print. They are looking for a better way to produce,” said Kenneth Stack, Executive Chairman of EPS. He describes a progression the company is seeing on the factory floor: from operator-assisted automation, to semi-autonomous operation, and ultimately to lights-out decoration where parts flow through printing, curing, inspection and tracking with minimal human involvement. In Stack’s framing, the greatest value of DTO is not the print itself but the repeatable, traceable and predictable manufacturing operation it enables.
That reframing matters because it moves DTO out of the “decoration” category and into the “manufacturing strategy” category. When printing is integrated directly into an automated production line, it becomes an enabling component of Industry 4.0 rather than a downstream afterthought. Companies that combine digital printing with robotics, machine vision, workflow intelligence and data-driven production management are positioning themselves to support the next generation of highly automated factories.
For converters and brand owners, the practical implication is that the decision to adopt DTO is increasingly a workforce decision as much as a quality decision. A line that runs reliably with a smaller crew is easier to scale, easier to staff and less exposed to the volatility of local labor markets. It also tends to produce more consistent output, because automated inspection catches defects that a tired operator might miss at the end of a shift.
EPS is not alone in reading the market this way. Across industrial printing, the storyline of 2026 is less about who has the sharpest print and more about who has the most resilient, least labor-dependent production cell. Automation is no longer valued simply as a speed booster; it is a strategic response to workforce availability and long-term manufacturing resilience.
The 100-install milestone is symbolic, but the trend behind it is concrete. As manufacturers weigh capital spending, the question is shifting from “can this printer make a beautiful part?” to “can this system help me build a plant that runs when my best operator is on vacation?” For a growing list of producers, the answer is driving them toward automated DTO.
Source: INKISH.NEWS (report on Engineered Printing Solutions, July 31, 2026).
