中文Finishing technology developer Horizon is preparing to make its case that automation is not about replacing people but working alongside them. Represented across Australia and New Zealand by Currie Group for four decades, Horizon will stage its Horizon Smart Factory 2026 this November in Japan under its Lights Out banner, with a theme that gives the event its name: Coexistence, the automated future.
The international event, running 4 to 6 November 2026 at Horizon Headquarters in Takashima City, Shiga, will explore humans and robots working side by side while showcasing automated production across printing, finishing, packaging, and logistics. Printers from Australia and New Zealand are invited to attend, and Currie Group is managing regional interest.
The Lights Out Zone will feature two distinct concepts. The Coexistence Area demonstrates people and technology working together, while the Lights Out Area presents a fully automated workflow spanning printing, binding, sorting, and packaging with minimal human intervention. Together they frame the central question for every print operation: not whether to automate, but how to blend skilled operators with autonomous systems.
Paul Whitehead, Currie Group general manager for Commercial and Sign & Display, says the value for ANZ printers is seeing complete, connected workflows in action rather than isolated machines. “For ANZ printers, the value of Horizon Smart Factory is being able to see complete, connected workflows in action, rather than individual technologies operating in isolation,” Whitehead said. The event is designed to show how printing, finishing, material handling, and logistics combine to cut manual touchpoints, lift productivity, and chart a practical path toward greater automation.
Horizon says the event will feature more than 20 industry partners, 16 printing presses, 12 autonomous mobile robots, 13 robotic arms, and at least five new solutions, alongside a wide range of finishing and smart-factory technologies. Equipment will be shown in standalone, nearline, and inline configurations with presses and packaging machines, illustrating how printers can streamline production across the full workflow.
The partner roster reads like a who’s who of production print: Canon Marketing Japan, DAC Engineering, Fujifilm Business Innovation, Heidelberg, HP, Hunkeler, Jspirits, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Document Solutions, Miyakoshi, Palamides, Ricoh, Riso, Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology, Screen, Smyth, Tecnau, and Ultimate Tech. That breadth matters because lights-out production is only as strong as the integration between machines from different vendors. Horizon’s pitch is that the smart factory is the place to see those connections proven, not just promised.
The Coexistence theme also reflects a labor reality. With skilled operators hard to find and retain, fully unattended shifts are attractive, but most shops are not ready to remove people entirely. The practical middle ground is a floor where robots handle repetitive, heavy, or high-precision steps and humans supervise, intervene, and handle exception jobs. That model protects output during labor shortages while keeping experienced judgment where it counts.
For ANZ printers weighing automation investments, the takeaway is that lights-out is no longer a futuristic slogan. It is a staged, demonstrable strategy: start with connected islands, link them into workflows, and let robotics absorb the touchpoints that slow you down. Horizon’s Smart Factory 2026 is positioned as the place to see that strategy run live, on a real production floor, before committing capital at home.
