Case Study: 3 AeroDieCuts at e-print – Efficiency and Innovation in Short-Run Printing

e-print is a leading Web to Print service provider based in Hong Kong, offering a wide range of short-run, on-demand print applications for over 20 years. Panny, CEO of e-print, recalls that from the company’s inception, the focus was on maintaining a healthy cash flow.

“The traditional printing market is giving long payment terms, one month or two months. We wanted to change that market. e-print only aims at the short-run market. Because many of our clients, right after we finish their job, they pay us at once. We don’t need to give our clients long payment terms. It makes our cash flow very healthy.”

e-print offers small minimum order quantities to customers, for example, 100 pcs for business cards and 5 pcs for leaflets. They do not usually take large amounts of long-run jobs that exceed a certain value.

Instead, e-print focused on user experience on their website and gathered a vast number of short-run jobs.

This strategy led to the rapid growth of the company. To keep this momentum, e-print continues to invest in higher technology machines to shorten set-up time and maximize operational efficiency, which is crucial in Hong Kong where space and labour costs are high.

“We invested so much in IT technology. We also invest in higher technology machines. The most important point when we invest is to make sure that it improves profitability even in small quantity production.”

Reasons to Invest in AeroDieCut

e-print has its own IT team and uses AI technology for production arrangement. Within this framework, AeroDieCut was introduced to meet the demands of small-quantity, high-quality jobs.

“We put different jobs together on a single roll. So, traditional die-cutting machines are not suitable for our small quantities and quality requirements. That’s why we chose Uchida. Your machine has the advantage — easy to handle. Our aim is to invest in machines easy to handle by our staff. Our staff could easily learn how to operate this machine in a short time. Even a new staff member who comes to our company can operate this machine very easily.”

More importantly, the AeroDieCut is designed to be operated safely, even by staff without advanced technical skills.

Why Multiple Units Were Adopted

Panny explains why e-print decided to install multiple AeroDieCut units:

“One man can operate one Uchida, or two, or even three — it’s the same. It took just two months to install the third machine after the first.”

Right after the first installation, he recognized that AeroDieCut runs consistently once an operator presses the start button. By having multiple units, the operator can work on job changeover and make ready while the other machines are running. Within a year, Panny invested in a 3^rd unit of AeroDieCut and successfully increased efficiency and throughput.

The most popular products finished on AeroDieCut are envelopes and paper fans. In Hong Kong and throughout the Chinese-speaking world, it is customary to exchange red envelopes containing money, known as Hongbao, during auspicious occasions such as the Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, birthdays, and weddings. During these periods, orders for Hongbao surge significantly. Three AeroDieCut machines operate at full capacity, ensuring stable production.

Future Outlook

Thanks to careful technology selection and an efficient operational approach, e-print benefits from AeroDieCut’s ease of use, high safety, and short learning curve for staff without advanced skills. These features support smoother production processes and help the company handle short-run jobs more effectively. By continuing to integrate the latest technologies with streamlined operations, e-print is well-positioned to maintain its competitiveness and responsiveness in the short-run market.