The Print University header

Operations of a PSP: Commercial Printers

Operations of a PSP: Commercial Printers

Operations of a Commercial PSP – Episode Summary

In this foundational episode of The Print University, Ryan McAbee and Pat McGrew walk through the structure and operational workflow of a typical commercial print service provider (PSP). Ideal for printing industry training programs for new employees, print shop employee onboarding templates, or outsourced training for print production staff, this episode demystifies how work flows from sales to shipment in today’s print shops.

Commercial PSPs function as both administrative and manufacturing environments. The “front of house” includes sales and customer support teams managing estimates, orders, billing, and client relationships. The “back of house” includes prepress, IT, printing, finishing, warehousing, and shipping. Prepress departments handle layout, file correction, preflighting, and color management, while IT teams support automation, job onboarding, and data integrity.

The printing floor may include offset, flexo, toner, and inkjet devices—sometimes even hybrid workflows. Operators are responsible for calibration, material loading, and quality control, delivering output to finishing for cutting, folding, stitching, inserting, or binding.

Finishing is often the least automated yet most labor-intensive step, requiring multi-process coordination. Warehousing handles both raw material intake and finished product storage, and often supports kitting, fulfillment, and multi-component packaging for direct mail or product shipments.

Pat and Ryan stress the need for workflow software and print MIS systems to gather data, automate touchpoints, and enable job costing and business intelligence. From estimating to kitting, commercial PSPs are complex, custom manufacturers powered by people, software, and machines.

You Will Learn:

  • The full operational structure of a commercial print shop

  • Roles and workflows in sales, prepress, printing, finishing, and warehousing

  • Differences between analog and digital printing (toner, inkjet, offset, flexo)

  • The importance of automation, job onboarding, and data collection

  • Software tools for workflow, estimating, tracking, and job costing (e.g., Aprimo, Midnight)

Who This Course Is For:

Prepress specialists, operators, estimators, onboarding coordinators, and production managers pursuing MIS software training for print production or implementing lean manufacturing training printing industry

Time to Watch:

Approx. 24 minutes