Vistaprint 2011 Annual Report Download - page 15

improperly obtained or used its confidential or proprietary information. You can find more information
about the risks relating to our intellectual property rights in Item 1A of Part I, “Risk Factors” in this
Annual Report.
Mass Customization Manufacturing
Our high-volume, standardized, scalable production processes are driven by sophisticated
proprietary software described above. Our technologies are designed to readily scale as the number
of orders received per day increases. As more individual print jobs are received, similar jobs can be
aggregated and moved to the printing system more efficiently, thereby optimizing the use of the
printing equipment and increasing overall system throughput. Our proprietary workflow and production
management software allows us to deliver final products to customers in as few as two days. We
believe that our strategy of seeking to automate and systematize our service and production systems
enables us to reach and serve small-scale customers more effectively than our competitors.
With the improvements we have made in automating the design and production process, we
can produce and ship an order the same day we send it to production, which results in minimal
inventory levels and reduced working capital requirements. We can also produce complementary
custom products in a timely fashion, allowing us to produce and deliver multi-part orders quickly and
efficiently. This allows us to produce high-quality, low-priced products at high margins even though our
average order values are low by traditional standards.
As orders are received, we automatically route production jobs, often aggregated by our
VistaBridge technology, to the type and location of production system that is most appropriate and
cost efficient for the type of product ordered. Printed paper products ordered in larger quantities, such
as business cards, postcards, letterhead and the like, are typically produced using a single pass on
state of the art automated, high-volume, offset, professional quality printing presses. Products
produced in smaller quantities or using special materials, such as holiday cards, apparel, signage,
invitations, return address labels, and magnets, are typically produced on digital equipment. In most
cases, individual orders from multiple customers are aggregated to create larger jobs, allowing
multiple orders to be simultaneously produced.
Our proprietary Viper software and sophisticated automation solutions combined with software
from our suppliers allow us to integrate and automate the manufacturing process. This process
includes:
• the pre-press process, during which digital files are transferred directly from our computer
servers to the manufacturing system at the appropriate production facility;
• automatic plate loading systems that eliminate all manual steps of offset printing other than
a quick ‘toaster like’ insertion and removal of plates;
• automatic ink key setting whereby ink fountain keys, which control color application, are set
automatically from an analysis of the pixelized data used to image plates; and
• automated color management, which adjusts digital images prior to printing, assuring that
colors match when processed across different printing presses and substrates.
Once printed, individual paper product orders are separated using computerized cutting
systems, assembled, packaged, addressed, and shipped to the customer. Viper processes and then
communicates electronically with shipping carriers, assuring smooth tracking and information flow to
the customer until final confirmation of delivery.
Requiring as little as 13 seconds of pre-press, printing, cutting and boxing labor for a typical
order of 250 business cards, versus an hour or more for traditional printers, this process enables us to
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