Brightline Printing: a second shift or automation

Brightline Printing prints labels and packaging for food and drink companies. It was founded in 1985 and has 60 employees. One of its core values is 'We take care of our people,' and it has never laid off a worker.

Orders from craft beverage and specialty food companies have grown 30% in two years, and Brightline's presses are running at full capacity. Brightline takes an average of 7 days to fill an order; its main rivals take 4. Digital presses, which handle small custom orders quickly, are becoming the industry standard.

Local unemployment is 2.8%, rival printers have raised wages, and Brightline's last three job postings each took about two months to fill.

Brightline's managers have narrowed their choices to two courses of action. Brightline has $600,000 in cash available.

Brightline would add an evening shift, hiring and training 18 workers to run its current presses and a refurbished used press. No jobs would be cut. Average order time would stay about 7 days.

Brightline would buy a high-speed digital press with automated cutting. Average order time would fall to 3 days, and the press uses 30% less ink and wastes 30% less paper. It would replace 6 press operator positions. Brightline could retrain 3 of those operators as digital press technicians; the other 3 positions would be cut, with severance pay. In a recent survey, 70% of Brightline employees said they worried about job security if the company automated.