By Tim Lewis, Global Vice President of Sales & Marketing, CMD Corporation

For years, advancements in converting were measured by one primary metric: speed. Faster lines meant greater throughput, higher productivity, and a stronger competitive advantage.

While speed remains important, today’s leading converters are asking a different question:

How can we produce more efficiently, with greater consistency, and with fewer resources?

The answer lies in technologies that improve the entire production process, not just the machine’s maximum speed.

Here are a few advances delivering measurable results across the converting industry.

Automation Is Helping Manufacturers Do More with Less

The manufacturing workforce continues to evolve. Skilled operators are becoming harder to find, while customer expectations for quality, consistency, and throughput continue to rise. According to Deloitte, 65% of manufacturers identify attracting and retaining talent as their primary business challenge. At the same time, the National Association of Manufacturers projects that nearly 1.9 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2033 if workforce challenges persist.

Automation has become one of the most impactful advancements in modern converting—not because it replaces people, but because it allows manufacturers to get more from the people they have.

At CMD, we’ve seen customers improve productivity by automating everything from material handling and product transfer to packaging and end-of-line processes. By reducing repetitive manual tasks and streamlining workflows, manufacturers can improve consistency, increase throughput, and allow operators to focus on higher-value responsibilities.

The result isn’t just fewer manual touchpoints, it’s a safer, more efficient operation that’s better equipped to meet today’s production demands.

Quality Starts with Real-Time Inspection

Quality can no longer be something that’s inspected at the end of the production process. In today’s converting environment, it’s about identifying issues early, making informed decisions, and keeping production moving.

Modern 100% inline inspection systems allow manufacturers to detect print defects the moment they occur. Instead of discovering problems after an entire roll has been produced—or worse, after the product reaches a customer—operators gain immediate visibility into quality issues, reducing scrap, minimizing rework, and protecting customer relationships.

But real advancement isn’t just detecting defects—it’s creating a smarter workflow for managing them.

Many built-in press inspection systems can identify a defect, but production often continues until the roll is complete. Without an efficient process for reviewing and removing those defects, converters can face unnecessary interruptions during downstream operations.

Through CMD’s partnership with DAC, manufacturers can extend quality management beyond the printing press. Advanced inspection rewinders enable quality teams to quickly review identified defects outside the primary production process, classify which defects require action, and remove only those that don’t meet customer specifications. This allows printing, laminating, and converting operations to continue running while quality decisions are made independently.

For laminating applications, DAC’s Pitat II module and labeling technology can automatically mark defect locations for offline quality review. Those rolls can then be sent to a networked inspection rewinder where only the approved defects are removed, eliminating unnecessary waste and avoiding disruptions to subsequent production processes.

The result is a more efficient quality workflow, greater production uptime, improved traceability, and increased confidence that every roll delivered meets customer expectations.

For converters serving markets where quality is non-negotiable, intelligent inspection has become much more than a quality control tool—it’s a competitive advantage.

Precision Web Handling Continues to Raise the Bar

As production speeds increase and applications become more demanding, web handling has become even more critical.

Advances in slitter rewinding technology, web tension control, and winding precision are helping manufacturers produce higher-quality finished rolls with greater consistency.

These improvements lead to:

• Better roll quality
• Improved print registration
• Fewer web breaks
• Reduced waste
• More reliable downstream processing

That’s one of the reasons CMD partnered with Hagihara, a recognized leader in precision slitter rewinder technology. Hagihara’s engineering expertise in web tension control, slitting accuracy, and winding performance enables converters to process a wide range of materials with exceptional precision—producing rolls that perform consistently through every downstream operation.

For many converters, precision web handling has become just as valuable as additional production speed. When every roll meets tighter quality standards and every process runs more efficiently, the benefits extend well beyond the slitter rewinder; they impact the entire converting operation.

Innovation Should Solve Real Problems

The most valuable innovations are the ones that solve the everyday challenges converters face—improving quality, reducing waste, simplifying operations, and helping manufacturers remain competitive in an increasingly demanding marketplace.

At CMD, that’s the philosophy that guides our approach. Whether it’s automation, inspection, advanced web handling, or integrated converting solutions, our focus is on helping customers achieve measurable improvements that deliver lasting value.

As our industry continues to evolve, I believe the most successful manufacturers will be those who embrace technologies that make their operations smarter, more efficient, and more adaptable.

Tim Lewis has spent 39 years in the converting industry, working with manufacturers globally to improve productivity, quality, and operational performance through innovative converting technologies.