3,000㎡, 3 Core Capabilities: How Does Anhui Xinhua Become A Full-category Book And Periodical Digital Printing Production Base in East China?

On August 28, 2025, the 21st "Digital Printing in China" Technology Development Forum was successfully held in Zhengzhou, Henan. At the forum, Qi Shuai, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Anhui Xinhua Printing Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote presentation titled "Seeking Growth Amid Change - The Transformation Practice and Reflections of Anhui Xinhua Digital Printing." He briefly introduced the latest developments of Anhui Xinhua, analyzed four key scenarios for how traditional printing enterprises can transition to digital printing, and shared in detail the progress of Anhui Xinhua's digital printing projects. In addition, drawing on the practical experience of Anhui Xinhua's digital printing projects, he elaborated on four aspects of how to promote high-quality development in digital printing, and expressed expectations for the future high-quality development of Anhui Xinhua Digital Printing.

Anhui Xinhua Printing Co., Ltd.
Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager Qi Shuai

The full speech is as follows.

Anhui Xinhua Printing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Anhui Xinhua"), as a subsidiary controlled by Times Publishing & Media Co., Ltd., is the largest state-owned comprehensive printing enterprise in Anhui Province. Founded in 1950, the company has now developed into a large-scale intelligent publishing printing service provider offering a full industry chain of services, including textbooks and teaching aids, quality books, digital printing, digital asset management, printing technology research and development, and warehousing and logistics. It is a leading comprehensive printing enterprise in Anhui Province and surrounding areas, as well as one of the top 100 printing companies in China.

In more than 70 years of development, Anhui Xinhua has won numerous national-level honors, demonstrating its industry-leading capabilities. In 2025, Anhui Xinhua was selected as a "Support Unit for Digital Innovation Application in the Printing Industry" under the "Three-Year Digitalization Action Plan for the Printing Industry (2025-2027)"; in July 2023, it was selected as a new "National Demonstration Enterprise for Printing (Intelligent Manufacturing Category)"; it also won the 5th China Publishing Government Award for "Advanced Publishing Unit" and "Printing and Reproduction Nomination Award," among others. As a national printing standard research and development experimental base, many of the printing standards led or participated in by the company have been approved and issued, especially nearly 40 national and industry standards such as "Requirements for Hardcover Books" (GB/T 30325-2013), as well as contributing to the development and implementation of ISO 16763 "Printing - Postpress Technology - Binding Product Requirements," the first international standard in the printing field led by China. These achievements are significant in cultural industry innovation both in Anhui Province and nationally. As the first publishing printing enterprise to participate in the pilot work for establishing and evaluating standardized good practices of the China Academy of Press and Publication, Anhui Xinhua has systematically built an enterprise standard system covering 442 standards.

Anhui Xinhua Factory AreaRegarding production capacity and equipment configuration, Anhui Xinhua has strong traditional printing capabilities. The company owns a total of 9 sheet-fed color offset printing machines and 17 web printing machines; binding equipment includes 10 high-speed perfect binding lines, 5 saddle-stitching linking lines, and 1 case binding linking line, among others. In addition, the company has more than 80 professional layout and design personnel, capable of providing customers with a full-chain value-added service from prepress layout design, image retouching, color adjustment to color management. These hardware and service advantages lay a solid foundation for the expansion of the company's digital printing business.Digital Printing Transformation Path and Project ProgressFacing the transformative trends in the book and periodical printing industry, Anhui Xinhua has deeply realized that digital printing is not merely a technological iteration but a comprehensive reshaping of production systems and business logic. Based on this, Anhui Xinhua has planned its digital printing business from a high starting point, clearly setting four major transformation scenario goals, and is carrying out digital printing project construction according to plan, gradually building a full-category digital printing production capability covering East China.01 Four Major Transformation Scenarios(1) Building a Data-Driven Digital Management PlatformThe digital management platform is divided into four main modules: it emphasizes comprehensive coverage of information technology, including core modules such as order management, material procurement, inventory control, production monitoring, quality inspection, and logistics management; promotes business-financial integration, such as automated financial accounting, compliant business processes, and systematic business data; achieves intelligent analysis, including business activities, production processes, automated control, inventory management, and intelligent forecasting; builds a systematic management index system, including production indicators, warehouse indicators, plan completion indicators, quality indicators, efficiency indicators, and loss indicators, thereby providing precise management support for digital printing operations.(2) Optimizing Production Management Methods to Reduce Costs, Increase Efficiency, and Improve QualityBy implementing online equipment monitoring, online product quality testing, and efficient coordination of production planning and execution, production processes are continuously optimized; simultaneously, dynamic cost tracking and capacity bottleneck analysis are conducted to enhance production efficiency and reduce operational costs, achieving the combined goals of cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and quality improvement, fully leveraging the core advantages of digital printing, and addressing efficiency and cost pain points under traditional production models.(3) Data Management and Traceability Across the Entire Business and Production ChainAchieving highly coordinated business and financial data management by integrating business data, quotation and pricing data, scheduling data, production execution data, warehouse and logistics data, quality traceability data, equipment operation data, and cost analysis data into a unified management system, ensuring real-time data exchange and full-process traceability, fundamentally solving the problem of 'business and finance operating independently,' and providing reliable data for business decision-making.(4) Supporting Intelligent Manufacturing with Visualized Comprehensive Information DisplayFocusing on seven core dimensions: business operations, production processes, equipment performance, energy consumption, quality data, warehousing and logistics, and cost analysis, a visual information display system is constructed to achieve full process visualization of production and operations, effectively improving management transparency and decision-making efficiency.02 Digital Printing Project ProgressAnhui Xinhua's digital printing project was established in August 2023, officially launched in November 2024, and entered formal production in May of this year. The project always centers on the core goal of 'technological leadership and service empowerment.' Currently, Anhui Xinhua has become a digital printing production base capable of producing all categories of books and periodicals in East China, with a production area of approximately 3,000 m², 13 employees, and three core capabilities.(1) Full-Category Production CapabilityCovers full-category equipment including color and monochrome continuous inkjet and offset printing, case binding with sewn spines, and perfect and saddle stitching. The daily output can reach 25,000 softcover books and 4,000 case-bound books (book cores + hardcover). Short-run softcover books can be delivered on the same day locally, and the short-run hardcover production cycle is compressed to 3–5 days.

(2) Cutting-edge equipment matrix
Up to now, the first phase of the project has successively introduced the top DNP180 color inkjet rotary printing machine, the first 880-format Yingkejie monochrome inkjet rotary printing machine in East China, Yingkejie 660-format copper-glue dual-purpose color inkjet rotary printing machine, Founder Jieying 660-format copper-glue dual-purpose color inkjet rotary printing machine, the first precision "digital folding + matching page + glue binding + reinstatement + plastic sealing + packaging line" in East China, and equipped with the latest digital locking machine "Sparta" developed by Pinghu Yinghou, good use BQ470, Fujifilm commercial innovation PC1120 and other digital printing equipment.
(3) Capacity radiation advantage
Relying on an investment scale of nearly 30 million yuan, it can efficiently undertake orders for "short edition + medium and long edition" books and periodicals produced or distributed in East China and surrounding areas, provide publishing houses with "on-demand production, zero inventory turnover" service guarantee, and realize the efficient coordination of the whole process of "printing-binding-quality control".
In order to further break through the development bottleneck of digital printing business and enhance its core competitiveness, Anhui Xinhua has also formulated the second phase of digital printing development plan during the "Three-Year Action Plan for Printing Industry Digitalization (2025-2027)", and plans to continue to invest 20 million yuan, focusing on promoting the construction of six major projects:
(1) Start the demonstration of the fifth inkjet rotary printing equipment to further expand the scale of digital printing capacity;
(2) Promote the demonstration of the first digital flat sheet inkjet printing equipment and digital hot stamping, UV and varnishing integrated efficiency enhancement equipment to solve the current bottleneck of high cost and low efficiency of cover printing;
(3) Carry out research and development of automatic imposition quality inspection process for digital printing to improve the efficiency and quality of prepress processing;
(4) Demonstrate the APS intelligent production scheduling project based on big data model and optimize the production planning and scheduling mechanism;
(5) Cooperate with Wuhan Zhongke Tiangong to deploy the AGV Internet of Things project for digital printing workshop materials to realize the automatic transfer of materials such as web paper and semi-finished products, and reduce manual intervention;
(6) Start the demonstration of the digital lock line from the volume to the book core, and plan to transfer the traditional hardcover line into the digital printing workshop, increase investment in the short hardcover market, and respond to the market trend of short-edition hardcover products.
The core thinking of the high-quality development of digital printing
In the process of promoting the digital printing project, Anhui Xinhua deeply realized that digital printing is not only a technological upgrade, but also a reshaping of the production system and business logic. In the application of digital printing in the field of book printing, to achieve high-quality development, it not only depends on equipment, but also depends on whether the enterprise can establish an agile, efficient and sustainable production system. Therefore, the company systematically promotes the transformation of digital printing from the four dimensions of quality, efficiency, cost and management.
01
Quality is the foundation of digital printing
Book printing enterprises mainly serve publishing houses and distribution units, undertake orders for books, teaching materials and periodicals, these customers have an absolutely zero-tolerance attitude towards product quality, especially pay attention to serious defects such as white lines, glue leakage, loose pages, and page delinguishing in printing. Therefore, enterprises must adhere to the principles of equipment selection and process design oriented throughout the process, give priority to printing units equipped with online quality inspection and automatic compensation printing modules, and recommend the use of large-format printing equipment to reduce the quality risk in the process of sheet paper writing. In the binding process, the online solution integrating digital folding, glue binding, reinstatement and three-sided cutting functions should be preferred to minimize process breakpoints and manual intervention, so as to systematically improve the stability and consistency of finished product quality, and provide customers with the whole process quality assurance from printing to booking.
02
Efficiency is the core competitiveness of digital printing
In the face of the trend of short-print book business and the challenge of insufficient seasonality of traditional production capacity, digital printing not only helps enterprises optimize their production structure - separating short-print business from traditional production lines, reducing interference during peak seasons, and giving full play to long-form efficiency, but also should become the key to breakthrough in the strategic transformation of enterprises. Especially during the highly seasonal production window period of textbooks and teaching aids, if the efficiency of digital printing is insufficient, such as slow switching and high manual dependence, its advantages of short and fast production will be quickly lost. Efficient digital production systems significantly reduce time, waste, and labor costs through high-speed large-format printing, roll-to-roll production, and highly automated back-end lines such as folding, cutting, criminalizing, sealing, and packing.
It can be seen that the improvement of digital printing efficiency has shifted from the efficiency of a single machine to the system efficiency of the entire production chain. Only when the front and back ends are highly matched can the core competitiveness of digital printing be formed.
03
Cost is a core element of digital printing

Digital printing projects in traditional book and periodical printing enterprises essentially involve rebuilding an agile production system suitable for short-run business outside the lean production system of long-run operations. Currently, the investment in digital printing projects has surged from several million yuan in the early stages to tens of millions, placing enormous decision-making pressure on enterprises. Cost control not only affects order profitability but also determines the survival of the project. Actual cost monitoring shows that the ink cost per sheet for black-and-white printing has dropped to 0.008–0.009 yuan. If paper costs can be kept within 0.143 yuan per printed sheet, the break-even point will rise further, indicating that digital printing already possesses the capacity for large-scale production and expanded profit potential. Additionally, the overall efficiency of digital printing is a critical component of hidden costs, which is often overlooked. By comparing labor, processes, and cycle data between traditional and digital printing production workflows, it is evident that production efficiency is significantly improved when digital printing is employed. This also shows that, with efficiency guaranteed, unit costs naturally decrease, enhancing competitiveness and profitability. Therefore, when balancing investment and returns in digital printing projects, if revenue growth driven by low-labor, large-scale production and efficiency-driven cost reduction is not achieved, the pressure of long-term operation will be considerable.04A long-term operational philosophy is the guarantee for high-quality development of digital printing projects. The successful implementation of digital printing projects relies not only on early mindset shifts and equipment selection but also on a long-term operational strategy to ensure high-quality and sustainable development. Early-stage projects often face challenges such as immature technology, unstable equipment, low production efficiency, insufficient employee skills, and incomplete production processes. In this situation, enterprises must possess sufficient determination and patience, continuously optimize production processes, and gradually overcome technical bottlenecks to achieve stable development of digital printing projects. A long-term operational philosophy requires key personnel to maintain resilience, resist the temptation of short-term goals, and avoid rush-driven practices. Clearly, enterprises must act based on their actual conditions, continuously strengthen technical accumulation, production process optimization, and management innovation, gradually building a digital printing production system with long-term competitiveness.Exploratory practices for achieving high-quality development In the pursuit of high-quality development, Anhui Xinhua actively fulfills social responsibility and promotes traditional Chinese culture. It has established an industrial tourism demonstration base consisting of the "Xinhua Culture Exhibition Hall," "Printing History Museum," "Comprehensive Experience Hall," and the newly constructed "Map Museum." The company has received numerous titles, including one of Hefei's first "Industrial Tourism Demonstration Bases," "National Science Education Base," "Anhui Province Study Tour Demonstration Base," "Anhui Young Pioneers Off-Campus Education Base," "Hefei Study Tour Base," "Hefei Student Labor Education Practice Base," and "Hefei Ecological Environment Education Base." It has become the top choice for primary and secondary school study tours and family trips in Anhui Province.

Anhui Xinhua Exhibition HallNext, through a three-year action plan for digital transformation, we aim to build Anhui Xinhua into a modern intelligent publishing and printing enterprise characterized by industry demonstration leadership, scientific and standardized management, intelligent equipment technology, reasonable talent structure, prominent main business, innovative integrated development, and significantly enhanced dual efficiency, with strong core competitiveness and brand awareness. Our actions will be carried out in the following four areas:(1) Continue promoting intelligent construction to create a brand-new "National Printing Demonstration Enterprise" smart factory. Gradually build an intelligent production and operation management system that includes smart cloud printing, flexible configuration of intelligent manufacturing production lines, industrial Internet of printing, smart energy management, intelligent safety and fire management, visual production navigation, digital resource library, customer resource services, and "5G WiFi" smart factory. We plan to continue constructing and expanding digital production workshops, creating the largest and most intelligent professional book and periodical digital printing central factory in the surrounding area.(2) Continue advancing digital transformation and upgrading to enhance the company's core "hard power." From 2025 to 2027, we plan to further pursue digital upgrades and transformation, continuously promoting the application of new equipment, new technologies, new processes, and new materials to achieve improved quality, increased efficiency, cost reduction, and resource conservation.(3) Continue promoting innovative development, focusing on building a "one-stop" comprehensive service park. Provide customers with a new choice of integrated services, including prepress design and layout, printing production, intelligent warehousing, and nearby logistics distribution in East China and southern regions.(4) Continue implementing four major talent actions, constantly expanding talent value enhancement channels. Implement actions to improve employees' education levels, evaluate and appoint skilled artisans, cultivate key technical staff, and develop talents through school-enterprise cooperation, thereby continuously fostering talent, bringing outstanding individuals to the forefront, and ensuring high-performance output from talents.(5) Continue advancing integrated and innovative development, continuously exploring a new "industrial and cultural tourism" development model. Guided by Xi Jinping's thoughts on cultural development, we will deeply develop new brands combining printing culture with industrial tourism and study tours, using "tourism" culture to promote our printing business, achieving both social and economic benefits.In the future, Anhui Xinhua will continue to uphold the vision of "taking serving the publishing industry as our mission, prospering the printing industry as our cause, and striving to add the fragrance of books and colorful richness to the people's happy lives," using digital printing as a pen to write a new chapter in the high-quality development of the book and periodical printing industry.