DTO demand soars amid skilled labour shortage

DTO demand has soared in recent years

Labour shortages are causing more companies to invest in DTO printing solutions as they look to close the gap through automation.

Engineered Printing Solutions (EPS) reported this after surpassing the milestone of 100 single-pass DTO systems installed, reflecting a wider shift towards automated decoration technology across industries including plastics, packaging, medical, industrial and promotional products.

Rather than focusing solely on print quality, manufacturers are placing greater emphasis on systems that can be integrated into wider production workflows.

Automated DTO solutions help reduce manual handling, improve consistency between shifts and create more scalable manufacturing processes by combining printing with robotics, pretreatment, vision inspection and material handling.

The trend mirrors wider manufacturing investment in automation. According to Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing’s annual survey, almost half of respondents said labour shortages negatively affected their businesses in 2025, while 57% planned to invest in robots or other automation equipment during 2026.

Kenneth Stack, executive chairman of EPS, said: “Manufacturers are not just looking for a better way to print. They are looking for a better way to produce.

“We are seeing a progression from operator-assisted automation to semi-autonomous operation and ultimately lights-out decoration, where parts move through printing, curing, inspection, and tracking with minimal human intervention.

“As decoration becomes more integrated into manufacturing workflows, quality becomes more consistent, traceability improves, and changeovers become more recipe-driven and predictable. That is what is driving automation growth in DTO and interest in our printing systems.”