22/07/2026
“Mind the gap!”
If you’re a regular commuter on the London Underground, you’ve probably heard those three words hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
It struck me recently as I stepped off the train at Bank Station, infamous for the sizeable gap between the train and the platform.
And it got me thinking…
We instinctively pay attention to physical gaps because we know they can trip us up. Yet, in our businesses, we’re often surrounded by workflow gaps that have become so familiar we no longer notice them.
In creative, prepress and print production, those gaps might be:
• Manual preflight checks before every job
• Re-entering the same information into multiple systems
• Chasing artwork approvals by email
• Renaming files and moving folders manually
• Repetitive imposition, colour profiling or reporting tasks
• Production bottlenecks waiting for someone to click “OK”
Individually, they don’t seem like much.
Collectively, they cost hours every week, introduce unnecessary risk, and slow down your entire operation.
That’s why one of the most valuable exercises before investing in any workflow automation is a gap analysis.
Collectively, they cost hours every week, introduce unnecessary risk, and slow down your entire operation.
That’s why one of the most valuable exercises before investing in any workflow automation is a gap analysis.
Not to find fault with people... but to identify the disconnect between how your workflow operates today and how efficiently it could operate tomorrow.
And it’s not just about companies starting from scratch.
Even if you already have an established workflow, there are still significant benefits in stepping back and auditing what you have today.
Over time, processes evolve.
New software gets added.
Workarounds become standard practice.
Manual steps creep back in.
What was once efficient can slowly develop gaps.
A workflow audit can uncover those hidden opportunities... helping you remove unnecessary steps, reduce manual intervention, improve consistency and get more value from the systems you already have.
The best automation projects don’t always start with new technology.
Sometimes they start by understanding, refining and improving what you already own.
After all, the goal isn’t simply to automate more.
It’s to create a smoother journey from job creation to production.
They start with understanding the journey.
So next time you hear “Mind the gap”… think about your own workflows.
Make sure your “platform” doesn’t have any gaps.
Talk to our team at Workflowz Ltd to discover more.