A Kent fine art printing specialist is entering a “new era” after transforming its production process and digital capability, with support from Made Smarter South East.
Art4site invested in a next-generation large-format scanner, slashing scanning times from hours to minutes and creating what is believed to be the largest flatbed fine art scanning facility in the UK.
Alongside the technology, the company has created a digital roadmap, strengthened its digital strategy through leadership training and modernised its systems through a digital internship.
Art4site, based in Ashford, is a specialist fine art scanning and printing studio producing museum-quality giclée prints for artists, galleries, photographers and publishers.
The business combines traditional craftsmanship with digital production technologies and has a strong sustainability focus, including solar energy usage, recycling practices, and eco-friendly materials such as bamboo and hemp paper.
However, as the business grew, operations became increasingly complex and time-consuming to manage.
Michael Setek, Founder of Art4site, said: “We’ve built a strong foundation using custom tools, but we’re now looking for smarter ways to streamline how we work, improve reliability, and reduce waste.”
Art4site first engaged with Made Smarter South East through a Digital Transformation Workshop, led by William Wilsnagh, Technology Adoption Specialist, and Chitra Cherodian, Organisation and Workforce Development Advisor.
The deep-dive review of the company’s processes, products and people identified several operational challenges. Workflows relied heavily on manual data entry and repeated handling of customer information, increasing the risk of errors, slowing customer response times, and limiting scalability as demand increased.
At the same time, the company’s existing scanning setup was creating production bottlenecks. Larger artworks often required multiple scanning passes, manual stitching and alignment, and additional corrective work to maintain colour consistency and image quality. Size limitations also meant the business was unable to accept some larger commissions.
Following the workshop, Art4site developed a digital roadmap to help prioritise opportunities for automation, systems integration and production improvements.
As part of this journey, Michael joined Made Smarter’s Leading Digital Transformation programme, giving him the opportunity to step back from day-to-day operations and explore digital transformation from a more strategic perspective.
Meanwhile, the business was paired with digital intern Daniel Olusakin, who is studying a BSc Computer Science at the University of Kent to help improve integration between customer-facing systems and backend databases.
The internship focused on mapping and documenting workflows, supporting API-based integrations, automating email communications and order processing, improving FileMaker-based workflow automation, and enhancing customer ordering processes.
The workshop also helped identify where technology investment could deliver the greatest operational impact.
With support from a £20,000 Made Smarter grant, Art4site invested £40,000 in a next-generation Widetek large-format fine art scanner.
The new equipment enables single-pass scanning up to 48” × 80”, delivering high-resolution digital capture, improved colour accuracy, and advanced surface texture reproduction, while removing the need for manual stitching and alignment. The scanner also provides the foundation for a more integrated print-on-demand and catalogue-driven workflow.
By engaging with Made Smarter South East, Art4site is now in a strong position to scale its operations and accelerate its digital transformation journey.
The systems integration work delivered through the internship has already helped reduce administrative workload, improve data accuracy, speed up customer response times, and provide better visibility of jobs across the business.
The new scanner has transformed production capability and established Art4site as home to the largest flatbed fine art scanning facility in the UK.
The impact on productivity has been immediate. Scanning times have reduced from up to 2.5 hours per artwork to around 10 minutes, making the process approximately 15 times faster. Removing manual stitching and alignment is also expected to save around 630 hours of skilled staff time each year, allowing the business to redirect resources towards higher-value work.
The investment is also improving print quality through better tonal continuity, enhanced texture reproduction, improved colour consistency, and reduced corrective rework.
Importantly, the technology has expanded the size of artworks the business can accept, opening up new commercial opportunities and supporting future growth in print-on-demand services and digital production capacity.
The project will also support the creation of a Print Technician Level 3 apprenticeship, alongside the potential for additional production roles as demand grows. Existing staff are also being upskilled in advanced digital capture, workflow optimisation and systems integration.
Michael said: “Hosting a digital intern has helped us explore how to automate parts of our workflow and connect our systems more effectively, reducing manual data entry, minimising errors and creating a more scalable process as the business grows.
“We are blown away with the results from the new scanner and proud to say we now have the largest flatbed scanning facility in the UK. Customers are thrilled with our new addition and we are now working with larger artwork which we previously had to turn away. This is a new era for our production.”
The leadership programme has also given Michael fresh insight into automation, workflow optimisation and long-term strategic planning.
“The leadership training gave me the chance to step back, access expert guidance on automation and digital technologies, and look at the business with a fresh perspective. Working with Made Smarter has been a fantastic experience.”
Meanwhile, Made Smarter digital intern Daniel has returned to university with real-world experience applying his studies to industry.
“Overall, the skillsets that I have gained and improved from this experience will positively impact my confidence as a developer, particularly as I was given the trust to work on a business impactful project right out of the gate,” he said.
Art4site is now focused on the next stages of its digital roadmap, including workflow visibility dashboards, AI-powered image checking tools, cloud-based collaboration and storage, automated accounting systems, and further production equipment upgrades.
