A Scottish Success Story
ANY IN-PLANT manager who has attended the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference in the past 12 years, has certainly heard the Scottish brogue of Andrew Scott ringing through the air. The head of Print Design Services at Glasgow Caledonian University, in Glasgow, Scotland, Scott eagerly crosses the Atlantic each year for ACUP because he values the opportunity to share best practices and problem solve with fellow managers.
"I've picked up a lot of useful information on customer service from U.S. colleagues," says Scott, from his office in Scotland's largest city. "Some of the technology that's in use in the States is quite innovative, so I bring back good ideas about how to...organize processes more effectively."
His involvement in UK print groups has been even stronger. He organized the Scottish University Print Managers Group in 1998, later merging it with the UK-wide University Print Managers Group (UPMG). He has served on the UPMG executive board for 12 years.
"This has given me a wide view of what's happening in the higher-ed sector across the UK," he notes. "This wider knowledge was a contributory factor in helping me through my business review in 2007."
That was a scary time for Scott and his 16-employee in-plant. His executive board, confident the school could save money by outsourcing, grilled him mercilessly, ignoring the benchmarking data he had collected. Using the knowledge he had accumulated from his years of attending conferences, Scott answered every challenge his inquisitors threw at him, changed their view of trends in higher-ed and got them to approve his 10-year investment plan.
A Fish Story
Born in the town of Dunfermline, in the East of Scotland (also the birthplace of industrialist Andrew Carnegie), Scott had no particular interest in printing as a teenager.
"When asked how I got into printing, I tell people it was because I went fishing," he quips, explaining that when he was 17, he and some friends took off on a fishing trip for a couple of weeks—a leisure excursion that didn't sit well with his folks.
"My parents turned up with a copy of the local newspaper with a job ad for a printer's assistant. That was in 1971, and I'm still in print. If I was a criminal I'd be freed by now," he cracks, showing a hint of his trademark dry humor.
His fishing rod stowed away, Scott began working for The Helensburgh Advertiser and Dumbarton County Reporter, where he swept floors, ran errands and made hot metal plates. ("Great job on a cold winter's day," he laughs.)
After nine months, Scott started working as a management trainee in a Glasgow typesetting company, while attending Glasgow Printing College part-time. Over the next five years, he worked in every department in the company.
"I particularly liked working in film stripping, retouching and color scanning," he notes.
He eventually became an account executive, dealing directly with customers. That company closed its doors in 1979, but by then Scott had become manager of a recreation complex, where he organized events. He returned to print in 1982 when he became in-plant manager/office supplies buyer for a local government organization.
Chased Down and Hired
In 1989, Scott interviewed for the reprographics manager position at Glasgow College. He apparently made quite an impression.
"As I left the campus after the interview, the personnel officer ran after me to offer me the job at the college gates," he recalls.
And thus started his career at what would eventually become Glasgow Caledonian University. At the time, the in-plant was producing only about five million impressions a year—and not particularly quickly. Waiting six weeks for a job during peak times was not uncommon, Scott says.
"Faculty had to bribe print staff with candy and chocolates to get their work done on time," he reveals.
Things started to change in 1990, when graphic design became part of his operation, and Scott's title was changed to Print Media Services manager. The following year he added a Xerox DocuTech 135, a strategic move that allowed the shop to finally shed its image as a sluggish producer and start down the path toward excellent customer service. The DocuTech was such a hit that the in-plant installed a second one two years later, and was soon producing 26 million pages a year.
Scott has never shied away from new technology. In 1991, his shop was among the first to add computer-to-plate equipment. In 1999, he and other Scottish managers worked with Océ to develop one of the first Web job submission systems. Just last year, his in-plant installed a Presstek 52DI direct imaging press.
Though he's proud of his in-plant's 97 percent customer satisfaction rating, Scott knows that when times are tough, upper management overlooks this and starts viewing the in-plant as just an expense. This is his biggest challenge, and he continuously benchmarks with outside printers to prove his shop's value.
In the years ahead, Scott feels his in-plant will migrate toward digital color printing and variable data. As he manages this transformation, he says his goal will always be to provide the best service at the lowest price for Glasgow Caledonian University. His loyalty to the school is not surprising, given that his wife Moira also works there as a biomedical researcher, and their two adult sons are graduates.
Outside of work, when he's not remodeling his home, Scott enjoys visiting Scotland's many castles and historical sites, and taking walks in the mountains. Though he hasn't indulged his childhood love of fishing in a few years, he calls himself "a keen sea kayaker," and goes on extended excursions with friends.
Despite these retreats from civilization, Scott is an amiable, outgoing man, who never seems more at home than when he's chatting with other in-plant managers at a conference. That experience, he says, has been quite rewarding.
"I am privileged to have met so many colleagues in the USA while attending ACUP, and have learned so much from them over the years," he says. "They're a great bunch of folks who are very open to sharing ideas, and that is very much appreciated."
Scott plans to share his wit and wisdom with U.S. comrades at ACUP this month in Charlotte, N.C. IPG
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
