A Giant Moves On

Relocating is never easy, especially when you're one of the country's largest in-plants. But that's what University of California-Berkeley Printing Services is facing, after 65 years in its facility.

By Cheryl A. Adams

A stone's throw from downtown Berkeley, Printing Services at the University of California-Berkeley has sat conveniently across the street from campus since the 1930s. While the student protests of the '60s were making national headlines nearby, the in-plant was churning out growing volumes of print while slowly expanding its equipment arsenal.

Today it is the largest university in-plant in the country, according to IPG's Top 50. After 130 years of operation, it's also one of the oldest.

And it's being forced to move.

Its building, it seems, is now a hot commodity. Constructed in 1939 in an elaborate Art Deco style, the facility features a terrazzo floor and a spiral staircase in the lobby, and a redwood-block floor and skylights in the production area. The City of Berkeley wants to develop the historic property into a hotel/conference center. The university hopes to erect a museum. As the fight over the site continues, Printing Services is in the process of vacating the premises.

For the past nine months, this massive in-plant—with 167 employees and eight multi-color presses, including a six-color Heidelberg and a web press—has been undertaking a huge relocation project, while continuing to conduct business as usual.

"A business plan was developed to move with little or no business interruption for our customers," explains Sue Sheehan, associate director of UC-Berkeley Printing Services. "In order to do this, we identified two new pieces of equipment for purchase—a four-color, 40˝ Heidelberg press with coater [delivered last month] and a six-pocket Heidelberg 270 stitcher with two cover feeders, installed last summer when we started the move. The first piece of [existing] equipment that we moved was a 20-pocket, Muller Martini Star perfect binder."

'Affordable' Web Press

The binder and stitcher were soon joined by a used Western Gear two-unit web press, which Sheehan says was purchased in September "at a very affordable price."

"We knew a web press would increase our productivity, decrease our paper costs, and eliminate folding time. But, we couldn't build a case for buying a new one; we didn't have the volume to support or afford it," she says. "However, we found an inexpensive, 20-year-old model that was in good shape, and we could easily make the case for buying it. The low cost justified the investment. We had two of our pressmen break it down and reassemble it at the new facility, so that helped keep the cost down, too."

As for the Heidelberg presses (a six-color Speedmaster, a two-color MOZP and a two-color Quickmaster), the in-plant has enlisted the aid of Heidelberg to move these presses to the new location.

"It will take six to eight weeks to relocate the presses—three weeks for disassembly and spot repairs, two to three days to move, and three to four weeks to reassemble and test," says George Craig, director of Printing Services. "Pads have been poured and most electrical work has been completed at the site. We will continue operating our 1987 Miller five-color and two-color presses in this building until the relocation is complete, and then we'll liquidate them.

"In addition to those four presses, we also have the new four-color Speedmaster, and the Western Gear web," Craig continues. "There are also three new DocuTechs and a Xerox 2060 color machine, which will likely be moved in the last phase and be integrated into prepress. The production and customer service staff will move at about the same time, which will most likely be June or July, and the office staff will follow shortly after that.

"We expect to be completely relocated by September, and we are already planning an Open House later in the fall to celebrate the new facility and improved operation," he concludes.

This new facility is located in the massive Marchant building—about 400,000 square feet—which was built as the West Coast production facility for typewriter manufacturer Smith Corona Marchant. Besides having enough room to hold a web press, the facility is also large enough to accommodate paper storage.

"Our materials handling is better since we now have paper and fulfillment warehoused in the same facility as the production operation," says Craig. "But the move is also difficult because our organization has experienced so many changes in print technology over our long history, and it has continually adapted to these changes in this building. So much remodeling and moving and adapting has taken place, that there is an emotional attachment to the facility.

"The plant was built for our printing operation and donated to the university by the federal government under the WPA [Works Progress Administration] as part of 'The New Deal,' if I remember my American history correctly," says Craig. "The building was completed and dedicated in 1939."

A Place In History

In 1945, the UN Charter was typeset at the facility. In 1995, in conjunction with the 50-year anniversary celebration of the Charter, the building was recognized as a historical site, and a plaque was presented to the in-plant by former chancellor and Nobel Laureate, Glenn Seaborg.

The in-plant also had a front seat to history in the Woodstock era.

"In the 1960s, Berkeley students would congregate in Peoples Park, then move on to the administration building, and march past our building to University Hall across the street," Sheehan recalls. "At the height of the protests, then-Governor Reagan ordered the National Guard into Berkeley. National Guard troops lined the streets and were stationed on the roof of our building during the protests. Some current employees remember having to close all the windows, as the National Guard troops were disbursing the crowds with tear gas.

"So, there's a lot of history to the place," she reiterates. "And most of our employees are having a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the move. Some of them have been with us for 20, 30, even 40 years. And, they've been coming to this same plant all of that time. A lot of our them are from second- and third-generation families, who have never worked any place else. They love this plant; it's the only work environment some of them have ever known. Moving to a new facility is the hardest thing our employees will have to do."

Part of the hardship involves lack of transportation to and from the new facility.

"Our old plant is across the street from public transportation. A lot of our people rely on it to get to work. Our new plant is a mile away from the nearest BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] station, and that presents a problem," says Sheehan. "We're trying to remedy this by partnering with other departments at the facility to get a shuttle bus."

Since the move won't be complete until late summer, Sheehan emphasizes there's still time to resolve most of the relocation issues. But, she admits, there's one problem that's likely to last a while: the pain evoked by change.

"When I started here [24 years ago], we were doing hot metal typesetting. There are still pieces of old lead pipe embedded in the redwood-block floor. The new facility has concrete floors, which will be a lot harder to stand on than the wooden ones in the old plant," says Sheehan, noting the trade-off for tired feet is a workplace with plenty of room.

"We've been cramped for years," she explains. "We outgrew the [current] plant 10 years ago, but we've learned to live in a cramped environment. Having more space is something people will have to get used to, but it will make us more productive in the end."

The new facility, which has 65,000 square feet—vs. the old plant's 45,000—also houses the library book bindery. (Printing Services runs another book bindery in Culver City to serve the southern UC campuses.)

The book bindery won't be the only university department sharing the new facility with Printing Services, and Craig sees some great opportunities for partnering as a result.

"There are opportunities for integration with another major UC occupant of the building: Business Services, which is responsible for purchasing, receiving, fleet management, salvage, etc.," he says. "UC Printing will coordinate shared services in the areas of IT, marketing, human resources, budget, accounting, receiving, distribution and building operations"—with considerable process improvements and cost savings, he adds.

"Because of the state budget mess, we are very focused on lowering costs. All of these strategies connect at that level," Craig contends. "We are in a transition from the United Airlines approach to the Southwest business model."

Following Southwest's out-of-the-box business strategy, Craig hopes Printing Services will be equally successful at enhancing its loyal customer base. Some of the in-plant's larger customers include:

• The university's benefits office

• The Department of Development and University Extension

• The Department of Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB)

• The UC library system

• Six small campus print shops in the UC system

To maintain close customer relationships, especially after the relocation, Printing Services is already talking with the university administration about maintaining a satellite location/office on campus.

The Oddities In The Basement

As the UC Berkeley campus continues to be squeezed for space, many departments are looking to set up shop elsewhere. Some have acquired storage space in the basement of the in-plant's new facility. According to Sheehan, the Geology Department stores rocks there, while the university's Museum of Natural History has found a safe haven for a collection of dug-out canoes.

Interestingly, the oddities in the basement extend far beyond the foundation of the facility. Dig a little deeper, says Sheehan, to uncover another surprise: the California version of Four Corners National Park.

"The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville all converge in one spot, and that intersection is where this facility was built," says Sheehan, who quips: "If there's ever an emergency, I hope the local fire departments don't have problems with jurisdiction."

That potential confusion aside, there shouldn't be any surrounding the in-plant's ability to survive the fiery competition of the commercial printing business, Sheehan says.

"The secret to our survival is that we are self-supporting, and the key is listening to our customers in order to meet their needs," she says. "All of our customers throughout the university system are being squeezed. They all have budgets to keep, and we work with them on how to save money, yet still produce the timely, quality products they need.

"We're able to do this by investing in advanced technology," Sheehan continues. "We have to keep our technology up and our costs down in order to survive."

To get through the economic recession of recent years, Sheehan says, Printing Services has had to do something it has never done before: lay off employees.

"When we don't have work, we have to lay off," she explains. "In the 24 years I've been here, we've always hired people. Now, we're laying them off. Business is shrinking—print orders, outgoing mail volume, the Web. All have dropped significantly in the past five years, especially outgoing campus mail, which has fallen 15 to 20 percent per year, mostly due to the Internet, faxes, electronic business, etc. In the past, we always managed growth. Now we're managing decline."

But even as the head count drops, the in-plant is installing new technologies that boost its quality and efficiency.

"Two years ago, we went 100 percent direct-to-plate and installed high-end digital proofing capabilities," says Craig. "This year, we converted entirely to stochastic screening using [Creo] Staccato technology. This raised the quality bar significantly and reduced costs for makeready, ink usage and drying time.

"Our efforts are directed toward continual innovation, responsiveness and higher quality with a goal of saving our customers money," continues Craig. Some of those innovations include variable data printing, bulk mail and direct mail services, ink-jet addressing and online ordering.

By offering innovative services like these, UC Berkeley Printing Services can stay competitive with outside printers—an issue that will most likely increase in intensity once the operation moves farther away from campus. But Sheehan believes the new facility—packed full of advanced technologies—will not only maintain the in-plant's competitive edge, it will sharpen it.

"We bought the new four-color Heidelberg to match our existing six-color Heidelberg," says Sheehan. "Now that the four-color press is installed at the new location, we can break down the six-color at the old plant. This will allow us to move jobs back and forth between matching presses, so there won't be any business interruption. The relocation must be seamless for our customers.

"It's a testament to our employees that they can keep two operations running simultaneously," Sheehan concludes. "They're dealing with electricians and other contractors at the new facility, they're moving equipment between shops and, all the while, they're keeping both plants running. And they're accomplishing all this without our customers seeing any interruption in service."