Ace Hardware-Insourcing Aces

Ace Hardware

Downers Grove, Ill.

When Mark Krammer, graphic service manager at Ace Hardware, first came to the Downers Grove, Ill., in-plant 15 years ago he was on a mission.

He wanted to make Ace Hardware's in-plant that best it could be, but he also wanted to do something more. He wanted to bring the company some thing extra in the form of revenue.

"In any operation there are always peaks and valleys," Krammer observes. "What better way to maximize those valleys than to subsidize your company's printing by taking on commercial work?"

Insourcing revenue has helped Ace Hardware's 92-employee in-plant to offset equipment costs and speed up the return on the investment. But these aren't the only benefits it has provided. Because of the variety of commercial work the in-plant takes in, in-plant employees' skills have grown tremendously, notes Rick Salinas, production manager at Ace Hardware.

Furthermore, Salinas says that skills learned on commercial jobs often have in-house applications and can help solve problems, as well as save money and heighten employee morale.

"The ability to build skills in people that they wouldn't get just doing the company's work is excellent," says Salinas.

However, the in-plant's success is the product of more than just its ability to juggle clients' needs and manage deadlines. The company also places a premium on effective communication and customer service. To facilitate that communication, the in-plant has added four graphic service coordinators for its corporate office to act as liaisons between the client and the in-plant.

Using a data collection system to track jobs throughout the production cycle, coordinators not only serve as contacts for both parties, but they also help educate clients about the limitations of various printing processes, which can help sort out problems before they even arise.

Similarly, to avoid costly production slowdowns, Ace's in-plant crew has been organized into a collection of four-person Quick Response Teams, cross-trained in multiple pressroom skills.

Besides improving pressroom efficiency during slow periods, the program has also helped improve productivity and morale.

"What it did was break down those trivial things that happen between departments, because now they all work together," says Salinas. "It's also helped when a pressman gets a job; instead of not finding the mistake until it gets to the bindery, for instance, he can get a better visual of the job from beginning to end and bring any problems to the supervisor's attention before they become a problem."

Fifteen years later, his mission complete, Krammer still isn't completely satisfied.

"You never can be everything to everybody," he says, "but we try to be as much as we can to as many people as we can."

by Allan Martin Kemler

Key Equipment:

• Itek DPM2000 Digital Plate Maker

• Mitsubishi 550 platemaker

• NuArc fliptop platemaker

• Itek 617E plate maker

• Four-color Didde DG 175

• Four-color Didde MVP

• Two-color Hamada

• Two Davidson perfectors