ACUP '98--A Louisville Slugger

At his session, Walden stressed that managers should tell their employees how important their jobs are to the success of each project. Make sure they understand how crucial their role is.

The bulk of Walden's session concerned the concept of omnisourcing: being both a vendor and a customer by producing some work in-house and outsourcing work that is not the in-plant's specialty. Walden advised managers to put their customers' interests first and shed their traditional wariness of commercial printers—as well as their feelings of pride. When an outside vendor can do a better job, managers should look into partnering. Having such a partnership will prove invaluable if a disaster forces the in-plant to suddenly outsource all of its work.