Ahead Of The Curve

For the past 14 years Debbie Pavletich's vision has led Briggs & Stratton's graphic services department through productive and profitable times.

NOT EVERYONE who's a good typist in high school ends up running a graphic arts operation with an $8.5 million budget. But not everyone is Debbie Pavletich.

Back in high school, long before becoming graphic services manager at Briggs & Stratton's 35-employee in-plant, Pavletich's typing skills led her to join a co-op program designed to help students learn typesetting. After graduation, she took a job typesetting at a Milwaukee ad agency.

At the time, she says, she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was about the graphic arts that drew her in. Today she understands perfectly.

"I just enjoy being able to see the concept of a design," Pavletich explains. "And seeing the finished product in my hand, that's very rewarding. And all of that was happening in the same area I was working in at the ad agency."

After three years at the agency, Pavletich joined Briggs & Stratton as a typesetter in 1978 at its Menomonee Falls, Wis., plant. Over the next nine years, Pavletich sharpened her skills and built a solid reputation as a worker with management potential. In 1987, that potential was recognized when she was promoted to supervisor. Five years later, Pavletich was promoted again, this time to graphic services manager.

Though she earned her academic credentials—a certificate in management from Marquette University in 1993—her foresight and skill were paying dividends long before that.

To help people within the company share information more conveniently, Pavletich researched and implemented a UNIX electronic publishing system in 1989.

"We were able to get more people involved in the publishing of documents," explains Pavletich. "But I would say the biggest benefit was increased productivity for the overall organization, because now we were able to transfer documents back and forth between departments electronically, and that allowed us to quicken our time to market."

Implementing UNIX before most managers had even heard of it wasn't Pavletich's only contribution. She was also ahead of the curve when it came to insourcing. In 1996, Pavletich began a program of insourcing that eventually increased the graphic services department's budget by a whopping 20 percent. Nevertheless, Pavletich prefers to downplay the whole thing.

"I saw a need for utilizing the assets we had in the department even more than we were," she says. "And I thought that by increasing our operation externally it would benefit us internally, as well."

Turns out, she was right.

On top of increasing revenue by 20 percent, insourcing has also increased employee morale and confidence, she says. Furthermore, she adds, skills learned from doing outside work can often be applied in-house, expanding the knowledge of employees.

Into The Future

Though she could probably put her operation on cruise control and rest on her laurels for awhile, Pavletich prefers to keep moving. First up: four-color film production.

Though the Briggs & Stratton in-plant has everything from prepress through bindery at its 25,000-square-foot plant, the shop still ships its four-color film out to be processed. Pavletich would like to see that change. She's also looking into purchasing a four-color digital copier.

Though many managers might be happy to take credit for a 20 percent increase in department revenue, Pavletich hopes to increase her operation's insourcing revenue further still.

In fact, about the only time Pavletich is willing to relax these days is on the golf course. And that's where she can often be found—when she isn't busy moving her operation into the future.

On the home front, Pavletich is happily married and has two teenage children. Though she admits she does occasionally wonder if she made the right decision to stay in the graphic arts industry, she says that only happens "when things get real crazy and stressful." For now, Pavletich says she's happy to be where she is.

"I guess I like the challenges, I like the diversity, I like the people that I work with," she says. "I really do enjoy the work that I do."

by Allan Martin Kemler