IPMA 2013 Conference: Bayside Blockbuster

In the Hall of Fame of great conferences (if there were such a thing) it would be tough to beat June's In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference. The location, on the outskirts of San Francisco, was excellent; the weather was sunny and pleasant throughout; the lineup of speakers and topics was among the best ever, with a nearly overwhelming amount of useful, timely information presented; and the evening boat cruise on the San Francisco Bay provided that combination of stunning views and friendly fraternization often sought but rarely achieved.

Almost 135 in-plant managers from all corners of the country gathered at IPMA's "Gateway to the Future" conference, the largest in-plant event of the year. A mix of returning veterans and excited newcomers, they mingled and got to know each other at Sunday's opening reception, and that networking continued throughout the four-day event. Speakers included some of the biggest names in the printing industry, such as Howie Fenton and Barb Pellow, as well as more than a dozen in-plant managers who shared their experiences and tips for success.

The conference culminated with the annual awards banquet, where dozens of in-plants were honored for their accomplishments, and the winners of the In-Print Best of Show awards were revealed: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Washington State University, both first-time winners and long-time participants.

Association Initiatives

At the IPMA business lunch on Wednesday, the IPMA board discussed the state of the association with members. Membership is up to 508 from 485 in 2012. Conference attendance was at 133 this year, down from last year's 149, but even with 2011 attendance.

The board announced several initiatives, such as a website overhaul, which will bring easier interaction and social media integration, and regional meetings in the fall, an opportunity to invite potential new members. IPMA will have a presence at at the PRINT 13 show in Chicago in September, with a booth and an educational luncheon.

Additionally, new IPMA President Rob Lingard updated members on a meeting he and a dozen other in-plant managers had with Printing Industries of America in which PIA encouraged in-plants to join its association. ­Lingard revealed that IPMA decided not to join forces with PIA, as the benefits for in-plants were stronger with IPMA than what PIA could offer. His announcement was met with a round of applause.

Tactics for Boosting Productivity

Kicking off the conference was management expert Barry Maher, who suggested some real-world tactics for increasing productivity and job satisfaction. (No football tossing, as in last year's opening keynote, though at one point a fusillade of paper wads whizzed toward the front of the room.)

One big challenge managers face, Maher noted, is getting people moving in the same direction as them without pushing against them (since they will just push back). Instead, make them feel important, he said. Show your employees there is more to them than they know, so they won't settle for less.

"Show them the vision that you have for what they can become," he said.

Another keynote speaker was Barb Pellow, of InfoTrends, who offered examples of in-plants that have successfully demonstrated their strategic value. Her main focus, though, was on cross-media services and the ever-growing importance of mobile technology. Printers must integrate print and mobile if they want to succeed, she said. She discussed mobile codes (such as QR codes), mobile messaging, augmented reality and near field communication (NFC), in which smart phones and NFC tags establish radio communication with each other when in close proximity, enabling offline-to-­online engagement. Pellow said there will be more than a billion NFC-­enabled phones by 2015.

"Be the partner that brings the resources to the table," she encouraged—even if someone else supplies the solution.

Pellow also encouraged in-plants to offer Web-based procurement to become more of a one-stop shop for their organizations. She pointed to Briggs & Stratton's online tool to let dealers order promotional materials and product literature, as well as Excellus BlueCross BlueShield's implementation of online ordering with standardized templates to bring business card production in-house.

The third keynote speaker, NAPL Senior Consultant Howie Fenton, provided a wealth of information on benchmarking. (See sidebar.)

Off to a Great Start

The conference started off strongly, with so many excellent sessions running concurrently that managers (and editors) had a tough time picking. The World Bank's in-plant management

team packed the room for their presentation on high-speed inkjet printing in which they detailed their recent installation of an HP Inkjet T-230 production inkjet press (see IPG's June cover story on World Bank).

Next door, Staci Hill, of Freese and Nichols revealed how, in one year's time, her small in-plant tripled its space, improved its visibility and transformed into a vital resource for the company. To bring this about, she met repeatedly with customers and listened to them, determined the shop's direction, shared her vision with the company and leveraged every resource. The in-plant has been able to replace its black-and-white printers with two Ricoh Pro C901s; add UV coating, bindery gear and Web-to-print software; add an employee; update job pricing to save clients money; and bring in more external work to increase profits.

Finding Hidden Dollars

At the same time as these sessions were going on, Debbie Pavletich, of Briggs & Stratton, was impressing a roomful of managers with the significant savings her in-plant is generating through a variety of actions. For instance, she calculated that each time customers use a job ticket template the in-plant created, they save six minutes of their time, which saves $13,500 over the course of a year. Similarly, by using the in-plant's digital storefront, clients save 15 minutes per business card order, which amounts to $7,290 in savings per year. Also, by increasing productivity from 75 percent to 90 percent of available hours, through more efficient scheduling, better planning and pre-assembling materials, the in-plant has increased its annual income by $6,300, she said.

Pavletich told managers about a buying co-op her in-plant had joined called Graphic Arts Alliance, which brings the shop much better prices and rebates for materials due to the larger volumes generated by the 170 members. This has so far brought in $1,511 in first quarter savings, with $5,500 in savings expected for the year.

In-plant Improvements

The momentum didn't stop after this first round of morning sessions. After a short break, Sylvia Marmon, with the City of Boise, told the tale of how her in-plant used a consultant to survey users of the city's 543 copiers/printers, then developed and implemented a five-year plan. Meanwhile, Ellen Koch, of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, detailed 10 steps used to build a successful, resilient and productive team.

Elsewhere, Sally Roberts, of the University of West Georgia, related how her in-plant went from nearly being closed down, to doubling its revenue over a three-year period, while adding products and expanding its client base.

Roberts noted that awareness of the in-plant was not as high as desired, so she and her staff spread the word by attending orientations and student group meetings, holding an open house, inviting classes to tour the shop and posting signs on campus.

The in-plant benchmarked its prices with other university in-plants and, after learning its prices were lower, gradually raised them over a few years. New products were introduced, such as window decals, wall art, magnets, bus signage and graduation invitations. The in-plant cut costs by paying off its six-color Komori press early (bringing in $60,000 in annual savings), renegotiating its copier contract and seeking lower-cost materials. The in-plant recently got the OK to expand its facility to accommodate its growing wide-format printing business.

A similar story of in-plant turnaround was told by Karin Tarter, of Albuquerque Public Schools, who encountered a complete lack of customer service when she arrived at her in-plant in 2000. After cleaning up the long-neglected shop and getting employees the tools they needed to do their jobs, morale improved and she was able to retrain them as "customer project specialists." Today, customer service is the focus of each employee and the in-plant, with a mission mirroring the organization's strategic plan, is well respected.

Conference sessions were full of great examples of in-plants adding services and improving their value. Jason Plum, with Schneider Electric, described how his company went from outsourcing its Operations and Maintenance manuals to bringing the work in-house in 2009 and producing it on Canon and Océ equipment.

"We saved the company $1.1 million in 2009," he said. To get away from manual assembly and improve efficiency, the seven-employee in-plant then automated its workflow with SmartPDFPrintware by B2BeDocuments. The investment, Plum said, was recovered in just two and a half months. It allowed operators to spend less time with prepress and be more productive, for a net first-year savings of $92,480.

In another session, Steve Nelles, of Ventura County's in-plant, told how he is taking advantage of new devices and workflow technologies to become a provider of digital services, such as electronic forms. Instead of focusing on print output, his team looks at the entire life cycle of a document to analyze how it's used and seek ways to make it more efficient and save people time.

"If technologies exist that can deliver the document more efficiently, that's the space we have to be in," he said.

Nelles works with county departments to create e-forms for more efficient data capture and display. This new line of business brings in revenue, increases customer satisfaction and is helping "future proof" his operation. He also promotes his in-plant's design services as a way to improve county messages and provide on-ramps to multi-channel formats, with ROIs to back up the in-plant's rates and fees.

Turning Customers into Partners

Zach Cameron detailed how Brigham Young University uses Web submission portals, custom storefronts and Web services to turn customers into partners who are so invested in the in-plant that they won't take their business elsewhere. For example, with templates for customers' documents built into the in-plant's system and their documents stored in the in-plant's library, ordering from the in-plant is a much simpler option than shopping around.

Tim Hendrix, with the State of Oregon's Publishing & Distribution operation, gave a presentation on creating performance metrics in which he discussed how to choose the metrics you track, collection methods, using the data you collect and analyzing the results to identify trends or anomalies. Metrics his in-plant tracks are impressions, billable hours, production system uptime, rework, customer satisfaction, on-time delivery and mail discount savings. He stressed the importance of sharing metrics with staff.

Rex Brooker, of Principal Financial Group, related how his in-plant provides multiple levels of digital color printing. Instead of trying to provide the best quality possible for every job, regardless of the cost, his in-plant learned (during the recent recession, when customers became more accepting of less-expensive color quality) that not every job requires it. Today the in-plant offers toner-quality color; fast, low-cost inkjet color; and top-quality color from its HP Indigo 7600s.

The conference included many other sessions as well, plus a bustling exhibit floor with 33 vendor displays. During the conference, Lingard announced the dates and location of next year's IPMA conference. It will take place June 8-12 in Milwaukee.