BCBS Adds Second Five-color Press

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota recently replaced its two-color Hamada with a used five-color Heidelberg GTO.

“The new press can perfect two over three,” enthuses Lee J. Sperl, manager of Document and Publishing Solutions. “Almost everything we previously did on the Hamada that we traded in can now be perfected on the new press. This helped to provide a really quick ROI justification. We also found additional savings available in work that previously had to be outsourced due to a lack of open/available five-color capacity.”

Sperl says the new press provides relief capacity for its other five-color GTO while absorbing a large portion of the Hamada two-color work. The company was looking for a five-color press to add a fifth color, like its logo identity color, PMS 3015. Also, he says, the in-plant is doing more four-color printing than ever.

“The demand for four-color printing has increased steadily at BCBSM since 2002,” Sperl says. “Many of the two-color items from the 2000-2002 era have been revised to include full color photographs, graphics and illustrations. Many of the run lengths of these marketing materials remain a good fit for offset production.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s in-plant produces marketing materials in full color, including mailers, brochures, flyers and newsletters, as well as technical documents and directories.

Sperl says the added capacity and quicker turnaround times were not the only benefits the new press brought.

“It was also very nice for departmental morale to see an investment made in improving our production resources,” he notes.