Big Lots Gets Big Overhaul

In the past year the in-plant at Big Lots has leapt into CTP and four-color printing, increasing impressions by almost 40 percent in the process.

By Erik Cagle

Imagine a cashier bellowing into her microphone, "I need a price check on Captain Don's Bait System," and you have a good idea of the shopping experience offered by Columbus, Ohio-based Big Lots.

This is not your mother's discount retailer. Sol Shenk, the company's late founder, purchased and resold items that would make a local clean sweeps auction seem boring: 2,700 DeLorean cars, six million bottles of Breck shampoo, 20,000 cases of Oreo Milk Changers, used Las Vegas slot machines, oil-drilling rigs and tanning beds.

While the product variety may be all over the place, a very focused and deliberate overhaul in the print shop has allowed the in-plant to redefine itself as the primary provider for Big Lots' on-demand printing needs.

Founded in 1967, Big Lots is a Fortune 500 company with more than 45,000 employees. It generates in excess of $3.8 billion in annual revenues, selling consumables, seasonal products, furniture, housewares, toys and gifts at up to 70 percent below conventional retail environments.

In August of 2001, Big Lots relocated its in-plant from the 860-square-foot facility it had occupied the previous 14 years to a 3,240-square-foot shop that is adjacent to a three-million-square-foot warehouse. But the biggest changes came just over a year ago, says Susan Layman, manager of administrative services. That was when the in-plant essentially retooled its entire shop. The new equipment included:

• A four-color A.B.Dick 4995A-ICS press with an ink control system

• A two-color A.B.Dick 9995A-ICS press with an ink control system

• An A.B.Dick DPM2340 digital platesetter

• A Baum 2020 folder

• A Baum 31-1⁄2˝ programmable cutter

• A C.P. Bourg four-tower collation bookletmaker system (installed in 2002)

Big Lots also updated its Xerox DocuTech from the 135 to the 6180 model, installed a Xerox 2060 color production device and added a 90-copy-per-minute Xerox Work Centre Pro 90 copier. Then, in January of this year, it added a Xerox 6060 color printer.

The spending spree came on the heels of a two-year study that examined how much it was costing Big Lots to outsource its printing. This was compared to the cost of purchasing and leasing equipment to produce the same work. Layman's department was able to show a "significant" cost savings that more than justified adding the new equipment.

'Time To Move Forward'

"Our shop had been in the same configuration for about 12 years and it was really time to move forward with new technology across the board," says Layman. "As we looked at trying to replace some of the old and worn equipment, we were also presented with new challenges to support a new sign package that was going in all our stores. The timing was so right, we actually got to tailor our equipment purchase to specifically support what our graphics department was asking that we be able to print."

The work that was no longer being outsourced—the "As Advertised" signage—provided the cornerstone of work for the new equipment. The signs are printed on the A.B.Dick 9995A-ICS and trimmed to 11x17˝ on the Baum cutter. The 2020 folder is used to score, perforate in two places and slit the sign to its finished size of 8-1⁄2x11˝. Then pricing information is overprinted using the Xerox 6180.

Run lengths are just under a quarter million pieces, with each of the 1,350 retail stores getting two sets of 74 completed signs. Compared with the in-plant's previous role in the signage—overprinting the pricing information—the in-plant has seen a 37 percent increase in the number of impressions printed over 2002.

Excited About Four-color Press

For Pat Cassidy, a 15-year veteran of the Big Lots in-plant (and Layman's go-to guy "when everything falls apart"), the computerization aspect proved a great challenge, but he quickly fell in love with the four-color press.

"I've watched our shop evolve from having just a Multigraphics 1250, a platemaker and a cutter," he says. "The four-color [press] is state of the art in that it can almost be a proof press—you can start it up and turn out a proof in a heartbeat. We love the easy and quick setup, and the features on it allow for a quick turnaround on jobs.

"The support we received from A.B.Dick really made for a smooth transition for us," he adds.

In addition to the "As Advertised signage, the in-plant produces business cards, stationery, short-run envelopes and corporate communications materials. Weekly jobs include the Action Plan, which informs stores of the signage to expect and how to display it, and tells them about the voice ads that will be broadcast over the in-store music system. These are generally 60- to 65-page corner-stapled booklets.

The Xerox 2060 and 6060 machines help churn out the color layouts, or "Plan-A-Grams," that illustrate how merchandise is to be displayed. They can range from five to 100 pages in length.

"Four years ago, we didn't even have our DocuTechs networked—everything was done from the glass," Layman explains. "It has been a huge paradigm shift, no question about it. But a large part of this, as much as I would like to say how wonderful a person I am and how great it is to take all the credit for it, was timing. We were in the perfect place to move from the old to the new technology. I know a lot of printers have got caught in that and don't know when the right time is to make that move. We hit it right on the head."

The timing may have been fortunate, but that was not quite a ticket to easy street. With the DocuTech, the two A.B.Dick presses, the folder and the cutter all arriving in April of 2003, and the collator less than a year prior, the inevitable growing pains ensued. To help, Layman added a fourth full-time employee to her print shop staff, which also includes two to five people who rotate in from other departments.

"Everyone was very comfortable after years of operating the same equipment, very predictably, week after week," Layman notes. "Everybody was excited about [the changes], but it took a lot, moving to an all-electronic environment where we're dealing almost exclusively with electronic files. We still deal with some hard copy, but most of it is now all electronic, taking it off the network, dealing with the exactness of the equipment we're working with and just understanding all of the various steps that it required, particularly on the four-color press, to get the registration correct.

"From getting the plates on correctly, making the plates, laying down the color correctly…it was just a lot to know and be able to do it in a short time frame," she adds. "We've tried to develop a niche, and we've defined that niche as small- to medium-run, on-demand printing, from one to four colors. That was quite a lot to wrap our heads around."

The computer-to-plate system was particularly challenging and provided arguably the height of the learning curve. Layman's senior press operator would not let her do away with the old platemaker, either, though after nearly a year, the old system is gathering dust. Not that the plate department is going at full speed, but Layman feels her team is learning new tricks every day and finds the DPM2340 to be a tremendous labor-saving tool.

Still, the in-plant has not completely abandoned its old methods. Proofing is still done either from the press or directly from the copier. The staff delivers a proof directly to the end user or has the user come to the shop to inspect the preliminary product.

The Personal Touch

"We're a very large company, but in many respects we still act like a small business," Layman notes. "We have a lot of personal touches and we do a lot of in-depth customer service to help people get through their projects. We're able to know most of the people we're dealing with, and being able to put a face to a name helps to maintain that personal atmosphere."

The in-plant may offer the nicer amenities associated with smaller print shops, but it is difficult to ignore the girth of Big Lots' operations. With a warehouse of three million square feet, Layman must use a bright yellow golf cart to motor between her office and the print shop, which is roughly the equivalent of three blocks.

One of her responsibilities is the company's six-employee mail center, which encompasses inter-office material, weekly distribution of payroll, signage and other materials that go directly to the stores. Each Wednesday, her mailing department sends out, via Airborne Express, 1,500-plus boxes with payroll checks going out to more than 45,000 employees. Plus, all of the signage produced in the print shop is brought to the mail room to be laid out and deposited into mailbags for the weekly mailing.

Layman's tenure at Big Lots has been a rewarding one. Prior to arriving at the company, she had worked for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield health plan, quarterbacking its print shop, mail room and office services.

While she has experience in other work cultures, Layman feels Big Lots is in a category by itself in terms of fostering an atmosphere of unity and teamwork. The company recently held its annual "internal town hall" meeting for employees, a lighthearted and entertaining look at the company and its upcoming endeavors. Employees got an advanced screening of the company's latest television commercials featuring actor Jerry van Dyke.

"I've had the opportunity to work for several employers, and I can honestly say that Big Lots is a very fair and open company that treats its employees especially well," Layman says. "They truly encourage individual growth and development. They also encourage independent thinking and risk-taking, and I think they reap the rewards for encouraging that kind of activity in their associates. It's a very novel business; I don't think there's any place quite like it."