A Lifelong Printer
ASK BILL Neff about the key to his success over his long printing career and he'll tell you it's his ability to listen—to customers and coworkers alike. His prowess at solving problems, his knack for adding just the right services to his in-plant—it all comes down to paying attention when people talk, and not being afraid to ask, "What more can I do to help?"
Neff, printing manager at Arlington County's Department of Environmental Services for the past 12 years, got his start in the printing industry when he was just 16. A friend's mom who worked at the National Publishing Co., in his home town of Washington, D.C., told him about a summer job.
"They offered me a full-time position, and I took it," he says, his gravelly voice belying his affable nature.
He started as a flyboy, taking books off the web press and packing them on skids. From there he became a feeder operator, then a second pressman. He says the mechanical aspect of printing appealed to him.
"I liked to work with my hands," he says.
After four years there, Neff joined the Marine Corps. Following his service there, he enrolled at Montgomery College, in Rockville, Md. There, he did so well in computer science, that IBM offered him a job. But it wasn't the right fit for him, he says.
In 1972, Neff got married. In need of a job, he went back to work for National, which had since become McCalls. When his branch of the company closed, he went to a printing company called Robert Francis for five years, and then joined House of Printing, in Burtonsville, Md.
"I started off as a pressman, left as a production manager," he says. In between, 23 years went by, during which he beefed up his problem-solving abilities and took graphic arts courses.
From HOP, he moved on to ABC Imaging, where he helped rejuvenate the print operation by adding press and bindery capabilities. But the long hours he was putting in were taking their toll.
"I got home one night and sat down, and this kid ran through the house, and I asked my wife, 'Who's that?' She said, 'It's your son,' " he laughs. "I went, 'I've got to change jobs. I've got to be home more.' "
His search turned up his current position with Arlington County's Digital Production Mailing Services.
"The guy that hired me wanted me to straighten it out," he says of the in-plant. "The hard part was changing some attitudes." There was some resistance to change at first. Nonplussed, he added the in-plant's first digital color device, a Xerox DocuColor 12.
"All of a sudden more work started coming in, instead of going out the door," he recalls.
The Personal Touch
To spread the word, he began to visit customers and tell them about the shop's capabilities. His personal visits went a long way toward increasing business.
Seven years ago, the demand for color had increased so much, the shop added a Xerox 7000. This led to the printing of the county budget book in color, which had never before been done.
After meeting with customers and listening to their needs, he added a Xerox 8142 wide-format printer, and later a Xerox 8154. Among the jobs the shop did on these were advertising signs posted inside buses, which proved very popular.
When customers expressed a need for more mailing services, Neff added inserting equipment and postal software. Using NCOA databases, the shop cut returned mail by 70 percent. By printing and mailing county tax and revenue statements in-house, the in-plant saved thousands of dollars a year. Now the shop routinely handles large mailing jobs, like a recent mailing of 154,000 voter information letters.
With just a year to go before retiring, Neff is still making plans to add new services. He wants to get a numbering machine and start printing parking and traffic tickets, which the county is currently buying from the state, at a greater cost.
Though Neff was active with the Boy Scouts years ago, now that his son (whom he did learn to recognize) is 22 and preparing to join the army, Neff has been filling his free time with other hobbies, like refinishing antique furniture. As for the many years he has spent in the printing industry, he has no regrets.
"Smartest thing I ever did," he proclaims.IPG
- Companies:
- Xerox Corp.
- People:
- Bill Neff
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
