Digital Domains

In-plants that have integrated digital printing systems into their shops are racing ahead and not looking back.

IN JULY of 1997, CCH, of Riverwoods, Ill., made a bold move. The publisher decided to retire two of its offset presses and bring in digital printing equipment to produce its business law publications.

The goal was to do away with the practice of overprinting and warehousing books, as well as to increase quality and make it easier to update materials. But CCH had to find a product with dynamic database management capabilities that could print on 8.6-pound bond—akin to the paper in phone books.

"IBM made a commitment to make our paper run reliably through their equipment," says Rick Skipton, project manager. For that reason, he chose an IBM InfoPrint 4000 with IBM InfoPrint software and a Roll Systems paper feeder.

This addition, Skipton says, has cut paper costs in half, freed up 120,000 square feet of storage and processing space, eliminated human error and allowed the shop to offer 24-hour turnaround times.

"We print just-in-time, on-demand," Skipton says.

Thanks to digital printing equipment, in-plants everywhere are able to boast similar capabilities. Xerox DocuTechs have turned hundreds of in-plants into on-demand printers, and now digital color equipment is adding color to the equation. Devices like the Agfa Chromapress, the Indigo E-Print, the Xerox DocuColor 40 and the T/R Systems Cluster System are allowing in-plants to provide short-run color right from digital data. And the savings are tremendous.

Skipton says that in its offset days, his shop printed about one billion pages per year.

"We would do overruns of items and put them into stock," he explains. Two-thirds of these items ended up being thrown away. Now things are different.

"When an order comes in from our customers, that order is automatically routed to the print-on-demand area. It goes in, pulls the materials it needs out of the database, sends them to the printer and it prints them. The first time we actually touch the order is when we pull it off the back of the printer, completely up to date and ready to ship to the customer."

Personalization: A Major Factor

Other in-plants are telling similar tales. In Seattle, SAFECO Insurance uses an Indigo E-Print to produce posters, brochures, invitations and personalized items. Manager Larry Jablinske says the addition of the Indigo 11⁄2 years ago has helped meet the tight turnaround times the shop faces and allowed the in-plant to offer personalization of many documents.

"The biggest thing is the personalization—that is what we really use it for," Jablinske explains. "At the time we made the purchase it was the only thing out there that met two important criteria—one was that we could go to six-colors and the other was that we could do personalization."

Another Seattle shop using digital equipment is the University of Washington's in-plant, which utilizes a Xerox DocuColor 40 to offer posters, color photos, flyers and book covers to its campus clients.

Frank Davis, associate director of publication services, says one of the major benefits of having digital capabilities in-house is that the in-plant can accept disks from clients, as well as electronic files. The university has had its DC 40 for about 11⁄2 years now.

Another advantage to having the DocuColor system, he says, has been the ability to use it in tandem with the in-plant's DocuTech.

"You can take the color copies and put them into the DocuTech to collate it with the job," Davis notes.

Cluster Printing Success

A cluster printing system from T/R Systems was the answer for Campbell Scientific's in-plant, when it needed to produce product literature and operations manuals for the company's 8,000-item inventory.

Jeff Goalen, publications manager of the shop in Logan, Utah, says he brought the cluster system in last year to replace the previous method of using laser printers and copiers to produce work.

"Everything is [now] an original," Goalen says of his digital output. "We were having real trouble with dot gain and dot loss."

One big advantage, Goalen says, is that if some of the printers are down, others can still produce work.

"We can have some down time and not be completely shut down," he says. His system consists of four 24-ppm printers, which allow the shop to produce 96 ppm.

For Starkey Laboratories, in Eden Prairie, Minn., an Agfa Chromapress 32i was the solution in early 1998 to bring short runs of full color work like promotional literature and sales materials back in-house. Starkey, a manufacturer of hearing aids, now prints more than 200,000 pieces each month, reportedly saving the company $35,000 per month in outsourcing costs.

Mike Bastyr, director of the marketing department, which includes the printing operation, says the Chromapress was brought into the shop to lower inventory, reduce waste and keep materials more current.

"We took a careful look at usage," recalls Bastyr. "What we wanted to avoid was an inventory of materials that just sat on our shelves until we threw them away."

"Now that we're tracking the cost of our print materials more carefully, our customers can see how the on-demand printing and shorter press runs enabled by Chromapress make real financial sense for the company," Bastyr explains.

The in-plant quickly integrated the digital system into its everyday operations, which include two-color offset presses, plus prepress and bindery equipment.

"It was truly remarkable how quickly Chromapress became a part of our operation," Bastyr reveals. "Within two weeks of receiving the system, we were running full-color materials." In order to speed up the learning process, Starkey hired an experienced Chromapress operator.

"Every in-plant operation should have a Chromapress," Bastyr raves. "Cost savings aside, Chromapress has significantly enhanced our ability to provide high-quality print products in an efficient manner."

by CHRIS BAUER