Duplicating Success

By adding digital duplicators, these in-plants have saved money, decreased turnaround times and kept more work in-house.

Majoring In High-volume Color

o grow beyond its humble beginnings, the Glassboro Normal School, home to 400 students in 1923, knew progress would be measured by more than a name change. Today, after much dedication and innovation, Rowan University, in Rowan, N.J., has almost 10,000 students and 1,200 faculty and staff.

Back in the pre-digital days, students and staff turned to the Rowan University print shop for most of their document needs. In 1994, when Mike Lukasavage started to run Rowan's printing operations, he had a vision that transcended the traditional small offset press that the shop had relied on for some time.

"As the school was growing, it was important to respond to the need for more professional material with faster turnaround," says Lukasavage. "We had to keep pace with technology and improve our image quality, but we also needed versatile equipment that didn't require highly skilled operators."

Curing Paperwork Ills Hospitals use a lot of paper. Every day a single patient can require a variety of forms, including consultation and order sheets, consent forms, nursing plans of care, discharge plans and summary forms. The Bertrand Chaffee Hospital and Nursing Home, in Springville, N.Y., is no different. Founded in 1947, the hospital includes a 49-bed acute care hospital, an 80-bed skilled nursing home and two satellite clinics. With so many patients to care for, the proper forms and paperwork must be readily available for the organization to run efficiently. For that reason, the hospital recently invested in a Duplo DP-330L digital duplicator to handle its paperwork, multipart forms, newsletters and envelopes. Approximately 80,000 forms are now printed per month on the DP-330L—almost a million per year. Pat Tuttle, the facility's forms control department coordinator, researched his options and chose the DP-330L. He was impressed by its registration and feed system. Registration adjustment is electronically driven four ways to increase image control and to ease operation. The DP-330L includes a 1,200-sheet feed-and-stack capacity with an optional 60-sheet automatic document feeder. Its three-roller feed system handles many different paper weights and stocks. The DP-330L offers 300x600-dpi resolution on a variety of mono and spot-color printing applications. Tuttle and his part-time assistant also use a Canon IR 5000 for smaller jobs, such as patient educational material. They finish publications using comb binding, padding and laminating equipment. Before investing in the DP-330L, Bertrand Chaffee used other brands of duplicators and even an offset press to print jobs. Misfeeds often slowed down production with the other duplicators, which had trouble feeding different paper stocks and weights. The offset press needed too many chemicals, and setup was time consuming. The department relied heavily on outsourcing, which was not only costly, but also involved a lengthy turnaround time. About 40 of those outsourced jobs were brought back in-house prior to the DP-330L's arrival. Tuttle says the DP-330L makes running these jobs a much easier process. "Converting forms, envelopes, etc. to in-house is saving us well over $15,000 per year," testifies Tuttle. A typical application that was once outsourced and has been converted to in-house is the patient discharge instruction sheet. This two-part carbonless form is a checklist of instruction sheets that is received and reviewed by the patient with a nurse. For this job, 20# heavyweight carbonless paper is used. Before the DP-330L, this job was outsourced on an offset printer with a turnaround time of approximately one month. Outsourcing this job cost Bertrand Chaffee $600. With the DP-330L, this job takes just one to two days to complete at less than half the cost ($270). Jobs have been more efficient with this duplicator, since little time is wasted adjusting the feed system or clearing paper jams. Tuttle says his job is easier with the DP-330L. "I am extremely happy with the Duplo [DP-330L]," he exclaims. "It is the best machine I have had in the last 20 years of using these types of machines."

Thus, the digital migration started, and Rowan Duplicating Services (RDS) dramatically changed its strategy. During the next two years, Lukasavage removed the old presses and converted to a mix of analog copiers and a Xerox 4850. But while the 4850 was fast, reliable and capable of spot and highlight color, it was limited in what stock it could use and expensive to operate, since it used toner-based technology. Envelopes, post cards and carbonless forms had to be outsourced.

As digital technology improved through the late 1990s, the shop added three Ricoh Aficio 1105s and a Canon CLC1000. The 600-dpi Aficios were an upgrade over the 300-dpi Xerox copier.

RDS improved its turnaround time and started to bring some outsourced work back in-house. But while the Canon printed in full color, its run length was limited and not cost-effective for spot color. The color issue became more pronounced as RDS started printing more direct mail pieces.

"We had come a long way, but I guess I was feeling that I still hadn't discovered my 'dream' product," says Lukasavage. "The 4850 was showing its age, we were still farming out too much work, and, of course, it was time to make the plunge into high-volume digital color."

The solution, as recommended by office dealer Ned Haubein of CDT Business Systems, was a color digital duplicator. Haubein demonstrated the Standard SD622/SD630, which produces two colors in one pass. The products are distributed by Standard Business Systems, a division of Standard Duplicating Machines.

"The Standard machines fit the bill on a number of levels," says Lukasavage. He cites spot color capability, 600-dpi resolution, speed (7,200 11x17˝ impressions per hour), cost effectiveness (less than one-third of a cent per copy), flexibility with different stocks and ease of use.

Lukasavage also appreciated that he could off-load long-run jobs like newsletters and forms from the digital copiers. Another advantage was the compact size of the duplicators.

"We had recently moved and remodeled," he recalls. "Space was a big concern, and it was a pleasant surprise that the two Standard machines took up less square feet than the one 4850 that we replaced."

In addition, with the digital duplicator printing onto carbonless paper, Lukasavage has been able to buy lighter-weight, less costly stock. He notes that digital duplicators use ink and don't have fuser units that generate high temperatures like copiers. Without this heat, paper curl is eliminated, which helps with folding and binding. In addition, since the installation of the digital duplicators, downtime has been minimal.

"A bonus has been a huge reduction in outsourcing and delivery times," says Lukasavage. "Before we got the Standard digital duplicators, we outsourced envelopes and business cards. We typically quoted two weeks' turnaround on this and anything in color. Now, we complete these jobs in one or two days. Our operators enjoy producing great results with minimal effort, and our customers benefit from the improved efficiencies."

RDS's successful digital evolution is tied to its expanded e-capabilities. Today, less than half of the shop's production comes from black-and-white originals. All of RDS's printing equipment, including the digital duplicators, is linked directly to the shop's computer network. Jobs are submitted via e-mail, diskettes, CD-ROM, or through PagePath's MyOrderDesk.com software utility.

"Being networked allows us to print the sharpest quality all the time," says Lukasavage. To further improve turnaround, RDS plans to implement an interactive user site later this year.

Recently, RDS purchased Standard finishing equipment, including a BQ-P6 tabletop perfect binder and a QC-P10 collator. With the addition of post-press equipment, the shop can offer start-to-finish services.

At the end of the day, it's all about productivity. "In the last two years, we have grown from printing 310,000 images per month to over 750,000, with no increase in staff," says Lukasavage. "The Standard machines are responsible for a good part of that growth."

Looking ahead, RDS intends to keep pace with technology and further diversify its services with upgrades in its folding and postage operations. Says Lukasavage: "As Rowan continues to grow, we need to continually improve our responsiveness to the university community while keeping costs in line."

Recreational Duplication Lee County Parks and Recreation manages recreational facilities in the greater Fort Myers, Fla., area, including public swimming pools, sports complexes, boat ramps, nature reserves and parks. To print the newsletters, flyers and program booklets that keep the public informed about its programs and activities, the department uses a RISO 8000 two-color digital duplicator. John Derums, marketing and media coordinator for Lee County Parks and Recreation, is enthusiastic about the contribution the RISO 8000 has made to his operation since it was added in October 2002. "The RISO 8000 has been running almost continuously since we got it," Derums says. "We print three or four newsletters a week, with a typical run length of 5,000, plus many smaller jobs ranging up to 500 impressions each." To create booklets, printed sheets are sent through the shop's MBM folder/collator/bookletmaker. The operation also has a Canon color copier, which it uses to print business cards, among other items. For two-color jobs, though, the RISO 8000 has proved a fast, inexpensive option. It prints two colors in one pass, allowing all print jobs to be produced in color, which helps capture the reader's attention and allows points of special interest to be highlighted. One area that Derums says the RISO 8000 significantly impacted is the organization's ability to reach more area residents with information on the various programs, activities and facilities available to them. "Because printing with RISO is so inexpensive, we are able to print enough newsletters to send home with children in the area schools," he says. "This has really increased awareness and program attendance. After one such program at Manatee Park, the program director there said the attendance was the best yet." The RISO 8000 allows Lee County Parks and Recreation to print smaller quantities on demand, reducing waste without impacting the availability of printed materials. "It's been great for us," Derums says. "I'm really happy with it."