Fortune 500 In-plants

Most In-Plant Graphics readers can take just a cursory look down Fortune magazine's 500 list and quickly spot dozens of companies whose in-plants have been profiled by IPG.

That's because so many of these successful companies know that having an in-plant to provide quick, confidential printing is critical to their success.

It's rather telling that the number one company on the Fortune 500, Wal-Mart, also maintains one of the largest, busiest in-plants in the country.

To find out just how important some of these Fortune 500 companies feel their in-plants are, IPG talked with eight of them, focusing on the insurance, retail, airline and oil industries. Here's why these companies feel it is so important to have an in-plant.

.

Best Buy

Print Solutions Group

Employees: 99 full-time

Annual operating budget: $16.7 million

Director: Rick Fiebiger

"The Print Solutions Group at Best Buy has been an integral part of the company's success for a couple of reasons. Like most in-plants, an obvious benefit has been our contribution to our expense efficiency. But there are a couple of other value-adds that are unique.

"Speed-to-market is everything in consumer electronics retailing. We have designed a model that makes it quick and easy for our enterprise to get their print needs met. We are the single source for printing, whether it's sourced externally or through the in-plant. We also participate in design and development by providing innovative solutions to their communication needs.

"The most notable impact to the company is with our timely and effective consumer messaging within our retail stores. Delivering fun, innovative and timely messages and promotions to our consumers has been a critical success factor.

"Building a powerful screen printing and digital printing capability has been invaluable. Because of uncertainties in the marketplace in terms of capacity and branding quality consistency, these internal services have been a huge dependency."

.

Target

Printing Services

Employees: 100 full-time

Annual operating budget: $20 million +

Manager: Gary Hiltbrand

"Financially, we are not an expense drain on the company. All fixed and variable costs are covered by pre-calculated pricing strategies. Our financial objective, beyond an aggressive growth plan, is to take in enough revenue to cover all expenses.

"Operationally, none of the print buyers at Target are required to use our internal services, and we prefer it that way. To be successful in this environment, we must at all times know how we stack up to external print vendors relative to price, capability and overall service. This approach keeps us sharp.

"Competitively, the existence of Printing Services tends to keep externally quoted prices for Target projects at a lower level. External print vendors know that they have to keep their prices low in order to favorably compete with us.

"The key to our contribution to Target Corp. is the support we have achieved from the senior executives to somewhat autonomously run a first-class printing operation. By our very existence, the overall cost of print projects, no matter if produced inside or outside, is considerably less."

.

Walgreens

Printing & Mail Services

Employees: 33 full-time

Annual operating budget: (printing and mail) $5.1 million

Manager: Linda Balsamo

"Every time we consider outsourcing, we come to the conclusion that we can still do the job faster and cheaper in-house. So often, we are reacting to a recall or a sale and outsourcing would require additional lead time. Lead time doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary of our customers, so having the equipment available on demand has become very important to our customers.

"We are also fortunate to have merged our printing and mail facilities so that one feeds the other. This has made us more flexible with manpower, helps minimize questions about specific jobs and reduces errors. We run projects for employees and outside clients with financial or medical data, both of which need to be kept confidential.

"In essence, having an in-plant gives us the flexibility and peace of mind that helps us remain competitive. I would have to say that what we are best at is getting our customers out of a jam. And that is priceless."

.

Northwest Airlines

Printing Services

Employees: 22 full-time

Annual operating budget: (printing and mail) $3.2 million

Manager: Tim Bride

"Cost saving is far and away the key reason we exist. We are in an industry that has been in financial hard times for three years now. Any way we can save cost, falls right to the bottom line and preserves capital for things that can put the company on better financial footing.

"Our instant service is another asset. Here's an example: About four months ago we received a call from an executive assistant explaining her need to reproduce a presentation in color and [bind it] in a very short time frame. The top two officers of the company had a meeting overseas that required they board a flight in only a few hours, they needed six copies to take with them.

"This document had multiple pages, a back cover and an acetate front. She would not be ready with the final document until she had all of her information, leaving even less production time. We assured her we could complete the project and proceeded to test her files, which were sent via the company LAN.

"After successful testing we received her final document, printed it on the 2060 and bound the material. She picked it up and got it to the officers in time for their flight.

"The ability to have documents prepared instantly can provide more up-to-date information and help company leadership focus on more important things."

.

Continental Airlines

Purchasing Communications and Printing Services

Employees: 24 full-time

Annual operating budget: (printing and mail) $5.2 million

Manager: Amanda Rackliff

"To contribute to the bottom line, we manage not only how an item is to be printed in the most efficient way, but also if it is to be printed at all, meaning, is it absolutely necessary to put ink on paper? Continental Airlines has a paperless initiative, and we are making every effort to place as many items on our Web site as possible. In fact, Continental plans to eliminate paper tickets by the end of 2004 for all revenue travel.

"Since we are an in-plant, any time we print a job we're saving the company funds by keeping the money in-house. Just last month, Continental Printing Services produced 1,090 Fortune 500 decals that are on the exterior of each of our aircraft. These decals are located by the cabin door and can be viewed as passengers and crew enter the aircraft. An outside supplier, at a significantly higher price, previously produced these prior to 2002."

.

Principal Financial Group

Document Services/PTM

Employees: 84 full-time

Annual operating budget: (printing and mail) $14 million

Operations Manager: Mel Zischler

"Our goals are direct descendants of the CEO's goals. These direct, line-of-sight goals are written to make our internal business partners successful, allowing them to focus on their core functions: Attracting and retaining customers.

"Our in-plant has always focused on its niche for the corporation. We adapt our services to meet the changing demands of the financial industry and only deliver solutions that provide cost savings or competitive advantages.

"For example, we recently merged our traditional offset printing and finishing operation with our mainframe printing and inserting operation yielding operational efficiencies and improved response times.

"Our recent acquisition of five Kodak/NexPress's positions our in-plant to even better fulfill the short-run marketing needs with faster response times in full color."

The Principal has also been named to Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list two years running.

.

New York Life Insurance

Copy/Print (C/P) Center

Employees: 14 full-time

Assistant Vice President of Corporate Services: Thomas Edgar

"The work received in the C/P Center is, in most cases, needed on a rush basis, and meeting these deadlines is our top priority. Having a copy and print facility on site is both convenient for our customers and cost-effective, especially when compared to outside quick copy shops where rush work is always charged at a much higher cost.

"Work received from our field offices is mostly sent electronically, processed the same day and returned via overnight carrier. This allows the in-plant to provide services that are more convenient and competitively priced than most of the service providers that our field locations would have access to.

"Many of the jobs processed through the center are high-level management presentations. This work is extremely time-sensitive and highly confidential. By keeping this work in-house, we maintain control over who views proprietary information."

.

Conoco Phillips

Printing Center

Employees: 17 full-time (45 under the Creative Services umbrella)

Manager: Bill Boone

"An in-plant provides services in a niche that is often difficult, or impossible, to cost-effectively source. Mid-range, short-turnaround and low-cost solutions can be tightly managed and delivered anywhere in the world.

"Both the Conoco and Phillips companies merged in 2002, combining visual communications across a wide spectrum including printing, bindery services, graphic design, photography, videography, archives and customer services. Having all of this under one management umbrella has provided us with the leverage needed to deliver communications faster and at a lower cost.

"Employees are multi-skilled and highly competent in a wide variety of duties. During critical work periods everyone pulls together routinely to seamlessly help others within the group regardless of their job titles or primary responsibilities.

"As a stakeholder, every employee has 'skin in the game' and works favorably to reduce costs, eliminate waste and improve services to the company whenever possible.

"Our in-plant consistently looks for process improvements and fit-for-purpose solutions that meet customer requirements at the least possible cost.

"Also, we're lucky in that we have a very supportive upper-management team. Both our vice president and the general manager have an extensive understanding and appreciation for visual communications that help elevate the overall performance of the company's diverse functions."