Correcting Shortcomings In The Bindery

The move to a digital, on-demand platform was putting T.J. Keesler’s bindery in...well, a bind. Keesler, facility manager at Georgia Correctional Industries (GCI) in Buford, Ga., had to accommodate his customers’ needs for shorter runs and quicker turnaround times. “We just started out digital, on-demand printing about a year ago, and we realized that a lot of our customers wanted coil binding,” Keesler recounts. “We were farming this work out, or we were doing it at a much slower pace with some antiquated equipment and also some hand work. I wanted to automate the process.”

In order to keep as much of the on-demand work in-house as possible, the shop purchased a Sterling Punchmaster automatic punch and a Sterling Coilmaster III automatic plastic coil binding system from Spiel Associates.

Established in 1960 as a public corporation owned by the state of Georgia Department of Corrections, GCI is full-service print shop that offers everything from pocket folders and brochures to four-color lithography and foil stamping. Keesler oversees nine full-time employees and a staff of 50 inmates. The shop’s digital printing lineup includes a Canon 7000, an Océ 1105 and a Canon image-RUNNER.

The in-plant’s customer base is made up exclusively of state agencies, including state and county governments, the Georgia university system, the state legislature, as well as the department of corrections. However, there is no statute stating that the state agencies must use GCI’s printing services.

“With that in mind, we have to be able to compete with the corner quick copy shops,” Keesler stresses. “Our goal is to get jobs out just as fast as anybody else would and with the same quality, just using inmate labor. We need to meet our customer’s demands.”

Keesler notes that the new bindery equipment has been a good fit for GCI to produce manuals and catalogs for its customers faster and more efficiently. It has also made his employees’ jobs easier.