IPMA Breakfast Meeting at Expo Focuses on In-plant Success
On Wednesday morning this week, more than 35 in-plant managers met for breakfast in the Las Vegas Convention Center, an event hosted by the In-plant Printing & Mailing Association.
In-plant managers at the IPMA breakfast.
IPMA Executive Director Mike Loyd welcomed the managers, and after a moment of silence to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, he introduced Clay Eller, senior program manager of Ricoh Graphic Communication. Eller gave an informative presentation titled “Discover Your Gateway to In-plant Financial and Operational Success.”
IPMA's Mike Loyd addresses assembled in-plant managers.
He listed the key components of a successful in-plant: technology, process, and people. Keeping pace with technology and customer requirements, he said, is essential, but so is having the right processes in place. These include having a marketing plan, meeting regularly with customers, having an efficient workflow that reduced touches, having financial accountability, and practicing continuous improvement. Also, having a digital storefront and MIS in place is critical.
Clay Eller talks to In-plant managers at the IPMA breakfast.
“E-commerce is a needed solution,” Eller said.
In-plant managers at the IPMA breakfast.
Among other things, it lets the in-plant control the organization’s branding.
“That’s important to your organizations, controlling that brand,” he said.
He went over the transformation of storefronts from generic product categories to being integrated with the MIS and accounting systems, and offering advanced reporting. Eller noted that Ricoh’s Workflow Automation Services division can help in-plants implement their systems and train staff, and also help them market the system to users.
In-plant managers at the IPMA breakfast.
In-plant managers at the IPMA breakfast.
Eller offered a number of tips to help in-plants market their services, emphasizing that “You are a private commercial printer for your organization,” and should not neglect marketing. Among his suggestions: conduct workshops to showcase capabilities; share cost savings the in-plant provides to the organization; meet with departments to understand their needs; use company newsletters to promote the operation; collect feedback from users and use it to improve services; and create a wall of samples to showcase the in-plant’s work.
The IPMA breakfast was a big success. It followed on the heels of an In-plant Impressions luncheon on Tuesday that also packed the room. And on Wednesday evening, after the Expo floor closed, IPMA also hosted an in-plant happy hour, sponsored by Konica Minolta, that drew a large crowd.
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.
