From the Editor: It’s Been 60 Years?

Hard to believe it’s been a decade since I sat down to write about In-plant Graphics’ 50th anniversary. And now, this month, we turn 60. Don’t feel bad if you can’t remember all the way back to our first issue, when we bore the catchy name Offset Duplicator Review. Few recall those days (though there are some, as you’ll see in our story).

Back then, offset presses were the new and exciting thing, fighting for acceptance in a letterpress world. Today, QR codes are the up-and-comer. Now, like then, IPG is on top of industry changes like this.

As for the long history of the magazine, since I detailed that rather thoroughly in our January 2001 issue, I didn’t feel the need to do it again. In the 10 years since then, though the Web, mobile devices and the even the Green movement have chipped away at print volumes, IPG has never lost faith in the value that in-plants provide. We intend to continue helping you prove the importance of your in-plant by offering advice, research and observations.

Speaking of observations, I took a train into New York right before Christmas to do just that. This city is an in-plant gold mine, with hundreds of shops tucked away here and there, all within walking distance of one another. I visited three. The first was the in-plant serving the venerable Bloomingdale’s department store. I met with Supervisor Glenn Bryant, a friendly, proficient, hard-working manager who is responsible for both digital printing and mail. He showed me a very impressive “look book” (catalog) his shop printed and bound that was more than 1,000 pages long.

Glenn runs his 3.5-employee in-plant like a business, charging back, keeping prices low and never telling customers “no.” He has observed a sharp increase in color print orders, and has plans to upgrade the shop’s Xerox DocuColor 252 (which has more than 2 million impressions on it) to a Xerox 700 digital press—though in a busy place like Bloomingdale’s, the Christmas rush had the decision makers understandibly preoccupied.

From there I headed to Barnard College, the noted women’s liberal arts school, and talked with Alan Anderson, director of Mail and Document Services. Customer service is the big focus here, and the in-plant’s customer service person (Aaron Kinard) has been doing a great job keeping customers happy. Alan says his shop has been having a lot of success insourcing work from outside the college. The in-plant uses Ricoh, Canon and Konica Minolta digital printers to print postcards, booklets, brochures, posters and much more.

Interestingly, there are two other in-plants just blocks away from Barnard’s shop: Columbia University and its affilliate, Teacher’s College. I’ve toured Columbia in the past, so I visited Teacher’s College this time. Manager Rocky Schwarz gave me a quick tour, despite being in the middle of a major copier installation on campus. I was impressed to see that his shop handles hard back binding of dissertations, among other things.

It was great visiting with these managers, and as we begin this new year, I look forward to stopping in to see more of you in 2011.