Two In-plants Win NAPL Management Plus Awards
When the National Association For Printing Leadership (NAPL) recently released its list of Management Plus Award winners, two in-plants were among the recipients.
Portland General Electric’s Print & Automated Mail Services (PAMS) team received a Management Plus Gold Award, while Washington State Printing & Imaging, part of the state’s new Department of Enterprise Services, earned a Silver Award.
“The award is a credit to supervisor Eric Houger and the entire team, and the quality work they do every day for PGE customers and internal clients,” remarks Wes Friesen, manager of Revenue Collection & Community Offices. This is the in-plant’s third NAPL Gold award after winning a Silver award last year.
Washington State Printing & Imaging Manager Jean-Luc Devis is similarly proud of his staff. “They are an outstanding team. They are always focused on the customer to meet the quality, timelines and price point necessary,” he says. His in-plant received a Merit award from NAPL in 2009.
Scoring for Management Plus involves the evaluation of categories such as human resources, strategic business planning, environmental/safety concerns, community/industry relations, marketing/sales plan, internal control systems, quality assurance and financial performance. Entrants receive a detailed outside evaluation of their management strengths and weaknesses.
Friesen points to one of his operation’s most impressive accomplishments: nearly 10 straight years of printing and mailing customer bills the same day as the print files were received.
“This is a remarkable streak considering the challenges of equipment failures, bad weather, short staffing, etc.,” Friesen notes. “The team has avoided complacency and buys into the continuous improvement philosophy—and it shows.” He also notes that PAMS has received both SFI chain-of-custody certification and USPS Mail Preparation Total Quality Management (MPTQM) certification, and has implemented a peer-to-peer recognition program, which has improved morale, motivation and teamwork.
The Silver award for Washington State Printing & Imaging follows another recent honor: last year the in-plant won the 2011 IPMA Management Award, which recognizes an outstanding in-house publishing department.
“The NAPL Silver award recognizes our in-plant’s overall operation and management excellence when compared side-by-side with the commercial printers,” points out Devis. “This speaks highly of the professionalism and competence of our organization.”
- Places:
- Washington State
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.
