Inline Finishing Helps Highmark’s In-plant Excel

With 20,500 employees and 4.8 million health plan members, Highmark Inc. is one of the largest health insurance companies in the country. To produce the benefit books, sales collateral, enrollment packages, manuals and other items necessary to run its business, the Pittsburgh-based company relies on its busy Corporate Printing Services department.

Under the direction of Manager Jeffrey S. Taranto, Corporate Printing Services has built a reputation for responsiveness and service easily rivaling that of many mid-size print shops. The 18-employee in-plant operates facilities at Highmark's two main Pennsylvania locations—one serving the headquarters operation in Pittsburgh, and a satellite shop near Harrisburg, in Camp Hill.

Each operation runs 24 hours, five days a week, and on weekends when needed. The two facilities typically print between 10 and 15 million impressions a month—all of it at cost.

In the in-plant's Pittsburgh facility, the digital printing equipment lineup includes five full-color Xerox iGen4s, two monochrome Xerox Nuvera 288 EA perfecting production systems and a Xerox DocuColor 8000. The Camp Hill facility has a Xerox DocuColor 8000 and a Nuvera 288 EA. The in-plant's entire digital operation is driven by Xerox FreeFlow Digital Workflow software, with Xerox XMPie software used for variable print production.

Finishing Touches

Most of the finishing touches at both locations are applied using inline equipment from C.P. Bourg. In Pittsburgh, three of the iGen4s have Bourg BMEx booklet makers with BCMEx creasers, and all three Nuvera 288 EAs at both locations have Bourg BDFx finishers to stitch, fold and trim booklets, reports and various other documents. Other machines for folding, die-cutting, plastic coiling, comb binding, three-hole punching, packaging and padding round out the in-plant's finishing capabilities.

"We've had phenomenal success on the digital platform," says Taranto. "Much of our work involves the production of benefit books, high-end sales collateral, customized enrollment packages, manuals, marketing materials and postcards. We also often work 'outside the box,' producing everything from posters and transparent static clings for decorating office windows and walls to personalized customer letters, event invitation packages and die-cut materials."

The ability to produce personalized pieces printed with variable data is critically important today, and the ability to keep that data secure within the company is equally important.

"Having an in-house operation makes it possible to achieve both goals. It also means we can handle jobs at the 11th hour that often can't be done outside," Taranto says. "Plus, with the Bourg BMEx and BCMEx, we're able to finish full-bleed marketing materials printed on our large-format iGen4—something that even many commercial printers can't do."

Highmark's Bourg BDFx and BMEx finishers combine the three key functions of stitching, folding and trimming in a single compact module. Documents from two to 55 sheets can be top-, side-, corner- or saddle-stitched, then folded and trimmed automatically.

The Bourg BCMEx Bleed Crease Module is unique in its ability to accept and process full-sized Xerox iGen4 output at the printer's full speed, and do it with superior quality, delivering accurately creased and trimmed sheets automatically to the Bourg BMEx finisher for stitching.

When it was first installed in late 2009, the Bourg BCMEx Bleed Crease Module allowed Highmark's internal clients to design pieces for internal production with color printing that extended—or "bled"—to the trimmed edge. This enabled Taranto's group to handle more work, while helping the company cut down on turnaround times and pare outside costs.

The net effect of producing full-bleed color work internally in an all-digital workflow means that Highmark can create more professional-looking marketing materials while cutting production-related costs by more than 40 percent compared to outside printers, Taranto says. Also, because the in-plant can respond quickly to company demands, it can produce jobs faster and with greater data security.

"When you add up all the savings—the lower expense for proofs, not having to ship finished product or to warehouse stock overages—our cost savings can be closer to 50 percent, and that's before factoring in the quick turnaround times that help us get finished product into customers' hands faster," he explains.

"Plus, the color and accuracy of print from the iGen4 press is...every bit as good as the print from a Heidelberg press," insists Taranto, adding the Bourg finishers ensure the finished products maintain that high quality.

"Our customers and clients love the quality," he says, pointing to the shop's 99.7 percent approval rating in 2011 based on 20,705 customer satisfaction surveys received. During this time, Corporate Print Services produced 75,510 digital printing and/or finishing projects—276 percent more than the previous year—with literally zero brand compliance issues, defects or privacy issues.

"All our work arrives electronically through the corporate intranet, and much of it is produced automatically through Xerox FreeFlow and XMPie software," explains Taranto. "FreeFlow is integral to our operation from a business standpoint, and all our key printing production lines are networked through it. The great thing with FreeFlow is that my staff can select jobs from the communications queue and run them on the Xerox and Bourg systems at either campus. This keeps jobs flowing and lets us load-balance when needed.

"With a digital workflow, my staff literally touches the stock only twice: once when they load sheets in the iGen and Nuvera presses, and again when they collect the finished booklets from the Bourg BDFx and BMEx finishers," he notes. "The bottom line is, finishing can make or break our ability to take on a project and for Highmark to benefit from our working on it in less time and at a lower cost.

"When I sought out finishing gear for the first time to satisfy the digital mandate, I went to all the shows and saw all the possibilities," he continues. "C.P. Bourg had the solution I was looking for. Their reputation and their status as a Xerox Business Innovation Partner made choosing them all the sweeter for me. Both C.P. Bourg and Xerox have been valuable partners in making our range of services possible."

"With the Bourg BMEx and BCMEx, we're able to finish full-bleed marketing materials printed on our large-format iGen4—something that even many commercial printers can't do."

— Jeffrey S. Taranto