Intermountain Rises! New Facility and Inkjet Fuel Savings Surge

Tami Reese has witnessed some monumental changes at Intermountain Healthcare’s in-plant. Twelve years ago, when she managed the graphic designers for the largest nonprofit health system in the Intermountain West, there was no in-plant; her staff ran small jobs on a color copier, and all other printing was outsourced.

But when her research showed in-house printing could bring major cost savings, the company opened a centralized print center, with her at the reins. Since then, Reese has overseen the growth of Intermountain’s Design & Print Center into a high-tech 20-employee business unit that just expanded into a facility two-and-a-half times as large — and added a production inkjet press.

“And we’re already feeling like we need more space,” she laughs.

At 20,000 sq. ft., the new facility greatly exceeds the size of the former 8,000-sq.-ft. space, which was located inside Intermountain’s supply chain center, just outside of Salt Lake City. Though that location provided conveniences of proximity to the company’s pick-and-pack operation for medical supplies, along with the couriers that delivered them, the new plant — 17 miles away — is far nicer, with loading docks, 30ˈ-high ceilings, and a more efficient equipment layout.

The spacious new 20,000-sq.-ft. facility gave Intermountain’s Design & Print Center plenty of room for its new Ricoh Pro VC60000 roll-fed inkjet press.

“It’s a really cool facility,” praises Reese, a 34-year Intermountain employee. Company couriers still stop by daily to pick up print jobs and deliver them to Intermountain’s 33 hospitals and 385 clinics in seven western states.

Space for Inkjet

Though the decision to move was prompted by the company’s need for additional space for its pharmacy, the in-plant had its own reason for needing a larger facility:

“We wanted that inkjet technology, so we needed a bigger space,” Reese says.

In October, the in-plant fired up a new Ricoh Pro VC60000 roll-fed inkjet press and put it to work printing explanation of benefits (EOB) statements, open enrollment materials, provider directories, hospital statements, and patient education materials. In one of its first jobs, the VC60000 churned out 400,000 EOBs in a few hours, Reese says, “which normally would have taken a week.” Between October and December, she notes, the in-plant output 15 million impressions on the press, which prints 492 fpm at 600x600 dpi.

Intermountain’s Design & Print Center team gathers in front of the new Ricoh Pro VC60000 production inkjet press.

Reese estimates a 13-month ROI on the inkjet press, with the bulk of the savings coming from the elimination of preprinted shells, since the VC60000 prints personalized materials in one pass. Color printing is cheaper now too, she says, dropping from about nine cents per copy on toner to three cents on inkjet.

The need for paper rolls was a change for the in-plant’s staff, she says, but after training and the addition of roll-handling equipment, the process has been going smoothly.

The decision to get an inkjet press was inspired, in part, by attending the Inkjet Summit, Reese says.

“The networking that you can do there, and the ability to ask a lot of questions and find out what the pros and cons are made us better prepared for doing it ourselves,” she says.

The in-plant made the decision to get an inkjet press several years ago. But complications delayed implementation.

“It’s literally been in the works since 2018,” Reese says. The RFQ went out and the bid was awarded to Ricoh just before COVID hit. Then everything went on hold. Fortunately, when it was time to move ahead, Ricoh kept to the original price, she says.

Trevor Anderson runs the new Xanté En/Press digital envelope printer.

Having had a taste of inkjet, Reese now wants more.

“We’re also bidding to get a color cut-sheet inkjet,” she reveals, noting that the in-plant needs to be able to switch papers frequently. “So we really need a cut-sheet.”

Despite adding the new VC60000, the in-plant has not shed any of its toner equipment. It runs two Ricoh Pro C9210s (which provide better quality printing than the VC60000, she says), two Kodak Digimaster 300s to handle MICR printing, and a Ricoh Pro 8220 for NCR. The shop also recently added a Xanté En/Press digital envelope printer, “just in time for the holiday cards,” Reese says, “so they could have their customized envelopes.”

A Valuable Asset

Moving the in-plant and buying an inkjet press are big expenses, but Reese says Intermountain was willing to pay because of the tremendous savings the Design & Print Center brings. In 2023, it saved the company more than $4 million, she notes.

The in-plant’s value was lauded by a consultant the company hired a few years ago, who pointed out two major benefits the in-plant was providing: “The amount of savings that we have by insourcing, and mostly the fact that we are the gatekeepers of the brand,” Reese says. “They made a recommendation to our senior leadership that we needed to keep the department.”

The consultant also provided a report showing which departments were buying print outside, and Reese has been approaching them and urging them to let the in-plant handle procurement through its bidding software. By brokering work out to contracted suppliers, the in-plant can ensure lower prices, faster turnaround times, branding compliance, and quality. So far, she has reduced that external spend from $2 million to $117,000.

Intermountain’s 2022 merger with SCL Health, which outsourced most of its printing, has brought a lot of potential new volume for the inkjet press. Reese plans to educate those print buyers on the savings the in-plant can bring them.

Value-Added Services

Beyond design, document printing, and fulfillment, the Design & Print Center also provides other services. It is one of the few in-plants that does embroidery, using a Barudan embroidery machine to sew customized shirts for events. It also creates awards and plaques using a new Boss laser engraver and sells promotional items to departments for their events.

To handle wide-format printing, the Design & Print Center has integrated with Intermountain’s sign center, which is in another location. Reese manages the online catalog and billing for the sign center. Both operations use WebCRD from Rochester Software Associates as their Web-to-print portal.

After years of anticipation, Reese is excited to finally be in the new facility with an inkjet press up and running.

From left: Tami Reese, Allison Corry, and Scott Schofield welcomed nearly 200 visitors to a company-wide open house recently to show off the new facility.

“To see the payoff finally is amazing,” she enthuses.

She got to show it all off recently at a company-wide open house that drew nearly 200 visitors. Reese says they were “blown away” by the operation.

“I don’t think people realized how much we can do,” she says. “It was a proud moment, for sure.”