From the Editor: An In-plant Road Trip

As I've talked with in-plant managers at conferences over the years, many of them have extended an "if you're ever in the area" invitation for me to visit their shops. Earlier this year it dawned on me that for a quite a few Pennsylvania in-plants I was already "in the area" more or less, and the only thing stopping me from getting out there and visiting them was my own reluctance to leave the office.

So last month I finally made some time. I set up meetings with six different in-plant managers out in central Pennsylvania, most of whom I've been seeing at conferences for years. On my list were:

• The Pennsylvania Department of General Services, Harrisburg
• Penn State University, State College
• Penn College, Williamsport
• Bucknell University, Lewisburg
• Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg
• Lehigh University, Bethlehem

I set out on a sunny fall day, and I couldn't have timed it better. The autumn colors were brilliant as I drove through the hills of central Pennsylvania, passing farms and small towns, and wishing I could stop and explore each one.

I paused first in Harrisburg for a visit with Commonwealth Print Administrator Audrey Marrocco, who heads up the PA General Services Department. I've known Audrey for years through the National Government Publishing Association, and knew that she has been actively working to consolidate the various in-plants that have cropped up in the state's government over the years. When I sat with her I learned she had already centralized about 20 percent of them in the past 18 months, with a projected savings of more than $1 million. So far eight employees from those shops have joined her staff. She showed me a map on her wall depicting all the operations she was targeting for consolidation.

Audrey showed me around her impressive 40,000-square-foot, climate-controled facility, which the in-plant moved into less than three years ago. It houses several multi-color offset presses, plus a bevy of black-and-white and color Xerox digital printers, including an iGen3. It also features ample bindery and mailing capabilities, plus a sign shop for posters, engineering drawings, vehicle decals and laser engraving. The newest service at the in-plant is EFI's Digital StoreFront, which came online in June, and has been rechristened PA Publisher. (See a video showing all the in-plants I visited by clickin the video tab on the right.)

From there I headed into the hilly heart of Pennsylvania, toward my alma mater, Penn State University. Director Abbas Badani took me right to the Multimedia & Print Center's mailing operation, where he proudly showed off the new Pitney Bowes FlowMaster insterting system, with camera scanning to verify job accuracy. He emphasized that mail often drives print to his in-plant; customers send externally printed jobs to be mailed and he convinces them to print those jobs at the in-plant next time. He also noted that overseeing mail puts in-plants in a stronger position, since mail is seen as "mission critical" and is unlikely to be outsourced.

We stopped for a look at the in-plant's Xerox iGen3, which Abbas said is putting personalized data on up to 40 percent of its jobs. I also saw the new Xerox Color–Qube 9203, which uses solid ink—the first time I've seen this unit in an in-plant. In the offset area, he showed me a new pre-owned two-color A.B.Dick press. And he said the in-plant is getting a second wide-format inkjet printer to accommodate the growing demand for posters. His department recently negotiated a new campus MFD agreement, which will save PSU some $750,000.

Penn College and Bucknell

After spending most of that evening wandering around campus, remembering old times and wishing I were a carefree student again, I woke to a chilly 28-degree morning and set off for Williamsport. There I met with Joe Geffre, a regular at the Association of College and University Printers conference, and toured his operation at Penn College. His in-plant is very unique in that it shares much of its equipment with the school's educational program, so he must schedule production around student lab time.

I was impressed with the variety of equipment his in-plant has on hand: numerous multi-color offset presses, a Kodak NexPress 2100 plus, wide-format printing, and lots of bindery equipment, including a new Graphic Whizard CreaseMaster Platinum, which can do a one pass, bi-directional perf to create tear-out post cards. I looked at samples of the NexPress's work, which includes calendars, posters, post cards, brochures and more.

To help the school's educational mission, the in-plant produces textbooks and other class materials on its Kodak Digimaster, which are sold to students at very low prices. Joe said he recently received authority to oversee contracts for all school printers, which he expects will save big money.

My next stop was Bucknell University, where the in-plant just installed the new Xerox Color 800 digital press, as detailed in IPG last month. Operators at the shop seemed thrilled with the new machine, and print samples looked great.

Lisa Hoover, director of Publications, Print & Mail, showed me around the 23-employee in-plant, which has a full range of offset and bindery equipment, plus a well-equipped mail department. It uses a chemistry-free Presstek Vector TX52 metal plate CTP device. The in-plant has four designers, who also serve as account reps.

Bloomsburg and Lehigh

The next day I headed back east, stopping first at Bloomsburg University Printing Services, a shop I knew nothing about. I found a compact, orderly operation which boasted not one but two Ryobi two-color presses. Manager Tom Patacconi showed me around his operation, which included a new Lanier C720s Pro color printer with an inline Plockmatic bookletmaker, as well as other Lanier digital printers, most with inline stitching or punching. Tom said 70 percent of his shop's jobs are digital.

Tom reports to Purchasing, which is in charge of bidding out large print jobs, so occasionally his boss tells him about jobs that he thinks the in-plant could handle next time. The shop uses a home-grown job ordering system, which Tom demonstrated for me. He also showed me the large paper and ink warehouse the in-plant is fortunate to have nearby, which obviates the need for stacking paper in the shop itself.

When I left Bloomsburg, I knew my time on the road was coming to an end, but I still had one more stop. I had visited Lehigh University's in-plant ages ago, when the school had hosted the Association of College and University Printers. Since then, the shop has made many changes, the latest being a new Ricoh Pro C900 digital color press. The man behind the changes was Director Glenn Strause. I spent a couple hours talking with him about his ideas for new services and increasing profits.

Glenn said that document scanning, using the scanner on the shop's Ricoh Pro 1106EX copier/printer, is a booming business. Departments want to digitize old reports to make them searchable online. He hopes to add document shredding services soon, by partnering with mobile shredding companies. That way customers can have him scan their old documents, then shred them to save warehousing costs.

Another new service he started was digital photo printing and delivery. The in-plant partnered with a local photo shop, so customers upload their digital photos online, the photo shop prints and delivers them to the in-plant, and then the in-plant delivers them to customers.

The in-plant has both offset and digital printing, but Glenn said it's the Pro C900 that's been responsible for the recent surge in volumes. Departments that used to send work outside are now directing it to the in-plant, he said.

After that visit, I turned south and headed for home, glad that I'd had the opportunity to visit with these six managers and find out a little about their operations and their accomplishments. IPG