Designing a Better In-plant
"I wanted to be a graphic designer when I started out," reflects Karen Meyers, business manager of Printing Services at Michigan Farm Bureau.
Enthralled by a high school graphic arts course, the Grand Rapids, Mich., native enrolled at Central Michigan University, where she majored in industrial supervision and management with a graphics concentration. While at CMU, Meyers took an internship with The Planning and Zoning Center where she helped lay out newsletters during school breaks.
After graduating in 1995, her design skills were rewarded with a job at the Michigan Townships Association, where she designed newsletters and flyers. Three years later she was hired as a graphic designer for Greenridge Realty in Grand Rapids. She was eventually promoted to marketing manager.
In 2007, Meyers signed on as business manager with Michigan Farm Bureau, the state's largest general farm organization, where she has worked diligently to advance the in-plant's technology and reputation. Her first move was to simplify the customer experience.
"We didn't have an online ordering system," she says. To remedy that, Meyers created a proposal to justify adding eAccess to the shop's Avanti MIS.
"That's been huge for our business," she remarks.
Next, she looked at the in-plant's digital color capabilities and decided the operation could grow more by replacing its Xerox DocuColor 8000. After six months of research, the shop added a Kodak NexPress 2500 with Dimensional Printing capabilities in 2010. This has been a huge boon to business. It was closely followed by the addition of a Kodak Digimaster to replace a Xerox DocuTech 6100. Next, Meyers upgraded the in-plant's wide-format printer to a 54˝ Xerox 8254E to expand this growing business.
To replace some traditional print jobs that have migrated to electronic versions, Meyers started taking in work from affiliated groups. Insourcing now accounts for 15 percent of the in-plant's workload.
Promoting the In-plant
To grow internal business, Meyers has increased the in-plant's marketing efforts. One year, the in-plant printed personalized candy bar wrappers for insurance agents at Michigan Farm Bureau, which they could put around the candy they gave out for Halloween as a self promotion. It proved a huge success.
"I think we signed on 30 agents that had never done business with us before," she says.
She also gives presentations about the in-plant at meetings and leaves behind cards good for discounted printing. Since joining the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association, she has made good use of that group's In-plant Awareness Week to promote the in-plant.
Getting more people to utilize the in-plant, Meyers contends, is good for the company.
"When items are printed through here, they're going to meet the brand standards, the logo's going to be correct, the colors will be correct," she notes.
Meyers also feels the company would benefit from centralizing printing so all internal print requests go through Printing Services. She points to a recent instance when a department brought her a job too large for the in-plant to handle. "I bid it through three local printers, and I was able to save them a significant amount of money," she says.
Meyers is proud that more customers are consulting with the in-plant about jobs than in years past.
"They involve us on the front end," she says. "They're really looking at us more as a partner than what they used to in the past."
Meyers is active on Avanti's users' group committee, and participated in Avanti's strategic partners group to provide feedback on the new Slingshot MIS. Though she's moved beyond her early dreams of graphic design, Meyers is pleased with the direction her career has gone.
"I have such a great team, and I feel like we are making a difference here," she says. "I feel like we serve a great purpose for everyone inside the organization."
Outside of work, she and her husband Tory have two sons who are very active in sports.
"Right now my life consists of attending their sporting events," she laughs, "which I love."
- Companies:
- Eastman Kodak Co.
- Xerox Corp.
- People:
- Karen Meyers
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.
