Lilley Blossoms At NJ Transit

Rob Lilley spent seven years learning graphic arts in the army. He uses his military experience to manage New Jersey Transit's in-plant.

Rob Lilley discovered his love of graphic arts in a very unlikely place—the United States Army. Now, as manager of print graphics at New Jersey Transit, he uses his military skills to run an efficient—and growing—in-plant.

Under Lilley's management, the in-plant grew from 5,000 to 25,000 square feet, and went from producing 16 million pieces a year up to 44 million pieces, mostly schedules, forms and stationery.

Lilley, 51, was born in San Antonio Texas. His father was an engineer whose work took him all over the country. The family moved several times, ending up in Mountain Lakes, N.J., where Rob graduated from high school. He went on to La Grange College in Georgia as a fine arts student.

"I always wanted to be an artist," he says.

In 1970, though, after completing his second year, the whole direction of his life changed.

"I was interrupted by this slight little altercation that happened in Southeast Asia—called Vietnam," he drolly recalls. "I knew I was going to be drafted."

He decided to beat the army to the punch and enlisted in the Army Security Agency. After making it through one tour in Vietnam, Lilley was able to put his education to use in the army.

"Because they found out I had an art background, [the army] made me a graphic designer," he explains.

Lilley spent the next eight years traveling the world as an army graphic designer. His travels took him to the war room of the Pentagon, and to Turkey as part of NATO.

After leaving the army in 1977, he spent four years freelancing in Germany—living a mere 20 miles south of Heidelberg. Needless to say, he learned a great deal about printing there.

In 1981, he returned to the U.S., settling back in New Jersey. His graphic arts background landed him a job as a field representative for NJ Transit's bus shelter and sign program. Soon afterwards, NJ Transit named him manager of print graphics at its Orange, N.J. in-plant.

Military Training Pays Off

Lilley's military training is evident in the manner in which he runs the 14-person in-plant. He lists four aspects to good management: administration, intelligence, operations and logistics.

One of the first changes Lilley made incorporated each aspect.

"When I first took over this department, it was basically a print-on-demand shop," he reports. To Lilley, that wasn't efficient enough.

"Our job really isn't printing," he points out. "Our job is print management. We had to know who our customers were, what products they wanted, why they wanted them, and how often they needed [them]."

Because the in-plant handles all business forms and stationery for NJ Transit, Lilley and his staff initiated a forms-control system. They began mass-producing inventory, then supplying customers out of their storage area. When the supply dropped to a certain level they printed more.

"We weren't waiting for customers to tell us when to do things," he declares. "We were telling ourselves when to do things, and in a lot of cases we were telling the customers what they needed. We could also watch their use, and rate of use."

Lilley says his in-plant is the leading timetable producer in the country. NJ Transit, he says, has over 230 bus lines, eight rail lines and two light rail lines that require over 30 million one- or two-color timetables annually. These must be shipped to bus, train and light rail terminals, garages, ticket agencies and other locations throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

"We're the only state-wide mass-transit area in existence," Lilley says.

The in-plant keeps up with the demand for these timetables by keeping its equipment up to date. Over the past two years the shop has added a two-color, 28x40˝ Shinohara perfecting press, a two-color, 19x25˝ Shinohara perfector, and a 44˝ Agfa imagesetter. Six months ago, two MBO folders with bundlers were added.

Lilley credits his experienced staff and NJ Transit administration for the continued success of the in-plant.

"I'm very proud to work for [NJ] Transit," he enthuses. "I think it is one of the best—if not the best—transit operations in the country."

Lilley, an affable down-to-earth man, enjoys time spent with Jan, his wife of 15 years, and his family. He still expresses his artistic side by spinning and weaving cloth to make rugs and blankets.

by Joe Ranoia