Columbia College In-plant Relocates, Upgrades

After nearly 20 years in a cramped, subterranean facility with uneven floors and equipment in different rooms, Mark Tindell was more than ready to move his in-plant. The director of Mail and Print Services at Columbia College says space was so tight he even had a wide-format printer crammed into his office.

That all changed in January when the six-employee in-plant relocated to a larger facility on the top floor of a two-story building on its Columbia, Mo., campus. Not only does it have lots of windows and more elbow room, the new shop boasts a loading dock, something the previous location lacked.

“We love it here,” enthuses Tindell. “It’s set up the way we like it.”

Now, all the machines are in one space, with offices in a separate area. “So we don’t have to listen to the noise of the machinery, which is very nice,” he remarks.

The new facility is also more secure than the previous one, he adds.

Tindell coordinated the move to coincide with the delivery of some new equipment, which was waiting for staff when they arrived:

• A Ricoh Pro C901, which replaced a five-year-old Ricoh Pro C900.
• A Ricoh Pro C5110, to fulfill the black-and-white printing needs previously handled by an outgoing Ricoh Aficio MP 7000.

“We wanted to still produce black-and-white,” says Tindell of the 5110, “but it prints color as well, and so we’ve got a backup for the 901.”

The C901 has one feature that Tindell likes a lot: it does not use fuser oil like the C900 used to. This and the use of more uniform toner particles have resulted in near-offset quality.

Tindell looked at other companies’ printers, but his familiarity with Ricoh and the good service he was getting drew him to the C901. He also spoke with another satisfied user, Tammy Slone from Cedarville University and visited her Ohio operation to see the printer in action. That helped seal the deal.

Tindell has plans to add Print Shop Pro, from EDU Business Solutions and use its digital storefront to bring in work from Columbia University’s other campuses. The private, non-profit, liberal arts and sciences college has 34 campuses around the country (18 of them on military bases) and serves more than 30,000 students.