Keys to Our Success
For some, it's been an auspicious time to retire. For those of us left trying to keep our in-plants afloat, we have had to rethink, redesign, reinvent, retool, reorganize and challenge ourselves in order to sustain operations.
Being financially solvent used to be a benchmark for an in-plant's success. However, operating in the black is not a valid enough reason to justify our existence today. Even self-sustaining in-plants can find their operations being outsourced due to a capricious administrative decision made under the guise of "print is dead." To remain viable, today's in-plant must become indispensable to its parent organization, while at the same time not relying on its parent's resources for funding.
Gordon Rivera is a graphic communication lecturer at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo and is the supervisor of Campus Graphics, an in-plant provider of traditional and digital media for Allan Hancock College, a community college in Santa Maria, Calif. He is a certified G7 Print Professional and has successfully completed both Lean/Six Sigma training and a Black Belt level project. Please email gorivera@calpoly.edu regarding your print experiences in the pursuit of quality.
