Nerves Of Steel

In 1994 Tony Loster took on the challenge of reviving an out-of-date in-plant. Today, print quality and business are soaring—and he's not done yet.

BORN IN California and raised in the Chicago area, Tony Loster, director of print production at The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) in-plant in Rosemont, Ill., came from humble beginnings in the printing industry.

"I went to work for my brother-in-law who was at a company that set type," recalls Loster of his first job out of high school. "I started out delivering type." From there Loster did some proofing and various other jobs, before getting his hand into printing.

Loster later took a job with Color Communications, trying his luck in the management end of the business—and it stuck. He started there as line manager for coating machines and moved up through the ranks, eventually becoming production manager.

Then in 1994, Loster took on a new challenge: The revamping of the out-of-date AANS print shop, which at the time was getting by with old equipment and outsourcing much of its work.

"We had a couple of Multis that were probably 20 years old," Loster recalls. "We shot all of our halftones with a camera and we had a paper platemaker." The shop was working with outdated PC software and produced mostly one- and two-color work, Loster says.

Loster knew things had to change in order for the in-plant to be successful. In the five years since he took over the reins of the shop, he has added an imagesetter and an A.B.Dick 9985, and now 90 percent of the work goes direct to polyester plate.

The shop uses PCs, but has updated its computers with current versions of PageMaker and PhotoShop software. These upgrades are what Loster feels have made the in-plant able to handle a drastic increase in volume.

"We were doing about 300 to 400 jobs per year when I started here," Loster says. "Now we do about 1,100 per year." And that number will undoubtedly grow in the future, especially now that the shop has started to insource work. Jobs from outside of the company are becoming an increasingly large part of the shops volume, he says.

Insourcing Pays Off

"We are now also taking in outside work from external customers. Last year it was about 15 percent of our budget," Loster notes. The shop's annual budget now stands at about $1 million. Much of this insourcing can be attributed to the addition of the A.B.Dick, which has allowed the shop to offer four-color work, something it could not provide in the past. This has also allowed the shop to expand its employee base, and another press operator has been added to handle the load. AANS now employs six full-time workers in the 7,000-square-foot print shop and design area, including two designers and two press operators.

Along with bringing in more business to the shop, Loster is proud of the way that work is being produced by his employees. The quality of the work has improved over the past few years, he says. That improvement is apparent to customers, as well, and they now realize that they can expect more from the shop.

"Our internal customers are seeing something that they weren't seeing before—and that is short-run, four-color work," Loster says.

To remain a successful operation and make the shop even more efficient, Loster plans on bringing in more technology in the near future. Next on his list is a computer management system.

"We are going to look for some operating software to take a job from order entry through estimating to shipping it out the door," Loster reveals.

Outside of AANS, Loster devotes some of his energy to the Chicago chapter of the International Publishing Management Association, where he recently became chapter president. In his five years with IPMA he has served on the board of directors, earned his CGCM certification and been named 1997 International Member of the Year. He has chaired many committees, including the committee that organized the recent Chicago Chapter Educational Conference.

When not working, Loster enjoys the "change of seasons" in the Chicago area. He relaxes by running and biking along Lake Michigan.

He is married and has two children, a 21-year-old son who attends De Paul University and studies computers, and an 11-year-old daughter, who enjoys playing ice-hockey. IPG

Chris Bauer can be reached at: cbauer@napco.com.