New Print Strategy Saves District Time and Money

As Print Shop Manager for Richland School District, Rachelle Palmer knew there was room for improvement in the way her Richland, Wash., district was handling printing.

"The current system was just not keeping up with increasing volumes and the changing needs of the staff," remarks Palmer.

That system included large copy rooms in each of the district's 18 school buildings where teacher assistants could produce their own work. The in-plant, meanwhile, comprised one Xerox 5100 and a small ABDick 360 press, with only a part-time employee to help Palmer produce work that was beyond the capabilities of the copy rooms. Unfortunately, because print requests were delivered through inter-district mail, they took a full day to reach the shop. The requirement that each request be accompanied by a four-part carbonless form including budget codes for billing just added red tape to the process. As a result, turnaround times ranged from three to five days. Clearly, something needed to change.

So Palmer began interviewing teachers to learn more about their copy needs. She looked at the machines they were using. She spoke with principals to find out about vendor contracts and costs.

"After completing my research, it was apparent we were paying too much per copy, and we needed to cut down on the amount of large copiers within the district," she says.

Palmer looked into options from various vendors, and concluded that a solution including Xerox printers, and software from Rochester Software Associates, would serve Richland's needs best. So after getting approval from the executive director of support services, the superintendent and the executive director of finance, the district installed a 50-copy-per-minute Xerox 5050 in each building, each equipped with QDirect software from Rochester Software Associates that lets teachers scan and send digital files directly to the in-plant. All the different vendor contracts were eliminated, resulting in a consistent, district-wide cost per copy, which has saved Richland School District money.

In-plant Upgrades

Also as part of the upgrade, the in-plant installed five Xerox D125s. Now staffed by two full-time employees and one part-timer, the shop produces more than 80 percent of the district's printing. Volumes have increased from 3 million impressions per year to 2 million per month. (Last October, the shop did a record-breaking 3.5 million copies and earned TV news coverage for the feat.) Turnaround time is now just one day, and all billing is handled electronically; carbonless forms have been replaced with electronic ones. The in-plant has also introduced wide-format printing to produce banners and posters for the schools using a Xerox 8254E and a Xerox 6604.

"One of our main goals and purposes was to return teacher assistants back into the classroom to assist teachers with students and get them out of the copy rooms," remarks Palmer. "The teachers are thrilled with the new system as they no longer need to spend their prep hour standing in front of a copier, and it allowed many of the schools to use the previous copy room space for other purposes, such as teacher work space and computer labs."

As the result of these efforts, Palmer and her in-plant at Richland School District were honored with the first-ever Innovation Award from the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association. The new award was created to recognize an organization that has shown innovative ways to improve its processes. Palmer accepted the award at the recent IPMA conference.

Over the next four years, Palmer notes, Richland School District plans to build two new schools, which will bump expected print volumes up by 70,000 to 80,000 copies per day. Palmer already has plans to increase staff, and is looking into a new location for her operation, which is now bursting at the seams.