No Rest For The Best

Customer-oriented, technology-focused and always looking for ways to save the university money, Mike Loyd has worked hard to build LSU Graphic Services into a leading in-plant.

Ralph Gossard routinely makes key business decisions using hard facts, so it isn't often he renders judgement based upon a gut feeling. But four years ago, Gossard—the associate vice chancellor for administrative services at Louisiana State University—decided to take a gamble when he selected Mike Loyd as LSU's Director of Graphic Services.

"Mike did not really have the large weight of experience you would normally look for," says Gossard. "But I knew him well enough to know he never rests on his laurels, he has very relevant skills, and he is someone who promotes change when change is productive."

All of which is exactly what Loyd proceeded to do, adding crucial equipment, enhancing employee training, relocating copier operations into a new facility and outsourcing minor work that could be handled more efficiently off campus. Loyd even increased the pay levels for shop employees, and established a new marketing position to promote Graphic Services to prospective customers. The result is an expanded customer base, a more efficient revenue stream, a dramatic step forward in the shop's printing capabilities and a gamble that has more than paid off.

Loyd's resourcefulness in improving nearly every facet of the Baton Rouge-based operation while adhering to budget constraints has helped LSU Graphic Services jump to number 18 on In-Plant Graphics' ranking of the nation's top 50 in-plants, as well as number five on IPG's list of the top university in-plants. It has also earned Loyd the honor of being selected as this year's Manager of the Year.

"I want things to improve," Loyd explains. "It goes back to my nature—I like to tinker with things to improve them, and I'm not afraid to try new things. If something doesn't work I don't beat myself up about it, I just move on to the next thing."

Major Operation

As director, Loyd oversees an operation with 92 employees and a budget of $7.6 million. The department is divided into four units: offset printing, the Pawprints copy center, mailing services, and copier management. The printing plant has its own 45,000-square-foot facility, while the new Copy and Mail Center—a campus building which Loyd himself secured, redesigned, and then consolidated his operations within—provides another 20,000 square feet—a far cry from the offices Loyd initially inherited, which totaled only 4,000 square feet.

The equipment list has similarly expanded—and just in time considering that some machinery was nearly 40 years old. Under Loyd's direction, the in-plant has added a six-color Mitsubishi press, a Scitex imagesetter, a Muller-Martini Presto saddle gatherer, a Baum air-feed folder, a GBC AP-2 automatic punch, foil-stamping equipment and sign-engraving equipment.

In prepress, Loyd upgraded to a Dolev 400 and added a new file server for FTP files. He also acquired a Kodak/Danka IS-110 and a networked Savin 206 color copier/printer with a Fiery RIP. All told, the installations cost more than $1 million.

Loyd's success, however, has not come from the way he's spent university money, but rather from the way he's saved it. In one instance, he negotiated a contract with a single vendor for all departmental copiers, saving the school about $200,000 annually. Then he changed the university's policy for printing letterhead, choosing generic "shells" rather than emblems that varied by department. The print shop now prints the main letterhead in runs of 100,000 rather than runs of 500 for each department. The university saves about $70,000 as a result.

When Loyd discovered it was hands-down cheaper to outsource certain items, such as business cards or envelopes, he negotiated a contract for such services, saving another 60 percent over the previous costs. For mailing services, he instituted a contract with a presort vender, with an international re-mailer, and then negotiated a contract with UPS.

"He's always generating ideas of things for us to try, things for us to improve," praises David Maloch, associate director. "Some of his ideas have been pretty much ingenious."

Such praise aside, Loyd jokes that the key to his success has been following in the footsteps of the true pioneers.

"I consider myself an expert in 'see it and steal it,' " he says. "That's what I do really well. I see something that works somewhere else and take it and model it for my own operation. I don't take big risks, I like to get into things that are low investment, possible high return."

Loyd put that philosophy to use after a visit to the University of Pittsburgh, which offers a custom publishing program that allows customers to self-publish short-run books using a networked DocuTech and a color copier. Loyd decided LSU could easily offer the same service—and now does.

On a tour of Colorado State University, Loyd was impressed with a student intern program. Rather than maintaining a full staff of designers, Colorado State utilizes an art director, a part-time designer and a large cache of student interns to meet its design needs. LSU is now in the process of emulating CSU's highly successful program.

"None of the things I've done are original," Loyd says. "They're new and original to my operation but it's a case where I've seen it someplace else, it works, and there's no reason why it couldn't work here. I try to bring in the best of all worlds."

This is exactly what impresses Gossard.

"Mike travels a lot and adapts freely from other institutions, making good decisions based upon the economics of acquired technology," Gossard says. "Rather than limiting his efforts to the day-to-day operations of Graphic Services, Mike has made a real effort to look at the whole process globally, so his professional arena is larger than just the campus. That is something that, whether it's private sector or public, is a characteristic that will always differentiate one individual from another."

For Mike Loyd, the director's chair has provided an opportunity to improve himself, as well as the operation. He recently obtained his master's degree in public administration, and is currently studying for a Ph.D. in higher education administration. But his original career track was only indirectly related to printing.

Beyond The Sports Page

After graduating from LSU in 1978 as a journalism major, Loyd spent two years as a sportswriter for the Examiner-Enterprise in Bartlesville, Okla. He then met and married his wife Kathy, today a human resources manager at LSU. The couple realized 80-hour-week journalism schedules did not coincide with a family life (they now have two sons, Jeffrey, 13, and Andrew, 11). From there, Loyd says, his true calling was clear.

"When I was at the newspaper I was an adequate writer, but I really liked the immediate nature of the production end of it, how you had to rush-rush-rush to do everything. Then when it's done, it's here-we-go-again," says Loyd. "I love that deadline pressure, and the challenge of putting things together from scratch."

As a result, Loyd spent the next decade working for commercial printers, primarily in administrative roles but also doing, as he puts it, "just about everything you can do in a printing plant, from helping in the bindery to sweeping the floor."

In 1990, he joined LSU as an assistant for special projects. The ensuing years were a lesson in how a university environment differs from the corporate world, and Loyd vowed to change some attitudes upon assuming the director's position in 1995.

"Things had been lax, and it was not like any production environment I had ever been in," Loyd says. "So I put in some simplistic rules—for instance, if your shift starts at 7, you're here at 7. It was that basic, and I'm serious when I say one lady even told me that it was a little bit harsh."

It's a challenge that, to a lesser extent, he still faces today—especially since he prefers a management style that allows employees the autonomy to handle as much decision making as possible.

"I don't believe in the old, 'oh well, we're state workers' philosophy," he says. "It's tough when you're a change agent, but I keep offering people challenges, because we're trying to be bigger, better, faster and cheaper. You have to look for the champions in your work force that stick their head above the crowd. I try to identify those folks, and say 'look, we're running the fifth largest [university] in-plant in the country. There's no reason we can't be number one.' "

Growing Through Insourcing

Loyd is also realistic—he knows, for example, that his operation is far smaller than the $16 million in-plant at the University of Washington. But LSU does have the advantage of handling state printing work unrelated to the university—a sideline that Loyd would like to expand. This was one reason he added the new marketing position.

"Our goal is to become bigger and serve the university better," he says, "but the university is only so big, so we have to get outside work to supplement what we do in order to enhance our equipment mix and be able to serve our parent better."

Another advantage, Loyd freely admits, has been support from management. LSU officials, Gossard in particular, have been very open-minded to Loyd's suggestions for improving Graphic Services.

Loyd considers the improvements in equipment and changes in employee attitudes to be his most significant achievements. But there are still goals on the horizon. Loyd would like to improve scheduling, make a significant foray into digital printing, and—perhaps most symbolic of Loyd's mindset—find a method to recognize the efforts of hard-working employees.

"When you're dealing with state workers, it's hard to come up with positive ways to acknowledge good work," Loyd laments. "I can't go buy them a steak dinner on the university account, for example, because it's against the law. So trying to come up with creative ways of employee recognition, something meaningful and legal, is a major goal."

Nonetheless, there is little doubt that Loyd's four years of effort are paying dividends. As even the modest Loyd reluctantly admits, "This is a much different place from when I walked in here, and hopefully everyone has benefited."

Close Customer Contact

One key to Mike Loyd's success has been the strong ties he has forged with his customer base. To facilitate communication, he launched a customer advisory panel, inviting the shop's 10 largest customers to meet with the management staff at LSU Graphic Services quarterly, with the table open for any comments and criticisms.

"I initially thought it would enhance our presence on campus," Loyd says. "But it's also turned out to be a great managerial tool for me to sound ideas off of these people, because they're the ones who are actually going to purchase these services.

"And if we receive a complaint letter, I invite those people to our meetings too—because they're going to hear these other people tell them how wonderful we are, and they'll get to see that if they have a bad experience, it's isolated."

"If we receive a complaint letter, I invite those people to our meetings too—because they're going to hear these other people tell them how wonderful we are, and they'll get to see that if they have a bad experience, it's isolated."