On-Line News
Managers Honored
In-plant managers received more than just knowledge from the recent International Publishing Management Association conference in Portland, Ore. Dozens of them took home awards.
The In-Print awards got the most attention. All 105 plaques were on display, and first-place winners had their awards presented to them on stage during the awards banquet. Boeing claimed the Best of Show victory, its fifth in 11 years.
Additionally, IPMA recognized a number of in-plants for their accomplishments:
• Duke Energy, of Houston, won IPMA's annual award for In-house Promotional Excellence for holding an open house in the company's lobby that drew more than 500 visitors. The in-plant showed off its new digital capabilities and stressed the message that customers should send files electronically to save time and improve quality. As a result, digital printing files jumped from an average of 3 to 30 files per day. Cindy Owen, manager of Communications Services, accepted the award for Duke Energy.
• Washington State University, in Pullman, earned IPMA's Management Award. The operation's many accomplishments included a tremendous growth in productivity in 2000. Copy centers produced over 900,000 more copies than in 1999, and 60,000 more offset pieces were produced. Steven Rigby, director of printing, accepted the award.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of Cambridge, was named Mail Center of the Year for making numerous improvements that enhanced mail efficiency and saved more than $1.4 million in 2000.
• Also, IPMA named six Outstanding Contributors for their dedication and support of IPMA: Lora Geionety, A.A. "Al" Harrison, Christine Landowski, Liz Messner, Dave Pitts and Pat Seier.
Just The Thing
American River College, in Sacramento, Calif., recently added a new Konica 7075. Don Reid, supervisor of Printing Services, says the machine is perfect for his eight-employee shop and has held up quite well under some busy conditions. "We have been very happy, with not only the production of the machine, but the quality of image, as well," Reid says. "If I had the budget for it right now, I would definitely put another one in to run tandem."
A Better Forms Press
Forms are a big part of life at the Texas Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), in Austin. So when one of Printing and Distribution Services' old Didde roll-to-roll presses started breaking down a lot, the in-plant went looking for a new web press.
Though Didde submitted a bid, a German company called Form All Edelmann offered a much better deal. So a few months ago, HHS installed a four-color FAE press, purchased through Litho Machine Sales, of San Antonio.
"It exceeded all of our specifications," notes Robert McDaniel, manager of Printing and Distribution Services. He says the press is faster than the shop's Didde models and smaller too. And FAE's technicians have been very accommodating.
HHS runs the press for two shifts. The biggest job is a State of Texas Application for Assistance form—a four-part, snap-out form, printed front and back, two-over-two. The shop prints 700,000 a month, and the new press performs wonderfully, McDaniel says.
"The collator's the only bottleneck now," he adds.
Calendar
• September 24-28. Seybold San Francisco. For info, call (888) 886-8895 or visit www.seyboldseminars.com.
• September 30-October 3. National State Publishing Association, 25th annual conference. Baton Rouge, La. For info, call (601) 582-3330 or visit www.govpublishing.org.
• October 14-17. National Postal Forum. Denver. For info, call (703) 218-5015 or visit www.npf.org.
• October 21-24. Southeastern University Printing and Duplicating Managers Conference. Gulfport, Miss. For info, call (601) 266-4186.
• October 28-November 2. Xplor 2001, Global Electronic Document Systems Conference. Orlando, Fla. For more info, visit www.xplor.org, call (310) 791-9521 or e-mail info@xplor.org.
Southern Kudos
The Printing Industry Association of the South has presented its 2001 Graphic Awards, and two of the big winners were in-plants, both from Louisville, Ky.
• Papa Johns Support Service won one award of merit and three awards of excellence.
• The University of Louisville won five awards of merit, 15 awards of excellence and five best of category awards.
The annual competition is designed to recognize and honor Southern U.S. printers for creating, designing and producing quality printed materials.
Printing Sales Up
Printing industry sales and employment continued to rise in 2000, according to data released by the Printing Industries of America (PIA).
In its annual Print Market Atlas, PIA says industry shipments reached $163 billion in 2000, and employment topped 1.2 million. At the same time, the number of U.S. printing plants declined from more than 49,400 in 1999 to 47,667 in 2000. Most of the plant closings were of smaller shops with fewer than 10 employees.
California led all states in the number of graphic arts firms with 5,880, followed by New York and then Illinois.
Here are the top 10 cities and regions for printing, according to PIA, ranked by number of employees:
1 Chicago 67,197
2 New York 43,197
3 Los Angeles 40,218
4 Philadelphia and New Jersey 34,178
5 Minneapolis and Wisconsin 30,505
6 Boston and N.H. 21,363
7 Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia & West Virginia 19,198
8 Dallas 18,706
9 Atlanta 18,191
10 Nassau & Suffolk, N.Y. 18,183
News Briefs
• Sir Speedy and PIP printing have introduced new Internet printing services through Webprint, an e-commerce provider. Customers can now submit digital printing jobs from the print function in their document authoring application to the printing location of their choice.
• Hans Peetz-Larsen, CEO of Heidelberg Americas, will receive the Walter E. Soderstrom Award from the National Association for Printing Leadership for his contributions to the progress of the printing industry.
• Southwest Plastic Binding Co. has opened a new 26,000-square-foot warehouse in Orange, Calif. It is nearly triple the size of its previous warehouse.
• The National Association for Printing Leadership and the Research and Engineering Council have agreed to enter into a strategic alliance.
• MAN Roland has entered into a cooperative agreement with Flint Ink North America. At Print 01 in Chicago, Flint Ink products will be used on presses running in the MAN Roland exhibit.
• Océ Printing Systems USA and Mail-Gard Concepts have formed an alliance to provide Océ customers with more print and mail disaster recovery options.
• GBC has introduced a new transactional Web site to let customers order products online: www.GBCconnect.com.
• Domtar completed the $1.65 billion acquisition of four paper mills and related assets from Georgia-Pacific. The mills are located in Ashdown, Ark., Nekoosa and Port Edwards, Wis., and Woodland, Maine.
Spin And Learn
Hammermill Papers has developed a new tool to help in-plant customer service representatives who take paper orders answer common questions about paper selection.
The Hammermill Guide to CSR Survival "Spin and Learn" wheel features eight questions and corresponding answers. For its Great White Recycled Paper, Hammermill has created a similar tool, with common questions from environmentally friendly customers.
To get the "Spin and Learn" wheels, call (800) 242-2148.
