After outsourcing its printing, the University of Central Florida endured a nightmare of inefficiency and expense. Now the in-plant's back and customers are happy again.

By W. Eric Martin

Employee retention developed into a big problem, with pressmen and delivery people changing all the time and only one or two managers sticking around to guide them. But even the managers seemed to lack needed skills.

"They had more of a copier mentality than a print shop mentality," says Hindle, manager of the copier division at that time. The employee at the counter, he says, "would be given a four-color job and agree to have it in two days because he thought you just had to press a button. Then he'd bring it back to the print shop and the employees there would say, 'Are you nuts? We can't do that in two days.' "