In-plants Must Show Their Relevancy

At the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference last week, Ricoh's Debbie Pavletich, a former in-plant manager, spoke about how important it is for in-plants to show their relevancy within their organization. Beyond the cost savings in-plants provide, she listed a few other key areas of value that in-plants offer—a good checklist to keep on hand in case someone starts wondering why your organization has an in-plant.

• Faster Turnaround: Since your organization is the in-plant's only customer, it is not competing with other customers’ project timelines.
• Convenience: The in-plant can provide better responsiveness due to its onsite (or nearby) location. It is a centralized source for design, print and distribution. Also, no purchase orders are needed for print jobs, and there is no need to process invoices through accounts receivable.
• Ease of Doing Business: The in-plant is available to assist customers in design, development and print processing.
• Quality: The in-plant has a thorough understanding of the organization and its brand, and is dedicated to the success of the parent organization.
• Security/Confidentiality/Trust: Work does not leave the organization.
• Value-added Services: The in-plant provide services that an external supplier may not (e.g., centralized print sourcing, proofreading, monitoring of corporate branding and identity). The in-plant does whatever it takes to satisfy customers' needs—even if it falls outside of standard print production.