Practicing What They Preach

In-plants serving printing equipment manufacturers not only produce printed work, but also lend a hand in planning equipment improvements.

Back In 1997, A.B.Dick came up with a plan. The Niles, Ill.-based company wanted to resurrect its in-plant and use it both to showcase its products and test its new equipment.

With that goal in mind, Greg Zanoni was picked to serve as corporate demonstration floor and print shop manager. Now, two years later, Zanoni's in-plant produces about 98 percent of A.B.Dick's printed work, including all of its business stationery and marketing materials.

What's more, the 3,900-square-foot in-plant doubles as a demonstration center where customers can bring in their own files and have them run on a press that they are considering buying.

To serve this purpose, Zanoni explains that all equipment in the shop must be up-to-date. He says equipment usually stays on the floor for about six months, then is replaced.

But Zanoni's shop is not unique. Many vendors are operating thriving in-plants—not just to print jobs for their parent companies, but to also serve as working demonstrations of how their equipment operates.

Impressive Vendor In-plants

Heidelberg maintains four major tech centers, as well as seven smaller in-plant/demonstration centers, located at each of its 11 regional offices across the country. These facilities are used to both produce internal printed materials and to demonstrate equipment to potential customers. Larry Kroll, director of consulting and training, says the nationwide network of in-plants began operating about a year ago.

"The real reason was to give our press demonstrators more practical experience in a day-to-day production environment," Kroll explains. "Those are really high-pressure situations for our operators, because [their] performance may or may not contribute to the sale of a multi-million-dollar press."

Since customers often come into vendor's shops to see equipment, Zanoni says he must make A.B.Dick's shop a "showplace," keeping the machinery looking good. Zanoni also points out that by having an in-plant right where A.B.Dick's engineers are planning new equipment, suggestions can be made for improving future equipment. He feels A.B.Dick's shop has become a major sales aid, since customers can actually see work being produced.

At Riso, Anne Barrett, manager of marketing services, feels the same about her company's in-plant. An in-plant, she says, can be a powerful sales tool for vendors.

"It is one of the best selling features," Barrett says of the shop, located in Danvers, Mass. "So many customers walk out of there really convinced because they see how well it works and they just go 'wow.' "

On top of showing off the in-plant to customers, Riso also incorporates the training of new employees into the shop. In this way they can learn more about the company they are working for by seeing its products in action.

Riso also puts its new equipment into the in-plant to monitor its effectiveness, Barrett says.

"When we are evaluating new products that are coming out, one of the first places we put those products is in the print shop so we can take a look at them, work with them, understand how they work—and it's terrific," enthuses Barrett.

Barrett explains that Riso produces most of its trade show handouts, collateral materials, direct mail pieces, signage and posters at the in-plant.

"Having our own internal print shop allows us to be able to turn things around quickly, to make changes, to do things we otherwise couldn't do—and to be able to use our own equipment to its best advantage," Barrett says.

Equipped For The Job

Not all equipment manufacturers' in-plants stick to their own company's equipment, however. Heidelberg has agreements with partners like Creo and Kodak to use their prepress equipment in its four tech centers, located in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Cranberry, N.J. These centers are equipped to process jobs from prepress through finishing, and feature a full line of Heidelberg presses.

Standard Duplicating Machines' in-plant also incorporates equipment built by other companies, though much of it is distributed through Standard. Bill Ewing, print shop manager of the Andover, Mass.-based in-plant, says the networked shop uses a BQ330 in-line perfect binder run straight from a Xerox DocuTech to produce books from start to finish.

Still, Standard also uses its in-plant as a type of testing ground. Ewing says that Standard often sends new products to the in-plant before offering them to the public.

"We operate and use this equipment before it gets out to the market in a lot of cases," Ewing says. "What that does is gives us a good understanding of how the equipment runs as far as operation, service and the way it's produced. We get a good hands-on experience that way."

Other in-plants do the same thing. The Publishing Services Group for Xerox, located in Webster, N.Y., provides its parent company with timely reports concerning the equipment used in its in-plant facility.

"We use the equipment for an early internal customer acceptance test," explains Brain Shultz, manager of printing services. "Then we provide feedback on a weekly or monthly basis to the program design teams based on the quality test results that are created to test specific parameters.

"We don't play a direct role in the solution development process," Shultz adds. "However, we do provide testing feedback and suggestions based on our usage of the equipment."

The in-plant uses Xerox black-and-white and color digital printing equipment, plus an array of finishing products. It does not do prepress work in-house. Shultz notes that his in-plant only uses Xerox equipment, since it is recognized as a product testing site.

New equipment is obviously not difficult for these shops to obtain, since their parent companies manufacturer it, and it is often used as a sales aid. But the shops still have budgets to adhere to.

"There is a value attached to each piece of equipment on the floor," explains Heidelberg's Kroll. "We may not be purchasing equipment in the same vein that an insurance company in-plant would, but we do have expenses and costs related to that."

Other Roles To Play

Many vendor in-plants will also provide training for customers interested in their equipment. The shops put on demonstrations to help aid their sales departments, as well.

"We do have customers and dealers that come in, and we have training on different pieces of equipment," Standard's Ewing says. "We will run different applications to show they will work on the equipment."

The quick turnover of equipment at these in-plants can make life for a manager rather interesting, as Bob Ruch, national printing and production manager for Heidelberg can attest to.

"We have a moving target here—equipment can be moved out within 30 days," Ruch says. This will force jobs planned for the moved equipment to be sent somewhere else, possibly across the country to another facility. Ruch also stresses that sales and demonstrations come first at his shops, and internal printed work has to be scheduled around them.

Ewing sums up the reason Standard and many other vendors are running their own in-house printing operations.

"We can show the end-user, the dealer or what have you, that we practice what we preach—we sell this equipment but we also operate it as an in-plant print shop."