Purdue Moves into New Plant

After multiple delays, the 65 employees of Purdue University Printing Services have finally moved into their new home, a freshly built 29,000-square-foot structure about a mile south of their previous facility. Not only is it 7,000 square feet larger—with access to existing docks in an adjacent building and a garage for loading delivery vans—the new plant allows workflow advantages undreamed of in the old building.

The previous facility, which had housed the in-plant for 36 years, was shaped like a long rectangle, so jobs often had to be moved long distances to reach the next stage in the process. Some employees who needed to communicate frequently with each other were located far apart.

In the new plant, employees and machines are situated in a more logical manner to enhance communications and workflow.

“We have more space, so we’re not on top of each other,” notes Director Cheryl Purefoy.

Employees are thrilled with the new facility, she adds.

“It’s just been such a huge morale booster,” Purefoy maintains. Employees feel the university has given them a vote of confidence by investing in the in-plant. The administration, she says, is “committed to the future of Printing Services, and committed to Printing Services being a viable part of the institution.”

The front half of the new building is office space housing managers, customer service reps, designers and accounting.

“We were able to move some people that had offices out on the production floor in the old building into the quieter office space side,” says Larry Berger, assistant director of operations.

Also new: a customer waiting area by the front counter.

Moving the equipment while still meeting deadlines was a complicated process, Berger says. While Ikon moved and set up the Canon imageRUNNERs on the same day, the presses (including a 28x40˝ Heidelberg) were down for 9 days. Fortunately business was slow during the move, he says. Digital jobs were diverted to the satellite copy centers, and the staff worked hard to complete offset jobs early so that only two jobs needed to be sent to local printers. Purefoy says one press was busy running envelopes until the last second, while the movers waited.

“We had people operating out of two different buildings for a while, but that really didn’t turn out to be too much of a snag,” Berger says.

Purefoy hopes to hold an open house this month or next. Demolition of the old building has already begun.