From the Editor: Reflecting on 2013

And so another year ends, my 19th with this magazine. And much like the in-plants we write about and admire, IPG is still standing strong, despite formidable challenges, bolstered by the support of advertisers who believe in the strength of in-plants. (Keep them in mind.)

This was a busy year for me. Though 2013 lacked the international events that wore out my passport last year, it was a year packed with in-plant conferences, most of them grappling with the question "how do we add value and stay in business?"

2013 was the year the On Demand show faded from sight, just as the Inkjet Summit came roaring to life. Inkjet printing, in fact, dominated the pages of IPG this year more than ever before. Though wide-format inkjet has been around for ages, it seemed to really catch on this year, with in-plants adding second and third printers and tackling ambitious, oversized projects. We also watched in-plants like The World Bank install production inkjet presses and move into this new world of super high-speed printing.

At the conferences I attended this year, the dark shadow of outsourcing seemed to infiltrate the agendas, inspiring sessions devoted to collecting data to prove your in-plant's value, helping your organization fulfill its goals and interweaving your in-plant with your institution's business. But conference sessions also focused on in-plant success stories: managers who turned their shops around, improved customer service, expanded into new services and increased revenue.

Adding services was another recurring theme in 2013. We explored it in our March cover story, which offered examples of in-plants that added garment printing, shredding, scanning, records management and numerous other services to expand the value they provide. At the ACUP conference, Ken Macro, associate professor and chair of Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department (and a contributor to this issue), captured attendees' enthusiasm with his presentation about future print opportunities, such as thermochromic inks, printed electronics and 3D printing. (Speaking of 3D printing, our first look into the viability of this service for in-plants is in this issue, but next year we'll explore it in more depth, with tales from in-plants that have already taken the 3D plunge.)

This month, as we do every December, we look ahead at trends that may impact your business, hear from managers who have made their in-plants indispensable to their parent organizations and examine the technologies in-plants plan to invest in next year. We also explore strategies for defending your in-plant against outsourcing, measuring your performance, creating a business plan and transforming your shop into a purveyor of ingenuity instead of just an order taker. So take some time to learn from the experiences of these contributors as you prepare to steer your in-plant into a new year.