Self-Evaluate Your In-plant

The printers that thrive are those that carefully assess their performance, expanding what works and correcting what doesn’t. To help in-plants evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, NAPL, the trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, offers a free self-evaluation form along with an opportunity to enter its Management Plus competition.

The form assess nine key areas of printing operations: internal control systems; financial performance; marketing/sales plan; business planning; human resources; environmental/safety concerns; quality control; community/industry affairs; and vendor relations. If an in-plant is pleased with the results of its self audit, the next logical step is to enter the Management Plus Awards competition, which has a special category just for in-plants.

Last year Portland General Electric won a Gold award. Other in-plant winners have includes Allstate Insurance, HAPSCO Printing & Graphics Services and the Nevada State Printing Division.

The deadline for entries is November 7, 2008. Entries are judged on how performance in each of the areas listed above compares to industry standards among printers of similar size.

For more information, call Robin Schabacker at (800) 642-6275, Ext. 6307, or email rschabacker@napl.org. You can download the Management Plus Self Evaluation/Entry Form here:

http://www.napl.org/ManagementPlus/documents/2008_NAPL_MgtPLusSelfEvalForm.pdf