Southern Success Story

When Alabama's finance director mandated that all state printing be routed through the Division of Printing and Publications a few years ago, he ticked off a lot of state agencies.

One of them, the Alabama Forestry Commission, grumbled for weeks, upset it couldn't keep using its long-time commercial vendor.

"But they worked with us a time or two and found out that we could do the job—and we actually did it cheaper," notes Jerry Wilson, division director of Alabama's Division of Printing and Publications, Department of Finance.

Now that reluctant department is a fan. In fact, Wilson says, the Forestry Commission recently sent him a nice letter complimenting the in-plant for its pleasant, hard-working staff and high-quality printing.

"They just really wanted to tell us they appreciated it," says Wilson. "We're in a business where not too many compliments are passed around. Those kind of things are pleasing."

On Course For Success

That's the kind of success story Jerry Wilson wants to keep telling. And he's on course to do just that.

His in-plant recently installed an arsenal of new equipment in its two Montgomery facilities to help it meet customer demands even faster, while saving the state lots of money—one of Wilson's primary goals. On the list of new gear:

• A four-color Heidelberg Quickmaster 46-4 DI—a direct imaging press handling 13-3/8x18-1/8? sheets.

• Two two-color Heidelberg Printmaster 46-2 duplicators, which also handle 13-3/8x18-1/8? sheets.

• Three Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 digital printers, two of them with booklet making/saddle stitching capabilities.

• Two 65-page-per-minute (ppm), 600-dpi Heidelberg imageDirect 665 scanners to digitize hard copy submissions and send them quickly between the in-plant's two locations.

Justifying the cost of all this new gear was not easy, Wilson says, but it helped that his in-plant is self-supporting.

"We don't get any kind of subsidies from anybody," he explains. "We print and sell printing, and that's how we pay salaries and buy equipment."

Even so, he still had to convince his boss that the return on investment and equipment life expectancy were good enough to merit the purchase.

"It's just a matter of being able to communicate and 'sell' what you need," he says. Wilson also credits the trust he has built up with his supervisors through the years.

Experienced Leader

An easy-going, friendly man with a keen business eye, Wilson began working for the state in 1966, two years out of high school. He worked his way up through the ranks, mastering most of the printing equipment along the way. In 1976, when the state legislature consolidated 20 state in-plants into the current Printing and Publications division, Wilson was promoted to advisory supervisor. He eventually made his way to facility supervisor and then division director. Helping Wilson oversee production is Assistant Division Director Lynn Poe.

Over the years, the in-plant has focused on increasing its speed, adding new equipment when customer needs required it.

"The technology that we've applied here allows us to turn out work faster with less people," Wilson says. This has happened even as jobs became more complex. Wilson has watched color creep into increasingly more government publications. Years ago, color was almost taboo in government circles, seen as an extravagance and a waste of taxpayer money. But as costs came down, and agencies realized color's value in increasing readership of their publications, use of color began to grow.

The in-plant's capabilities grew along with it. Today, Wilson jokingly compares his operation to a 7-11 convenience store, "where you can come in and get a little bit of anything."

The in-plant has everything from small duplicators to web presses. Its 61 employees handle design, prepress, printing, copying, lettershop and bindery, as well as pickup and delivery for 176 state agencies. Jobs range from business cards to brochures, with the largest project being the printing of about a million and a half state income tax booklets and forms every year—some 60 million 8-1/2x11? impressions.

Capability Upgrades

Once it's up to speed, the new Heidelberg equipment will greatly increase the in-plant's capabilities. Wilson feels the Quickmaster DI purchase was a good move.

"I am extremely pleased with the quality," he declares. "I am extremely pleased with the speed in which you go from one job to another. The waste factor will be considerably less on the machine for short-run four-color, as opposed to hanging plates on a larger press and bringing it up to color."

The imaging speed is impressive too, he says; it images four plates in four minutes at 1,270 dots per inch.

The in-plant added the DI press to capitalize on the short-run color market, he says.

"The multi-color market is the fastest growing area in the printing business," Wilson declares. Previously, the in-plant had been running such jobs on its four-color Omni-Adast 745 perfector press, but backlogs were frequent. The DI will free the Omni-Adast up for more two-over-two work.

The pair of new Printmasters complement the DI, Wilson says. He's excited about their automated features, like plate insertion and blanket cleaning, confident they will reduce makeready times.

"They're capable of extremely fast turnaround on jobs and also very high-quality work," he enthuses. "One operator can produce three times as much work in a day."

The presses will replace five aging duplicators, which were unable to handle solids or screens.

The new Digimaster 9110s, obtained on a five-year lease, were installed in the downtown Montgomery satellite copy center. This is also the home of the in-plant's three largest customers, the departments of education, human resources and revenue.

Wilson has recently had discussions with Alabama's Information Services Division (ISD) about using the 9110s to output its jobs. ISD prints 1.5 million impressions on two older machines, but the equipment has a lot of idle time. ISD initially enlisted Wilson's help in selecting replacement equipment, but he offered to print it for the division instead. ISD has been skeptical.

"I think it has promise," Wilson says of his suggestion. "Is it politically popular? No."

Heidelberg is now working on linking ISD's mainframe to the printers for a trial run.

Good-bye Camera

Of all the new equipment, the two new scanners may well have brought the biggest change to the Division of Printing and Publications. One is in the satellite center and the other is in the 40,000-square-foot main plant, allowing each to scan jobs and transmit them to the other location via a T1 line. Jobs destined for the digital printers are sent to the copy center, while offset jobs can be scanned, imposed and sent to an imagesetter for film output.

"We will be able to bypass camera room and stripping that way," remarks Wilson. In fact, the former stripping area has been cleaned out to make room for the DI press, and the camera, after years of steady use, is on its way to the scrap heap.

Heidelberg has also agreed to develop a Web site for the Division of Printing and Publications. It will both promote the shop's capabilities and allow customers to transmit jobs online. Heidelberg will also train customers in this latter area. The in-plant is already distributing brochures to clients explaining how to create and send PDF files.

Low On Color Copiers

One thing the in-plant is short on, Wilson admits, is color copiers. He's looking to remedy this soon. The in-plant is researching printers like the Xerox 2060, along with HP Indigo products, to be used as both a proofer for DI press jobs and a digital color printer to handle runs too short for the DI. He hopes to make a decision by the beginning of the new fiscal year, October 1.

The proofing stage has been a source of backlogs, Wilson says. Often customers don't sign off on proofs right away, delaying printing. Some have even gone on vacation without giving approval. They need to be educated on the importance of quickly signing off on proofs.

Wilson plans to discuss this dilemma with his peers at the National State Publishing Association conference this month in Connecticut. Having attended the event for many years, and hosted it in 1996, he says he gets a number of great ideas from the conference each year.

Stronger Customer Focus

Wilson thinks he's found another way to educate customers on issues such as proofing. Last month he added James L. Parker to his staff as a sales and customer relations person, a brand new position. Parker will interact directly with customers to help them understand what it takes to produce their jobs, while resolving any problems they may have. He will also try to bring the in-plant new business. Two existing estimators/customer service representatives will join him on this team to further increase customer contact.

"Personal touches are a lot better than a telephone call," Wilson remarks. "I think it's something that will benefit the division."

He hopes the open house he has planned for this month will also draw a lot of customers so they can see what the division can do.

One of Wilson's duties is to monitor agencies' requests for color copiers and black-and-white equipment that's 70-ppm and higher. Adamant about saving the state money, he gets distressed when agencies try to buy high-volume printing equipment for low volumes of work.

Sometimes, he says, they will use grant money to back their claim that it's not costing the state anything. He points out that costs don't end with the purchase; the state is still paying for the power used to run the machines—not to mention the manpower.

Wilson has started sending these agencies questionnaires to determine if they really need the equipment, asking them the type of work they will do, the cost per page and other details they probably had not considered.

By installing unneeded equipment and bypassing the in-plant, he says, these agencies are decentralizing the process.

"And that costs more money," he insists. "We can't have convenience at any cost."

Thinking back on his 36 years with the state of Alabama, Wilson is thankful he had the chance to work in so many different positions on his way up. This experience gave him insight into how to streamline the operation.

But despite all he has accomplished at the Division of Printing and Publications, Wilson is not ready to leave yet.

"I've got a lot of years in," he admits, "but there's a few more things I want to get done."