A Scientific Perspective

It was anything but destiny that led Steve Schmuger to become manager of an in-plant printing operation. Inquisitive and intelligent, he majored in philosophy of science at Boston University—not quite a road map to the printing industry—but possesses a free-flowing nature and a quest for knowledge.

"I would have enjoyed being a scientist," Schmuger observes. "Maybe chemistry or physics. I was close to having a degree in that—just a course or so short. I read a lot of physics and chemistry books. I've started reading some genetics stuff, because I know little about it."

It may be a bit of an overstatement to say Schmuger became graphic services manager of the Miami-Dade County General Services Administration by accident. His inquisitive nature was his guide.

Schmuger weaved his own Bronx Tale-esque story; he was born in the Bronx, grew up in Queens and went to high school in Brooklyn. His first taste of printing came in the form of a Big Apple shop, Manhattan-based Photo Print, which had been inherited by a friend of Schmuger's. The friend asked Schmuger to come aboard and help sort out the business.

"That started me down the road to cost accounting, and in order to do that, I had to understand what the people there were doing," he notes.

Living in New York City in the 1970s was an expensive proposition, though. In order to afford it, Schmuger felt he would have needed to open his own business, which he didn't desire. Instead, he moved to the comparatively less expensive Miami area, where he worked for a number of printers.

In 1989, while doing estimating and overseeing the production manager at LDC Graphics, he saw an advertisement for a graphics production manager position at Miami-Dade County.

"I thought they either had someone in mind, or this ad was written for me," Schmuger says.

He got the job. When he arrived, he quickly saw that the shop was in need of more modern equipment or it risked "turning into a museum." The first major overhaul was to the copy center, which added a Xerox DocuTech (later replaced with a trio of Kodak DigiMaster HD150s). The second change involved the creative and art design department, which switched to QuarkXPress and then Adobe InDesign. A third transformation led the in-plant to computer-to-plate via a Heidelberg Suprasetter A74 thermal CTP system. Two years ago, the shop added a digital storefront, which channels all ordering.

One of the more recent transformations under his guidance was the introduction of variable data printing (VDP). The shop acquired Objectif Lune's PlanetPress suite, a VDP and forms creation solution for the output of customized documents.

"Ten years ago, we were doing very little in the way of mailing, but now we're mailing anywhere between seven and 10 million pieces a year," he says, noting that 25 percent of the shop's work is VDP.

Back to Paper Ballots

Schmuger became graphic services manager in 1999. Today, he oversees a crew of 20 employees at the Miami-Dade County General Services Administration. The in-plant, which has an operating budget that varies between $5 million and $7.5 million a year, produces forms, brochures, books, posters, bills and labels, among other things. At press time, however, the shop was embarking on its biggest project of the year—ballot printing.

Florida drew national attention during the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, as the fate of the election boiled down to the Sunshine State and the counting of ballots featuring "dangling chads" that were not completely punched by voters. The state switched to electronic voting, but dissatisfaction with the touch screens brought back paper ballots that are read by optical scanners.

The return of paper ballots saw upgrades to the shop's presses in the form of a four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 with perfector and coater. It allows the shop to print ballots two-over-two with a die cut. Other additions included two Polar cutters and an automated Stahl folder.

There are 535 separate 81⁄2x17˝ ballot sheets printed on both sides, and there are 105 different versions of ballot sets that voters will need, most of which are five or six pages long. In all, the in-plant will print 6 million sheets, with 1.1 million ballot sets. Another 200,000 voters will receive absentee ballots.

The in-plant will produce and package ballots for roughly 860 precincts in Dade County. A million ballot sets will have to be collated, ink-jetted, shrink wrapped, labeled and put into labeled boxes.

"There isn't any room for error," Schmuger remarks. "Having 99 percent of the ballots being correct and one percent wrong is unacceptable."

Employees Support Lean Approach

Schmuger doesn't buy into management reward systems, believing that the best way to keep his employees motivated is to make them a part of the process, and allow them to play a role in the decision making. They had a large hand in implementing a Lean Manufacturing model aimed at increasing productivity sevenfold. The shop has Lean committees that meet several times a year to address specific issues.

Like most in-plants, Schmuger's shop does not have the right of first refusal, and he hopes the day never comes that his customers are compelled to use the in-plant.

"To mandate our shop's capacity would be an awful thing," he says. "It would take this shop, which has a lot of interest and initiative, and over time, make us less responsive, much more a part of the machinery of government, in the worst way possible.

"It's heretical to say, but we want to win their business. We want to go to them with value propositions. That's a big part of the variable data printing, going to people with value propositions to show them how much easier their lives can be."

Despite operating in a potentially high-stress environment, Schmuger keeps a calm perspective and understands the importance of maintaining flexibility. When challenges come down the road—equipment breaks, customers make changes, or something else goes wrong—he feels it's important to be flexible. And he never loses sleep.

"You've got to be able to disconnect from the daily stresses," he says. "If it keeps you up at night, you need to find a different place to work."

Schmuger and his wife, Lynne, have a pair of rescue dogs from Tennessee, miniature schnauzers named Remi and Ransom. He is an ardent supporter of rescue dogs for obvious reasons; additionally, there is the convenience factor.

"Used dogs come with names," he quips. "You don't have to be bothered thinking up names."