Hasbro Inc.’s In-Plant Print Shop plays a Big Part in the Company's Success

By Erik Cagle

A Sustainable Green Facility

It is only natural that a corporation which has established itself as a leader in its industry would also place an emphasis on implementing the most effective sustainability practices throughout its printing operations. For Hasbro Inc., this has become essential.

“We are committed to shrinking our corporate environmental footprint, even as we grow our business,” notes the manufacturer on its website, which boasts such accomplishments as an 11.3 percent cut in greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2010, and the recycling of 82 percent of its non-hazardous waste.

As part of those corporate sustainability goals, Hasbro’s East Longmeadow site achieved certification last summer from the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP). Hasbro has incorporated SGP’s sustainability requirements into its printing operations and its internal audit process. The East Longmeadow site’s annual improvement project, a requirement of SGP Certification, will become a manufacturing objective and be included in Hasbro’s Strategic Goal Deployment process.

To receive certification, print facilities must establish a sustainability management system; implement best practices in sustainability; and comply with local, state and federal employment laws. Certified facilities are also required to use SGP’s sustainability metrics system to report on progress annually.

The certification is a key element in Hasbro’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, which emphasizes sustainability in the environment, product safety, workplace conditions, manufacturing ethics and community relations.

SGP criteria for certification encompasses the following areas: the input materials used to produce products, the manufacturing process, and the facility in its entirety, including energy consumption, employees and supporting activities.

“Our president and CEO, Brian Goldner, has set aggressive targets for the entire corporation in respect to corporate social responsibility,” explains Gary Brennan, vice president of manufacturing for global operations, at the East Longmeadow site.

The in-plant’s challenge was to become chain-of-custody certified and have 75 percent of its paper and board packaging and game content come from recycled material or from sources that practice sustainable forest management. This, he’s proud to say, was achieved for 2011. By 2015, the goal is to obtain 90 percent of packaging and internal components from recycled or sustainable sources.

“We had an existing ISO 14001 environmental management system in place,” he adds, noting the plant is also ISO9001:2008 (QMS) and OSHA VPP Star Status certified. “The thing we like about SGP is the ability to network with other similar printers on best practices.”

Try as we might, In-plant Graphics has never been able to secure an interview with Santa Claus' print shop at the North Pole.

Fun though it would be to get an inside look at Kris Kringle's fleet of ABDick half-size presses (and what is presumed to be one of the largest mailing and fulfillment facilities on the planet), there is a shop in East Longmeadow, Mass., with one of the most impressive game and puzzle printing operations south of Santa's Workshop. It's goal is to put a face and a package to a magical world of discovery for children of all ages.

East Longmeadow is the home to Hasbro Inc.'s 44-employee in-plant. A web and sheetfed operation, the shop produces packaging, box and board labels, puzzle board, internal game components and various general printing in support of its parent company.

Over the decades, Hasbro has found its way into the homes of most children, not only in the United States but around the world. Its iconic brands have bridged the generation gap for more than 70 years: Playskool, Monopoly, Nerf, Mr. Potato Head, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Play-Doh, Easy Bake Oven, Tonka and the incomparable G.I. JOE, only scratch the surface.

"We're extremely proud of the corporation," says Gary Brennan, vice president of manufacturing for global operations, at the East Longmeadow site. "We have our own color scheme in the plant, which matches Hasbro. We have a really neat timeline as you enter the building that shows product as it was developed, going back into the 1900s. Hasbro and its brands are featured all throughout the facilities."

A Great Place to Work

It's safe to say that working in Hasbro's in-plant is anything but a dreary experience, as evidenced by the corporation's No. 82 ranking on the 2012 Fortune 100 listing of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." It's also reflected in the craftsmanship and quality of Hasbro's world-renown wares.

It can be argued that the printing and packaging is more essential to the marketing of toys and games than most consumer goods. The company's marketing division sees product packaging as the consumer's "first handshake" with a brand when shopping at retail and online. Packaging must quickly communicate brand attributes and product features in the most compelling and engaging way possible.

A little background on Santa's unofficial U.S. division:

A lion's share of East Longmeadow's work consists of box labels, game board labels and card decks.
The average print run is 10,000, and the shop is working on driving that figure down.
A sister plant located in Waterford, Ireland, is about half the size of the 55,000-square-foot printing section in the East Longmeadow facility.

Several years ago, the in-plant printed a good deal of premium trading cards for games such as Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. According to Brennan, the exacting nature of the card product made it perhaps the most challenging job from a print production standpoint.

"It has a very demanding type of customer, along with the fact that you have to match every print run...from its inception to completion so that, from a game-play standpoint, one card matches up with another."

East Longmeadow also features a contract manufacturing arm, 360 Degrees Manufacturing Services, that bids on work outside the corporation that involves generating product complementary to the shop's core competencies. Any work that is bid on—virtually all of which is geographically local—must meet with the parent company's approval.

"Before this year, we were looking at doing finished product only. We're now marketing our processes as well, so we can do straight printing for a customer as opposed to only full product," Brennan notes.

With sustainability such an important part of Hasbro's corporate mission, the in-plant recently took the extra step of earning certification from the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP). The certification is a key result of Hasbro's Corporate Social Responsibility program, and shows its commitment to integrating sustainability throughout its manufacturing process (see sidebar).

A Flexible Operation

East Longmeadow Site has right of first refusal on non-product related work, such as brochures and catalogs, and the plant definitely boasts home-field advantage in enabling the parent company to respond to customer and consumer demand. The shop can "flex up" or down depending on demand patterns, Brennan says, and Hasbro won't be caught short on supply of a hot ticket item because its production crew—buoyed by its ability to handle short lead times—can answer the bell.

Due in part to of this responsiveness, the relationship between East Longmeadow and the corporation is solid. Brennan says the shop can count on Hasbro's support when it needs new equipment or software, as long as the initiative meets corporate standards for return on investment.

"If it fits with the overall strategy going forward, we don't have much trouble getting the corporation to support us," Brennan notes.

In terms of recent acquisitions, the Hasbro in-plant has added cutters and enhanced its bindery. Prepress software has been augmented, and the shop is in the research stages for possible pressroom acquisitions. Primarily a wide-format printing operation, the shop is determining future packaging variability needs.

Studying Shorter Runs

Brennan is intrigued by developments in digital printing technologies, and notes that Jim Hare, technical manager, will be attending the drupa trade show in Germany this May, surveying the options on a range of gear. The shop is studying shorter runs, an initiative tied to reducing inventory levels and supporting emerging global markets. The aforementioned packaging variability is another key issue the in-plant seeks to address.

"We have, in the past, been primarily a rigid box shop with other offerings," Brennan says. "The challenge for us is to have a wider portfolio of packaging offerings that we can take back to the marketing and sales group, the design and development function, and gain additional product into the building."

Brennan admits that Hasbro's design and development (D&D) team is always pushing the envelope with creative and innovative products that keep the in-plant on its toes. But he values the close relationship with D&D; after all, it allows the shop to stay on the same page as its celebrated parent corporation.

"We do a lot of what I call engineering pilot runs, looking at [print] technologies that would favorably impact game play and add different types of functions," Brennan concludes. "I think the creative team here is pretty innovative, and that's part of our strategy. We look at electronic applications with printed materials, look at the possibility of printing on different types of substrates, depending on what types of products they introduce.

"It's all part of making certain we're aligned with them going forward on the types of work we'll do here. It's important that we know where they're headed." IPG

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