Ranking in-plants by the average amount of sales each employee generates is one way to compare the efficiency and productivity of different-sized operations. Calculating the sales per employee often brings smaller in-plants from the bottom to the top of the list.
The University of Oregon and the State of New Mexico, for example, have fewer than 11 employees, yet rank among the top 10 in-plants by sales per employee. On the other hand, only three in-plants made the top 10 list in both overall sales and sales per employee: the states of Michigan, Colorado, and Louisiana.
A thriving promotional products business boosted Encompass Health Print Services to the top of the sales-per-employee list, with each of its 12 employees generating $750,000. Six state and local government printing operations, two university shops, and two healthcare in-plants made the top 10. The average sales per employee number for all in-plants listed here is $193,501.
To compare your in-plant with these leaders, subtract postage costs from your annual sales, and divide that figure by the number of full-time-equivalent employees in your in-plant, adding half your part-timers to your full-time number.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.