In With the New at University of Maryland
IT’S NOT every day an in-plant installs both a Kodak NexPress and a Presstek DI offset press. But the University of Maryland did just that and more a few months ago as part of a major equipment infusion that has revamped and fortified its 58-employee in-plant.
The installation—which also included CTP, proofing and MIS systems—was part of a larger strategy, initiated three years ago, to build a modern, efficient Document Services division that combined five separate units into a cohesive team.
Matt Raeder, assistant director of the Department of Business Services, was the man behind the merger. Manager of Copy Services at the time, Raeder was challenged by his director to combine his unit with Design Services, Photo Services, the copier fleet management program and the ailing Printing Services department.
The manager of Printing Services had just retired. His department had long been its own separate entity and had very little communication with the other graphic arts departments. Customer service had been slipping, delivery times were slow and printing business was increasingly being lost to outside printers.
When the university realized how much money was leaving campus, it decided to take action. That’s because the University of Maryland has a tradition of doing things in-house, Raeder says.
“Most of the services that the university has...are all run by university employees,” he notes. “There’s very little that’s outsourced.”
So Raeder used his unit’s good reputation to get customers to trust the new Document Services unit. He hired a new customer service manager, Bob Masiulis, from the commercial printing sector, and put customer service representatives in charge of selling for all of Document Services, not just the printing unit. To keep operations running smoothly, he hired Teresa Thacker to oversee Printing Services.
“The real challenge has been to get a lot of that ‘old way’ of thinking gone,” says Raeder (i.e. the dreaded “us vs. them” mentality). Slowly things have fallen into place and employees are behaving more like a team, he says.
Equipping for Success
To achieve full success, though, Raeder knew the in-plant would have to build up its capabilities. So he, Masiulis and Thacker researched existing technologies and came up with a shopping list. A couple months ago the equipment started arriving. It included:
• A Presstek Dimension 800 platesetter
• An Epson 9800 proofer
• A Presstek 34 DI direct imaging offset press
• A Kodak NexPress 2100 plus
• The E-Pace MIS system with a Web storefront
In addition, a business card slitter and a sorter are due to arrive soon.
“Now we feel we can compete...with outside vendors,” enthuses Thacker. “We can service our customers better now.”
The addition of both a DI press and a NexPress has drawn some attention. Thacker explains: “The product mix was so different that we could justify both the DI and the NexPress,” she says. “The NexPress for small, quick runs—high-quality stuff for our publications department—and the DI for longer runs.”
Printing up to 7,000 sheets per hour, the Presstek 34 DI images and mounts four plates in nine minutes, and boasts a job changeover time of 10 minutes. The in-plant’s existing two-color 29? and 40? presses will handle the very long runs—though a lot of work from the 29? press is already being moved to the DI, Thacker says. In general, run lengths below 2,500 will go to the NexPress, she adds. Having both a NexPress and the 34 DI gives the in-plant some wonderful flexibility, she says.
“We had a job run on the DI, and the customer ordered 1,000 more after they received the job,” she says. “It was so much nicer to put it right on the NexPress.”
Preparing Customers for Digital
Long before the new digital printing equipment was installed the in-plant was preparing customers for it, Raeder says. Last year customer service began selling short-run digital color jobs and then outsourcing the printing.
“Now that we have the equipment, it’s not like we now have to go out and sell a new approach,” Raeder says. “We’ve been doing that for a year.”
Thacker is also excited about the new E-Pace system, which will allow business cards, letterhead, envelopes and the like to be ordered online. Customers will key in their own information, then approve online proofs. They’ll get their jobs the next day, printed on the NexPress, rather than waiting weeks for them.
With state-of-the-art technology installed and a staff that is functioning more like a team every day, Document Services is well on its way to success, Raeder says. The university has taken notice.
“As a whole, the university administration is very supportive of what we’re trying to do,” he reports. IPG
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.
