Holding Down the Fort

HOW MUCH can one person do on his own? Charles Shorter has tested the limits in his one-man operation for the Harris County Appraisal District, in Houston. Some years he has reached three million impressions, using his Itek 975 perfector and a Multilith 1250.

Since a merger with the computer department—which saw some of his smaller jobs migrate in their direction—his volumes have fluctuated from year to year, with big jobs sometimes landing on him unexpectedly.

“I’m helping computer services on a two million impression job right now,” he says. “I have 606 cartons to print, and in the last four days I’m down 40 of them. I stopped only because I ran out of ink.”

Since Shorter does all the setup, communications, ordering and machine maintenance (on 15 pieces of equipment) himself, he prints no more than six hours per day.

“Every day it’s like being on stage because nothing is scripted,” he observes. “I used to work at an oil company, and our form control department would contact printing ahead of time to let you know what jobs were on the way, what supplies you might need. Here, you take it as it comes.”

The Harris County shop, occupying roughly 600 square feet, handles tax inserts, four types of envelopes, policy updates, and multiple two- and three-part forms. Shorter came to the shop in 1986, shortly after it was set up.

“It was going to be a two-year test program,” he says, “so I inherited equipment that was obsolete and had to use it for six years before we upgraded.”

Shorter still works in a pre-digital environment as the computer department receives a higher priority for upgrades.

“The director wants to put everything in copiers,” he says—this despite a history of printing outperforming computing. “I had another person with me for eight years who did copying. We worked eight hours, five days a week, while the computer department had three shifts every single day, and our output exceeded theirs.”

But with Harris County’s copiers limited to a 200,000 click count, Shorter has no shortage of work sent his way, especially since his quality outshines what’s available elsewhere.

“The business cards were being done by human resources,” he says, “but they were getting pre-cut cards that you’d tear out, or they were printing them eight-up, so people would have to cut them up with scissors. They looked shabby and people complained, so I took over and have been doing them two years now.”

Needless to say, the quality has improved tremendously.IPG

—By W. Eric Martin