UAB Makes A Big Move

After two decades in its comfortable 30,000-square-foot facility, Printing & Mailing Services at the University of Alabama-Birmingham got a jolt last summer when it learned its building was going be razed to make way for a new minor league ballpark. The news was more than a little unsettling for Director Steve Murray.

“The ultimate stress test,” he called it.

His first challenge was to justify the continuing need for the in-plant, to ensure the university would commit to relocating it—rather than considering the alternative.

“So I did my homework,” he says. After successfully showing the value the 35-employee in-plant provides and its commitment to helping UAB achieve its goals, Murray then had to find a new facility large enough to house the in-plant’s impressive arsenal of equipment, which includes a six-color Heidelberg press and a Xerox iGen4. With a June deadline looming, the situation got tense when the in-plant’s first choice of locations fell through.

“In April we had to come up with a Plan B,” Murray relates.

As luck would have it, he found what he was looking for only two blocks away, in a 107-year-old former paper warehouse. The only hitch: it was 37 percent smaller, at just 19,000 square feet. Murray knew that would mean closer quarters for staff and a greatly reduced warehouse space, but he was committed to making it work.

So in mid-June, Printing & Mailing Services finally made its move. In just five days, every piece of equipment made the two-block trip to its new home, near Birmingham’s picturesque new Railroad Park. With pine wood floors and exposed brick walls, the new space gives the in-plant a totally new look.

“The thing that everybody really likes the most is the fact that we have windows,” notes Murray—lots of large windows. “So they can see what’s going on outside and enjoy the natural light.”

The move, Murray reports, went smoothly.

“We started moving things on Tuesday, and Saturday everything was over in the new building,” he says. Heidelberg technicians disassembled and moved the presses as well as some bindery equipment. MBO, Canon and Xerox transported their respective equipment. The bindery and small presses were moved first, and were up and running on Friday.

“Obviously the six-color is the biggest piece to move, and took the longest amount of time,” notes Murray—about 16 days before it was up and running again.

Two machines—the Fuji Javelin 8300 and the Pitney Bowes sorter—were too large to fit in the building’s lift, so a more creative solution was required.

“We cut a hole in the roof and got a 100-ton crane and dropped [them] in through the roof,” Murray says. “It worked great.”

During the move, some printing was outsourced to a local vendor, and the in-plant did the finishing. Customers tried to work with the in-plant to schedule jobs around the move.

In the new plant, the presses and bindery are on the first floor, while the copy center and mailing operation are upstairs, along with offices and a small warehouse area.

“We built a room for the iGen downstairs,” notes Murray. It has its own HVAC system.

The computer-to-plate area is upstairs near the prepress staff, unlike in the old building.

“We were wasting a lot of time going up and down the steps,” remarks Murray. “This way, when they need to make plates, it’s 20 feet from their office.”

Because of the reduced warehouse space, the in-plant has switched to just-in-time paper ordering, with the vendor delivering paper closer to when the in-plant needs it. With the copy center, bulk mail and post office now all in one area, staff has had to adjust to being closer to one another.

“I think that took a little getting used to,” Murray says. Still, he’s proud of “the way everybody adapted to making due with a smaller footprint.”

He looks forward to serving the university for many years to come from the new facility.

“It’s a great little space,” he says.