Avanti MIS Streamlines Las Vegas In-plant
Creating your own customized shop floor management system always seems like a great, inexpensive idea at first. But then the years stretch on, your IT staff turns over and support fades away.
That was the scenario at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where the 14-employee Reprographics department had been using an internally designed system based on IBM Lotus Domino since the late 1990s.
“The university’s Systems and Applications Development no longer had anybody that was familiar with it,” says Josh Rankin, senior director of design and print communications. The system had other shortcomings, as well.
“It also really wasn’t designed for our environment,” he reveals. “The reporting functionality was very limited. I needed to see more data.”
So in February, UNLV’s in-plant went live with Avanti’s Graphic Arts Management System. Things haven’t been the same since.
“It really does help me see where we stand, financially, at a moment’s notice,” says Rankin. “At a glance, I can see how much money is in the shop at any given time.”
The in-plant installed modules like Litho and Demand Estimating, Chargeback, Milestone Scheduling and Shop Floor Data Collection. It also purchased the Business Triggers and Alerts module, which sends real-time e-mail alerts about significant activities, and planned to have it operational by the end of March.
In its search for print management information systems (MIS), Reprographics gravitated toward Avanti right away.
“They were well partnered with Xerox, and we’ve got an iGen3,” says Rankin. He liked the easy integration that would bring the iGen’s costs right into the Avanti MIS. The in-plant was able to get the Avanti system as part of a package deal when it extended its lease on the iGen3.
“That reduced our annual spend by about $60,000 a year,” Rankin remarks.
He says the Chargeback module has greatly simplified that process, and allowed the in-plant to give customers more information on their reports. The Milestone Scheduling module has also been a big help.
“It allows us to see what the load is on each machine,” he says.
“The Shop Floor component is allowing us to see how much chargeable time vs. non-chargeable time is being spent by each employee,” he notes, adding. “The perceived oversight [of] the employees seems to be improving performance.”
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.
