Overhaul Sets Texas In-plant on a Healthy Course

WHEN GARRY Boytos arrived at the University of Texas Health Science Center's in-plant (UT Print) in 2008, he faced a challenging situation.

"The department wasn't thinking outside the box," says Boytos, director of the 17-employee San Antonio shop. "And it was difficult to track and monitor jobs. We had equipment scattered all over. We had too much horsepower in some places, and not enough in other areas where we needed it."

Boytos knew that to effectively compete with outside vendors, UT Print would have to make a lot of improvements. Print operations needed to be centralized, equipment updated, workflow efficiency increased, and the in-plant's services had to be expanded to better compete in today's market.

Providing everything from design and digital duplicating to offset printing and bindery, UT Print generates 300,000 to 400,000 impressions per month. This work includes letters, envelopes, business cards, publications, marketing materials, postcards, pocket folders, posters and more.

To produce these materials, the in-plant uses a mix of offset and digital printing equipment, along with a full bindery. To handle digital printing, the in-plant uses Xerox equipment along with an HP 5500 wide-format printer. On the offset side, the shop has a four-color Heidelberg MO perfector press along with a pair of two-color presses: an AB Dick 9985 and a Ryobi 3685. Among the major jobs produced on this equipment is UT Health Science Center's Mission magazine. The in-plant prints, folds and stitches about 50,000 copies of the 32-page publication three times a year.

The Work Begins

One of Boytos' first moves after arriving at UT Print was to implement a copier management program on campus, to replace the "hodge podge" of copiers from various vendors. To collect usage data from all those machines and input them for billing took many days of work.

Boytos talked to several vendors and finally decided that Sharp offered the best solution. Consequently, he reduced the number of units on campus from about 60 to 38, and implemented an automated billing system. The data collection work that used to take days is now done in two hours.

The in-plant now partners with Purchasing so that when departments want to buy printers they are steered to Boytos. He evaluates their needs and discusses alternate ways they can get their printing done to save money.

To continue his overhaul of UT Print, Boytos implemented a self-designed tracking system to allow the department to easily monitor jobs and print costs. He also focused on improving the copy center's workflow and efficiency, by integrating it with the print division and centralizing the Xerox equipment in one location. To increase overall efficiency, some jobs that had previously been run on offset equipment were moved to digital.

Short-run Color Niche

"Next," Boytos says, "we needed to find a niche market and get the equipment to take advantage of it." He found it in short-run digital color printing with the Xerox DocuColor 7002 digital press. Its consistent image quality closely matches the department's offset press.

For black-and-white work, which forms the bulk of UT Print's workload, the in-plant uses a Xerox Nuvera 144 EA system. It offers the speed, feeding, scanning, finishing and software options the department needs to produce a high volume of course manuals, syllabi and three-hole-punched materials. Plus, it's scalable enough to grow as the department does.

In addition, the department's Xerox Nuvera 4112 enterprise printing system provides the power and versatility to process jobs quickly.

"We love that machine," Boytos says. "It makes booklets, folds and punches, and never breaks down."

Wide-format Overhaul

Another part of the operation that needed an overhaul was the wide-format printing area, which was generating very little revenue. Boytos reduced staff, lowered prices and converted to UV inks. He also added a GBC 2064 laminator. After promoting this service to existing customers, it took off. The operation now stays very busy producing posters, vinyl banners, canvas wraps and more.

"We average almost $11,000 a month," Boytos reports. "We turned a failing operation into a very lucrative" one.

Today, Boytos has UT Print hitting on all cylinders—and has achieved a number of the goals he set at the beginning, including:

• Keeping jobs in-house. Boytos' recipe for success in this area is simple: he says that, today, you have to deliver service, quality and price to stay ahead of the competition. "Keep cost per click down, and increase speed and quality. It's that simple," he says. Doing that has helped UT Print achieve a 35 percent profit margin, while reducing prices for the customer. The in-plant charges an average of 25 percent less than outside suppliers.
• Generating new revenue. In addition to expanding capabilities, the key to getting more business is to maintain print quality while turning jobs around fast. This helped UT Print expand its business by attracting jobs from other educational institutions and facilities, including the University Health System, a Level 1 trauma center. "We added money to the bottom line and became profitable," Boytos says.
• Dramatically improving turnaround times. Centralized operations, increased efficiency, job tracking and streamlined delivery have helped UT Print reduce turn times that were previously up to eight weeks to between three and five working days.
• Increasing customer satisfaction. Boytos' operational initiatives have significantly improved the reputation of the in-plant. One customer was so impressed by UT Print's transformation that he commented, "You should be the model for every department on campus." It's the kind of affirmation that cements an in-plant's value to its enterprise. "Do the right thing, and you'll never get outsourced," Boytos says.

Boytos plans to expand UT Print's services in a number of different ways including:

• Taking advantage of the mail merge and bar coding features that are enabled by Xerox devices to forge alliances with other institutions and offer mailing services.
• Capitalizing on variable data capabilities to increase the number of VDP jobs currently in-house and drive demand for more.
• Using the DocuColor 7002 digital press to expand the in-plant's short-run digital color printing business.
• Aggressively seeking even more outside work.

Thanks to Boytos' efforts, UT Print is a much stronger operation today.

"I am proud of what I've done with this place," he admits, though he's quick to add that it would not have been possible without the buy-in and hard work of his employees. "I'm really proud of my staff," he says.