An In-plant Victory

It's every in-plant manager's worse fear. You put in a request for new equipment, then find out your upper management is planning to outsource you.

That was the situation Mike Schrader found himself in two years ago. His in-plant at Mercury Marine, a leading manufacturer of recreational marine propulsion engines, had just completed a request for proposal (RFP) to upgrade its digital equipment. Instead of the approval he expected, though, Schrader learned that Mercury's parent company, Brunswick Corp., had assembled a team with the mission of outsourcing the printing for all Brunswick companies to a single source.

A heart-stopping discovery indeed. Schrader, however, remained optimistic.

"I just walked up to my boss and said, 'Get me on this team,' " he recalls. "I knew we were the right solution. It was obvious we didn't get the right audience to tell that to."

Thanks to his steadfast perseverance, his in-depth knowledge of the in-plant's costs, and the strong support of his boss, Schrader was able to turn this potential defeat into a resounding triumph. After months of meetings with dozens of suppliers, Brunswick made the decision not only to retain and upgrade the in-plant, but to recommend that all of its companies send their printing to Schrader's shop. The in-plant has now changed its name from Mercury Print Solutions to Brunswick Print Solutions, and is the proud owner of a new Xerox iGen4 and a Nuvera 200, both with inline binding capabilities, along with new workflow software.

"I think we're doing great," Schrader proclaims. "Our impressions have gone back up. Our whole team is actually really excited about things that are going on."

The First Hint of Trouble

Since its creation in the 1950s, the Fond du Lac, Wisc.-based in-plant has printed most of the materials that support Mercury Marine's engines, such as owners' guides and installation manuals. In recent years, though, with its offset volumes declining and its imagesetter on its last legs, Schrader knew he had some tough decisions to make about the 17-employee in-plant's future. So in the spring of 2008, with the leases on the shop's digital printing equipment nearing their end, Schrader made a recommendation to Mercury to upgrade to a Xerox Nuvera 288 with an inline C.P. Bourg PowerSquare to produce square-backed stitched manuals, which make up a big chunk of the in-plant's work.

That was when Schrader learned that Brunswick already had a team in place to find a single print provider to handle printing for all of the corporation's 48 different brands in the marine, fitness, bowling and billiards industries. Because of the in-plant's request to update its equipment, it was added to the list of 24 other suppliers that had been sent an RFP to quote on 100 different jobs. Schrader says his boss, Ted Van Dyke, praised the in-plant to those in Brunswick's higher levels and convinced them that Print Solutions deserved at least a chance. Thanks to Van Dyke's efforts, Schrader was asked to join the team that was evaluating the RFP responses. And though he suspects that invitation was simply a kind gesture, he ended up being a valuable asset to the team because of his print experience. Most of the other members specialized in purchasing items like steel and aluminum.

"It's a lot different than buying print," he remarks.

The Final Ten

After evaluating all responses, the team whittled the suppliers down to just 10. The in-plant was one of them.

Then the team interviewed each supplier. When it was his turn, Schrader says, the team was surprised to learn of all his shop's capabilities.

"People didn't realize how much work we did and all the different kinds of work," he says.

What's more, his shop did it all for less money than the other contenders.

"I was actually the best price on everything they submitted," he notes.

One of the 10 finalists was a facilities management company that wanted to take over the in-plant and provide its own equipment and labor. That company, however, was proposing to install the same equipment that Schrader had already suggested.

"The only difference was they added their mark-up for them to make money," he says.

In the end, Brunswick decided not only to let the in-plant add the equipment and software it wanted, but to make the shop the recommended printer for all Brunswick companies and brands.

"It was awesome," exclaims Schrader, recalling the moment he heard the news. "That's what we worked two years for."

New Equipment at Last

In fact, the company underscored its confidence in the in-plant by signing off on a seven-year equipment lease. In September Print Solutions added a Xerox iGen4 digital color press equipped with a C.P. Bourg BDFx saddle stitcher with bleed trimming and a crease module. This is allowing the in-plant to perform more marketing work, Schrader says. Also new is a Xerox Nuvera 200 with the C.P. Bourg PowerSquare. The shop retained a fairly new Xerox 6180 with a high-capacity stacker, to print single sheets that get folded offline.

To help the shop automate some of its most laborious processes, it upgraded to Xerox FreeFlow Makeready software, along with FreeFlow Process Manager and Web Services. With Process Manager, Schrader says, the shop now just punches in a part number and a quantity and the software retrieves the file.

"It basically sends the file to the printer with the quantity on it," he says. This is a huge time saver, he notes.

The shop has also made a number of other changes to improve its efficiency: It revamped its layout to improve workflow. It combined its mailing and fulfillment functions. It eliminated its offset presses. And it reduced its staff size by a third. There are now 10 employees in print, mail and fulfillment. Another two graphic designers work closely with the team. Schrader says he kept his staff updated throughout all the discussions, so they were all on board and eager to make the changes work.

Volumes Up Dramatically

Since upgrading and streamlining Brunswick Print Solutions, Schrader reports that volumes have increased dramatically.

"We are producing work again at levels not seen in quite some time," he remarks.

The in-plant now prints about four million total impressions a month. Black-and-white volume has doubled compared to last year, he says, and color volume has increased by five times.

"Two years ago, we averaged around 60,000 [color] impressions monthly; last year we averaged less than 25,000. But so far this year we printed 130,000 impressions in January." This was followed by 125,000 color impressions in February. Schrader attributes the jump in color to the increase in marketing items being sent to the iGen4 from both Mercury Marine and other Brunswick companies. The quality and speed of the digital color press is exactly what the marketing departments are looking for.

The iGen4 is not strictly a color machine for the in-plant, though. Of the 3.75 million monthly black-and-white impressions the shop prints, about 370,000 of them are done on the iGen4 (for less than it would cost to print them on the Nuvera, Schrader says).

Good at Procurement Too

In recent months, Print Solutions received one more vote of confidence from the corporation. Initially, Brunswick wasn't ready to put Schrader in charge of print procurement, but it did recommend that all corporate printing be routed first to the in-plant; if the shop couldn't handle the work, it was supposed to go to a specified print broker. However, Schrader was quickly able to show that he could source printing cheaper than the print broker could, using P3 Expeditor software.

"Currently, the print broker is 'on probation,' and I am allowed to check the costs of other sources, and if I can get a better deal I am allowed to source to that other supplier," he says. "The main point is, one vendor isn't good for everything. You've got to know who to send it to, to get the best deal."

This is something the corporation has learned and profited from over the past couple years. Schrader and his team have shown that having a dedicated staff with an intimate knowledge of printing is a winning strategy. IPG