Government Printers Convene in Seattle

IT’S SAFE to say that no one left the 31st annual National Government Publishing Association (NGPA) conference thirsting for more information. Held in Bellevue, Wash., near Seattle, the meeting combined excellent educational sessions with a well-orchestrated plant tour that left many attendees breathless. Despite state travel restrictions that stranded several NGPA regulars at home, 82 in-plant representatives attended, including a number of Seattle-area school district and university in-plant managers. Contrary to Seattle’s rainy reputation, beautiful fall weather reigned throughout most of the three-day affair.

The conference was organized by the staff of the Washington State Department of Printing under the direction of Dan Swisher and Jean-Luc Devis. They invited a stellar cast of speakers and arranged for 18 industry vendors to showcase their wares. They also coordinated an unforgettable evening boat cruise to Blake Island, birthplace of Chief Seattle, where the group enjoyed fire-roasted salmon and colorful Native American dancing.

Tracking the ‘Mega Trends’

NGPA President Richard Beto, of the University of Texas-Austin, welcomed attendees (as did Governor Chris Gregoire, via a personal videotaped greeting) and moderated the entire conference. He introduced NGPA founder Don Bailey, former Nevada State Printer, who recounted the history of the association.

Then it was time for keynote speaker Ursula Burns, president of Xerox, who had flown in from Rochester, N.Y., that morning just to address the group. She talked about what it takes to be a true leader and encouraged attendees to study emerging trends, technologies and business practices so they will know what is coming. Xerox, she said, has identified three “mega trends” that all managers should be aware of: personalization, collaboration and digitization.

“Personalization cuts through clutter,” she explained. “It actually moves your business forward.”

Collaboration includes not only partnering, she said, but cross-media marketing, as when a printed marketing piece steers customers to a Web site. As for digitization, she pointed out that today’s children are masters of digital technology; printers that don’t make the leap to digital will eventually go out of business.

Taking questions after her talk, Burns was asked how managers should deal with the perception in government that color printing is an expensive and unnecessary luxury. She urged managers to explain “the full value chain of color,” such as how color increases response rates. This brings cost savings, which outweigh the extra production cost.

Successfully Managing Your In-plant

One of the most lively presentations of the conference was given by Wes Friesen, manager of Revenue Collection and Community Offices for Portland General Electric. His talk on “Successfully Managing In-house Operations” was fun, interactive and full of excellent tips.

He listed the four key activities of great managers:

• Picking people based on their talents. Skills can be learned, he observed.

• Setting expectations. Find out where management wants the organization to go, then determine how your team can help get it there.

• Motivating people by focusing on each person’s strengths and helping individuals cultivate their talents.

• Developing people by steering them toward roles where they have the greatest chance of success, based on their strengths. “You don’t want to have your introverts at the front desk,” he pointed out.

Friesen encouraged managers to maximize their most important resources—people—by recognizing them for good performance, rewarding them and respecting them. He asked attendees how they recognize their employees. Some give certificates to those who haven’t missed a day of work in six months. Some hold celebrations when teams meet their goals (with managers serving the food). Some said that merely introducing visitors to operators during plant tours bolsters their morale. (To read more management tips from Wes Friesen, see his story on page 30.)

Green Government

Sustainability was an important topic at the conference. Two attendees (Washington State’s DOP and Washington State University Publishing) now have chain-of-custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The Government Printing Office is also focusing on sustainability and has created the new position of associate chief of staff for strategic environmental programs. The person filling that role, Trish Fritz, was on hand to reveal GPO’s “Green” initiatives.

GPO supports the concept of chain-of-custody certification and is investigating its feasibility in the federal government. By law, GPO uses and supplies 30 percent post-consumer waste paper and offers paper with higher post-consumer content. GPO has recycled 5.6 million pounds of waste paper, she said. Also, GPO’s new Prisco solvent recovery system has ended the need to dispose of hazardous waste.

“We’ve saved 5,000 gallons of hazardous waste from leaving our facility,” she noted.

GPO is in the process of transforming its fleet to vehicles using “flex fuels” (e.g. gasoline blended with ethanol or methanol fuel).

Bob Neubauer (your humble editor) gave a presentation on in-plant trends, based on IPG survey data. He compared government printers with the rest of the industry, revealing opportunities government in-plants may be missing (e.g. they lag in digital color press installations). He wrapped up by bringing attendees with him to Drupa via a video he made of his excursion to the German trade show. (Watch it at www.ipgonline.com.)

Off to Olympia

Believe it or not, that was all just on the first day of the conference. It got even better.

On day two, attendees loaded two buses for the hour-long drive down to Olympia, the state capital. There they toured the DOP’s large facility, seeing both its extensive offset operation (starring a six-color Komori Lithrone 28P) and its digital print center (with a brand new Kodak NexPress 3000 as its centerpiece). Of particular interest to visitors was the shop’s envelope-making operation.

Following the tour, the conference reconvened in the plant’s lunch room for two educational sessions. The entire DOP staff was invited to attend, adding more than 100 people to the audience for the largest single-day attendance in NGPA conference history.

First, Steve Rigby, director of printing at Washington State University, gave a presentation on marketing, emphasizing that it should be a state of mind, not simply an event. Marketing opportunities include plant tours, open houses and seminars. His in-plant holds digital printing presentations to show customers new applications using the shop’s HP Indigo 3050.

When the in-plant adds a new service or has other news, Rigby promotes it in many ways, including the school paper, on the in-plant’s Web site and with flyers and posters. Even the in-plant’s FSC certification has been a marketing opportunity, giving environmentally conscious customers another reason to use the shop.

Getting Lean

Following Rigby, Davey Jones, of Total Excellence in Manufacturing, gave a talk on Lean Manufacturing. He is currently implementing Lean processes at California’s Office of State Publishing. He listed eight types of waste:

1. Overproducing

2. Defects/Rework

3. Movement of materials

4. Overprocessing

5. Excessive inventory

6. Waiting (due to system downtime or the need for approvals)

7. Excessive motion

8. Underutilized people

In-plants that want to go lean must get buy-in from everyone if they are to succeed, he said, because it is a major cultural change. One key element is visual control, which involves cleaning the entire shop and clearly labeling shelves and cabinets. Waste is the enemy, remarked Jones, not competitors or even management. The focus must shift to print-on-demand, not print and store.

Added California State Printer Geoff Brandt, “If you stick with it, your organization’s going to be better and stronger for it.”

Web-to-Print, Strategic Positioning

On the conference’s final day, Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner, encouraged attendees to add Web-to-print solutions. (IPG data shows 53 percent of government in-plants don’t offer this.) Benefits include streamlined, automated order entry, increased productivity and error-free orders. When implementing Web-to-print, he said, work closely with your customers to determine their needs and the type of printing they will need in the future.

“Make sure,” he cautioned, “you do not underestimate the time and effort” required to implement a Web-to-print solution.

Ricoh’s Greg Cholmondeley gave an interesting presentation on how to position your in-plant strategically. He noted that digital color printing has a large profit margin compared to black-and-white’s thin margin. And yet, he reported, many in-plants are sending digital color printing to outside vendors.

“You are outsourcing the profitable work,” he pointed out.

Don’t think of color printing as an extra expense, he said, but as a way to increase the effectiveness of your customers’ marketing materials.

Cholmondeley went on to urge managers to prepare a 30-second “elevator pitch” that explains how the in-plant is critical to the organization and helps further its goals. He passed out a worksheet to help managers identify and define the strategic value they bring.

Other sessions covered customer service, variable data and environmentally conscious paper buying. The conference ended with a farewell reception, and everyone was invited to attend NGPA 2009, taking place October 25-28, in New Orleans. IPG