Organizations where management makes unstructured, random visits to the shop floor tend to be more efficient and enjoy greater morale.
Ray Chambers
Years ago, after partnering with a vendor to implement one of the first all-inclusive copier management programs in higher-ed, I was shocked when that same vendor approached our administration with the news that we had too many copiers, too many printers and too many copy centers. 20 years later, nothing’s changed.
Often, the VP and the in-plant manager have different perceptions of which data is important to measure and report on. The in-plant manager needs hard numbers to guide shop performance. But the VP needs to know why these metrics are important. Make sure you ask which metrics management wants to see.
Don’t waste time on the ‘offset or digital’ question. Focus on how your in-plant can best help customers be successful.
Ray Chambers explores how the desire to control the supply chain to meet business objectives led companies to create in-plants.
Do you ever have those days where you just can’t get your head around what your priorities are, so you look for other things to do?
Two in-plants were doing all the right things, yet somehow administrators didn’t see their value. What could they have done differently
2
Comments
After a year of planning, the Association of College and University Printers conference is just over a week away.
Twenty years ago, HardCopy—the listserv for print professionals serving in the educational space—was born. Here’s the story.
Several years ago I was retained by a large public university to do an assessment of its printing de
In his new blog entry, Ray Chambers reveals why comparing prices with other in-plants may be of limited value.
Managed print services (MPS) have evolved as a major force in our part of the printing and document management space. They’re also a ma
Managed Print Services (MPS) is becoming mainstream. Ever since a large IT research organization published a "study" a few years ago in which it estimated that organizations spend 1 percent to 3 percent of total revenue on printing, an entire sub-industry has evolved to tap into this market. The researcher called it a "gold mine" but failed to address the fundamental issue: Is 1 percent to 3 percent too high, too low or just right?
As an in-plant manager, crafting proposals is nothing new. But a poorly conceived request sent to management could mean your print shop being denied that new press, facility or employee you may so sorely need. In a new article by consultant Ray Chambers, he details how knowing your numbers may mean the difference between a proposal being approved, or tossed in the trash.
As managers we have all been faced with situations where we needed to invoke change. Maybe we’ve had too few or too many employees. Maybe we needed to add a new piece of equipment or get rid of an old one. Maybe we needed a new facility. The common element in all of these change initiatives is that, most likely, we’ve had to convince someone at a higher level that action was needed.
