Business Management - Operations

Don't let toner cloud your vision. Look beyond printing, like these nine in-plants did. Add new services, before it's too late.

Want to know about potential problems in your in-plant before upper management finds out? Al Goranson from the University of Colorado-Boulder tells you how.

Over the years, IPG has heard plenty of horror stories about bad in-plant managers and how detrimental they were to business. We asked around about what makes a bad manager and developed a list of these traits to avoid.

Our speakers explain how benchmarking your operation against industry leaders can strengthen an in-plant and help secure its future.

The December issue of IPG is packed with ideas to help you strategize and strengthen your in-plant. Here's a sample of some of the insights you'll find.

Benchmarking is one of the most important initiatives an in-plant manager can take. But how do you get started? Howie Fenton joins IPG to share some strategies.

Next month in Chicago, printers from all over the world will make their annual pilgrimage to Graph Expo. For those in-plants attending the trade show, IPG has coordinated several opportunities to get together, enjoy a free meal and hear what some of their fellow managers are doing to get ahead.

If you ever set type by hand, if you’ve ever operated a Linotype or a Ludlow, if the terms “slug” or “chase” or “foundry” or “Hell Box” bring back thoughts of “back in the day,” you may relate to this story. No, this isn’t a story of nostalgia, and I won’t try to convince you how great things used to be. In fact, if you are familiar enough with a letterpress shop to remember the heat and the noise, I don’t have to tell you how much things have improved as we evolved into today’s digital print technologies.

Is our department in the right business? Even though we are giving our customers the products they need today, are we paying attention to what they will need tomorrow? If not, what do we need to do to help them?

For the first time in its 49-year history, the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) ventured into Minnesota last month, bringing 80 higher-ed in-plant managers together for four days of networking and education.