Business Management - In-plant Justification

Have you ever noticed that certain questions, just by the way they are asked, are really hidden threats? If you work in an in-plant, you may occasionally hear some of these questions. As someone offering consulting services, I often see them in RFPs or request for proposals for evaluations. If you ever hear these questions you should prepare to battle the possible allegations that will follow.

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.

A couple of months ago I got an email, as I often do, from an in-plant manager looking for help. A long-time press operator, he now managed a small in-plant, he said, with basic offset, digital and bindery equipment. These days, he told me, most of the shop's work was being run on the copier, with the press increasingly sitting idle.

The recent Association of College and University Printers conference may have taken place in sunny Phoenix, Ariz., but it was no vacation. The 82 managers who traveled there from all over the world came for answers and advice on how to keep their in-plants thriving in these trying times. The three days of intensive educational sessions did not disappoint them.

Understand how a robust web-to-print tool can make your in-plant more essential and increase the amount of work you receive.

"My university is not going to close me." With those words, Cathy Skoglund wrapped up her presentation at last month's Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference, after describing how her in-plant at Arizona State University utilizes students almost exclusively as its work force. Her certainty of her in-plant's strong position stems from the fact that the Print & Imaging Lab aligns closely with ASU's educational mission by giving students hands-on experience, which helps them launch their careers.

In-plant managers often talk about the challenge of outsourcing. Even with printing resources in-house, companies still outsource printing. In some cases the reason is due to the perception of the in-plant and lack of understanding among organizational departments about what services the in-plant actually offers.

Snoop Lion gets it. Lyrics from the rapper's songs were printed on 10-lb. onionskin with a perforation at the gutter and bound together with a hemp-covered case and a red phosphorous textured spine. Rolling Words debuted at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival where 420 elite and rare "prototypes" were handed out to fans of the hip-hop star.

I've seen a disturbing trend in which in-plants that were performing well and did not appear to be under scrutiny were suddenly surprised to hear that they were closing. They were achieving their goals; some reported huge savings, and others talked about how happy their customers were.

For years we have heard that in-plants are being asked to make do with less. On the heels of this push for efficiency, some in-plants are now receiving an even more challenging request: they are being asked to perform an internal review or to secure an outside evaluation of their operation.