Business Management - In-plant Justification

Judging by the content of the sessions at last month's Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC), the threat of outsourcing still weighs heavy on the minds of higher-ed in-plant managers. Throughout the three-day conference, held on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, speakers repeated the worrisome message that outsourcing companies are relentless and every in-plant should expect—and prepare—to be called into question.

Anyone who thinks in-plants are in decline should have been tagging along with me the past two weeks. Between PRINT 13 and the Southeastern Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC) a week later, I've lost count of the number of managers I've seen. So heavy was the in-plant participation at PRINT 13 that I could not cross the trade show floor without spotting a manager.

The in-plant customer can be an enigma—aware of the in-plant's existence while at the same time ignoring it entirely. More times than not, this attitude is born of perceptions that are usually inaccurate.

It's encouraging to read this month's cover story on Highmark Corporate Printing Services and see Manager Jeffrey Taranto say such things as "While in-plants often face the danger of their companies turning the lights off on them, we have experienced the complete opposite. Our business only seems to grow...and Highmark has been willing to invest more and more money into us."

Cyclical and structural changes are reducing the demand for printed products. The cyclical changes are tied to the economy, while structural changes come from technologies that are disruptive to the printing industry, such as the Internet/e-mail, cell phones and e-books, among others.

Last month I had an opportunity to moderate a web­inar on the topic "Justifying Your In-plant's Value in Tough Times." It's obviously an important subject for in-plants, as evidenced by the 250+ people who signed up for the live event. I was glad to see so many familiar managers on the attendee list from all over the U.S. and Canada.

Things were going well for Larry Mills. Volumes were way up at his in-plant at Regional Health, in Rapid City, S.D.; company executives had toured his shop and were very impressed; and Printing Services was scheduled to move into a nice new facility—once all the paperwork was signed.

You know your in-plant provides a valuable, cost-saving service for your organization. But that won’t stop management from questioning the benefit of retaining you when budgets are tight. To help you prove your value in these difficult times, In-plant Graphics is hosting a 60-minute webinar on March 27, that will will feature advice from three in-plant experts

In-plants have introduced scores of new services in just the past two years, ranging from new types of printed products, like vehicle wraps, foil security printing, magnets and envelopes, to data management services, such as mail list cleansing, transactional scanning and records management.

It was exactly a year ago that the drama began for Jack Williams. That's when the board of trustees at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, issued a directive to begin soliciting proposals from outside vendors for the possible outsourcing of his Graphic Arts Services operation.