Business Management - In-plant Justification

One approach during the tough economic times we live in is to stick our heads in the sand, and wish all of this would just go away. I suggest there is a better approach: meet the tough times head on and be proactive.

A change that has been occurring and will continue to do so is optimizing processes. The job shop mentality is being replaced with concepts like Lean Manufacturing and process workflow. While many companies have claimed to become more efficient, the truth is, printing still has a long way to go to match that of the electronics and automobile industries, to name a couple.

NAPL Senior Consultant Howard Fenton takes a look at industry trends, including what we saw at October's Graph Expo 2012: the unrelenting drive to reduce costs, the importance of keeping your customers happy, and a renewed focus from industry leaders on strategic planning.

If you’re looking for a benchmark to evaluate your performance, we suggest that you continuously benchmark your pricing against the prices charged by available commercial alternatives. You are not competing with other in-plants; you are competing with the print shops that operate in your area.

It was hard for in-plant managers not to feel special at Graph Expo this year. After years of being included seemingly as an afterthought, in-plants were given the spotlight this time around, with numerous sessions focusing specifically on in-plant issues and a new networking hub called "The InPlant Place" where they could gather and mingle. Some vendors set aside special areas devoted to solutions for in-plants, and one (Rochester Software Associates) offered daily in-plant networking receptions.

Ever since a highly respected IT research and advisory think tank published a study several years ago in which it opined that 1 to 3 percent of an organization's revenue was spent on printing and printing-related costs, managers and administrators have been trying to figure out how to optimize their spend on document printing solutions. You've all seen the hype.

The In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association conference brought 150 in-plant managers together in Kansas City recently.

Nothing wakes you up in the morning quite like a football flying toward your face. That's what greeted attendees of the recent In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference during the opening keynote session when speaker Nick Lowery, Kansas City Chiefs' Hall of Famer, began tossing a ball randomly into the crowd as he delivered his inspirational message.

Everyone has suddenly become aware of “in-plants.” There was a time when in-plants were looked down on by our colleagues in the commercial world. We were somehow not quite as good as our commercial counterparts. Now that’s changed.

In-plant closings are nothing new; we’ve all been under the outsourcing cloud for years. But why so many in such a brief period of time? These institutions are planning to shut down their printing plants even though they have not seen proposals from potential outsource vendors.