Business Management - In-plant Justification

The best session at last month's Association of College and University Printers conference was the story of how a failed in-plant fought its way to the top. It was a tale told by Jimmy Friend, director of Printing and Distribution Solutions at the University of North Texas, and Deborah Leliaert, vice president for University Relations, Communications and Marketing.

You need to proactively and succinctly communicate the value that the in-plant is delivering to the organization in terms that all levels of management will understand.

In a difficult economic climate, organizations are seeking to improve business metrics by outsourcing operations that are not directly related to their core products.

Océ North America has sponsored a research project that documents the value of in-plant printing operations in the college and university environment. The resulting white paper is initially available for download exclusively from In-plant Graphics.

Invariably in a plane or at a hotel I'll get into the typical "So what do you do?" conversation with another fellow road warrior. My answer has been boiled down to a classic elevator speech. "I'm a consultant in the wood and paper industry, primarily dealing with chain-of-custody certification, which tracks trees and reclaimed material from their source all the way to the end user through transparent, credible, third-party auditing systems. FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council, and SFI, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, both offer labeling systems where certified organizations are licensed to apply trademarks to their products and advertising. Anything made from wood or wood fiber, like paper, can be certified to ensure that the material used came from legal, ethical and responsibly managed sources."

Océ, a Canon company, has sponsored a new study titled "In-Plant Printing: Bringing Value to Colleges and Universities"

While I was touring the University of St. Thomas' in-plant in St. Paul, Minn., last month, Director John Barron revealed some wonderful news. In September, the board of trustees at the private, Catholic liberal arts school granted his in-plant the right of first refusal (RoFR) for all university printing—the holy grail for in-plants everywhere.

In the December 2010 issue of In-plant Graphics, I recommended that every in-plant manager conduct a rigorous financial and business analysis, and then size up the results like a savvy investor would. In short, ask yourself if your in-plant is a "Buy" or a "Hold."

Will outsourcing the Washington State Department of Printing really reduce printing costs? Really? Closing a self-supporting in-plant print shop doesn’t make the demand for printing in the organization go away.

The battle to close one of most well-run in-plants in the country rages on in Washington state. State Printer Jean-Luc Devis offers his view.