Business Management - In-plant Justification

What's that you say? Your customer service program has been in place for years and everything is great. Glad to hear it. You keep up the good work. There is no need for you worry about anything. Don't you sometimes wonder what those FM (facility management) groups think about your established and unchanging customer service philosophies? Well, they love them!

Merging with other departments in your parent organization is an excellent way to improve efficiency, increase business and save money.

The in-plant at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado and Nevada used to be run by a facilities management firm. No more. The FM was kicked out, and now the in-plant is thriving. by BOB NEUBAUER Like most companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado and Nevada looks for ways to cut unnecessary expenses. So when an outsourcing firm proposed taking over the insurance company's in-house printing and mailing operations in 1991—with promised efficiency increases and reduced costs—upper management took the bait. Two years later, with print quality plunging, costs soaring and service withering, the company made a bold but ultimately wise move. It

Noted consultant Keith Nickoloff points out 10 mistakes that managers should avoid when investing in new document technology.

In-plants that emphasize employee training report increased quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. Find out how they do it. KEEPING YOUR in-plant employees' skills up to date in these days of rapidly changing technology can often be a struggle. It is an on-going process that requires information from many sources. "These days it seems like you're always training," admits Gilbert Sosa, director of printing services for the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, who oversees a staff of 28 employees. "Just as you finish learning an operating system or software program, another version or upgrade hits the market. The printing industry appears

In-plant managers should be on the lookout for ways to improve document management, storage and output in their organizations. In-plant managers can and should play a leadership role in developing their organizations' document management and storage systems. • They can work with information systems (IS) managers to evaluate software and set guidelines for the production process. • They can help set and enforce standards-such as TIFF, PostScript, PCL and PDF. • In-plants can recommend that documents be stored in a print-ready format. • They can assume responsibility for indexing and archiving, and act as a resource for users who are

Getting the O.K. to buy new equipment requires research, reporting and good timing. Learn how to dodge the red tape and get what you want. Gregg Gabbana decided to move into color printing and convinced the management at Unisys to purchase several pieces of equipment, including a color press, an imagesetter, a color proofer and a plate processor. Mike Renn of Mellon Bank negotiated an offset press, two Macintosh workstations, a RIP and a color copier for his in-plant shop. How did these two get the goods when so many other in-plant managers are snagged by red tape trying to buy even

Are you ready for a calamity to hit your in-plant? Neither were these managers. Find out what happened to them, and how they recovered. For most people, spring break brings thoughts of warm, bright Florida sunshine under which college coeds hit the beaches by day and party by night. But for Brad Johnson, print services manager at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., last year's spring break was about as far from fun as he could get—and not just geographically. "I was in shock. It was a reality check for sure." That was how Johnson says he felt when he first laid

Our Great Debate series tackles the facilities management issue by pitting a respected in-plant manager against a leading FM. No topic gets in-plant managers more agitated than facilities management. We all know of shops that were closed by FMs. Stories of their "shady" tactics spread like gossip. But how many of these stories are true? In-Plant Graphics decided to dive right into the heart of the issue and talk directly to one of the larger FMs to find out what really is going on. But to address both sides of the issue, we wanted to have an in-plant manager on hand to

Planning comes from people, not spreadsheets. Here's one manager's take on how human interaction can be more important than fancy figures. In the back of one of my file cabinets is a stack of documents. Every now and again, as the need arises, one or more of these volumes is pulled out, dusted off, and a number, an observation, or some factoid is pulled out for inclusion in some new report I am working on. What are these works? There's a couple of consultant reports, two major internal task force self studies—one with a rebuttal written by the previous management—a handful of