In-plant Profiles

As early as 1923, The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University recognized the benefit of having an in-house printing facility. However, several years ago, the shop found itself in a financial hole.

Established 90 years ago to fill the educational mission of faculty, staff and students, Iowa State University Printing & Copy Services is constantly breathing new life into its products and services.

Moving from California to Iowa is a big change. But in 1988, Lori Fuller was ready for it. "I was kind of tired of California and the fast pace," says Fuller, now manager of Printing Services at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Plus, she admits, her boyfriend hailed from the Hawkeye State. So she put the beach behind her, enrolled at Iowa Western Community College and never looked back. Twenty-five years later, now a full-fledged Midwesterner, Fuller oversees an in-plant staff of 16 at UNMC, one of the nation's leading medical centers.

At Tyson Foods, Inc., all management personnel, including CEO Donnie Smith, are birds of a uniform feather. "We all wear khaki to show that we are working managers and not afraid to get our hands dirty," reports Russell Gayer, manager of Tyson Printing Services (TPS).

As communications leader for print production at Kohler Co., Christopher Donlon has his hands full. Each year, Donlon's team uses its array of Xerox equipment to produce millions of finished printed products in support of Kohler, best known as a manufacturer of plumbing products.

For nearly 60 years, Villanova University Graphic Services operated out of one of the most unique facilities in the industry: an old house. Once a residence and later a dormitory, the building had 12 rooms, eight of which housed the in-plant's equipment and offices. A two-color Presstek/ABDick 9982 press filled one room; in another sat a Presstek Vector TX52 computer-to-plate system, a Xerox DocuColor 5000AP and a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8300 wide-format printer; the bindery and shipping departments were in the garage.

When Jon Bedsted was approaching his junior year of high school in Austin, Minn., his dad (who was also his guidance counsellor) made a suggestion.

Helping customers save time and money is every in-plant's mission. So when Sun Life Financial's Document Services Group discovered that a department was hiring temps to manually stuff envelopes—and taking a week to 10 days to do it—John Moschilli had to take action.

It was anything but destiny that led Steve Schmuger to become manager of an in-plant printing operation. Inquisitive and intelligent, he majored in philosophy of science at Boston University—not quite a road map to the printing industry—but possesses a free-flowing nature and a quest for knowledge.

When the United States Department of Defense (US DOD) needs to get a message out to a foreign audience to support its soldiers in the field, it has to act quickly. For this reason, the US DOD maintains a fleet of Kodak NexPress digital presses, along with a contingent of bindery equipment, in several locations around the world. In addition, it is building deployable units, to be stationed where they are most needed.