In-plant Profiles

FOR THE second year in a row, ConocoPhillips Creative Services has won Best of Show in the In-Print contest. This time, however, the honor carries much more meaning for the 18-employee, Bartlesville, Okla.-based in-plant. “Last year’s project, it was all printed in-house, but the design was all handled by an outside agency,” notes Mike Cranor, senior printing specialist. The perfect binding was also done outside. This year, though, the winning magazine was done completely in-house, from the writing, photography and design, to the prepress, printing and binding. “So [being] able to bring it all in...that’s just real special to us,” says Cranor.

MAY DAY, observed as a holiday in his native England, proved to be a busy day for Tony Seaman. The director of Printing and Graphic Services at the University of Mississippi put the in-plant’s new five-color Kodak NexPress 2500 digital press into service on May 1, leaving little time to dance around the Maypole. Seaman, born in Binbrook, England, just outside of Oxford, admittedly deviated a bit from the in-plant’s norm with the addition of this machine. Traditionally utilizing Xerox equipment exclusively on the digital side of shop, Seaman decided on the Kodak digital press after comparing its features to that of the Xerox

Another in-plant has attained FSC chain-of-custody certification. University Printing Services at California State University-Chico was awarded Forest Stewardship Council certification by Scientific Certification Systems last month. It is reportedly the first university in California to receive this certification. The chain-of-custody certification means that Printing Services can put the FSC logo on its products, signifying that they meet strict tracking requirements and come from responsibly-managed forests. “Now that printed pieces can bear the FSC logo, the university will gain immediate recognition for its role in understanding the importance of forest conservation worldwide,” says Sean Farrell, associate vice president for business and finance. Dale Wymore,

DUANE HUGHES has spent his entire career with a financial services company in St. Louis, but he’s had to “make change” recently due to shifts in employment and by his employer. Yet, despite a company transition that has altered the in-plant, Hughes has capitalized on his ability to balance people and production to keep himself and the print shop secure within the securities firm. Hughes has lived in Illinois, right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, since he was about a year old. He received his Associate’s Degree in data processing from Lewis & Clark Community College, in Godfrey, Ill. In

TO AVOID problems with superstitious tenants and workers, most landlords skip past 13 when numbering the floors in their buildings. Not so with the offices of HCR ManorCare, a provider of short- and long-term skilled nursing and rehabilitation, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. The two-employee Document Center is located on the 13th floor, where it shares space with the company’s data center. Both departments report to the manager of Production Services. The in-plant and data center have a unique arrangement. The in-plant uses the print room on the first shift to produce items like flyers, newsletters, postcards, HR materials, manuals and training materials, and then

WHILE ONLINE ordering introduces all kinds of efficiencies, some in-plants have trouble getting their customers to make the switch. That wasn’t the case at Allan Hancock College. Gordon Rivera, coordinator of Campus Graphics at the Santa Maria, Calif.-based community college, saw another school make the transition, so he and his team of three full-time employees—two of whom are designers—ran beta tests using EDU Business Solutions Print Shop Pro WebDesk. Then, he says, “We just set a date of February 29th as the last day that we would accept paper work orders. From what I’ve seen, we have complete buy-in.” Through Print Shop Pro,

PENNSYLVANIA WAS a whirlwind of activity this spring. Campaigning, rallies, forums, debates and other events all led up to the Democratic primary on April 22. Messiah College was right in the thick if it when it hosted the Compassion Forum on April 13 to discuss moral issues that bridge ideological divides within the country. The school’s 11-employee in-plant, College Press, spent 60 hours of overtime to take care of behind-the-scenes printing work leading up to the forum, which hosted presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “We were very disappointed when Senator [John] McCain was unable to attend due to what his campaign

WHEN YOUR boss asks you to take on a new task, do you try to figure out how to avoid adding to your workload...or how to do the task the best way possible? Ed Eagan, managing director of the Instructional Services Center for the Valley Stream Central High School District, falls into the latter category. This is why the in-plant installed a photo ID system to create ID badges for 4,500 students and 500+ staff members in his Valley Stream, N.Y., district. The six-employee in-plant’s first efforts used one of the original Apple digital cameras that could hold only eight photos. The quality

HOW MUCH can one person do on his own? Charles Shorter has tested the limits in his one-man operation for the Harris County Appraisal District, in Houston. Some years he has reached three million impressions, using his Itek 975 perfector and a Multilith 1250. Since a merger with the computer department—which saw some of his smaller jobs migrate in their direction—his volumes have fluctuated from year to year, with big jobs sometimes landing on him unexpectedly. “I’m helping computer services on a two million impression job right now,” he says. “I have 606 cartons to print, and in the last four days I’m

DON’T CONFUSE Kerry Mehle with a “professional student,” a person who milks college with watered-down academic effort year after year, using education as an excuse to avoid the real world and real work. A former skilled student turned consummate print professional at Moorpark College, Mehle gives maximum effort, makes no excuses and produces excellent work. Mehle is graphic communications technician for the Moorpark, Calif.-based community college. A one-man production band, he executes the gamut of responsibilities—from customer service, estimating and billing, to running film, plates, press and bindery equipment, and even job delivery—handily and happily. “I like to be involved in the