In-plant Profiles

WHEN YOUR in-plant has 153 years of history behind it, promoting it as a cutting-edge marvel with a “customers first” mentality can be a tough job. Jean-Luc Devis thinks he’s found a way. Just 15 months into the job, the new director of the State of Washington Department of Printing has made it his mission to rebrand his 130-employee in-plant in the minds of customers. His message: “We’re not the state printer you used to know.” Instead of using the state mandate to force agencies to use the in-plant—the strategy just a few decades ago—the Department of Printing (PRT for short) now strives to

For years, Paul Lee played what he called a game of “Frogger” whenever he left his office on the first floor of an education building at Anne Arundel Community College, in Arnold, Md. “Getting from my office to the copy center I had to cross a hall,” says Lee, director of Document Services, “and if I did that between classes…” Frogger ensued—that classic video game where a frog tries to cross a busy street without being squashed. This danger aside, the in-plant’s location was less than ideal for another reason: it was in a different building than the mail center. So if jobs were finished late

IT IS a tale told over and over. An in-plant expands its technology, adapts to the times and survives. For Carmen Crist, however, the expansion of Printing Services at Michigan State University has not been a matter of survival. Rather, it has been entirely about serving the university in the best way possible. For Crist, director of both Printing Services and Administration and Planning at MSU, the role of his 17-employee in-plant has evolved from printing words on paper to any form of communication that benefits the university—even if it means less profit for his department. “Measuring success only by a bottom

CINDY HOHMAN is not one to back down from a challenge. The Marion, Ind., native, and future Office Services supervisor for American Electric Power (AEP), was the lone female graduate when she earned her Associate Architectural Engineering degree in 1985 from ITT Tech, in Fort Wayne. She ranked fourth in her class. When Hohman began her career in the construction industry, she was the only woman at her first two jobs—working for an architect that designed churches and for a builder specializing in new home construction. Given her drive, it’s not surprising that Hohman went on to head up an in-plant for one of

IT’S NOT every day an in-plant installs both a Kodak NexPress and a Presstek DI offset press. But the University of Maryland did just that and more a few months ago as part of a major equipment infusion that has revamped and fortified its 58-employee in-plant. The installation—which also included CTP, proofing and MIS systems—was part of a larger strategy, initiated three years ago, to build a modern, efficient Document Services division that combined five separate units into a cohesive team. Matt Raeder, assistant director of the Department of Business Services, was the man behind the merger. Manager of Copy Services at the time,

When the State of Delaware’s Legislative Print Shop, located in Dover, finally ditched its outdated offset duplicators a year ago and added two black-and-white Xerox DocuTech 6115 printers with Freeflow workflow, it made a world of difference for the shop. Now, having just finished its first full legislative session using the DocuTechs, the three-employee in-plant has taken the next step by moving into digital color. The shop just installed a new Xerox DocuColor 260. In the process it replaced two older color copiers and a black-and-white Xerox 275. The in-plant is using the 260 to print legislative wrap-up letters with color photos. It has also

The demand for short-run digital color printing has jumped so much at Pennsylvania State University’s Multimedia & Print Center (MPC) that the 75-employee in-plant’s Xerox 6060 just couldn’t cut it any more. “We were maxed out on the 6060,” remarks Director Abbas Badani. So in August the University Park, Pa.-based in-plant installed a new Xerox iGen3. In September, its first full month of operation, the digital press pumped out 200,000 impressions, about 25 percent of which had previously been printed on the shop’s offset presses. The goal, Badani says, is a quarter million impressions a month. Just back from the Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers

Robert C. Tapella is now officially the nation’s 25th Public Printer. Five months after he was nominated in May, the U.S. Senate has confirmed Tapella as Public Printer, and President Bush has signed the commission. Tapella will lead more than 2,200 employees at the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). He succeeds Bruce James in the role. Tapella has been involved in GPO’s transformation into a profitable 21st Century digital operation during the last five years, first as Deputy Chief of Staff and then as Chief of Staff. A 1991 graduate in graphic communications and printing management from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo,

WHEN ROBERT Gomez was hired as a press operator for the Texas Senate in 1974, the in-plant was housed in the basement of the state capitol building. It was staffed by a supervisor, a secretary and three production employees. Layout involved mat boards, wax machines and spray adhesives, and hand-developed film was stripped up on light tables. Thirty-three years later, Gomez—who was appointed director of senate publications and printing in 1985—oversees 20 staff members in a facility that occupies more than 20,000 square feet. The journey along his career path began when Gomez was just a kid growing up in Austin, Texas, where

IF YOU veer away from the Las Vegas Strip and drive about a mile east, until the Hard Rock Casino fades away in your rear view mirror, you’ll hit the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), an academic oasis on the fringes of the casino world. Celebrating 50 years in 2007, the university now hosts more than 28,000 students on its 350-acre campus. Providing UNLV’s printing for 38 of those 50 years has been the Reprographics/Design Services (R/DS) department, now operating out of a 7,200-square-foot facility in the center of campus, plus an adjoining 2,000-square-foot copy center. With 20 full-time and