In-plant Profiles

After multiple delays, the 65 employees of Purdue University Printing Services have finally moved into their new home, a freshly built 29,000-square-foot structure about a mile south of their previous facility. Not only is it 7,000 square feet larger—with access to existing docks in an adjacent building and a garage for loading delivery vans—the new plant allows workflow advantages undreamed of in the old building. The previous facility, which had housed the in-plant for 36 years, was shaped like a long rectangle, so jobs often had to be moved long distances to reach the next stage in the process. Some employees who needed to communicate

THE GIRLS and Boys Town Print Shop recently received a cornucopia of graphic arts delights that would make even the largest commercial printer envious.
The seven-employee in-plant, located just outside of Omaha, took ownership of a two-color Heidelberg Quickmaster 46 press, a two-color Hamada H248CX press, a Mitsubishi DPX2 platesetter, a Xerox DocuColor 8000 and a Xerox 250.

SCOTT NELSON was a high school freshman when printing first caught his eye. He was touring his school’s vocational programs, and something about the dark room and the old Multi presses excited him. He started classes the next year. Nearly four decades later, the excitement is still there. Today, Nelson is supervisor of the 10-employee in-plant at Otter Tail Power Co., one of the largest employers in his home town of Fergus Falls, Minn. He started there as a summer intern in 1970, acting on a tip from the father of his girlfriend (now his wife). After graduating the next

The Washington State Department of Printing (PRT) has received two American In-house Design Awards from Graphic Design USA, a national magazine for design professionals. PRT’s Graphic Design Manager, Starlit Bear, designed the winning pieces: a 2006 Executive Summary and a 2005 Fiscal Report. Bear created the award-winning Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation 2006 Executive Summary for Greg Griffith, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. The six-page tri-fold layout effectively showcased several success stories of historic preservation in Washington. The second award was for the 2005 Fiscal Report for the Department of Ecology’s Model Toxics Control Account. Trish Akana, Program Manager, was seeking to create

Western & Southern Financial Group’s 18-employee in-plant was awarded the 2007 Management Award from the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) for providing outstanding support to its parent company. Not only did employees successfully move and integrate equipment from a member company’s in-plant into their Cincinnati facility, they handled a major increase in jobs with a 98 percent on-time record, while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. “In 2006, our print shop experienced a 56 percent increase in jobs completed and a 20 percent increase in total impressions over 2005,” notes Daniel B. Cowan, print shop manager. “This, together with the savings we’re able to

When a two-employee in-plant gets a four-color press, you know there’s a lot of demand for color. That’s exactly the case at Iowa Bankers Association, in Johnston, Iowa, which counts 93 percent of the state’s banks as members. “Everything just started moving to four color,” remarks Todd Palmer, print shop coordinator. He produces the newsletters, conference promotional materials, marketing brochures and other items for those member banks. When the amount of four-color work he and his coworker Kristi Junkin were printing on their two-color Hamada increased dramatically, Palmer knew it was time to upgrade. He did a cost justification for a four-color press, with

Those who attended the recent In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference in Oklahoma City had the opportunity to visit the University of Oklahoma’s 45,000-square-foot in-plant. IPG captured that tour on video. Now you can join attendees as they explore the large in-plant, which has two five-color presses, an eight-page platesetter, several wide-format ink-jet printers and much more. Administrator John Sarantakos narrates this video tour of his facility, which not only won an impressive nine In-Print awards this year, but was also the proud recipient of both IPMA’s Mail Center of the Year award and its Promotional Excellence award. Here’s a link to the

Attendees of the recent IPMA conference got a chance to visit University of Oklahoma Printing Services. Administrator John Sarantakos narrates a tour of his award-winning operation.

HAD IT not been for Vietnam, Gary Boyd might never have become a printer. Instead, the manager of Iowa State University Printing & Copy Services would probably be an independent contractor today, managing his own construction company. One of five children born in a small, central California town to parents possessed of a nomadic spirit, Boyd traveled around quite a bit as a child. He attended schools throughout the state, before eventually graduating from high school in the East Bay region of California. “My father and older brothers were all involved in the construction industry,” says Boyd. So from an early age, he was

Like many insurance companies, 21st Century Insurance Group relies on printed communications to keep in touch with customers. In recent years, however, the Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company’s in-plant had not grown as quickly as its customer base. So the company turned to InfoPrint Solutions Co. (IPS), the new joint venture between IBM and Ricoh. IPS helped the company move from a traditional 1980s mainframe-driven operation to an automated document factory. “The InfoPrint solution enabled us to replace a number of existing systems, improve operational efficiency and increase our printing speeds,” remarks Jim Chalker, director of IT at 21st Century Insurance Group. “Better yet, the solution