In-plant Profiles

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.

Installing a six-color press in an in-plant is like witnessing a total solar eclipse. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it is a big deal. Securian Financial Group’s in-plant recently discovered that the rare can happen. Thomas Neckvatal, director of Graphic Services, says his operation recently purchased a six-color, 40˝ Heidelberg CDLX press to accommodate its ever-growing business. “It is unusual in this day for in-plants to have large-format presses,” acknowledges Neckvatal. “Our business has been developed to the point that we have emulated commercial vendors and have attracted commercial grade business; therefore, the need to have the level of commitment needed to

WHEN PHILLIPS Petroleum merged with Conoco Inc. in 2002, the resulting international energy company, Conoco-Phillips, had more that just its petrochemical assets to consider. Both Phillips and Conoco had operated first-class in-plants, and the Fortune 500 firm had to decide what to do with them. 

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

On July 1 the Ohio Office of State Printing doubled in size to 89 staff positions after the state’s mainframe printing operation was moved from the IT department to State Printing and Mail Services. The mainframe operation, with an annual production volume of over 88 million impressions, will now report to State Printer Joe Tucker. As of the first of this month, Tucker has also taken over the operations of a large fulfillment operation run by the Department of Job and Family Services. This 28-employee operation has seven large inserting machines and does an average of 44 million pieces of mail annually.

The Washington State Department of Printing recently welcomed Governor Chris Gregoire at its main printing plant in Tumwater. The Governor scheduled her visit specifically to personally thank agency staff for their outstanding support during the preparation of the governor’s budget documents this past December. As that budget was going to press, a violent storm knocked out power to a significant portion of the state, including the Department of Printing’s main plant and copy center. Word reached the Governor of the significant challenges the agency staff overcame to ensure the timely delivery of the more than 1.3 million printed and bound pages that made

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has installed a two-color Presstek/A.B.Dick press in its Printing and Duplicating Services department. Kevin Riley, manager of the three-employee in-plant, says the new press is allowing the shop to print two-color letterhead that previously had to be outsourced. The press is also being used to print two-color posters and brochures for the large archdiocese, which includes more than 1.4 million Catholics. In deciding which press to buy, Riley toured the in-plant at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, which was running the same press. At the suggestion of the operators there, he had an Airtech infrared dryer installed on the press. The archdiocese is

Macedonia Gospel Publications Int’l., of Braselton, Ga., the in-plant for Macedonia World Baptist Missions, just added a Canon imageRUNNER 3220 color printer. Richard Vance, prepress production supervisor, says it has “revolutionized the way the missionaries keep in contact with their supporting churches.” Missionaries can include color photos and graphics in their monthly or bimonthly updates to their supporting churches. LifeSprings, a Christian publisher, printer and multi-media developer in Franklin Springs, Ga., recently installed a Canon imageRUNNER 110 with a booklet maker, a Hamada A252P press, a DPX plate system and a Presstek Dimension 800 computer-to-plate system. The Archdiocese of Detroit has added a black-and-white digital Canon

CONSIDERING THE role the Bible played in the invention of the printing press, it’s not surprising that religious institutions still hold the printing process in such high esteem. In fact, some of the largest in-plant operations are maintained by religious organizations. To name just a few: • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), has a massive Printing Division in Salt Lake City with 400 employees. • More than 340 Jehovah’s Witnesses, all volunteers, work at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s Wallkill, N.Y., Printery, with over 1,000 volunteers in its 18 printing facilities worldwide. • Pacific Press Publishing Association, the