In-plant Profiles

The Delaware State Legislature may not realize it, but when their session starts in January, for the first time all of their legislation will be printed digitally. The four-employee legislative print shop has just replaced its offset duplicators with a pair of Xerox DocuTech 6115 printers with Freeflow workflow and a stacker/stapler/tape binding system. “It’s great,” proclaims Deborah Messina, Print Room supervisor, adding, “It’s really quiet in here.” She jokes that, without the presses, she and her staff have not ruined any of their clothes with ink stains lately. “And our hands are rather clean,” she adds. Though the shop has a Duplo DP-460H duplicator

Sure, “old and reliable” equipment has its advantages. But with nearly 30 years behind it, the saddle stitcher at the Texas State Senate’s in-plant had seen better days. “It finally got to the point where I couldn’t get any more parts for it,” says Robert Gomez, director of publications at the 18-employee in-plant. So he recently added a new Rosback 201CD stitcher with two quick-clamping stitch heads, two head alignment gauges, a book sensor and a stagger stitch feature. It can output between 1,800 and 5,000 books per hour, with a maximum size of 12x15˝. The books and brochures being produced on the stitcher are of

ONE OF an in-plant manager’s greatest fears is a shutdown. Walter Leonard has felt the power of that threat three times during his tenure with Sonoma State University General Services. But proving its worth has kept him managing for 17 years. Born and raised in San Francisco, Leonard attended a local college until his father passed away, then he went to work full time. He took a position with San Francisco-based distributor WJ Lancaster. Starting as a clerk in the mail room, he occasionally filled in for the duplicator operator. The company eventually purchased a MultiLith 1250 and he started doing full-color work. Leonard grew

Auburn University’s CopyCat operation held a successful week-long open house recently to promote its services to both staff and students. To get staff interested, the in-plant sent out messages in a bottle describing what CopyCat does and inviting them to the shop to claim a prize. “If they brought us a job, they got to register for a grand prize,” says Glenda Miley, manager. “We actually had people go back to their office to bring us something to print so they could enter.” During this event, the shop also held a Welcome Student Day and gave away promotional products like note pads, pens, pencils and

Sometimes, when you add a digital press, work just walks in off the street. Like the 2,700 newsletters the geology department sent to Imaging Services one day at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “They heard we got some new color press, and they just said, ‘Oh, we’ve been sending this out. Would you try to do it?’” says Al Goranson, operations manager. That color press is an HP Indigo 3050, which arrived at the shop in June. Since then it’s opened a few doors for the in-plant. “There’s just no way we could have even touched that [job] with two-color offset or with our digital

WORLDWIDE PRINTING experience is not something many mangers can put on their resumes. Tony Seaman can, though. Now director of the Publishing Center at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Seaman was born and raised in Binbrook, England. He took an early interest in printing because of his father, who was a lithographer for 50 years. In 1961, Seaman started as an apprentice camera operator at W. Heffer & Sons, in Cambridge. He spent seven years doing rule and paste work and converting line art and pictures into film. He graduated from the London College of Printing in 1967, and went on to be a

For years the two-person in-plant at Folsom Cordova Unified School District toiled to produce the district’s worksheets, curriculum materials, tests and yearbooks with a six-year-old Xerox DocuTech 6115 and a DocuColor 12. Requests for new equipment fell on deaf ears—not surprising considering the years of budget cutbacks that California schools have endured. Then, unexpectedly, something changed. “California revenues have really turned around, so the governor increased the education budget,” says Doug Parrish, lead printer at the FCUSD Printing Department. That, in turn, prompted the district to spring for three printers: • A Xerox DocuTech 6135 with a Freeflow front end, an interposer and a bookletmaker. •

AS FALLING leaves carpet the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus, so has the autumn of Gary Williford’s career arrived. After 34 years at the university—30 of them in the in-plant—Williford plans to retire in a few months from his role as manager of the school’s Graphic Arts Service department. But while others might view their final days as an opportunity to kick back and coast to an easy farewell, Williford has insisted on pushing forward, preparing his 55-employee operation for the days after his departure. “I owe this organization. It’s been good to me. It’s a part of my life,” he explains. “I want

So much is happening at Ohio State University these days that it might be easier to ask “what’s not new?” The 71-employee operation has consolidated several departments under a new name, upgraded its digital printing equipment and added a state-of-the-art print management system. Under the new name UniPrint, the Columbus, Ohio-based in-plant has brought together printing services, copying, document imaging/addressing and the copier lease program. Copying has been moved into the offset facility, and its old space is now a customer service center. “We gained a synergy by having all of our production in one location,” notes Jeff Dible, assistant director. Those production capabilities have been enhanced

WHEN BRIGGS & Stratton Graphic Services moved into its new 26,505-square-foot facility in June, life got a whole lot better for the shop’s 34 employees. Workflow improved, shipping and receiving became a snap and the shop’s image soared thanks to an inviting reception area. But perhaps most marvelous—the dream of in-plants everywhere—is this: the new shop has windows. “Some of the pressmen have even commented to me how nice it is to have the windows,” remarks Debbie Pavletich, manager of the Milwaukee-based in-plant. All of the offices and parts of the shop floor have them, and the natural sunlight has made a difference in