University of Missouri Columbia, Mo. Not only is University of Missouri-Columbia Printing Services the largest printer in town, it also recently became the offset printing arm of the town's local government. "The City of Columbia's in-plant closed its offset printing operation, and we set up a meeting to see if we could help them meet their printing needs," says Rick Wise, director of the university's in-plant. "The city is now a regular printing customer for us." This isn't all the in-plant has been up to, however; it's also been converting its Quick Copy operation from "off-the-glass-only" copying to digital printing with electronic access.
In-plant Profiles
Unisys Plymouth, Mich. It seems only fitting that a pioneering software company like Unisys has one of the country's most cutting-edge in-plants. Having incorporated online book ordering, color management and print-on-demand (POD), Unisys' in-plant has firmly established itself as one of the leading in-plants. It's also one of the largest, with 91 employees and $16.5 million in annual sales. But again, this is only fitting for a company as vast as Unisys. "Unisys is a big company," declares Gregg Gabbana, manager of print-on-demand operations. "It has 37,000 employees and operations in 100 countries. As the company's in-plant, we do the worldwide printing and
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The University of Michigan has a large campus, with 25,000-plus students and facilities spread throughout the city of Ann Arbor. In fact, the campus is so sprawling and decentralized that the 80-employee Auxiliary Services department receives only about 40 percent of the print and copy jobs generated. Still, last year that added up to more than 20,000 jobs and sales of $13.1 million. Print jobs ranged from business cards to high-volume, multi-color books. "There are certain jobs we'll never go after, such as casebound books," says Patricia Squires, assistant director of Auxiliary Services. "We'd never be able
Not only does Eastman Chemical Creative Services have sophisticated prepress and printing operations, it handles photography, video, streaming media, CDs—and it even insources. As the largest employer in Tennessee (with 10,000 on its payroll), Eastman Chemical has a large presence in the state, says Mike Thomas, manager of Eastman Chemical Creative Services. That presence is especially felt in eastern Tennessee, where the company's Kingsport facility is located. And it is in eastern Tennessee that this sophisticated in-plant is capitalizing on its parental relationship. By promoting its graphic arts capabilities externally, Creative Services is taking full advantage of Eastman Chemical's manufacturing fame. "The company
To a famous brewer like Anheuser-Busch, quality is crucial. Jon Schroeder makes sure its printed products are equally outstanding. by PAMELA MORTIMER Life at Anheuser-Busch's St. Louis in-plant isn't always a party. Sure, employees get two free cases of beer a month, but those are for take-home use only. You won't see press operators downing cold Budweisers. What you will see is a very clean shop, and a very proud staff. "They are proud of what they do, and I'm genuinely proud of them and represent them that way," remarks Jon Schroeder, supervisor of Graphic Communications for the world's largest brewer. That pride
Four Blocks From Terror Jeffrey Allen was hard at work in the New York Stock Exchange's fifth-floor in-plant when terror struck from the skies. Just four blocks away, two hijacked airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center, filling the blue September sky with smoke, fire and fear. "We heard the explosions," Allen recalls. But that was only the beginning. Told to stay in the building, he and his coworkers experienced the double horror of watching the towers collapse on television and feeling the earth shake beneath their feet. "All the dust and the smoke came over here and we couldn't even see
After 35 years with the University of Nebraska, Ken Holm has decided to retire. His exemplary dedication to both staff and customers helped Printing Services grow to be one of the country's top in-plants. by Bob Neubauer After four years in the Air Force, Minnesota native Kenneth L. Holm found himself jobless in Lincoln, Neb., back in 1963, with a wife to support. To help him out, a neighbor got him an apprenticeship at a local printing firm. Though Holm knew nothing about printing, he decided not to be picky. "My wife had a job and I didn't," he laughs. "I needed
Only a handful of organizations operate in-house book binding facilities. IPG recently took a look inside. by Cindy Waeltermann In a time when technology advances focus on simplifying and speeding up printing and binding processes, it's ironic that the best method for binding a book is sometimes no different than it was in the 14th century—with a needle and thread. "It's pretty labor intensive," observes Marc Flechsig, manager of the University of Minnesota's bindery. His book binding operation does about 5 percent of its binding by hand, he says, following criteria set by the Library Binding Institute. Basically, if a book is thicker than
Managers Honored In-plant managers received more than just knowledge from the recent International Publishing Management Association conference in Portland, Ore. Dozens of them took home awards. The In-Print awards got the most attention. All 105 plaques were on display, and first-place winners had their awards presented to them on stage during the awards banquet. Boeing claimed the Best of Show victory, its fifth in 11 years. Additionally, IPMA recognized a number of in-plants for their accomplishments: • Duke Energy, of Houston, won IPMA's annual award for In-house Promotional Excellence for holding an open house in the company's lobby that drew more than 500
Twice The Color—Without The Cost Customers wanted more color. But Arkansas State University Printing Services had only a one-color, 29˝ Heidelberg press. Posing with Arkansas State University Printing Services' new MAN Roland R204E press are (front row, from left) Director David Maloch, L. C. McHalffey (press operator), Allison Brown (printing management student), and Terri Collins (accounting tech). Standing behind Maloch: Homer Hallet (press/bindery operator), Phareta Calkin (prepress tech), and Mark Meyer (assistant director). For years, the nine-employee operation had been running four-color work on the press, in addition to black-and-white book jobs. But despite operating the press eight hours a day, five days a