In-plant Profiles

Doug Larsen used to sow seeds on his father's farm. Now, he sows the seeds for in-plant success. WHEN Girls and Boys Town, in Omaha, Neb., needed to update its in-plant, the organization hired a guy with next to no printing experience. But Doug Larsen, the man who took the job, says it doesn't matter; his responsibilities have more to do with making customers happy than the technical minutiae of running a four-color press. Similarly, when asked about his role in reviving the stagnant Girls and Boys Town in-plant, Larsen prefers to deflect praise with self-deprecating humor. "All I do is talk and

Tyson Foods Springdale, Ark. Nobody knows which came first, the chicken or Don Tyson's idea for complete vertical integration. But Russell Gayer, manager of printing services for Tyson Foods, knows that his in-plant didn't always print such a tremendous volume of work. "It started out in 1975 as just a little room in the corporate office with a couple of duplicators," explains Gayer, "But over the years it's snowballed into what we have here today." And what the company has is a 62-employee in-plant that prints over 62 million labels a month. That's a lot of snowballing. Tyson's executives charted a course

If you've got a problem with your American Express card statement don't bother calling Mark Ostley, manager of document-related services for American Express Financial Advisors. He has nothing to do with it. He is, however, part of a team that oversees nearly everything else the credit card behemoth's in-plant produces. And it produces quite a lot. "We do everything from stationery to letterhead and business cards, all the way to digital color promotional material, such as booklets and brochures," explains Ostley. "It's actually pretty far reaching." Though the 248-employee in-plant outsources nearly 80 percent of its work, when it does decide to take on

Yale University New Haven, Conn. Yale University provides its professors and students an environment that's unlikely to be matched at any other campus—and that includes the services provided by its in-plant. "In the academic world, we're unique in the wide range of services that we provide to our clients," says Richard Masotta, director of Yale's Reprographic and Imaging Services (RIS). That boast isn't mere sales talk. With roughly 100 employees and workspace at three locations on campus, RIS's myriad offerings range from graphic design and Web site development to copier maintenance and electronic, color, laser and offset printing. RIS also manages a technology

Cigna Printing and Distribution Charleston, S.C. If there's one thing John Panhorst doesn't want to do, it's get his hands dirty. Not that Panhorst, assistant vice-president of printing in Cigna's Printing and Distribution department, has a problem with working; he just knows that the in-plant runs a lot more smoothly and efficiently if people don't get in the way of the machines. "We've got our systems so automated that when an order comes in to ship 500 books, the whole thing drops into the demand print queue automatically," he says. "We don't interface with it at all, and frequently we put those

Amway Ada, Michigan. Amway—the little business that could—went from a basement office in 1959 to an estimated $5 billion in retail sales 40 years later. But to long-term employees like Mike King, director of paper products, Amway's success is no accident; it's a manifestation of the pure entrepreneurial spirit of Amway's two creators, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. "In the beginning, everybody thought they were nutso," says King, with a chuckle. "They would drive somewhere to meet 150 people for a demonstration and three people would show up, but they were committed to their idea and they stuck with it." DeVos and Van

Texas Department of Health and Human Services Austin, Texas After years of fighting to keep his in-plant alive, Robert McDaniel has finally been able to spend some time focusing solely on improving his shop. Six years ago, the Texas Council on Competitive Government consolidated 31 state print shops in Travis County, in central Texas, into a mere nine shops. These in-plants, which lack right of first refusal, were also mandated to operate on a full cost recovery basis and forbidden from printing for any type of commercial operation. The result? They were left fighting each other and commercial print shops in a limited pool

Best Buy Minneapolis, Minn. When a business is able to grow from $160,000 in sales to over $7 million in less than a decade some people might attribute the success to a midnight deal with the devil—or at the very least a trade for some magic beans. But for Rick Fiebiger, director of Best Buy's 83-employee Print Solutions Group, all it took was focus and attention. "You really need to run your operation like you would if you were a commercial printer," declares Fiebiger. "You've got to earn the business, you have to provide top-notch service and you have to measure your contributions

Penn State University State College, Pa. Penn State Document Services faces a problem common to in-plants that lack the right of first refusal. If a department or professor needs a print job and they expect it to cost less than $5,000, they don't need to get bids on it. "They can just go to the print shop down the street because it's on the way home or their cousin's best friend works there, or whatever," laments Michael Pierick, director of Document Services. "We have to compete for every job, so we need to be concerned that every product and service line we provide

Papa Johns Louisville, Ky. It sounds like a pizza lover's dream. In addition to the standing dollar-a-slice deal available to Papa Johns employees from the on-site pizzeria at its corporate headquarters, employees can also enjoy 50 percent off all other Papa Johns pizza purchases. Though this undoubtedly adds a few pounds to workers' waistlines, the pizza chain giant has been adding much more than this lately. This month, Papa Johns' 85-employee in-plant will add a new 11,000-lb., 36˝, four-color Process King press to help it gain more control over the company's printing and marketing needs. Jack Klausing, director of