In-plant Profiles

A name change gave Tom Neckvatal the perfect opportunity to move his shop to an electronic workflow. He jumped at the chance and hasn't looked back. PRINTING WAS not in Tom Neckvatal's plans when he was attending the University of Wisconsin back in 1966. But when he heard of an opening at the university print shop for a part-time press operator, the business administration and economics undergrad grabbed the position. "I needed a job, and that was the only thing available," he explains. Neckvatal was groomed on a Multilith 1250 press, and he hasn't left the in-plant environment since. Today, after working

School district in-plants print everything from tests to textbooks. Our exclusive survey and detailed in-plant profiles will teach you all you want to know. Our survey of school district in-plants pulled in an impressive 208 responses. The majority of these in-plants are small, single-person operations. Many of them combine graphic arts instruction and printing, sometimes using students to produce the schools' materials. We received 45 responses from in-plants that exist primarily as classrooms—21.6 percent of the total—but we opted not to include their data in our results so that we could focus on in-plants whose primary purpose is to print the materials that

In his 18 years with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Domenic Vallone has consolidated and strengthened the printing and mailing operations. When he started at St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia in 1971, Domenic Vallone had never given printing much thought. But since he was attending school on a work scholarship, he willingly accepted his assignment to the print shop. "I would go to classes, and then I would go there and spend three hours a day collating and delivering," he recalls. He didn't mind the work, but he admits "I don't think I would have picked printing if I had been given a

For in-plants serving religious organizations, printing takes on a much deeper meaning. In her white habit and black veil, Sister Mary Jeremiah blends in well with the other 27 Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus as they go about their daily routine of work and prayer. But when she throws a coverall apron over her habit and fires up her Multi 1250, one thing becomes instantly clear: She's a printer. Sister Jeremiah has been running the in-plant at her Lufkin, Texas-based monastery for eight years. She's the third printer the monastery has had since it started its in-plant in

North Carolina Correction Enterprise Print Plant/Central Duplicating Raleigh, N.C. Annual sales: $7 million Full-time employees: 186 Jobs printed per year: 13,500 Robert Leon runs an extremely professional, profitable in-plant. Comprising a large offset operation and a separate duplicating facility, his in-plant generates $7 million in annual sales and employs 186 people. But his operation is different from other in-plants in one key way: Nearly all of his employees are prison inmates. Leon is director of printing at North Carolina Correction Enterprises. He oversees the offset print plant, located in Nashville, N.C., and a central duplicating center, in Raleigh. In its 60 years of

USAA San Antonio, Texas Annual Sales/Budget: $38 million Full-time employees: 305 Jobs printed per year: 36,000 For the employees at USAA Publishing Services, an increased workload is to be expected. The customer base, which stands at over 3.5 million people, grows by up to eight percent annually. But with a cap on the number of employees at the shop since 1992, that increase in work must be handled by the current staff. "We expect capacity to increase with our volume growth but expect staffing to remain constant," explains Jack Mondin, executive director of publishing output services. "That means...we cannot continue to do business the way we have

After being recognized as a top digital shop, Unisys revamped its offset operation to make it an on-demand model. In 1995, the in-plant at Unisys was recognized as a leader in the digital realm when it was honored with the CAP Ventures Technology Innovators Award. After adding digital technology, the in-plant had reduced its 200,000-square-foot warehouse to an aisle of less than 10,000 square feet, while raising production and quality. But what could the shop do in the offset area to cut costs and offer faster service? "I said, 'Hey, we have to come up with a better way to do offset than

University of California Printing Services Berkeley, Calif. Annual sales/budget: $15,877,189 Full-time employees: 186 Jobs printed per year: 5,000 To satisfy the printing needs of some 140,000 University of California students attending nine campuses across the state, University of California-Berkeley Printing Services has needed to be flexible. According to George Craig, printing services director, there have been many changes over the years, especially with the emergence of digital technology. Craig recalls bringing in photocomposition and computer business management systems in the '80s, before moving to the direct-to-plate processes and computer-controlled presses of today. Through it all, Craig says, his staff has excelled at adapting to the changes.

Allstate Print Communications Center Wheeling, Ill. Operating Budget: $30 million Full-time employees: 361 Part-time employees: 84 Jobs printed per year: 20,000 To keep a huge operation like the Allstate Print Communications Center productive and cost-effective, its management team must meet the challenges of changing technology and staggering workloads—while keeping costs low and bringing top-notch service to customers. "We are very successful at answering our company's printing needs and providing the most cost-effective solutions," explains Bob Tierney, print communication director. "Our cost-effectiveness is clearly our greatest strength." The Allstate Print Communications Center is not only a leader within its company, but also in the printing industry. It has

Boeing Printing & Output Service Seattle Annual sales/budget: $56 million Full-time employees: 330 Jobs printed per year: 240,000 Bill Walker, senior manager of printing operations at Boeing, has seen a lot of changes in his 33 years—and he knows that as soon as one technology is mastered, it's time to prepare for the next. "We've about maxed out the gains in our printing operation," says Walker of the shift from camera ready art to the digital original. "Ten years ago, it was tough to get an electronic original because customers didn't think that way. Today, 95 percent of our originals come to us digitally." That change