In-Plant Profiles

Rex Dietrich says his in-plant had a “need for speed”—and it wasn’t because of its proximity to one of the world’s most famous racetracks. It was because the Xerox 700 he was running at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Printing and Duplicating Services in Daytona Beach, FL, simply wasn’t fast enough.

If you peek beneath the feathers and webbed feet of the iconic Aflac Duck advertising character, you will find an in-house inkjet printing powerhouse that produces a heavy print workload for insurance industry giant Aflac’s wide customer base.

When he heard the news that his in-plant was on the brink of being shut down, Danny Kirkland’s first emotion was shock. He was completely unaware that turnaround times were too slow. And because volume, revenue and sales were not being tracked, there was virtually no way to demonstrate the in-plant’s value.

When the Pinnacol Print Shop installed a new Xerox Color 1000 in November, it was intended to produce invoices and statements for the Denver-based worker’s compensation provider. But the in-plant quickly learned that its new digital color press would allow it to produce Pinnacol Assurance’s collateral materials in-house as well—work that was previously being outsourced.

“Just being in the room when decisions are being made, a lot of times, is the biggest challenge” for in-plants, declares Chuck Werninger, director of Administrative Services at the Houston Independent School District (HISD). “A lot of shops are deleted from the plan before they ever hear about the plan.”

Improving and upgrading technology is nothing new for the eight-employee in-plant, which lies about an hour east of downtown Los Angeles, in the foothills of the scenic San Bernardino Mountains. But as services like shredding and wide-format printing have been added and expanded to better serve the needs of the university, Printing Services still values its offset capabilities.