Canon U.S.A.

EVERY IN-PLANT strives to be an asset to its parent organization. Spartan Stores’ Graphic Services department takes this even further. The in-plant’s 82 “associates” work tirelessly to give their parent company a strategic advantage over the competition in the wholesale and retail food distribution business. And what is this strategic advantage? Well, versatility for one. The in-plant provides so many services it can meet virtually any demand. It can take a job from design through fulfillment, while offering excellent customer service. Convenience and fast turnaround are other strategic advantages. The 36,000-square-foot in-plant is housed right at the Spartan Stores corporate office in Byron Center,

A glimpse of the excitement and bustle of Graph Expo, with interviews of some of the in-plant managers in attendance.

A partial, temporary shutdown allowed the Print Shop at Burlington County College to expand its digital color printing capabilities. Last June, the six-employee operation in Pemberton, N.J., was forced to crate its presses and move its remaining equipment across the hall into temporary quarters so the college could complete a heating/air conditioning replacement project in its area. To continue serving the color printing needs of customers during this disruption, Manager Stephen Amitrano arranged a three-month loan of a Konica Minolta bizhubPRO C500. The 50-ppm machine performed so well that Amitrano decided to keep it once the shop returned to its digs. “It’s a life saver,” he

THE INTERNET has distracted enterprise management from the importance of adopting a strategic approach to the management of print. It is true that the print industry has embraced huge transformations in the past 15 years; there is nothing left of the print industry of just 20 years ago. But in many ways, the changes of the past 15 years have been about using digital technologies to emulate aspects of the analog print industry. A different type of transformation is now underway. The combined impact of the Internet and digitization is the root cause of a migration of print production closer to the source

Features to Look For Finishing capabilities such as saddle finishing, hole punching, folding, binding and stacking can save time, labor and costs associated with dedicated offline finishing equipment. Also, look for features that allow you to assemble and build jobs electronically prior to copying/printing. Print controller options should be considered as well to optimize system performance. Digital document capture capabilities such as scan-to-e-mail and scan-to-file let you easily convert hard copy information to electronic format. —Paul Albano, Canon USA There is a color explosion taking place. In-plants should focus on faster, more affordable devices as color becomes more widely used. Fortunately, color-enabled

More coverage of Graph Expo product introductions . IT MAY be telling that the majority of presses in operation around the show floor of Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2006 last month were of the digital variety. Offset units were conspicuous in their absence. Digital presses have become part of the commercial printing mainstream, rather than being a specialty product segment or market niche. To emphasize this, Hewlett-Packard shared results from an InfoTrends study that surveyed a sampling of digital color printing buyers and producers. The research firm found that the percentage of color printing jobs with a run length

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

Canon U.S.A. has formed a unique partnership with Arizona State University that will not only support ASU’s office copier program and copy centers with the latest technology, but will advance the Tempe-based university’s digital infrastructure. The goal is to build a “sustainable digital university” that is mindful of the needs of future generations and does not use resources faster than they can be replenished. With that in mind, Canon is replacing ASU’s existing copiers and multifunction devices with the latest digital equipment, and opening a Canon digital showroom on campus. ASU will become a test laboratory for Canon digital technologies (even non-print technologies, like security

Is the word “copier” obsolete? After all, today’s multifunction products (MFPs) do so much more than just copy off the glass. And since most jobs arrive as digital files, isn’t “printer” a better word? Why, then, do people keep calling them “copiers?” “The term ‘copier’ is becoming a bit outdated,” agrees Paul Albano of Canon USA. But stopping users from uttering the “c” word may prove a bit difficult, he acknowledges. “These devices began as ‘copiers’ performing a single function,” he notes. “It will certainly be a hard task to rebrand the machine that many have known their whole lives as a ‘copier.’ MFP,