Duplo USA

SOMETIMES, YOUR career path has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. Take, for instance, David Estes, Printing Services coordinator at East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), in Winchester, Ky. Estes admits he didn't know what the future held when he enrolled as an undeclared student at Eastern Kentucky University.

PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. Eisenhower had a dream of developing a program that would promote international understanding and friendship. So in 1956, Eisenhower founded People to People, basing the organization on his idea that direct contact between ordinary citizens from different parts of the world can encourage cultural understanding and world peace. Eight U.S. Presidents have served as the honorary chairman of People to People International.

To help you pick the perfect binder for your in-plant, and get the best performance out of it, we consulted the folks who know this technology the best.

Dozens of in-plant managers came to Philadelphia recently for the On Demand Conference. Here's a brief glimpse of what they saw there.

For decades, new equipment was a rarity at the New York City Department of Health’s Reproduction Unit. Like many in-plants, the 18-employee shop languished in its basement abode, accepting equipment handouts from other agencies and buying inexpensive, small equipment when it could cobble together some funds. Then, about four years ago, everything changed. The Health Department invested $1.13 million in new press, computer-to-plate and bindery equipment for the in-plant. Then federal bio terrorism grant money funded more than a dozen additional machines. This astounding equipment infusion is unlike anything ever seen in the in-plant world.

“OUR PRIMARY focus really is color,” declares Dallas Johnson, from his office at the University of California-Riverside. “We’ve moved away from black and white. We saw that as sort of a dying market…still see it that way.” With 35 years of printing experience to guide him, Johnson thinks he has a pretty good idea where the industry is headed. So when the director of Service Enterprises decided to move his in-plant away from the “dying” monochrome market and into the more promising world of color printing, he did it in a big way.

Xerox has honored 15 business partners for their contributions, chief among them Rochester Software Associates Inc. and C.P. Bourg. Xerox works with software and hardware providers to create integrated solutions that extend the capabilities of Xerox products. The awards recognize leading partners in two categories: workflow software and document feeding and finishing solutions.

For years, producing commencement programs was a cumbersome task for Appalachian State University Printing and Publications. Printed sheets had to be moved by hand between stand-alone collating, stitching and folding equipment to create about 15,000 programs. “We hired temp employees for that type of work,” says Joyce Mahaffey, director of the Boone, N.C., in-plant.

FRITZ SIMS’ dedication to his customers is best illustrated by an anecdote he tells while sitting in his Camden, N.J., office.  A year or so before he became supervisor of Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) Printing Services, he overheard his previous boss turning away a customer who had brought in a two-color job—even though the shop had recently installed a two-color ABDick 9870 with a T-head.  Sims was shocked. The next day his boss went on vacation. Sims called the customer back and invited him to bring in the job. That customer became one of the in-plant’s greatest advocates, and Sims later went on to become supervisor of the six-employee DRPA in-plant. Satisfying customers has been his goal ever since.

When Slippery Rock University installed a new Xerox 5000 last June, color copies jumped from 16,000 to 38,000 a month. “Everybody loves the quality,” says Sharon Isacco, manager of the five-employee in-plant, in Slippery Rock, Pa. Still, she knew the programs and brochures being printed on the 5000 could look a lot better if the shop upgraded its bindery equipment.