Epson America

WHEN BRIGGS & Stratton Graphic Services accepted a complex catalog job from a local non-profit, Pressroom Supervisor Brian Patterson had an inkling it might turn out to be a prize winner. When he saw the quality of the finished product, he felt even more confident.

Washington State University Publishing has earned the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association's Management Award for using efficient management practices to further the objectives of the university. "Our staff was very pleased to receive this acknowledgement from our peers," says Steven F. Rigby, director of Printing at the Pullman-based in-plant. "It is always rewarding to know that our teamwork and sound management practices have not gone unnoticed."

WE RECEIVED 420 entries this year for In-Print 2009, the only printing contest exclusively for in-plants. Sponsored by both IPG and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA), In-Print was judged again this year in the Salt Lake City offices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Printing Division.

Despite the sour economy, xpedx is investing. That was the message the company wanted to send when it showed off its new Cincinnati-area print technology center to graphic arts journalists last month. It is reportedly the only U.S. center demonstrating equipment from a variety of manufacturers.

After seven years of service, the Epson 10000 at Missouri State University was fading fast. When it reached the point where it would run for only an hour a day, Mark McCarty had enough. Despite the budget crunch, the Printing Services manager was able to get approval for a new Epson Stylus Pro 9900 so the Springfield, Mo., in-plant could once again offer accurate color proofs. The 44?-wide ink-jet printer arrived in February.

AS RANDY Smith sees it, the only way his in-plant can ensure a quick response to its customers’ needs is by doing the work in-house—and that means having the necessary equipment on hand, ready for action. “I try so hard to do as much as I can under this one roof,” says Smith, director of University Printing Services at Texas Tech University. In pursuit of that goal, the 35-employee in-plant has added an impressive array of equipment over the last few months. At the top of the list is a new HP Indigo 5500. Installed in late July, it is the in-plant’s first digital color press.

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.

ABOUT 100 document professionals participated in the recent Digital Printing in Government Forum. Organized by INTERQUEST, a market and technology research and consulting firm, the third annual forum took place in Washington, D.C., on November 5. During the “Leading Vendors Strategies Panel,” which kicked off the event, Elaine Wilde, vice president of sales for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group, spoke about some leading-edge public sector in-plants that have been using Kodak’s technology:   

The terrorist attacks last week in Mumbai, India, have forced the postponement of a major graphic arts show. The FESPA Digital India 2008 show, scheduled to take place there December 14-16, has been delayed until February.

The show focuses largely on wide-format digital printing equipment and features such vendors as Agfa, EFI, Epson and HP.

SOFT PROOFING seems to be causing at least some degree of discomfort in the in-plant world. Should we be offering it? How do we do it? What exactly is it? We use soft proofing a lot at the University of Missouri. Our designers and a good number of our customers really like it. We send PDF proofs to customers during the design stage. Our designer exports the job file into a PDF as soon as it is designed and sends it to the customer. Soft proofs save customers money on one or possibly multiple sets of proofs. For example, the least