Hewlett-Packard

Medifast, a portion-controlled, weight management program, is quickly becoming a leader in a competitive market. And according to Kent Hunter, supervisor at the company's Ridgely, Md.-based in-plant, MDC Printing, the various in-house services the shop provides are a key to the company's success. "The way this place is growing is incredible. The budget is open for the print shop and the management is very supportive."

On November 4, the fourth annual Digital Printing in Government & Higher Education Forum took place in Washington, D.C.

LAST MONTH, in-plant managers from Texas colleges and universities met in Austin for the Texas Association of College and University Printers' (TACUP) conference. While billed as a regional conference, TACUP was actually the largest gathering of university in-plant managers this year, with 40 managers in attendance from as far away as Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. And judging by their responses, it was also one of the best events of its kind.

Once their digital color presses are up and running, in-plants often discover a few things they wish they had known ahead of time. We asked six managers to tell us what they learned and what they wished they had done differently.

When HP announced it was going to start providing "managed print services" and "offering outsourced alternatives," the natural reaction in the in-plant world was a head-shaking "here we go again."

The ReproGraphic Services department at San Diego State University prides itself as being a small but versatile group. To prove it can be even more nimble and flexible, the in-plant recently updated its bindery and rearranged the pressroom for a more efficient workflow. In late June, the shop installed a Morgana DigiFold 5000P folder and a Duplo System 5000 bookletmaker with two eight-bin towers. The Morgana folder joins an older Baum folder, while the Duplo replaces a 16-year-old Horizon booklet-maker. Since the new machines are much quieter than their predecessors, the in-plant was able to reduce noise levels. 

HP's announcement last week that it planned to start providing "managed print services" caused both confusion and concern in the printing industry. Printing Industries of America released a statement expressing its unease that HP was trying to compete with commercial printers. And in-plants, too, fretted that HP had facilities management on its mind.

DESPITE THE cancellation of the ACUP conference, ACUP lived on this year in a Webinar that attracted more than 100 in-plant managers from around the world. IPG partnered with the Association of College and University Printers to bring about the event, held on what would have been the last day of the ACUP conference. Three of the speakers who were scheduled to talk at ACUP gave their presentations online. Then, to replicate some of the free-flowing shop talk that is ACUP's hallmark, three past ACUP hosts held a lively roundtable discussion about the latest developments in their shops.

ON MAY 29, 2008, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal called “Ink-jet Printers Get Set to Turn the Page.” According to author William Bulkeley, “Ink-jet printing technology that dominates inexpensive desktop printers is about to enter the world of commercial print shops. If the new technology succeeds, it could spell trouble for Xerox Corp. and lead to expanded business for Eastman Kodak Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Ricoh Co. and other ink-jet makers.” That article, published on the first day of Drupa, as well as statements from industry experts Andy Tribute and Frank Romano, created a buzz suggesting that ink-jet printing would displace offset and toner-based printing as the dominant printing technologies. I’d like to discuss the facts behind the buzz and offer some conclusions about the real state of competing technologies.

With 42 employees, the University of California-Davis Repro Graphics is one of the country’s larger in-plants. Its Heidelberg presses churn out high volumes of flyers, forms, newsletters, surveys and more for the university. When it came to digital color, though, the in-plant has been mostly sending those jobs to outside printers—until now. “Our volume was continuing to climb, and it was getting to the point where we realized that we needed to make that next jump, which is going to a digital press,” notes Ed Dunn, client service and business development manager. The press the in-plant