The On Demand Conference and Expo will take place next week on Wednesday and Thursday in New York City. Now in it’s 19th year, the event returns to the Javits Center after several years on the road (Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C.).
After opening its 19 halls to the public yesterday, drupa 2012 is in full swing right now in Dusseldorf, Germany. IPG's sister publication, Printing Impressions, has two editors walking the show floor. With 1,850 exhibitors from 56 countries showing their wares, our editors have more than their share of work ahead of them. Here are just a few of the reports that have trickled back to IPG.
in 2008, Yale University decided to begin construction of a new Yale School of Management. Yale Printing & Publishing Services was located in a building that was scheduled for demolition. To determine whether outsourcing made sense, the university did a complete financial review of the in-plant. The study revealed that it would be more costly to close the shop and outsource than to move it.
At University of Washington Creative Communications, the in-plant's implementation of Lean production practices have been critical to its rapid financial turnaround from a $200,000 deficit to a $300,000 profit—a half-a-million-dollar swing from one fiscal year to the next.
Last week more than 100 graphic arts journalists met in Düsseldorf, Germany, to attend the Official drupa International Media Conference to preview some of the product launches planned for drupa 2012, now less than two months away.
Missouri's State Printing Center has relocated, along with the state's mailing operation, into a 250,000-square-foot building about seven miles from the State Capitol. "Because so much of what we print gets mailed anyway, it's really nice to have us all here together," says State Printer Rodney Vessell.
When Colorado merged its print and mail operations with its document imaging/data entry units in 2005, the state was looking to increase efficiency and save money. Under the direction of Manager Mike Lincoln, the resulting Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) unit has been doing exactly that ever since.
At the Mail and Copy Solutions shop at St. Louis, Mo.-based Webster University, six to 10 work study students are recruited each semester to fill important roles ranging from graphic design to marketing to copywriting.
In my conversations with managers across the country, one challenge constantly surfaces: justifying the resources (people, budgets and equipment) needed to run an excellent operation. This is one of the biggest challenges that I face too, but over time I've learned ways to be successful in acquiring these necessary resources.
Vendors reported a good amount of interest in bindery equipment at this year's GRAPH EXPO in Chicago. The bindery equipment at the show offered in-plants some great opportunities to expand their services and increase their efficiency.
