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California Office of State Publishing Sacramento, Calif. Sometimes when you're big you've got to get smaller to survive. That's what happened in 1996 at the California Office of State Publishing (OSP), the largest state printing operation in the country. That was the year the Sacramento-based operation went non-mandated—when state agencies were no longer required to use the in-plant's services. The result was a significant drop in sales—10 percent over two years—and a corresponding reduction in staff. But the move also reduced some of the privatization challenges being directed at OSP by private sector printers and won the operation a lot of

University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, Calif. University of California-Berkeley Printing Services has a long and distinguished history as the main provider of printed materials for the school. According to George Craig, director of printing services, the university created its first print shop in 1874 in the basement of an early administration building. Up until the 1950s the printing department was combined with the publishing division. When the printing needs of the school became too great, a separate department was born. "It was recognized as an early requirement and has grown since," Craig says of the printing department. Since those days back in

Hard copy originals? Get with it! To increase efficiency, boost quality and cut costs, in-plants are digitizing their workflows. Most in-plants are accustomed to handling jobs that are crucial to an organization's success, but when the documents you're producing deal with classified test results on components for new military weapons systems... well, let's just say it's important that the workflow process be handled as efficiently as possible. That's why the in-plant staff at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory are working overtime on a project that many other shops also find themselves tackling: to assemble and streamline the most efficient system of digital

Meeting tight deadlines is even tougher when your equipment breaks down. Sometimes selecting the right paper is the key to productivity. When the duplicating department at New York law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson receives a printing request from one of the firm's attorneys, it knows the urgency and quality requirements that come with the request. Whether it's a brief from a bankruptcy case, a subpoena or a client document, the in-plant knows it must produce the material right away—no matter what time of day it is or what day of the week. With constant deadline pressure, the 18-employee in-plant must

Though the publishing industry is infused with digital technologies, the in-plants that serve publishers often run more modest operations. In remote Madawaska, Maine, digital printing technology is about as common as a winter sunbather. "We haven't seen much up here, because we're in a very rural area," says Maurice Morin, in-plant printing manager of the St. John Valley Times. Morin, who oversees five full-time and three part-time employees in this town on the Canadian border, takes this all in stride, however. "Digital technology is something that larger firms can afford to buy. The money's just not here. People here want

In the 1990s and beyond, an in-plant is expected to do much more than simply print documents. Don't miss out on an opportunity to expand. Five years ago, Tony Hinds' definition of an in-plant was probably very similar to that of most managers: an in-house printing facility. Today, however, the number of managers clinging to that limited perception has dwindled, and Hinds—vice president of graphics and printing services at Prudential Securities, in New York—is definitely not among them. Instead, the buzz words are "document management," and most experts say you'll either embrace the concept or fall by the wayside. "We're managing documents

Believe it or not, there was a time when xerography was laughed at and carbon paper was king. One man changed it all 60 years ago this month. As you route another job through the network to your Xerox DocuTech today, take a moment to reflect on the fact that xerographic technology has come a long way since it was invented 60 years ago this month. It was October 22, 1938, in Astoria, N.Y., when Chester Carlson, a patent attorney and part-time inventor, made the first successful xerographic copy. In the six decades since that historic day, xerography has grown to become

When a tornado virtually leveled his campus, Brad Johnson turned to a fellow in-plant manager to help him print his college's documents. When the tornado hit, it hit hard. Like a chainsaw, it tore through the once-serene campus of Gustavus Adolphus College, tearing up trees, smashing buildings and inflicting some $68 million in damage on the St. Peter, Minn.-based school. When Brad Johnson got a look at the wreckage the next morning, he couldn't believe his eyes. "I was in shock," recalls the director of printing services. "I've never seen anything like it. It was one of the hardest moments of my life."

Montgomery County Public School's in-plant explains why going the digital route enabled more customer satisfaction—and created more jobs. Once upon a time, taking a school test meant sharpening your No. 2 pencil and concentrating on filling out the answers on a piece of paper. Today, in some circles, that procedure has given way to the click of a computer mouse. An end result of this trend has been the reduction of unnecessary waste. With that in mind, and the explosion in the use of digital printers/copiers, in-plant managers are starting to rethink their production processes. Some educational institutions are already taking notice. At

What types of hurdles might you face if you try to integrate with your data center? Find out from two managers in the midst of the process. Integrating your in-plant with your organization's data center/information systems department can not only save big money for your organization, but it can bring more equipment and support to your in-plant. In-Plant Graphics recently spoke with two university in-plant managers about the hurdles and benefits of merging with the data center. • Linda Grilz, director of printing services at Pittsburg State University, in Pittsburg, Kan., integrated with her university's data center a year ago.