Xerox Corp.

State government printing managers gathered in Washington recently, not to discuss politics, but to chart courses into the future. From Web sites to electronic forms, the talk at the recent National State Publishing Association conference centered largely around digital technology and how government in-plants can put it to use. Hosted by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and organized by Andrew Sherman, director of the GPO's office of congressional, legislative and public affairs, the 22nd annual conference took place in Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It featured several of GPO's most knowledgeable employees giving presentations on CD-ROMs,

Spartan Stores Grand Rapids, Mich. Growth would be an understatement when talking about the changes that have taken place at Spartan Stores' in-plant over its 35-year existence. The Midwestern grocery wholesaler, located in Grand Rapids, Mich., began its in-plant with just a one-color duplicator used for printing company bulletins, according to David DeWildt, director of printing and design at Spartan. Since then, Spartan's in-plant has grown into a 36,000-square-foot, full-service print shop, which includes three Heidelberg sheetfed presses, four Goss webs, 43 Macintosh workstations and full binding and copying capabilities. And there are no plans for stopping there, let alone downsizing. DeWildt

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.