Xerox Corp.

As communications leader for print production at Kohler Co., Christopher Donlon has his hands full. Each year, Donlon's team uses its array of Xerox equipment to produce millions of finished printed products in support of Kohler, best known as a manufacturer of plumbing products.

Edwards Brothers Malloy, which has provided one- and two-color book manufacturing for more than a century, is breaking new ground with its latest acquisition. With the purchase of a 40˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster sheetfed offset press dedicated to four-color text work, Edwards Brothers Malloy can now offer four-color book and journal printing in runs from one to 3,000 copies.

For nearly 60 years, Villanova University Graphic Services operated out of one of the most unique facilities in the industry: an old house. Once a residence and later a dormitory, the building had 12 rooms, eight of which housed the in-plant's equipment and offices. A two-color Presstek/ABDick 9982 press filled one room; in another sat a Presstek Vector TX52 computer-to-plate system, a Xerox DocuColor 5000AP and a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8300 wide-format printer; the bindery and shipping departments were in the garage.

Chelle Palmer was going about her day at the Richland School District Print Shop, in Richland, Wash., last month when the phone rang. It was local TV station KNDO. They wanted to send over a TV crew to do a story about her in-plant—in 15 minutes.

As new business models continue to emerge across the dynamic media landscape, in-plants have an opportunity to take a leadership role in reinforcing their strategic relevance. And some of their best opportunities are in capturing new revenues from insourcing, and developing new services by outsourcing and partnering with external firms.

In-plant Graphics visited the State of Colorado's award-winning Integrated Document Solutions operation for a look at its advanced printing and mailing technologies.

It was hard for in-plant managers not to feel special at Graph Expo this year. After years of being included seemingly as an afterthought, in-plants were given the spotlight this time around, with numerous sessions focusing specifically on in-plant issues and a new networking hub called "The InPlant Place" where they could gather and mingle. Some vendors set aside special areas devoted to solutions for in-plants, and one (Rochester Software Associates) offered daily in-plant networking receptions.

Times are good at the University of Washington. Its Creative Communications operation ended its fiscal year on June 30 $200,000 in the black—the second year in a row that the 90-employee operation has earned a profit.

At Graph Expo, digital press vendors highlighted their workflow and digital front end capabilities, enabling everything from transpromotional and variable data printing to ganging of smaller jobs into longer production runs. The emphasis was on automation, personalization and run-length optimization.

Producing booklets has gotten a whole lot easier at Westat since the employee-owned research firm’s in-plant installed a new Duplo System 5000 collating/booklet making system. 

“We purchased the booklet maker because we produce a lot of booklets, and not all of our machines had finishing capabilities on them,” reports Ezra Schneider, manager of the eight-employee Reproduction and Copy Services department.