Xerox Corp.

The new NexPress at World Bank Printing Services is filling in service gaps, providing variable output and winning awards. By Mike Llewellyn TWO YEARS ago, when she was looking for ways to bring short-run color more effectively into the World Bank's Washington, D.C.-based in-plant, Jane Bloodworth considered her options: the Heidelberg NexPress 2100, the Xerox iGen3 or HP-Indigo digital color presses. "The iGen wasn't available, and we found some concerns with the Indigo," says, Bloodworth, business manager of the World Bank's Printing, Graphics and Map Design unit. "We found that the NexPress brought a lot more flexibility." Not to mention a lower cost

This year's sales leaders shine despite budget cuts, a tough economy and the migration from print to e-formats. By Mike Llewellyn 2003 WILL likely go down in history as a little kinder than 2002's nasty economic climate. But hiring is still slow and budgets are still tight. Nonetheless, there are once again a number of Top 50 in-plants that managed to find ways to increase their sales—24 of them, in fact. Many opted to offer new services. Others took on extra responsibilities within their organizations. Some turned to outside business, while others did a little extra self-promotion. Whatever strategies they've used, these in-plants have

Government in-plants from around the country gathered in Des Moines to learn from each other and develop their digital strategies. By Bob Neubauer Perhaps the highlight of the recent National State Publishing Association (NSPA) conference—the part that may have hit home hardest for the 27 government attendees—was when fellow NSPA member Raúl Guevara took the floor with an energetic presentation detailing how his department's strategic business plan saved $839,133 for the Kansas Department of Transportation. By analyzing his operation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and calculating its savings, Guevara, bureau chief of KDOT's Bureau of Support Services, strengthened and improved his department. "We

More than 38,000 people attended this year's expo. Here's a glimpse of what they saw. By Bob Neubauer Integration was the big theme of this year's Graph Expo and Converting Expo. Individual manufacturers like Heidelberg and MAN Roland showcased computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) technologies connecting prepress, press and finishing. And vendor partnerships, both small and multi-faceted, foreshadowed future integration between multiple vendors' systems. Notably, at a large press conference touting the Networked Graphic Production initiative, 27 companies proclaimed their commitment to defining, developing, testing and delivering JDF-based integration between their systems. They plan to define a standardized set of interfaces to create plug-and-play solutions

Wide-format technology is advancing rapidly. Is it time for your in-plant to get on board? By Linda Formichelli You've probably heard Americans are getting bigger. But you may not have heard that our graphics are getting bigger, too. According to CK Associates, a consultancy, the aggregate growth rate in the market for ink-jet graphics greater than 45˝ wide will be 9 percent over the next few years. And according to Deborah Hutcheson, Agfa's senior marketing manager for color systems and workflow, the graphic applications for wide-format printers have a compounded annual growth rate of 20 percent. In 2003, the engines, ink and media

With an ear for his customers' needs, Randy Stahl and his team have built a tight, efficient in-plant. By Mike Llewellyn Although central Pennsylvania's Messiah College Press recently added a 42˝ Hewlett-Packard 5500 wide-format printer to its lineup, and even though it's been checking out Xerox DocuTech, Canon and Océ printers to beef up its digital services, Manager Randy Stahl says the in-plant's chief talent is its ability to flourish in a tough economic environment. "One of the biggest things is always doing more with less," he says from his office on Messiah's pastoral, 350-acre campus in Grantham, just outside the state capital. What

Dave Schlueter has been intrigued by in-plants since he was in school. So it's no wonder he's made his mark on the industry. By Mike Llewellyn It didn't take long for Dave Schlueter, director of printing at Piper Jaffray, to learn printing would be his trade. When he was young, his dad would occasionally take him to work at Jensens Printing in Minneapolis, and he remembers feeling awestruck by the huge presses. That sense of wonder led him to major in graphic arts at the city's Dunwoody College of Technology, where he also earned an IPMA Student of the Year Award. It wasn't

By implementing a chargeback system, in-plants can save money, justify new equipment and prove their worth. By Mike Llewellyn IF YOU THINK balancing your checkbook is a chore, try managing the budget at the 52-employee Houston Independent School District in-plant. Steve Blakely, director of administrative services, says watching over the cash is a lot less difficult than it could be, though. That's because the in-plant charges back for every service it offers. Blakely says it's tough to imagine doing business without a fee-for-service system in place. It might come as a bit of a surprise, then, to learn that Administrative Services is relatively

Last month I moderated a panel on digital color printing at the Big Ten Printing & Copyright Conference, held at Purdue University. Host Sandy Komasinski, director of Printing Services, had come up with the great idea to send each of the panel participants—Heidelberg, Xerox and HP-Indigo—a file containing a four-color print job that Purdue's in-plant had done on its two-color Heidelberg Speedmaster press. Copies of the job were printed on a NexPress, an iGen3 and an HP3000 and distributed at the session, offering attendees—and myself—their first opportunity to compare the quality of the three most-hyped digital color printers using the exact same printed

Bringing in outside work is a challenge, but serious revenue is waiting for managers who know how to get it. By Mike Llewellyn JUST ABOUT 20 percent of Cameron University Printing Services' revenue comes from insourcing. According to Director Stanley Verser, that's a contentious number. Like many in-plants looking to insource work to fatten their profit margins, Verser says his Laughton, Okla.-based shop has to walk a fine line between serving the needs of external customers, and making sure the school is always the first priority. But then, serving the school's printing needs was the impetus behind insourcing in the first place. "The more