In-plants Aren’t Commercial Printers
Have you noticed? We’ve been discovered!
Everyone has suddenly become aware of “in-plants.” There was a time when in-plants were looked down on by our colleagues in the commercial world. We weren’t “real printers.” We were somehow not quite as good as our commercial counterparts.
Now that’s changed. Printing consultants, industry marketing “experts,” and even vendors are presenting at in-plant conferences, blogging and writing articles and white papers telling us what we’re doing wrong and how to fix it. Some are telling us how to improve performance; others, what new services to add. The assumption seems to be that since we’re “printers,” the same rules they use to explain commercial printing should apply to us as well.
- Categories:
- Business Management - In-plant Justification
Ray Chambers, CGCM, MBA, has invested over 30 years managing and directing printing plants, copy centers, mail centers and award-winning document management facilities in higher education and government.
Most recently, Chambers served as vice president and chief information officer at Juniata College. Chambers is currently a doctoral candidate studying Higher Education Administration at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). His research interests include outsourcing in higher education and its impact on support services in higher education and managing support services. He also consults (Chambers Management Group) with leaders in both the public and private sectors to help them understand and improve in-plant printing and document services operations.
