We live in an age of data. It influences nearly every business decision that gets made. Embracing data and analytics in your in-plant is an important way to express the value you bring — in terms that data-minded decision makers can appreciate.
Organizations where management makes unstructured, random visits to the shop floor tend to be more efficient and enjoy greater morale.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of data breaches in the financial, business and health.
In-plants do much more than “just” print. Many provide variable data, text messaging, email and social media services. If customers don’t know this, they may be bringing the print component of campaigns to your in-plant and handing off the other deliverables, to other departments/outside resources. That approach fragments messaging, compromising color consistency and campaign effectiveness.
They called him “Tricky Beam.” He was my great uncle. He was a schemer. He earned his name “tricking” people out of their money.
Years ago, after partnering with a vendor to implement one of the first all-inclusive copier management programs in higher-ed, I was shocked when that same vendor approached our administration with the news that we had too many copiers, too many printers and too many copy centers. 20 years later, nothing’s changed.
University in-plants are very different from corporate and other in-house printing operations. For one, their goals are different, and they can frequently shift as administrative focuses change from year to year.
Often, the VP and the in-plant manager have different perceptions of which data is important to measure and report on. The in-plant manager needs hard numbers to guide shop performance. But the VP needs to know why these metrics are important. Make sure you ask which metrics management wants to see.
We often assume that in-plants know each other and that they know about resources in the industry like In-plant Graphics, IPMA and ACUP. This is an incorrect assumption. New people are entering the in-plant community. These newcomers likely won’t know who their fellow in-plants are.
The word “innovation” is not one of the typical subjects discussed in trade magazines or at shows, but maybe it should be. Considering the relentless outsourcing threats and fierce competition in-plants face, perhaps innovation should be a critical success factor for in-plants.
