January 2006 Issue
A Friend in the Business
WHAT IS the best way to advance in the printing industry? Buy your own press and start printing jobs on the side, says Jimmy Friend, director of Printing, Copy Center and Mail Services at the University of North Texas. It worked for him. After growing up in Abilene, Texas, Friend moved to Dallas in 1969, and studied electronics at his community college. He landed a job as a press operator with the Drawing Board, a chain print shop, eventually working in prepress and bindery, as well. "I immediately enjoyed the printing industry and changed my education focus to business and later to quality
Coated vs. Uncoated Paper
THROUGHOUT HIS years as director of materials management for the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dean Gray has always used a mix of coated and uncoated paper. Recently, at the request of a designer, he switched the annual report—traditionally printed on coated paper—to uncoated paper. The results were pleasing. In fact, by printing on uncoated stock, the in-plant met the PCOM marketing department's goal of softening up the annual report's previously stiff and formal look. "It gives an air of less formality and stiffness," Gray notes. For years, using uncoated paper meant taking risks on quality. That is no longer the
Customer Loyalty
By Ed Marino YEARS AGO, most in-plants were in the enviable position of having a captive customer base. That is rarely the case these days. Like any other provider of services to the enterprise, today's in-plant must compete for business and demonstrate it can deliver value and price/performance as compared to its external competitors. With that objective in mind, most in-plants have worked hard to stay current with technology; they carefully evaluate each investment against the end point vision of growing their value to the enterprise. Yet investing in and deploying digital technology for more efficient services is only part of the picture
Direct Imaging Offset for the In-plant
A number of in-plants have added DI presses, speeding their turnaround times and saving money. Here are some of their experiences. Offering their observations for this story were: Gerard Catrambone Associate Director Office of Publications University of Illinois, Chicago Heidelberg QuickMaster DI 46 Hal Cypert Communication Services Manager Print and Mail Services County of Tulare, Visalia, Calif. Heidelberg QuickMaster DI 46 Dan Lee Group Manager, Prepress and Special Services Printing LDS Church Printing Division Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City Ryobi 3404 DI Scott Lipsey Quality Control Coordinator Printing Services Mississippi State University Starkville, Miss.
DocuTech Turns 15
No segment of the printing industry was as impacted by the Xerox DocuTech than in-plants. It seems hard to believe that revolutionary introduction took place 15 years ago. To celebrate the DocuTech's 15th birthday, a group of senior Xerox executives got together in December at Xerox's Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation, where many employees were instrumental to the original launch currently work. Holding a cake to mark the occasion were: (from the left) Xerox Executives Mike Kucharski, Frank Steenburgh, Tony Federico and Val Blauvelt. (Inside scoop: The DocuTech turned down a piece of this cake.)
Ensuring Merck's Success
WITH GLOBAL prescription sales now topping $550 billion, it's clear that pharmaceutical products play an important role in many of our lives. One of the top firms in this industry is Merck, maker of drugs such as Zocor, Maxalt and Fosamax. The Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company was ranked fifth in the world by Pharmaceutical Executive magazine in its May 2005 ranking. Though Merck's downsizing plans may have made recent headlines, its $21.493 billion in global pharmaceutical sales are certainly nothing to sneeze at. Neither is this: Merck is a huge supporter of in-plants, maintaining not one but four in-plants to serve its
St. Joseph's Beefs Up Bindery
Tom Malone had an excellent reason for wanting to replace his old paper cutter. "It broke and could not be repaired," says Malone, production manager at St. Joseph's University's Philadelphia in-plant. After having the cutter's chassis rewelded a year before, he was disappointed, to say the least, when the machine broke again. "I just was in the beginning of the production of a 500-page book, and I needed my cutter," he says. He managed to talk his boss into letting the 18-employee shop buy a new Heidelberg Polar 78X cutter. He has not been sorry. The features on the new model have made
SUPDMC Conference
SITUATED ON the banks of the Cape Fear River, Wilmington, N.C., is rich in both history and great food. It was also home to the 2005 Southeastern University Printing and Duplicating Managers Conference (SUPDMC), held in October. Hosted by Don Harty, manager of Printing Services at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, and Roland Falana, general manager of Office Products & Services at Duke University, this year's conference was also rich in education and entertainment. With approximately 60 in-plant representatives and 16 vendors in attendance, the conference focused on the changing face of printing. Sessions covered document management, in-plant closings (and how to prevent
Tacony Sews Up CTP Deal
When your company is one of the leading makers of sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, floor scrubbers and ceiling fans, you tend to generate a ton of product literature—which means your in-plant goes through lots of plates. The five-employee in-plant at Tacony Corp., in St. Louis, was spending close to $100,000 a year to have plates produced by a neighboring vendor. And despite the close proximity, it usually took one or two days for the shop to get plates back. So last spring, Tacony purchased a Screen PlateRite 4300 thermal platesetter to supply its two- and four-color Heidelberg presses. According to Kristi Humes, vice president
Take the IPG Census Survey
To serve the in-plant industry even better, In-Plant Graphics must learn more about it. Please help us learn by filling out our in-plant census survey. It will show us the issues of most importance to you. Plus, you can use the results to see where your in-plant stands. If you, or anyone else at your in-plant, has already taken this survey, please do not take it again. You must be the manager or director of an in-house printing operation to take this survey. While we do ask for your name and that of your in-plant, we will not publish this data. This is
University of Missouri Adds iGen3
Despite having a six-color, 40˝ press, a digital "Quickcopy" center and a top-notch Web storefront, Rick Wise felt his in-plant's capabilities weren't quite as advanced as they could be. That all changed in December when the University of Missouri-Columbia installed a new Xerox iGen3 digital production press in its 81-employee operation. "It's a huge part of our future," enthuses Wise, director of Printing Services. "To be all that we can be to the university and provide the full service, we had to have what we feel are top-drawer capabilities in both offset and toner." While researching the purchase, the in-plant looked closely at
Variable Data Printing Prepare For It
Full-color variable data printing is not an "if" technology, but a "when." So ask yourself: "What happens if I don't?" And, "If I don't, who will?" By Vic Barkin MAYBE YOU'VE heard this one: A customer walks into your office and says, "We need 50,000 full-color variable data brochures by Friday!" O.K., maybe you haven't. For the past decade, full-color personalization has been proselytized as the printing technology of the future. The vision of millions and millions of pages being produced digitally, in full color, at rated speed, for an audience of one, has been the proverbial pot of gold at the
