Ball State Printing Relocates to Larger Facility

What was once a fairly low-volume print shop when it opened at Ball State University 30 years ago, has turned into a bustling operation. When Ken Johnson, director of Printing Services at the Muncie, Ind., school, saw that he could barely squeeze any more equipment into his in-plant’s 3,200-square-foot space, he knew it was time for a new facility.

“When we looked into buying a four-color press, our decision had to be based on the type of press and how much paper we could actually fit into the building,” recalls Johnson. “We did not have a loading dock or storage space, so we used every square inch of the building.”

After Ball State University brought in an outside consultant to evaluate the university as a whole, Johnson and his team were relieved to learn that the report confirmed the efficiency of the in-plant. Bolstered by this official nod of approval, when a 4,200-square-foot area became available on the edge of campus (less than two miles away), the university approved the in-plant’s move into that space.

Since relocating last March, Printing Services now has access to a loading dock, which Johnson says is one of the best advantages of the new space. Prior to this, Printing Services had to buy all of its paper in cartons—no matter how large the order—then break them down and lift them all by hand.

“Whenever we would receive a paper shipment into our old facility, we would also have to take it off of the skids, put it onto our van, transport it to our other location and offload it from there,” he recalls.

Having central mail located in the same building has also made the operation run much smoother.

“We are now able to have a better working relationship with our central mail location,” Johnson points out. “If a question arises about a mail piece that comes in, we can just walk across the hall and get everything sorted out.”

Not only has the new building made things simpler from a workflow standpoint, it has made the operation’s eight employees feel more connected with the university.

“We also share the building with the university’s carpenters, plumbers and purchasing unit,” says Johnson. “So we can actually walk out in the hallway and see other university staff, which is something we previously could not do.”

Among the equipment the in-plant moved over to its new location were a four-color Heidelberg Printmaster 52, a two-color Heidelberg MOZP perfector, a two-color Heidelberg GTO press, two Polar cutters, a Rosback 716 six-pocket collator, and a Screen platesetter and plate processor.

“We also moved our old Heidelberg Windmill press, which in the middle of the move, we had to fire up to complete a die-cutting rush job, since we had moved the other equipment out,” relates Johnson.

Prior to the move, the in-plant made arrangements with outside printers to handle some print work, but only had to outsource two jobs. The shop was able to shift some of its work to the university’s copy center, and the rest of its projects were completed thanks to a lot of staff overtime.

“As soon as we got the GTO back up and running, we were producing envelopes on it. We were down only five days,” says Johnson. “We moved our prepress first, which was down only two days. So as jobs came in during the week while we were moving, we could still work those jobs through, so they would be ready for press that following week.”

One early problem Johnson and his team faced at the new facility was keeping the humidity at a constant level (ideally 45 percent). It would reach about 70 percent whenever it rained.

“There was a steam humidifier installed in the duct above the ceiling that wasn’t installed properly, so there was some dripping from the ceiling,” Johnson explains. “But we now have the humidity level to where it is working well.”

Johnson also enhanced his shop by adding windows inside the plant so staff can see the layout of the operation better, while keeping an eye out for customers in the reception area.

“We have been able to change the layout of our operation so it worked out more efficiently for the front office, prepress and pressroom,” concludes Johnson. “Now a customer can walk in and sit down right next to a prepress coordinator, instead of pulling up a chair.”

Since moving, the in-plant has added two Konica Minolta C6000 digital color printers in its copy center location, and late last month installed a Xanté digital envelope press.