In-plants Gather All Over the Country
It’s been a busy autumn for in-plants around the country. For the second year in a row, the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association has held fall regional meetings, bringing dozens of managers together for a day of networking and education. Recent meetings have taken place in Denver, Muncie, Ind., El Reno, Okla., Sacramento and Nashville, in addition to the gatherings in Harrisburg, Pa., and Baton Rouge, La., already documented in IPG.
The Denver meeting was held at Arapahoe County Print Services and drew 13 in-plants from five states. It featured Consultant Howie Fenton, whose presentation on “How Leading In-plants Benchmark Performance to Increase Value” was well received. Keynote speaker Jason Simmons, of Xerox, talked about “Transforming Your In-plant from Printer to Partner.” Then Mike Lincoln, Colorado’s state printer, led an afternoon roundtable discussion on topics like Web-to-print, budgeting and procurement. The day ended with a tour of Arapahoe County Print Services, where Manager Tim Mulvey showed off his shop’s Xerox Color 800, Nuvera 144EA, HP Designjet 5000ps and A.B.Dick presses.
Ball State University welcomed 26 in-plant managers, faculty and students to its IPMA regional meeting. Keynote speaker Barbara Stainbrook, Konica Minolta’s senior vice president of Production Print, gave a presentation detailing new services in-plants should consider offering to add more value, such as 3D printing and cross media. Then Manager Ken Johnson talked about the evolution of Ball State’s Web-to-print capabilities, including some of the implementation challenges, the fact that Web-to-print can be achieved affordably and the strength of its use for brand management. He also spoke about his in-plant’s “right of first refusal” and some of the benefits and drawbacks of such policies.
Then it was Oklahoma’s turn to gather a crowd. Redlands Community College brought numerous managers to its facility, where they listened to De Joachim, of Rochester Software Associates, give an interactive presentation about automating workflow and the need for in-plants to better promote their services. Bill Braunbeck from the USPS spoke about mail piece design and how mail can impact branding, loyalty, retention and targeting. A roundtable discussion tackled the difficult topic of how to deal with difficult employees. The group used the time to help an attendee with a specific situation. A tour of Redlands’ in-plant was followed by drawings for door prizes.
On the West Coast, 26 managers met at California’s Office of State Publishing. Ricoh’s Grey Lindsey gave a lively presentation on “Embracing Change,” then Steve Lewis and Roman Zeltvay from OSP Warehousing and State Records Management led a roundtable discussion on how to generate additional revenue with recycled products. State Printer Jerry HIll finished up with a presentation on “How to Develop Cost Center Rates.” After lunch, the group toured the main OSP printing plant along with its secure digital mass mail facility.
The last of the regional meetings took place in Nashville, where a small group of managers met for lunch and then toured Schneider Electric’s in-plant, where Jason Plum, print production supervisor, discussed some of the innovative ideas he has introduced. Whenever he sees a need in his organization, he looks for a way to provide it in the most efficient manner possible.
