It was exactly a year ago that the drama began for Jack Williams. That's when the board of trustees at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, issued a directive to begin soliciting proposals from outside vendors for the possible outsourcing of his Graphic Arts Services operation.
Knoxville
ANY TIME in-plant managers get together, the conversation and camaraderie never end. This was particularly true at the recent Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). About 30 in-plant managers from universities all over the southern U.S. and as far away as the state of Washington got together in Nashville, Tenn., to exchange information and listen to presentations to help them tune up their operations.
There is certainly no shortage of offset presses at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville. The 47-employee in-plant boasts six of them, the centerpiece being a four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105. Still, Graphic Arts Service Manager Jack Williams knew the best days of the shop’s two-color Hamada CD-555 were behind it, and there was no shortage of two-color printing coming in the door. So in October, the in-plant installed its second two-color Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46-2.