Rick Salinas

Rick Salinas, once manager of a major Chicago-area in-plant, has been appointed president and CEO of Duplo USA by its board of directors, succeeding Peter Tu, who will step down after almost 40 years with the company.

Top 50 in-plants know the importance of having the right bindery and mailing tools. By Eric Martin Printing fabulous-looking work quickly and cheaply is all well and good, but having the finished product merely sit in your in-plant won't make customers too happy. The in-plants that make up this year's IPG Top 50 understand the importance of having the right bindery and mailing tools to get the job done and in the hands of customers as soon as possible. That's one reason Tim Steenhoek, head of Document Management for ING, in Des Moines, Iowa, integrates mailing and labeling with the basic printing

Computer-to-plate technology has reshaped many of the in-plants on the Top 50. By Linda Formichelli New prepress technology has enabled in-plant employees to keep their hands clean by shifting all the dirty work to the digital realm of 1's and 0's. Mastering this technology has been a key element in the success of the in-plants claiming a spot on this year's IPG Top 50. "We've been streamlining prepress into the digital workflow over the past several years, going from conventional paste-up to eight-up output and now in the past eight months to computer-to-plate (CTP)," says Rick Wise, director of Printing Services at the Columbia-based

In-plants that have added digital color printing capabilities are thriving—and the call for more on-demand color work is only getting louder. By Cheryl Adams ACE Hardware certainly has a loyal customer base. "We have 6.2 million customers in our ACE Helpful Hardware Club," maintains Rick Salinas, production manager at the company's in-plant in Downers Grove, Ill. He says the club—which awards customers points, and eventually store credit, for purchases—is the "second largest customer-loyalty program in the country." The company's in-plant has played a major part in creating that loyalty, chiefly through the huge number of personalized color marketing materials it produces. In 1998

When the demand for color printing grew, Ace Reprographics took action. It installed CTP, color proofing and a new five-color press. Up until last January, whenever Ace Hardware Reprographics produced four-color offset work, the 80-employee in-plant had to print it on a two-color MAN Roland press. As the amount of four-color work increased, the operation started getting overwhelmed. "One of our biggest programs just continued to grow," says Rick Salinas, production manager, referring to Ace Hardware's two-year-old Helpful Hardware Club. Membership in this preferred customer program soared to three million, straining the in-plant's ability to continue producing quality promotional pieces for the program

Ace Hardware Downers Grove, Ill. When Mark Krammer, graphic service manager at Ace Hardware, first came to the Downers Grove, Ill., in-plant 15 years ago he was on a mission. He wanted to make Ace Hardware's in-plant that best it could be, but he also wanted to do something more. He wanted to bring the company some thing extra in the form of revenue. "In any operation there are always peaks and valleys," Krammer observes. "What better way to maximize those valleys than to subsidize your company's printing by taking on commercial work?" Insourcing revenue has helped Ace Hardware's 92-employee in-plant to offset