A Strategic Advantage for Your In-plant

In-plants not currently using a management information system are missing out on a very valuable tool, says Al Goranson, manager of Imaging Services at the University of Colorado-Boulder, in a new IPG article. The data generated by an MIS, he says, can help demonstrate your in-plant’s viability to the parent organization. Plus, it gives a manager credible information about the in-plant’s performance.

“If you are losing money, you know almost immediately what the cause is and what the impact is going to be,” Goranson says. “You don’t find out three months later, which is how things used to be. It also gives you an opportunity to see where you are at before your upstream management is aware of a problem. That gives you an opportunity to be proactive and use that information to your advantage.”

Goranson recalls several times when he generated information through EFI Pace that Imaging Services was having an off month. He was then able to come up with a plan to turn things around.

“That has helped me immeasurably over time,” he admits. “Also when management comes out of the blue and says, ‘Hey, I need to know how you are doing,’ that information is literally at your fingertips.”

Goranson can go back to when Imaging Services first got the MIS and show management historical trends on how the shop is functioning.

“I don’t see any other way to be economically viable without that kind of data,” he contends.

For more on how the in-plant's MIS and Web-to-print systems have benefited it, read the article in our January issue.