Building an In-plant From the Ground Up

For Josh Carlson, technical director for The Villages Entertainment division, starting an in-plant was a natural choice. While his current career path had him working in audio/video, his background was all print.

But first, let’s back up a bit.

The Villages in Florida is the world’s largest retirement community, and it is growing “by leaps and bounds,” says Carlson. Today, the community includes more than 145,000 full-time residents, plus a swell of people during the months when the seasonal “snowbirds” come to spend their winters in the warmer southern weather but maintain residences in their home states as well. With a range of restaurants and other amenities for its residents, The Villages covers approximately 57 square miles and even has its own fire department.

For Carlson’s part, he leads the team that handles the technical details at the multiple entertainment venues throughout the community, including more than 1,000 clubs and activities, live music events, theaters, and several golf courses.

He joined the community 12 years ago, when he says it was getting hard to find jobs in the print industry, around the 2011 slump. He was looking for new opportunities, and decided to take this one and run with it. But once you get CMYK in your blood, it really never leaves, so about four years ago he noticed the community was getting a lot of marketing materials printed by an outside vendor, and he saw an opportunity to rediscover his first love.

The in-plant prints plenty of posters and banners with its Epson SureColor P7000.

“I went to my [department director], and I said I could be doing [the print] for a lot cheaper than what they were paying — I could do it at cost,” Carlson says. “So we started small, with just a small wide-format Epson SureColor P7000 doing posters and banners, and really started building from there.”

Today, he has moved into a Xerox Versant 180 and a Versa­Link C9000, which he uses to produce everything from flyers and brochures, to the aforementioned posters and banners, and is even doing some rigid printing, mounting to Sintra board.

“That all pretty much fills up my printing hat,” he laughs. “I’m still running the AV department as well.”

Carlson has started delegating some of that work to others so he can focus more on the print side of things, noting that some weeks, it’s an even 50-50 split for his time, and others he spends as much as 70% of his time on the print side of things. He has no plans to fully separate them, but he notes, “I do eventually see it becoming separate if things really start picking up. I would stick with the print — it’s in my blood.”

Posters for an event printed on the Epson SureColor P7000.

Small But Mighty

As a one-man operation, Carlson isn’t opposed to bringing someone else on to help out and grow the shop, but he also doesn’t have the time to fully train them, so he would need to find a person who could hit the ground running. Instead, he notes, he’s focused on trying to find equipment and processes that allow him to automate as much as possible.

Josh Carlson

“There are only 24 hours in a day,” he says, “and I have to sleep for at least four of them. I tried bringing in a few people, but in all honesty, that takes more of my time than just doing it myself. I don’t see myself becoming more than a one- or two-person operation, and that’s only if someone comes along with some experience in the industry. I would rather automate with machinery than add labor with people.”

While the in-plant started out just printing signage and banners for events, Carlson does quite a bit more today. A few of the projects he’s taken on include:

• Marketing brochures that describe upcoming events.
• Posters and other décor for those events.
• Graphics for live events, such as concerts or special celebrations.
• Registration signage and wayfinding for various events.
• Menus for the restaurants and bars, especially around special events with limited runs.
• Promotions and graphics for resident-led productions and performances.

Carlson isn’t slowing down either. He’s eyeing a few potential opportunities for expansion of what he offers, and wants to upgrade the Epson so he can handle more wide-format work.

“I’ve already justified this,” he says. “I’m pretty much just begging for the money now since it’s a larger purchase.”

Moving Into Mailing

He’s also testing mailing services.

Josh Carlson

“We’ve done a couple of test mailings,” Carlson notes, “since I do have some experience in the mailing industry as well. None of the people I work with know anything about print marketing — they’re all in the new age of electronic advertising. So I’m trying to show them this is a tried-and-true way of getting in people’s faces. We’re working right now on the database of our current customers, and getting the lists from sales of people who purchase homes. Next year’s largest drive will be to have a finely tuned mailing list for new versus existing residents and create variable mailings.”

He is also eyeing other potential upgrades that will let him not only expand the in-plant’s offerings, but automate its current capabilities. In particular, he plans to attend PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas later this year, with an eye for exploring the Xerox booth.

“I’m true-blue Xerox,” he says. “I’ve tried other manufacturers, but I just keep coming back to them.”

Josh Carlson feeds booklets into the Plockmatic BM60 bookletmaker.

He would also like to expand the in-plant’s finishing capabilities.

“I would like to get more into automated saddle stitching,” he says. “I can do it for simple stuff on my Plockmatic BM60 [bookletmaker], but that’s a hand-fed machine, and I would like to get something automated, like a Duplo. Something with a collator I can set and forget.”

The in-plant also has a 30-plus-year-old Baum 714 Ultrafold, a Vevor manual creaser/perfer, a KeenCut Evolution 3 cutter for rigid signage, a Daige 24″ mounter/laminator for rigid signage, and an L-Bar shrink wrapper.

Lessons Learned

Especially given the small size of his operation, but the large volumes he’s pushing out, there are certainly lessons any in-plant manager can take from his experience.

First, he notes, when it comes to investing, “do it with informed eyes. If you don’t have previous experience, then learn as much as you can.”

Second, he encourages other in-plant managers, no matter the size of their operation, to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge out there. “Just be a sponge,” Carlson says, “and learn everything you can. Seek out other members of the print industry and ask questions.”

Finally, he cautions other in-plant mangers not to “throw people at it. Automation is there for a reason. I go back 35 years with print, and the way things have changed in those years is astounding. Let the machines do the work for you — it’s a higher upfront cost, but the long-term benefits will outweigh those costs by tons.”

Carlson also notes that in order to run a successful in-plant, managers need to “know your product and what you’re putting out. Put your heart into it. Don’t just design something and put it on a piece of paper and say it’s done. Take a look at it, become one with the piece, and make sure it’s as perfect as it can be.

“Someone on the other side is going to be looking at it, and I would rather them not even pay attention to [the overall design] versus only being able to see the mistakes.”

In the end, Carlson is a perfect example of how even a small one-man operation can bring a mighty amount of value to its parent organization. Carlson notes that not only has he vastly improved the quality of the work The Villages Entertainment is distributing to its residents, he has also decreased the turnaround times across the board, and “dramatically reduced the cost for the marketing pieces.”

It’s a great example of how determination and creativity with print can still bring a tremendous amount of value.