Editor's Note Sweepin' Down The Plain
Not long ago I made my first trip to Oklahoma City. I was invited to attend the International Publishing Management Association's second annual regional conference and to give a presentation on the state of the in-plant market. (That's me giving my talk. I thought you'd appreciate a new photo for a change.)
While I was in town, I spent a day visiting in-plants in the area, such as those at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Oklahoma Central Services and Hobby Lobby. This last in-plant piqued my interest.
Three years ago when Hobby Lobby wanted to bring its offset printing in-house—that's right, start a new in-plant—the company brought in Brad Smith to run the entire operation. Brad, a young, amiable guy, quickly found that the growing company was throwing him more work than one person could handle.
So the in-plant expanded. Staff was added. A five-color Heidelberg joined the two-color Hamada Brad had been running. Today the offset operation employs eight people and prints store signs, catalogs and a line of "memory pages" for scrap book creators.
What was most interesting to me—besides the obvious success and growth of a newly formed in-plant—was that this in-plant has virtually never used film to make plates. Right from the start, Brad used computer-to-plate equipment.
Initially the shop got a Purup-Eskofot (now Esko-Graphics) DPX Genesis platesetter, and then upgraded to a DotMate 7500CtP for larger-format jobs. The in-plant uses polyester plates 99 percent of the time, even on the Heidelberg, and Brad reports no problems with this setup.
I couldn't help but wonder, as I drove through the rain to my next in-plant meeting, whether other in-plants, if they were to open today for the first time, would even bother with film. Are those in-plants without CTP—70 percent by our research—merely clinging to film because it's familiar to them? Are their arguments against going direct-to-plate just excuses to maintain the status quo?
Sometimes taking a fresh look at things, like Hobby Lobby did when it started into the offset business, is the only way you can see what really makes sense for your own operation.