How Reporting Helps In-plants Earn Leadership Support

What truly makes in-plants unique is the fact that while most commercial printers are looking for ways to turn the most profit, in-plants are focused on getting jobs done for their parent organizations quickly and cost-effectively. In short, in-plants are consistently proving their value – but how can they do so more effectively?

It starts with building a strong relationship with upper management. And the best way to do that is to keep management apprised of the in-plant’s progress by submitting regular status reports. According to IPI’s 2024 Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry survey, 60% of managers send monthly reports to management. We talked with three of them to learn how this has helped them cultivate good relationships with their supervisors and benefitted the in-plant in the long run.

Educating Management

Larry Mills, manager of Monument Health Printing Services.

Larry Mills, manager of Monument Health Printing Services, in Rapid City, South Dakota, says a large part of building a relationship with your upper management is simply educating them about what your in-plant does. Mills reports to Monument Health’s vice president of supply chain, who he says does a great job of advocating for the in-plant. Because of that, Mills says he doesn’t need to submit reports as often as he did in the past. Before that, though, he made a point of doing a full cost report every two years that included staffing costs, internal equipment costs, outsourcing costs, and more.

“It covered printing, outsourcing, a full justification in case anything came up where you have people looking at a line item and saying ‘OK. We're spending that much on printing?’ or ‘We're going to have to spend that much money to replace a piece of equipment, is it really worth it?’” Mills says.

He still keeps those numbers on deck, just in case C-suite executives want them in a power point in a moment’s notice.

To this day, Mills is still a firm believer in educating people on cost and showing them the money and time they could save by utilizing the in-plant.

“If they're printing high numbers on their office copier versus sending it to me to put it on a production machine, I want to show them those breaks,” he says. “Mailing discounts: we have a mail room in one of our hospitals, and if they're sending large mailings out metered, they could have [gone] under our non-profit rate if they had talked to me first.”

It’s that cost justification, Mills says, that really comes in handy when it’s time to secure new equipment. Knowing the internal versus outside cost comes into play when it’s time to write a packet for the capital purchase committee to purchase new technology.

Mills says that it also helps that his vice president of supply chain is constantly bringing Monument Health executives through the print facility. This allows his in-plant to share its story and executives to see where funding is going.

“For higher-ups, just having that knowledge, or having them see that, I think is a lot of times just as much, if not more valuable than what's on paper,” he notes. “If they've seen that, if they know, if I've done a good job of presenting that … then they don't have to ask.”

To initiate that relationship, Mills urges other in-plant managers to simply start with an invitation.

“I would say that, if possible, set something up with your one-up and then you can also invite their level of management above that. Just set up a meeting or invite them into the shop and have coffee and bagels or whatever.”

Create an opportunity for you to tell your story and explain what you do and why you do it.

“Just get out there,” Mills says. “You can't sit in your office and expect things to go well.”

A Roadmap to the In-plant’s Business

Michael Czerepak stands with the University of Delaware’s Canon Arizona 1360 GT flatbed printer.

During his 10 years at the University of Delaware, Micheal Czerepak, assistant director of University Printing, has reported to various supervisors. All required different reports and presentations.  (UD)

“In the early days, there was a set report that the UD accounting puts out that we would just go over on a monthly basis. And then after that happened, I was kind of in the Wild West where some of them wanted full business plans created,” Czerepak says. “Some wanted PowerPoint presentations on what we did. And then some wanted full accounting on Excel spreadsheets and the ins and outs of our revenue. And now we're back again full circle to a standardized UD account report.”

That standardized UD report is essentially a giant Excel spreadsheet that the Newark, Delaware, university has been using for almost 25 years, he says, and every department gets it. He says it's a detailed breakdown of the in-plant’s revenue, spending, and personnel and benefit costs. While this report is routine, Czerepak says it allowed the in-plant to find things it could improve on like overtime costs.

“It's coming up now, but post pandemic our revenue was stagnant for a while and our overtime costs were actually going up, and that was like a glaring red flag to my manager,” Czerepak says. “We had to get into long discussions about how we lost a number of employees during the pandemic. The work may be less, but it still has to be done and with less people, it just meant more time. But, we were able to figure out what was going on and if people were taking advantage of overtime.”

Czerepak says the report is also helpful in the sense that it serves as a roadmap of the in-plant’s business, and all of the numbers included help justify getting more equipment.

“Thanks to the pandemic, the equipment purchasing process is a lot more involved, and everyone above me is a lot more involved. So, we need that information, whether it be to show how it could generate revenue, or this could save X-amount of dollars in employee salaries and things like that. It's definitely useful in that capacity,” Czerepak says.

For other in-plant managers who aren’t required to do monthly reports, Czerepak says that having that sort of information on deck can be beneficial in the long run.

“Knowledge is power, whether it be on your end or the people that you’re trying to entice to utilize your services,” he points out. “So, the more information you have at your hands, the more coherent your message will be.”

Making Data-Driven Decisions

Nate Riggins assistant manager for EMC Insurance Print and Graphic Resources.

Nate Riggins does quarterly reports that include whether or not the in-plant is missing due dates, why they were missed, and total jobs printed through that quarter.

“I break that all down to where they came from, if they came through our ordering software or an online process or were they policy prints that just came our way,” says Riggins, assistant manager for EMC Insurance Print and Graphic Resources, in Des Moines, Iowa. “And then I break it down by total impression counts, color, black and white. We also print checks, so I list the reprints and why they were reprinted. I do envelopes separate, so I list how many impressions and jobs, and whether we met all the due dates, and then I list out wide-format printing.”

Riggins explains that he presents this information via a PDF that he prepares in an InDesign file and then converts.

However, moving forward, Riggins says his reports are about to get even more detailed since he now reports to a new manager who wants even more details. He is up to the challenge.

“He is having me gather and really break this stuff down even more. So now I've put [data] into charts for the last three years so you can see a comparison of the flow of everything to see how it's progressing,” Riggins says. “He has also requested that I break it down by which printer is printing what. And then I’m also breaking it down by paper type, finishing options, all that. So, he's really wanting me to gather more info.”

Doing this will require extra steps for his team, who will need to remember to input data for each job. To get ahead of that, Riggins set up reminders on each job that operators will have to check off.  And although it is more work, Riggins is confident that it will ultimately lead to a favorable outcome for the in-plant.

“Yeah, a lot of work ahead of me, but I think it’s going to really help us make good decisions in the future,” Riggins says. “Five years from now, we’ll really have all the details and all the info that we need to make data-driven decisions. And there’s been a little bit of push back from my employees saying they wish they didn’t have to do it, but ultimately I told them this is going to help prove our department’s worth.”