Indiana Farm Bureau Improves Quality and Uptime With Inkjet

It’s not every day you see thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment suspended in the air.

But believe it or not, to install a Canon varioPRINT iX3200 production inkjet press at the Indiana Farm Bureau’s in-plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tech Operations Manager Michele Woodrum says the new digital inkjet press had to be craned in through the fourth-floor window.

Michele Woodrum

“It is pretty nerve-wracking to see that much money suspended in the air, but overall, it was actually pretty smooth,” Woodrum says.

The Canon iX3200 replaced the Canon i300 inkjet press, which the shop had since 2017. Woodrum explains that the i300 came up for lease two years ago.

“We had to decide whether or not we were going to keep it, but then that decision was pretty much made for us because then it was end of life, end of lease, meaning that if we kept it, it wouldn’t be serviced more,” Woodrum says.

The inkjet press being prepared for its airlift.

However, the in-plant didn’t make the decision to crane in the new machine for the heck of it. Woodrum explains that in 2017 the in-plant underwent a remodel so when the i300 was installed, everything else like furniture and flooring was placed around it. Seven years later, when preparing to bring in the iX3200, it was a very different story.

“When it came time to move out the old and move in the new, it wasn't just simply popping out the window. We had to bring our furniture team in. They had to disassemble most of the furniture, move it out of the way, and we had to move people and block off certain areas of the office,” Woodrum explains.

Indiana Farm Bureau in-plant team members gather in front of the new Canon inkjet press.

Even with all of the moving parts, Woodrum describes her workplace and employees as “agile” so considering everything that had to be done, she says it went smoothly and was virtually seamless.

Although her team is still training on the new machine, Woodrum says the in-plant has pretty much hit the ground running since the installation was completed, which is a good thing because, while the in-plant upgraded its inkjet capabilities, it actually cut back its toner operations, replacing its Canon imagePRESS C10000VP with a smaller imagePRESS V1000.

Indiana Farm Bureau in-plant team members gather in front of the new Canon inkjet press.

“Because we got a smaller toner machine, we realized … we had to stop all of our on-demand requests for the month, because our small toner machine was going to have to handle all of our transaction production print,” Woodrum says. “And with the downgrade, you're talking 100 documents a minute versus 300 documents, so we knew that would slow it down. We asked Canon to step up and get us running as quickly as possible. They broke the record and had us up and running in 10 days.”

Since the installation, Woodrum couldn’t be happier with the iX3200. She says the print quality is so good that the in-plant can start moving marketing print jobs to it, as well as business cards and transactional pieces, like invoices and daily decks.

Even some booklets, which had always been toner jobs, are also being moved to the iX3200.

“We really only use toner now for large-quantity booklet runs, and we’ll also just keep it as a backup just in case there’s ever a maintenance issue with the iX3200. Being a backup is its biggest purpose now,” Woodrum says.

As for what she’s most enthusiastic about when it comes to the iX3200, Woodrum says it’s the up-time.

“I would say I’m most excited about its quality and its uptime. The up-time that we had on the i300 was amazing. And I'm expecting the 3200 to fall right in line with that, because it's pretty much the same box. It just has better print heads and a few more different capabilities. But it’s up-time, and the fact that we have been able to move so much of our marketing material over to it. That's got me the most excited.”

Aside from her enthusiasm for the machine, Woodrum also can’t say enough great things about Canon. The in-plant was a Xerox shop for 30 years, she says, but made switch to Canon eight years ago when it replaced six toner machines with the i300. Ever since, the in-plant has been a loyal Canon customer.

“For anybody who is considering inkjet, they seriously need to consider the Canon family, because I can't say enough about them,” Woodrum says. “And it goes so much further than just their equipment. It's their service. And once you're in the canon family, that's exactly what you are, you’re family.”