Oakton’s In-plant Finds New Life — and New Value
COVID-19 changed a lot of things for in-plants, forcing many documents online and eliminating a good chunk of their printed work. Those unable to adjust and find new applications have seen their value diminish.
One shop that has adapted well is Oakton College Print Services, in Des Plaines, Illinois. Marcus Hayes, assistant manager of Auxiliary Services, notes that COVID not only pushed course handouts, syllabi, quizzes, and other educational materials into PDF formats or online portals, it motivated a turnover in faculty at the 56-year-old community college.
“A lot of older ways of doing things … changed,” says Hayes, who started working there right at the beginning of the pandemic.
With less call for toner printing, his two-person shop could have easily faded away. But Hayes saw a few ways the in-plant could continue adding value and took action.
Wincing at high third-party charges for signage and business cards, he swapped the shop’s Ricoh Pro 8100s in January for a Xante X36 UV inkjet flatbed printer, a Canon roll-fed wide-format printer, and a Duplo DC-618 slitter/cutter/creaser. As a result, signage and poster printing has been booming, and the in-plant is able to save the college a lot of money.
“We’re charging the departments half of what they were paying before,” he says. What’s more, customers are getting the work faster.
“Being able to give them the sign they need on the morning they need it – we can be responsive in a way an outside vendor can't,” he points out.
The in-plant is printing signage for the athletic department, marketing, the art gallery, and even construction site signage.
“The college really does love its foam core signs,” he says.
The in-plant also printed signs for the nature preserve adjoining the campus with information on the local ecosystem along with deterrence signage for foraged species.
Adding the Duplo DC-618 has also had a business impact.
“We’re pulling a lot of work back in-house for business cards and postcards,” Hayes says.
Those are printed on the in-plant’s Ricoh Pro 5300. The shop not only prints business cards for Oakton College but for clients of the Small Business Development Center of Illinois, which has an office on campus.
“There’s no minimum order with us. We’ll make … 24 cards for somebody,” he says. “It’s a tremendous cost savings, but it’s also more sustainable.”
The shop’s evolution isn’t done. Hayes is eyeing embellishment and die-cutting equipment, an additional wide-format printer to handle outdoor banners, and an expansion of the shop’s mailing services.
Because it was able to adapt, the in-plant avoided obsolescence and has become a trusted resource for the school.
“They’re very excited to have these services available,” says Hayes.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited 200 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
