Vanderbilt University: From Closure to Comeback

Vanderbilt University Printing Services hasn’t exactly had a typical evolution. In fact, the Nashville, Tennessee, in-plant was officially closed by the university in early 2020. Then COVID took the world by storm, and the school realized just how much it needed the in-plant.

Prior to its closing, the in-plant employed close to 40 people in a 40,000-sq.-ft. facility that housed four sheetfed offset presses. However, just two weeks after it was shuttered, its equipment sold, and everyone laid off, the pandemic hit. Realizing it was about to need a lot of signage and hospital forms, the university started calling those former employees. Only three agreed to return, including the then-director, who had to make it work with only a fraction of the equipment that hadn’t yet been sold, and a much smaller staff.

Standing with the Xerox Iridesse in the in-plant’s production facility are (from left) Keith Stringfield, Debbie Kennedy, and Mike Puckett. | Credit: Vanderbilt University

Fast forward to December of 2022 when Mike Puckett, the current director of Printing Services, came onto the scene.

“I had been trying to join Vanderbilt for more than 10 years,” he laughs. “The director at the time knew I wanted to get into higher education, but it was just never the right opportunity. This was the opportunity the former director knew I’d be perfect for, and it was great timing — I was ready to make a change after 20 years with another company. This was a dream come true for me, and he knew it.”

By the time Puckett came on board, the in-plant had hired two more people, bringing the staff up to five. Over the past year, he has focused on trying to rebuild the in-plant to where it used to be, and recently hired his 10th employee. Puckett is actively investing to get the equipment back to where it needs to be as well, although with a different focus than the offset-heavy operation of the past.

“We already invested in a new laser engraver,” says Puckett, “and I’m in the process of purchasing a new flatbed printer. On the business side, we set a record [in August of this year] for how much we’ve grown, and [in September] we broke that record.”

In fact, the hardest part of rebuilding, Puckett notes, is just reassuring the rest of the university that the in-plant is there to stay.

“They were let down,” he says, “and now we’re taking the brunt of that. Our goal is to have the same volume — or more — as we did pre-shut down, but to do it more efficiently and in different ways. I’m not investing in as many presses, and I want to get us up to 15 people running two shifts. I want to do what we do best, and then outsource the rest.”

Rebuilding Trust

Mike Puckett (left), director of Printing Services, and Sean Carroll, senior director, Marketing and Auxiliary Operations at Vanderbilt University. | Credit: In-plant Impressions

For Puckett, rebuilding that trust with the rest of the university has been a major focus since he came on board. “I didn’t waste any time,” he says. “Starting the second week, I started going through the directory and looking up anyone who might need printing. I contacted the departments and made as many appointments as I could, introducing myself and letting them know I’m here to help.”

Rather than try to win back all of their business from the start — especially knowing some of them had started to build relationships with outside vendors during the time the in-plant was in flux — he decided instead to focus on the fact that he works for the university just like they do, and therefore can be a good resource for things like branding, which can be difficult to get right for some outside printers. He also focused on how Printing Services could save departments time and money.

“I asked them to give me a chance,” he says. “Give me something small to show you what I can do, and I am going to impress you. As long as I can keep them happy, they will realize I am here to stay, and I’ll be given more chances. I’m not getting all the business from the university right now — not even all the business from those departments we’re working with — but at every event on campus I set up a table, introduce myself, give out freebies. I go back to jobs we did pre-shutdown and start contacting them when those events are coming around again asking if I can put in a bid or estimate. Some answer, some don’t — as long as I can keep adding one or two at a time, we can build that trust.”

One way Puckett is differentiating the new in-plant from the old is by the equipment and offerings. He has a much smaller space to work in — just 1,800 sq. ft. spread over two facilities — than pre-shutdown, so he has had to be more strategic about the equipment he invests in. One of the recent purchases, the Epilog Fusion 36 laser engraver, wasn’t originally on his radar. He saw it at the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference last June.

Courtney Gilliland shows off a pair of name tags produced on the in-plant’s new Epilog Fusion 36 laser engraver, which brings tremendous productivity increases.| Credit: Vanderbilt University

“We started looking at the samples they had out, and talking to other in-plant managers and directors, and most of them had something like that. We get a lot of orders for things like name tags or suite signage, and we have a rotary engraver, but it wasn’t keeping up with demand.”

He notes that with the old equipment, he would get an order for 300 tags, and it would take the in-plant weeks to complete.

“I spoke to someone, and they mentioned that a laser engraver was working great for them, so I started doing some research. Now, what was taking us 30-45 minutes each to complete, we can do in two to 45 seconds. I made the case to my boss that we could make up the ROI in less than a year … We went from being behind to completely caught up.”

Keith Stringfield runs the Xerox Iridesse digital color press at Vanderbilt University Printing Services. | Credit: In-plant Impressions

But a laser engraver isn’t the only new equipment Printing Services has purchased. When IPI spoke with Puckett in September, the in-plant was in the process of installing a new monochrome printing device. To pick the right printer, Puckett approached all of the vendors, had them come in and offer demos, got his production operators involved with putting together a wish list of what their dream device would look like, and then choose the one that fit the best.

Printing Services is also offering promotional items now, with a newly launched site where university departments can order promo or swag items. And because the in-plant’s HP Scitex FB550 flatbed UV printer is at the end of its lifespan, Puckett says that is going to be the next major investment he looks at.
“I don’t have a lot of time right now to devote to shopping hard for that,” he says, “but I do have a few appointments to meet with vendors and start getting some demos.”

Space to Grow

Each of these additions, Puckett notes, has been an upgrade to an existing machine to improve speed, quality, and efficiency.

“Until I get more space, I can’t add additional machines,” he says, “but half of the campus is under construction right now. Once some of that starts completing and people start moving in, space will open up. I want to stay on campus — pre-shutdown we were eight miles away. So, we can’t grow until we get more space, but once we do, one of the first things I want to get into is mail. We don’t have any business in that right now. Before the shutdown, around 48% of the in-plant’s business was being printed and mailed, and we have zero of that right now.”

The in-plant has seen a lot of growth in its wide-format printing business and is printing wall graphics, column wraps, wayfinding signs, and even branded signage to cover construction fences on campus — an idea Puckett pitched to administration to make that fencing look more appealing.

Mike Puckett (right) stops to chat with Terry Gilbert from TKInstallations as he installs wide-format signage, printed by the in-plant, on construction fencing on campus. | Credit: In-plant Impressions

There are many lessons to be learned from Vanderbilt. For Puckett, who wasn’t there prior to the shutdown, the biggest one has been that you can’t sit behind a desk and wait for business to come to you.

“If they don’t see your value, you have to go out there and prove it to them,” he proclaims.

He also notes that events like IPMA are a great resource for learning — particularly about things he didn’t know he needed to know.

“I took a lot of notes, and got a lot of contact information,” he says, “and since being back I have contacted many of them to ask questions. I’ve never been in a group of strangers that were all looking for ways to help me succeed. That wasn’t the way it was in the rest of the industry — it was always a competition. But here, everyone is all ‘we do the same thing, and we all want to succeed.’ It’s like a gigantic family.”