Business Management - In-plant Justification

While some feel that adding equipment is the best way to strengthen their in-plants, Wayne Guiney, executive manager of Office Services at Ontario Power Generation, in Toronto, offers the following viewpoint: “When we streamline our in-plants, much thought should go into how much space we are occupying of the companies core resource space. The trimmer our ship, the less water we displace, and the captains of industry that manage our sales are less likely to toss us overboard to the outsourcing sharks. “Basically, the analogy here is that we all can’t go out and purchase more equipment to satisfy the back end of our business.

WHEN PROPOSING something as volatile as the right of first refusal, it makes sense to benchmark one of the forefathers of insubordinate enlightenment. In 1776, Thomas Paine published an essay called “Common Sense.” It clearly delineated the reasons why 13 overtaxed colonies should work together to succeed without bowing to the self-interest of outside concerns. It was a logical call for interdependent independence. It took courage to point out the obvious. In-plant managers will require a measure of that valor. Knowing Why Doesn’t it make sense for an organization to invest in its own services? It’s like taking money out of the left pocket and putting

GPS to recreate entire worldwide infrastructure and provide all publishing services WASHINGTON DC—October 23, 2006—Following a rigorous government selection process, the Department of State awarded a 10-year contract worth $164 million to its revamped in-house printing and publishing organization, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS). The award decision culminated an 18-month public-private competition, comparing the government’s ability to provide a commercial service with the private sector bidders’ ability to accomplish the same service. Competitive Sourcing is one of the five Government-wide initiatives of the President’s Management Agenda, which is the Administration’s strategy for improving the management and performance of the Federal government. The competition encompassed 199 positions, including

Here’s how Jean-Luc Devis, director of Printing & Mailing Services at Oregon State University*, has handled some common in-plant problems. Problem: Employees requesting time off when their co-workers are already taking those days off, leaving no one to run the equipment. Solution: Empowered work teams. Have each work team first work out the time-off schedule before presenting it to the departmental supervisor. Problem: Phone conversations with customers restrict employees from searching out solutions away from the desk. Solution: Wireless headsets allow CSRs to be more responsive by allowing access to equipment, proofs, workflow issues, etc. while still on the phone. This improves responsiveness. * Jean-Luc Devis will begin his

DESPITE HAVING made the change to digital printing technologies, in-plants may continue to be at risk of being outsourced. As organizations seeking to remain competitive in the new economy of the 21st century become increasingly knowledge based, in-plants must develop competencies that support Knowledge Management. Given the in-plant’s exposure to organizational knowledge via the documents it reproduces, it is uniquely placed to play a vital role and better support the strategic objectives and goals of the organization. Print-on-demand capabilities have revolutionized the in-plant, reducing the need to print for inventory and improving production turnaround times. The ability to produce collated, completed documents from

To ensure the long-term success of your in-plant, you need to manage it like an independent business. This requires discipline in three critical areas: • Financial managemen: Do you know the costs of your supplies, labor, and equipment? How do these costs compare to commercial printers? If you can produce numbers that show the parent company gets more for its money at the in-plant than at an outside printer, then your shop will keep its doors open. • Customer focus: Do you know which customers provide the bulk of your work? Do you meet with them to find out what they might need in

FOR THE first time since its initial meeting in 1964, the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) returned to Massachusetts recently for its annual conference. And despite some stiff conference competition—ACUP kicked off just days after the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference wrapped up in Las Vegas—ACUP 2006 was a smashing success, drawing 130 managers from around the world. A number of first-time attendees from the New England area joined conference regulars from as far away as Alaska, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. A large contingent from California was also on hand, building enthusiasm for ACUP 2007 in San Francisco—not

IPG Editor Bob Neubauer was behind the camera at the recent IPMA conference, speaking with managers about some of the best ideas they have implemented in their operations. The resulting video, which was shot during the vendor fair, can be seen by clicking on this link: http://new.ipgonline.com/video/ipg0606ipma.html

To ensure the long-term success of your in-plant, you need to manage it like an independent business. This requires discipline in three critical areas: • Financial management--Do you know the costs of your supplies, labor, and equipment? How do these costs compare to commercial printers? If you can produce numbers that show the parent company gets more for its money at the in-plant than at an outside printer, then your shop will keep its doors open. • Customer focus--Do you know which customers provide the bulk of your work? Do you meet with them to find out what they might need in the future? Cultivating customer

By Ed Marino YEARS AGO, most in-plants were in the enviable position of having a captive customer base. That is rarely the case these days. Like any other provider of services to the enterprise, today's in-plant must compete for business and demonstrate it can deliver value and price/performance as compared to its external competitors. With that objective in mind, most in-plants have worked hard to stay current with technology; they carefully evaluate each investment against the end point vision of growing their value to the enterprise. Yet investing in and deploying digital technology for more efficient services is only part of the picture