In-plant Profiles

By building an in-plant from scratch, Lufkin Independent School District is both preparing students for employment and saving money. By Bob Neubauer When the Lufkin Independent School District decided to create an in-plant at its Lufkin, Texas-based high school, it went all out. First it hired Brian Crews, who had spent the previous 10 years running the in-plant and graphic arts instructional program for the Gladewater School District, an hour and a half away. Then it installed new prepress, offset and finishing gear worth close to $600,000, including computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment and two-color presses. "They told me to put together my Christmas list

A life-long printer, Mike Renn has found success through communication and industry involvement. By Mike Llewellyn BORN AND raised in Philadelphia, Mike Renn, assistant vice president of Corporate Services at Mellon Financial, is loyal to his hometown—and his employer. On his sister's recommendation he took a job in the print shop at Philly-based Girard Bank in 1974, a decade before Mellon purchased it. Printing was a great fit for Renn even then, as he was a bit of an art aficionado, and he had taken printing in high school. The job put him close to his passion. "What I like about printing is

NRF Distributors' Graphics & Printing Department has moved into a new and larger facility in Augusta, Maine. By Bob Neubauer NRF Distributors didn't become New England's largest flooring distributor by being slow. When its suppliers decide to have a sale, NRF needs to get that information to its customers before its competitors—somewhat of a challenge for a company tucked away in chilly Augusta, Maine, far from many of its clients. The family-owned company has long relied on its four-employee in-plant to print the sales announcements and other customer communications that keep NRF competitive. "I can get a mailing out in one day," boasts

Kamehameha Schools Design & Production Services recently brought a Xerox Gold Award home to its Honolulu facility. By Bob Neubauer While winter sends snow and bitter cold across much of the country, Reid Silva and his crew at Kamehameha Schools, in Honolulu, live in a world without jackets, where eucalyptus trees grow in a lush valley visible through the windows in their in-plant. But their location in the virtual paradise of Hawaii belies the hard work the nine employees at Design & Production Services handle every day. The three operators in the Digital Document Center (or DDC—part of Design & Production Services) churn

The new NexPress at World Bank Printing Services is filling in service gaps, providing variable output and winning awards. By Mike Llewellyn TWO YEARS ago, when she was looking for ways to bring short-run color more effectively into the World Bank's Washington, D.C.-based in-plant, Jane Bloodworth considered her options: the Heidelberg NexPress 2100, the Xerox iGen3 or HP-Indigo digital color presses. "The iGen wasn't available, and we found some concerns with the Indigo," says, Bloodworth, business manager of the World Bank's Printing, Graphics and Map Design unit. "We found that the NexPress brought a lot more flexibility." Not to mention a lower cost

At number 10 on the Top 50 list, John Hancock Financial Services is a mailing juggernaut. By Mike Llewellyn JOHN HANCOCK Financial Services' Document Solutions Group is one big operation. Boasting $19.5 million in annual sales (a 26.6 percent increase from last year) and a staff of 145 full timers, the in-plant jumped up one slot on the Top 50 this year to join the top 10. All of this follows up a 2000 consolidation of the company's four printing and mailing operations together under one suburban Boston roof—and under the jurisdiction of General Director Scott London. The effects of the three-year-old move haven't

As Arnold Schwarzenegger steps into the governor's office, the folks at California's Office of State Publishing are waiting to see how his administration will affect them. By Bob Neubauer The arrival of a new governor can be a source of tension for a state printing operation. For one thing, most people serving in the roll of state printer were appointed by the previous governor and stand to be replaced by the new one. For another, a new governor may have different views about the future of the state printing operation. So just imagine how secure you would feel if your new governor was often

With an ear for his customers' needs, Randy Stahl and his team have built a tight, efficient in-plant. By Mike Llewellyn Although central Pennsylvania's Messiah College Press recently added a 42˝ Hewlett-Packard 5500 wide-format printer to its lineup, and even though it's been checking out Xerox DocuTech, Canon and Océ printers to beef up its digital services, Manager Randy Stahl says the in-plant's chief talent is its ability to flourish in a tough economic environment. "One of the biggest things is always doing more with less," he says from his office on Messiah's pastoral, 350-acre campus in Grantham, just outside the state capital. What

Dave Schlueter has been intrigued by in-plants since he was in school. So it's no wonder he's made his mark on the industry. By Mike Llewellyn It didn't take long for Dave Schlueter, director of printing at Piper Jaffray, to learn printing would be his trade. When he was young, his dad would occasionally take him to work at Jensens Printing in Minneapolis, and he remembers feeling awestruck by the huge presses. That sense of wonder led him to major in graphic arts at the city's Dunwoody College of Technology, where he also earned an IPMA Student of the Year Award. It wasn't

SET ON a land grant on the Idaho border, Washington State University welcomes 20,000 students to its Pullman campus each year, despite being a little...well, off the beaten path. "It's rural wheat country and really big football players," laughs Steven Rigby, director of printing at the school's Office of University Publications and Printing. Several hundred miles east of rainy Seattle, Pullman is usually pretty dry, he says. But it has been pouring on and off for days when Rigby and