In-plant Profiles

Money may not grow on trees, but that didn't stop Dollar Tree from spending a few bucks to upgrade its in-plant. The whole idea of going to a Dollar Tree store is to save money. But sometimes you have to spend a few dollars now to save money down the road. With that in mind, Dollar Tree recently spent more than $500,000 to completely upgrade its 11-employee in-house graphics department, based in Chesapeake, Va. The 4,500-square-foot shop produces everything from signs to coupons for Dollar Tree's home office, four distribution centers and 1,400 stores nationwide. The company is expanding, and graphic arts manager

Through hard work , Joy Heishman excels in a field she loves. Now, her effort goes towards hosting the ACUP conference. by JOE RANOIA HARD WORK pays off. That's what we're taught as children. The current president of the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP), Joy Heishman believes it—at least in her case. When Heishman started out as a delivery person and bindery worker for Wright State University's Printing Services in Dayton, Oh., she never imagined she would some day become the director of the whole department. At the time, she had no background in printing at all. She'd been a bookkeeper and

PrinTech has grown to become a model in-plant—but it wasn't always in such great shape. A new director and dedicated staff turned it around. PrinTech, Texas Tech University's in-plant in Lubbock, Texas, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. What makes this celebration important is that five years ago the in-plant, deep in debt, looked like a candidate for the scrap heap. The turnaround has been a teamwork effort led by Shauna Peterson, director of Fiscal Affairs Services at Texas Tech. Peterson, who was previously the university's director of Engineering Services, took over the troubled shop shortly after her vice-president approached her with an

For Bob Hulett, printing has been a lifelong interest. He has turned that interest into a successful career with Beckman Coulter. FOUR YEARS of high school graphic arts classes paved the way for Robert Hulett's future career in the printing industry. And though subsequent studies at California's Fullerton College increased his knowledge of print and prepress technology, Hulett already knew what he wanted to be—a printer. "It was an interest way back in high school," he recalls. "Graphics really appealed to me." Hulett knew that his father's company, Beckman Coulter, had an in-plant print shop, so when he got out of school he applied

By keeping management informed of his in-plant's anticipated growth, Tim Waltz has been able to keep his shop properly equipped. Tim Waltz may not have been born to work in an in-plant, but he sure didn't waste any time getting himself a job in one. He was only 17 when he started working in the in-plant in his Minnesota high school, Austin Public School. He had taken a few graphic arts courses and fallen in love with the job. Now, 18 years later, as printing services manager of Cherry Creek Schools' eight-employee in-plant in Aurora, Colo., Waltz still loves his job. He has

A name change gave Tom Neckvatal the perfect opportunity to move his shop to an electronic workflow. He jumped at the chance and hasn't looked back. PRINTING WAS not in Tom Neckvatal's plans when he was attending the University of Wisconsin back in 1966. But when he heard of an opening at the university print shop for a part-time press operator, the business administration and economics undergrad grabbed the position. "I needed a job, and that was the only thing available," he explains. Neckvatal was groomed on a Multilith 1250 press, and he hasn't left the in-plant environment since. Today, after working

School district in-plants print everything from tests to textbooks. Our exclusive survey and detailed in-plant profiles will teach you all you want to know. Our survey of school district in-plants pulled in an impressive 208 responses. The majority of these in-plants are small, single-person operations. Many of them combine graphic arts instruction and printing, sometimes using students to produce the schools' materials. We received 45 responses from in-plants that exist primarily as classrooms—21.6 percent of the total—but we opted not to include their data in our results so that we could focus on in-plants whose primary purpose is to print the materials that

In his 18 years with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Domenic Vallone has consolidated and strengthened the printing and mailing operations. When he started at St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia in 1971, Domenic Vallone had never given printing much thought. But since he was attending school on a work scholarship, he willingly accepted his assignment to the print shop. "I would go to classes, and then I would go there and spend three hours a day collating and delivering," he recalls. He didn't mind the work, but he admits "I don't think I would have picked printing if I had been given a

For in-plants serving religious organizations, printing takes on a much deeper meaning. In her white habit and black veil, Sister Mary Jeremiah blends in well with the other 27 Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus as they go about their daily routine of work and prayer. But when she throws a coverall apron over her habit and fires up her Multi 1250, one thing becomes instantly clear: She's a printer. Sister Jeremiah has been running the in-plant at her Lufkin, Texas-based monastery for eight years. She's the third printer the monastery has had since it started its in-plant in

After being recognized as a top digital shop, Unisys revamped its offset operation to make it an on-demand model. In 1995, the in-plant at Unisys was recognized as a leader in the digital realm when it was honored with the CAP Ventures Technology Innovators Award. After adding digital technology, the in-plant had reduced its 200,000-square-foot warehouse to an aisle of less than 10,000 square feet, while raising production and quality. But what could the shop do in the offset area to cut costs and offer faster service? "I said, 'Hey, we have to come up with a better way to do offset than