Business Management - Insourcing

INSOURCING IS more than a trend. It can be a life saver to your in-plant. Who knew it would send me on a 3,000-mile last-gasp attempt to rescue my in-plant? Insourcing in Theory The policy of providing printing services to clients outside of the in-plant’s organization pays off in more ways than one. In the utopian model of insourcing, the in-plant manager zeros out his budget with external revenue and gives internal clients the lowest cost services possible. In return, the external clients gain the benefit of the in-plant’s cost-cutting philosophy. I sat through a session on insourcing at an IPMA national conference

Making money for your organization's bottom line by insourcing can mean all the difference in whether or not your in-plant survives.

Four years ago, Terry Fulcomer, the supervisor for the Prince William County in-plant, in Woodbridge, Va., had a dilemma. His half million dollar, six employee in-plant's equipment was fast becoming obsolete. But, catching up and keeping up with technology was an expensive proposition—one that Fulcomer's budget was not inclined to support.

Ace Hardware Downers Grove, Ill. When Mark Krammer, graphic service manager at Ace Hardware, first came to the Downers Grove, Ill., in-plant 15 years ago he was on a mission. He wanted to make Ace Hardware's in-plant that best it could be, but he also wanted to do something more. He wanted to bring the company some thing extra in the form of revenue. "In any operation there are always peaks and valleys," Krammer observes. "What better way to maximize those valleys than to subsidize your company's printing by taking on commercial work?" Insourcing revenue has helped Ace Hardware's 92-employee in-plant to offset

Insourcing can save your in-plant. Find out how from managers who have done it. In the early '90s Liz Messner noticed an alarming trend: In-plants everywhere were being shut down. Her own in-plant at the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania Service Co. (HAPSCO) could well have been the next victim. Fortunately, though, HAPSCO had decided a few years before to let her Harrisburg, Pa., in-plant start insourcing printing from outside organizations. That decision, says Messner, has kept the in-plant in business. "Had we not gone outside and brought work in...we would not be here today," declares Messner, senior director of

Insourcing can bring in revenue to fund new equipment, while keeping your underutilized machines busy. But controversy surrounds the topic. In June of 1997, Larry Sutherland was a little anxious. With outsourcing on the minds of so many business executives, the former manager of Eastman Chemical Creative Services worried that his Kingsport, Tenn.-based shop might be the next to fall in the name of cutting corporate costs. So he decided to take the offensive. "We went to management and said, 'We think we can reduce our costs by bringing in income and offsetting our costs,' " Sutherland recalls. What he had in mind was

It's nice to have a captive customer base, isn't it? You just keep your rates low, turn work around quickly and watch your customers keep coming back—provided your service is good. But this same "guaranteed" base of customers can also limit your growth opportunities: How can you continually increase your business and justify equipment upgrades when your customer base never grows? In response to this dilemma, several in-plants have found a way to bolster their clientele lists by taking in work from external customers. By insourcing, they can use up extra equipment capacity and generate income. Insourcing does have its difficulties, though: Your