Canon U.S.A.

For short-run, on-demand work—especially work that can be enhanced with variable data—digital printing is the answer. FOR YEARS the data center at Georgia Tech University was churning out up to 12 million impressions annually and was a separate department from the in-plant. Paul Thomas, director of printing and copying services, knew that if he could combine both departments, he would produce this work cheaper and faster. Last year Thomas merged the in-plant with the data center. He then made another bold move by purchasing two new 110-ppm Kodak DigiSource 9110s, distributed through Danka. He hasn't looked back since. "It enabled us to take

Spartan Stores Grand Rapids, Mich. Annual Sales: $16.4 million Operating Budget: $14.1 million Full-time employees: 90 Part-time employees: 4 Jobs printed per year: 9,620 When it started out 35 years ago with just a one-color duplicator for printing company bulletins, the in-plant for Spartan Stores seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the largest in-house printing facilities in the nation. But as the century nears its end, that is exactly what has happened. For the second consecutive year, Spartan Stores has ranked tenth on the IPG Top 50 list. There have been some drastic changes at this Midwestern grocery wholesaler shop since the single duplicator days. The

North Carolina Correction Enterprise Print Plant/Central Duplicating Raleigh, N.C. Annual sales: $7 million Full-time employees: 186 Jobs printed per year: 13,500 Robert Leon runs an extremely professional, profitable in-plant. Comprising a large offset operation and a separate duplicating facility, his in-plant generates $7 million in annual sales and employs 186 people. But his operation is different from other in-plants in one key way: Nearly all of his employees are prison inmates. Leon is director of printing at North Carolina Correction Enterprises. He oversees the offset print plant, located in Nashville, N.C., and a central duplicating center, in Raleigh. In its 60 years of

Several vendors have released products designed to tap the high-speed digital printing market, long the domain of the Xerox DocuTech. Ever since the Xerox DocuTech made its debut in 1990, it has stood virtually alone in its class. In recent weeks, however, other vendors have unleashed products designed to cut into the digital market that Xerox created. Specifically, these new products are geared toward printers who don't have the volume to afford a DocuTech, but want the same features at a slower speed. One unlikely entrant into the print-on-demand market is Heidelberg, a dominant force in the offset world. At Graph Expo

University of Washington Publications Services, Seattle Annual sales: $15.8 million Operating budget: $16.2 million Full-time employees: 162 Part-time employees: 110 Jobs printed per year: 6,500 At 48,000 square feet in size and with 270 full- and part-time employees, University of Washington Publications Services is a monster of a university in-plant. And Acting Director Frank Davis predicts it will only get bigger—in terms of services, if nothing else. Of course, when you're serving a campus of 36,000 students and 18,000 faculty and staff members, it's hard to keep things on a small scale. Take color printing for example: A year ago, the Copy Services division averaged 10,000 to 15,000 color

This year's Manager of the Year has brought savings to his university through research, networking and an innovative managing style. IT WOULD be an understatement to say that this has been Mike Loyd's year. Going back to last December when Louisiana State University Graphic Services was ranked number 18 on the In-Plant Graphics Top 50 list and number five among all college and university shops, through June when he was named IPG Manager of the Year for 1999, it has been a year that he can look back on with pride. "Winning this award has brought prestige to me personally and to the organization,"

At investment banking firms like U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, confidentiality is a major concern—surpassed only by deadline pressure. IN THE world of high finance, you often have to move quickly to secure the best rate or make the smartest investment for your clients. For in-plants at these power brokerage firms, the pressure is on to get the documents customers need into their hands quickly and confidentially. At U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, an investment banking firm dealing in stocks, securities and mutual funds, confidentiality is a major concern for the in-plant. Convenience copiers have been put in all departments to avoid intermingling of reports between

Marian Wascher was headed for a career in business. Then printing caught her fancy. Her shop is now an in-plant model. Unlike many in-plant managers, Marian Wascher did not fall in love with printing at an early age. In fact, when she was growing up in West Point, Nebraska, printing may well have been the furthest thing from her mind. A self-described "organizer," she studied business administration and accounting, without taking even one printing class. In the end, though, this has not mattered one bit. After seven years as manager of First Printing, the in-plant for First National Bank of Omaha, Wascher has earned

Digital printing will surge to a $35 billion market by 2003. At the recent On Demand Conference, in-plant managers learned how to prepare. Every year at the conference he started back in 1994, Charles Pesko presents the crowd with figures predicting the tremendous growth of on-demand printing. Even so, when Pesko, managing director of CAP Ventures, announced this year that digital printing will surge from $13.3 billion in 1998 to $35.1 billion in 2003—a 21 percent per year growth rate—the crowd at the On Demand Digital Printing and Publishing Strategy Conference and Exposition was duly impressed. Nearly 20,000 people arrived in New York

As printing technology continues to change, paper companies are producing products to keep up with the times. In-plants aren't the only ones affected by the onslaught of new digital printing devices. Paper manufacturers have been busy modifying their products to keep up with the evolution. "We understand the importance of harnessing the potential of new and emerging technologies in order to develop products that offer value-added features," says Mary Jo Francis, marketing manager for Mead Carbonless Sheets. "The evolution of Mead Transcopy is an example of our commitment to achieving this goal." Mead Transcopy has been developed to run smooth and jam-free