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Bringing laminating in-house increases quality, improves productivity and lowers costs. IN THE print-on-demand equation, laminators are often the forgotten quotient, says Alan Parkhill, vice president of sales and marketing at Banner American. While many in-plants have been quick to embrace digital printing, most have not taken the next step and purchased the finishing and laminating equipment needed to ensure that their operation is truly print-on-demand. "It's not print-on-demand if you send out your laminating work to a trade shop," says Parkhill. When an in-plant farms out its laminating work it loses control, not only over the quality of the job, but the timing

By replacing older stitching and binding equipment with new models, in-plants are bringing new business into their shops. by Bob Neubauer It wasn't the automation. It wasn't the ease of use, either. No, the biggest benefit the Heidelberg ST 90 saddle stitcher brought to Minnesota Life Graphic Services was new business, according to manager Tom Neckvatal. "It opened up the doors for us to do work we couldn't do before," he says. With the ST 90, the in-plant could saddle stitch 96-page books, plus covers. This meant jobs like annual reports, catalogs and manuals were now well within the capabilities of the

Print 01 featured numerous innovations in prepress, offset and bindery technologies. Find out all about them in part two of our show report. &002;by Bob Neubauer Walking the show floor at Print 01 was a printer's dream. Presses were churning out color posters, software was being demonstrated on large screens for small crowds, books were being folded, stitched and trimmed—wherever you looked, something was happening. Though the September 11 attacks brought the show to a halt, show management said about 66,300 people attended overall. Vendors reported a number of sales. Heidelberg's NexPress subsidiary sold more than 70 NexPress 2100 presses, part of

Managers Honored In-plant managers received more than just knowledge from the recent International Publishing Management Association conference in Portland, Ore. Dozens of them took home awards. The In-Print awards got the most attention. All 105 plaques were on display, and first-place winners had their awards presented to them on stage during the awards banquet. Boeing claimed the Best of Show victory, its fifth in 11 years. Additionally, IPMA recognized a number of in-plants for their accomplishments: • Duke Energy, of Houston, won IPMA's annual award for In-house Promotional Excellence for holding an open house in the company's lobby that drew more than 500

As printing devices get wider, laminators are keeping pace. Find out how to shop for a laminator, what features to look for and what to do once you get it. by Cheryl A. Adams With the wide-format market getting wider every day, it's no wonder printers are investing in the technology. Quips Brian Franks, vice president of marketing at GBC Films: "Today, the focus on ink-jet printers is the width of the machine. I call this the 'yacht syndrome,' because once you've owned a 30-foot boat, then you have to have a 40-foot, and so on. The same is true of wide-format printers.

Twice The Color—Without The Cost Customers wanted more color. But Arkansas State University Printing Services had only a one-color, 29˝ Heidelberg press. Posing with Arkansas State University Printing Services' new MAN Roland R204E press are (front row, from left) Director David Maloch, L. C. McHalffey (press operator), Allison Brown (printing management student), and Terri Collins (accounting tech). Standing behind Maloch: Homer Hallet (press/bindery operator), Phareta Calkin (prepress tech), and Mark Meyer (assistant director). For years, the nine-employee operation had been running four-color work on the press, in addition to black-and-white book jobs. But despite operating the press eight hours a day, five days a

To compete in the future, you must start providing customers with non-paper-based services today. LAST YEAR at the On Demand Digital Printing & Publishing conference, the unofficial theme of the show was dotcom fever. Now that the fever has broken, the big bang buzz is all about paperless communication. But this isn't your father's "paperless office of the future," mind you. This is different. In the past, when the term "paperless office" was first being bandied about like a baby at a bridal shower, the term reflected the hazy euphoria associated with early computing. This time around, having had the benefit of a

A new Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 and a dedicated staff have helped Case Western Reserve University refine course pack production. When Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, outsourced its offset press work and bookstore operations, it considered outsourcing all printing services at the same time. That might have happened, too, had Lisa Gerlach, printing services manager, not been able to demonstrate that her department achieves lower per copy costs than outside providers—while simultaneously providing outstanding service. Gerlach's staff focuses on creating a professional image for the university, while maintaining low costs for students. When the staff processes copyright clearances for course packs,

Texas Department of Health and Human Services Austin, Texas After years of fighting to keep his in-plant alive, Robert McDaniel has finally been able to spend some time focusing solely on improving his shop. Six years ago, the Texas Council on Competitive Government consolidated 31 state print shops in Travis County, in central Texas, into a mere nine shops. These in-plants, which lack right of first refusal, were also mandated to operate on a full cost recovery basis and forbidden from printing for any type of commercial operation. The result? They were left fighting each other and commercial print shops in a limited pool

Best Buy Minneapolis, Minn. When a business is able to grow from $160,000 in sales to over $7 million in less than a decade some people might attribute the success to a midnight deal with the devil—or at the very least a trade for some magic beans. But for Rick Fiebiger, director of Best Buy's 83-employee Print Solutions Group, all it took was focus and attention. "You really need to run your operation like you would if you were a commercial printer," declares Fiebiger. "You've got to earn the business, you have to provide top-notch service and you have to measure your contributions