Xerox Corp.

Gather around the old water cooler—or in this case the office copier or laser printer—and find out about the latest paper offerings for the office environment. OFFICE Papers must provide users with consistent performance. To ensure runnability, major paper mills work closely with office equipment manufacturers on product and equipment issues, notes Dick Thomas, business and converting papers manager for Willamette Industries. This is done particularly when new copiers or printers are in development to make sure work can be produced smoothly. The result, Thomas says, has been the addition of more reliable papers to the market. Recent manufacturing enhancements have helped Beckett develop

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

University of California Printing Services Berkeley, Calif. Annual sales/budget: $15,877,189 Full-time employees: 186 Jobs printed per year: 5,000 To satisfy the printing needs of some 140,000 University of California students attending nine campuses across the state, University of California-Berkeley Printing Services has needed to be flexible. According to George Craig, printing services director, there have been many changes over the years, especially with the emergence of digital technology. Craig recalls bringing in photocomposition and computer business management systems in the '80s, before moving to the direct-to-plate processes and computer-controlled presses of today. Through it all, Craig says, his staff has excelled at adapting to the changes.

A look back at the in-plant world of the early 1990s reveals a lot of the same concerns and predictions that we see today—but a lot of changes, as well. As one pages through issues of In-Plant Reproductions magazine (now called In-Plant Graphics, for those of you who have been asleep) from 1990, the most interesting observation is how similar the topics are to those covered in 1999. Even at the beginning of the decade, in-plant managers were worried about facilities management. Like today, IPR urged them to learn their costs by charging back and to justify themselves to management. And contrary

Allstate Print Communications Center Wheeling, Ill. Operating Budget: $30 million Full-time employees: 361 Part-time employees: 84 Jobs printed per year: 20,000 To keep a huge operation like the Allstate Print Communications Center productive and cost-effective, its management team must meet the challenges of changing technology and staggering workloads—while keeping costs low and bringing top-notch service to customers. "We are very successful at answering our company's printing needs and providing the most cost-effective solutions," explains Bob Tierney, print communication director. "Our cost-effectiveness is clearly our greatest strength." The Allstate Print Communications Center is not only a leader within its company, but also in the printing industry. It has

Boeing Printing & Output Service Seattle Annual sales/budget: $56 million Full-time employees: 330 Jobs printed per year: 240,000 Bill Walker, senior manager of printing operations at Boeing, has seen a lot of changes in his 33 years—and he knows that as soon as one technology is mastered, it's time to prepare for the next. "We've about maxed out the gains in our printing operation," says Walker of the shift from camera ready art to the digital original. "Ten years ago, it was tough to get an electronic original because customers didn't think that way. Today, 95 percent of our originals come to us digitally." That change

Wal-Mart Printing & Mailing Distribution Center Bentonville, Ark. Annual sales: $22,052.310 Operating budget: $22,037,626 Sales minus costs: $10,858,458 Full-time employees: 325 Jobs printed per year: 12,000+ As the largest general merchandiser in the world, Wal-Mart Stores serves more than 100 million customers weekly at its 2,485 stores. In Fortune magazine's latest Fortune 500 list, the 37-year-old company overtook Exxon to become the third largest firm in the U.S. So it's only fitting that a company of this magnitude also has one of the country's top in-plants. Located about a mile from Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, Wal-Mart Printing & Mailing Distribution Center (PMDC) boasts 325 employees—or "associates," in the company's

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

California Office Of State Publishing Sacramento, Calif. Annual sales: $61,333,656 Operating budget: $57,996,000 Full-time employees: 456 Part-time employees: 21 Jobs printed per year: 24,380 When the California Office of State Publishing (OSP) installed a new eight-color Heidelberg M-1000B web press recently it was major news in the in-plant world, where such giant webs are rare. Still, for OSP the installation was, in a way, just a continuation of the growth it experienced through much of the 1990s. "We went [from] having some of the most obsolete technology in our greater Sacramento area, to having some of the most current, sophisticated technology, especially in prepress and in our digital print

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