Boise, Idaho

Albertsons had three in-plants, all models of efficiency and cost savings. One of them had been operating for 30 years. In the blink of an eye everything changed. When Curtis Stoddard interviewed with the manager of the Print Shop at Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, little did he know the saga he was about to embark upon. It was the summer of 1977. Stoddard was a long-haul truck driver for the company, and he and his co-workers had just been informed that the long-haul division was being outsourced to contract haulers.

At these in-plants, combining the print and mail departments has not only reduced costs but streamlined operations and allowed more cross-training. By W. Eric Martin When you manage an in-plant, you have a boatload of responsibilities—which is why it may seem strange to hear you should take on one more, specifically, the mail operation."Combining the manufacture of printed documents with their distribution is the most logical of efficient processes," says John Eichmann, the Central Services Division manager for the City of Boise, Idaho, which combined print, mail and office supplies procurement in the 1970s, and has been going strong ever since. Your customers obviously