When Regional Health Printing Services moved into its new facility on the eastern edge of Rapid City, S.D., in October, the in-plant got more than just larger quarters; it gained a much smoother workflow, which has been paying dividends in increased productivity.
South Dakota
Despite never considering a career in printing, Dean Sutera has turned a required job into a three-decade-long profession. By Kristen E. Monte WHEN FRED Meyer Inc. merged with Kroger, in 1999, its in-plant was in a position to expect the worst. Yet, thanks to lots of analysis, and 26 years of hard work by Manager Dean Sutera, he says he never even heard any outsourcing talk. Sutera was born in South Dakota and spent the majority of his youth in Kansas City. His father worked in the printing industry, for Intercollegiate Press, yet it had never crossed Sutera's mind to go into the business.
Leases were running out and equipment was looking old, so the State of South Dakota Central Duplicating made new installations for the new year. The Pierre, S.D., in-plant was awarded a state bidding contract on November 12; by December 31, six Xerox machines were up and running. "Our leases ran out in November, so we had to do something different," says Manager Gloria Schultz. This 12-employee in-plant upgraded with three Xerox 6135s, two Xerox WorkCentre Pro 90s and a Xerox 6100 to replace a pair of DocuTech 5800s, one 135 and one 5100. According to Schultz, the in-plant does all state printing, such