Craig Stahl

Hobby Lobby's in-plant has gone from a one-man, one-press shop when it started five years ago, to 14 employees, four presses and a new HP Indigo digital color press. By Bob Neubauer Brad Smith can still remember the good old days. "It started off small—one press, one person," recalls Smith, offset printing manager for Hobby Lobby's Oklahoma City-based in-plant. But he doesn't have to think back very far to summon up this memory. It was the fall of 1999, five short years ago, when he was hired to run the new Hamada 234 the company had ordered to print its forms. Having spent 12

Though many in-plants have purchased wide-format printers, many aren't using them to their full potential. Find out how some in-plants use new media to tackle new types of work. By Dan Halkyard In-plants that have purchased wide-format ink-jet printers to create signage and other graphics have learned an important lesson: having this equipment in-house saves money, affords greater control over final output and enhances the in-plant's overall value to the organization. The economics alone of owning a wide-format ink-jet printer present a compelling argument—a professional wide-format printer can be purchased for approximately $15,000, about the same amount as outsourcing the production of 100