Operational excellence starts with a singular vision and a commitment to an extraordinary culture. Recently, I spoke with the director of logistics for a midwestern BlueCross BlueShield healthcare provider. The organization serves 2.1 million members. The manager leads a team of 21, providing printing, mailing and logistics services. His print team is comprised of five people who produce 2.9 million pieces of mail annually.

The director embraces the qualities of a servant leader. He demonstrates empathy, listening, stewardship to the organization and a commitment to the growth of people.

Technology innovations are impacting every facet of the healthcare industry. That means in-plant operations must evolve to continue to provide value to their organizations. Recently, I spoke with Delvecchio Shankle, Director of Operations at Christus Health about their recent transformation and continuing inkjet journey.

Over a period of seven months, Shankle’s team has successfully consolidated from five in-plant operations down to two sites and moved one operation to a new facility. His print-mail operation serves the communication needs of 29,000 Christus employees providing healthcare across 600 patient care facilities in the US, as well as patient care facilities in Mexico, Columbia, and Chile.

I recently spoke with two respected in-plant managers running sizable operations in their respective states. Kristen Hampton is the Division Director, Department of Technology Management & Budget, for the State of Michigan, and Tim Hendrix is the State Printer, state of Oregon Publishing & Distribution.

Hampton and Hendrix are both running fully digital shops, with a mix of inkjet and toner devices on continuous feed (CF) and cutsheet platforms. Hampton’s inkjet journey led to the elimination of offset printing. Hendrix’s recent inkjet installation is driving operational efficiency. They shared their perspective on staffing, operational cost, inkjet as an enabler and considerations for future investments.

Smaller in-plant operations are evaluating and installing production inkjet presses. In-plants in the manufacturing sector are migrating to inkjet to address a trifecta of challenges: labor resources, workflow automation, and printing costs.

Labor and training

Much has been reported about the ongoing labor challenges in many vertical markets and the printing industry in particular. In-plant operations across the U.S. are devising new strategies to address the convergence of:

Aging workers retiring, lack of skilled workers to run offset and finishing equipment, younger workers preferring to work with technology, and needing to onboard and train new employees without printing experience.

For the last ten months my colleague, Mark Fallon, and I have been working with an in-plant to assist their team in right-sizing their print operation. In the utility sector, Salt River Project, (SRP) is a community-based, not-for-profit water and energy company. SRP provides reliable, affordable water and power to more than two million people living in central Arizona.

Many changes were underway at SRP.

New postage rates with an average increase of 4% took effect on January 22nd. And another rate increase will likely take effect in July 2023.

How can in-plants minimize the impact of twice annual postal rate increases? By taking advantage of the USPS promotions. Start by registering for all the 2023 promotions, even the ones that may not appear relevant to your organization.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with four IPMA members on our Webinar: The Present and Future of In-Plant Print Mail Communications. You can view the replay here.

Our webinar panelists included Tammy Golden, Assistant Commissioner of Document Solutions at State of Tennessee and Mike Lincoln, State of Colorado Printer. In a recent IPMA blog, I shared how Tammy and Mike assessed their teams and services so they could adapt and grow. Both teams implemented changes and experienced growth in 2021. On the webinar, they shared how they are responding to staffing challenges and paper shortages while leveraging strong partnerships to meet their clients’ needs for printing and mailing.

The webinar included two additional speakers, Lauren Tarbet: Copy Supervisor, Pflugerville (Texas) Independent School District, and Danelle Clark, Enterprise Correspondence Technologies Manager, American Family Insurance.

In September of 2020, I spoke with managers running large in-plant print operations — Mike Lincoln, Colorado State Printer and Tammy Golden, Assistant Commissioner of Document Solutions at State of Tennessee. Despite significant differences in print volumes and approaches, both managers expressed the need to assess, adapt and expand their services to meet the changing requirements of their customers.

In-plants continue to face multiple staffing challenges from high absenteeism, large numbers of retirements, and state mandated hiring freezes.

Inkjet presses from equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have delivered on the promise of lower cost, higher throughput, and better uptime. Many in-plant print operations attribute part of their success to their inkjet adoption strategy. Performing regular preventative maintenance is the key to drive uptime and predictable excellent image quality.

No Short-Cuts

The last year has presented many unexpected changes in production schedules and staffing models. Proper preventative maintenance is more important than ever in unpredictable situations.

For Part 2, I spoke with Michael Graf who is the Technology Director of the New York State, Cattaraugus Allegany Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). The BOCES organizations were created in the 1930s to meet the educational needs of students in rural New York State school districts. The Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES supports 22 school districts across four counties in southwestern New York state.