Lisa Pitts (L) Carol Snipes (R)

Like so many managers, Lisa Pitts is amazed at how much her small print & mail team accomplishes each day. "It feels, at least from my perspective, that we sometimes live on the edge of near misses. But we rarely miss a deadline!"  

What fuels that success is a tremendous sense of teamwork. "Of course we have a highly skilled, technically trained staff that prides itself on accuracy and dependability, but most folks rarely get the opportunity to see a true team effort in play, much less actually manage one!"

That strong sense of camaraderie was put to the test in 2011 when the in-plant for the City of Greensboro, NC, lost its bindery technician to cutbacks. "Finishing is a huge part of any print operation," explains Pitts, who manages the team of five graphics professionals, three mail clerks and an assistant manager. "You can put ink on paper all day long, but if finishing isn't accurate and timely, you fail."  

After making a heartfelt appeal to her staff on the day of the announcement, she was surprised at how the remaining team members intuitively picked up the extra load. "We became rededicated to seriously doing more with less by planning days off further in advance and using materials and equipment smarter and more efficiently to minimize time spent on jobs."

The printing arm of the operation, which has a philosophy of chasing down jobs rather than waiting for them to walk through the door, produces 9.5 million impressions annually. Roughly 35% of their overall business comes from insourcing projects from other governmental agencies or professional associations directly affiliated with the city. They produce a myriad of printed products including NCR and plain paper forms, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures, booklets, bound books and door hangers, door hangers, and door hangers. "We use pre-die cut door hangers that are run through our digital printers and quickly cut apart. Using these, we are able to produce an effective and cost efficient communication tool for our coworkers who go out to customers' properties and need to convey messages about their visits. One of our departments uses door hangers as parking passes for events -- again, cost effective and efficient. We keep that pre-die cut stock on hand and can run them same day," explains Pitts. "They have been a huge hit!"

In addition to an AB Dick 9995 two-color offset press, they utilize six digital presses. All of the equipment is either paid for or is on a per-click lease. Paying off their press last year meant that they are now operating with slightly lower overhead. A few years ago, they acquired a Duplo printer for producing one color envelopes and simple jobs. "It's fast and consistent and doesn't require a ton of training hours. Set up is easy and changing ink colors is relatively easy with the one caveat that you have to purchase a drum for each ink color," she explains. "We leased the Duplo at a per-click rate with the intention of using only black, our green PMS 349 City ink color and our blue PMS 287 County ink colors." They reserve the offset press for more intricate, detailed jobs.

The mailing arm of the operation processes over a million incoming and outgoing pieces annually. They are currently adding a new Pitney Bowes machine, that's 41% faster to process outbound mail. Servicing over 3,000 City employees and 2,500 County employees, Pitts believes it's very important that the print and mail operations are combined. "We can utilize the mail center staff to deliver smaller print jobs." That saves their organization countless man hours because customers aren't forced to travel from all over the city to pick up jobs. The delivery is available twice daily in most areas. "We simply let the customer know that the completed job is on its way. They appreciate that it shows up on their desk and on time!"

In addition to processing and sorting mail, as well as making mail runs, the mail clerks often assist with bindery work. "Instead of being specifically trained to do just one job, we have become a team of cross trained masters, who can do just about anything related to printing or mailing. That keeps our productivity up, helps during periods of absences, and enables us to juggle jobs so that we can meet or beat our deadlines. "

"We view ourselves as a one-stop shop providing creative, printing and mailing services in one seamless process." She is quick to credit staff for their success. "I've never managed a staff so highly dedicated to a team operation and truly feel that they own their efforts. It makes me proud to say that I work alongside these folks."