WASHINGTON, DC--February 9, 2006--The Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) today praised passage of postal reform and modernization legislation in the U.S. Senate. The bill (S. 662, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act) was a PIA/GATF "priority vote" and passed the Senate under Unanimous Consent. "Senate passage of postal reform is a huge victory in the printing industry's long quest for a major legislative overhaul of this country's postal laws. Large corporations and small, family firms, along with printing employees, customers, and stakeholders, will benefit from this desperately needed modernization of the U.S. Postal Service," said Michael Makin, President and CEO of
GEORGETOWN, SC—An International Paper employee was killed January 17 when the debarking machine he was working on pinned and crushed him. James "Larry" Merritt, 52, a maintenance worker at the IP Sampit Lumber Mill who had been with the company for two years, died from head injuries. While electricity to the machine was shut off, the pneumatic cylinder Merritt was working on lowered and trapped him. Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson told the Associated Press that Merritt died from head injuries and likely expired within seconds. The accident is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Merritt left behind a wife and
Maybe I've just been too hard on those printers with an average of 50 days outstanding receivables by saying they were buying sales by extending credit. It's possible I just don't understand the problem. Okay. Let's get back to some basics. 1. Study 2. Plan 3. Execute 4. Test Then we'll start the cycle over. We'll study again, plan again, execute again, test once more and keep doing that until we accomplish our objective. What's our objective, you say? Thirty-five days? Forty days? Make it something reasonable and achievable. Remember there's always a little hooker in the path—getting the invoice out promptly! Never forget that when you're
I was ill from October 1, 2005, until January 31, 2006. It's been difficult because several doctors have not been able to identify what caused the illness. It was frustrating; when people called to wish me a speedy recovery, I couldn't tell them precisely what was wrong. It wasn't a widely understood malady like the flu. It wasn't something easy like gout. Everybody has an Uncle Herb who had the gout. I'm sure that some people, remembering that I'm 63 years of age and pleasingly plump, said, "Old Mañana Man musta had the big one. All that cheesecake and those hot fudge sundaes led to
Lingerie clad women carrying chain saws sounds like a scene out of a B-movie horror flick, not a topic for a story on trends in paper usage. Which is the point, in a sense. In late 2005, environmental activists were able to grab headlines by dressing in lingerie for a series of protests outside Victoria’s Secret stores. The organizers sought to call attention to what they considered irresponsible and wasteful use of paper by the company in its catalog marketing program. They challenged the clothier to stop using paper that tracked back to trees from the Great Boreal Forest in Canada, to buy
It wasn't until I read "Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," by Malcolm Gladwell, that I realized I'd become an expert in appraising the production system of printing plants in a blink of an eye—so to speak. After you've run four or five plants, walked through 40 or 50 more across the world, like it or not, you acquire some degree of expertise that enables you to reach a quick, snap judgment about the production system. It only takes a thin slice of experience—quite thin—to reach this point. Arrogance? Hubris? Read the book. That quick judgment doesn't satisfy a client who's paying you $10,000
Everything I know that is really worth knowing, I learned from someone else. That's it! I'm out. I'm outin' myself. You thought I was a great thinker and now you find out that I'm just a great listener. Oh, I suppose I had a few original thoughts in the old days—after a few fingers of Jack Daniels. The really great thinking, however, always came from someone else. It coulda been from Peter Drucker on marketing or management. It mighta been from Socrates or Plato on human behavior. Sometimes it was the shoeshine guy at the airport on the subjects of politics or the economy. Plentitimes
Hi, it's me, just checking back in to see whether you had the opportunity to read my first column in the November issue of Printing Impressions. Did you have a chance to try out the direct mail program I outlined, designed to reduce the number of expensive and often ineffective cold calls your sales professionals are making? If so, let me hear from you. Sharing your successes may encourage others to take advantage of similar approaches and will be a tremendous help to the industry at large as we all work to find our way in the digital world. Is print dead? This question has
Ready to roll, presses in 2006 will be driven two-thirds by “now-or-never” consumer spending and first-in-history “wealth effect” redemptions of real estate. Previously sidelined intergenerational wealth, plus inbound repatriation of a more than $800 billion trade deficit, will push gross domestic product (GDP) growth to more than 6.5 percent, versus 3.8 percent growth in 2005 and 4.4 percent in 2004. A whopping $13.1 trillion should be the unprecedented GDP! More than one-half of both the consumer spend and the trade deficit proceed will likely be related to real estate (HM ‘06 Number 4) which, arguably, is not real product growth, but rather a hedge
Open House Offers Look at New Gear ROLLING MEADOWS, IL—Spartanics held its fourth annual open house in suburban Chicago recently, featuring the North American debut of the new Spartanics Klemm laser cut diecutting system. Two participatory forums were offered to attendees on the subjects of "Introduction to Digital Diecutting" and "Feed Users Forum." Finishing Safety Standards Adopted The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved ANSI B65.2-2005, Graphic technology-Safety requirements for binding and finishing systems and equipment. This standard revises and replaces the 1999 edition, and is currently available from NPES. The standard addresses mechanical safety issues such as motion controls, guarding against hazards, and warning
