WASHINGTON, DC—The biggest roadblock to meaningful postal reform in 2005 appears to have been removed. According to Ben Cooper, executive vice president of public policy for the PIA/GATF and chairman of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, the Bush Administration has told Congressional leaders that it will allow postal reform to move forward while the bigger points of contention are ironed out. And the best possible news for mailers came in the Administration's willingness to seek alternative sources to fund the military service portion of postal retirees, as opposed to making rate payers foot the bill. Cooper, who has been tirelessly banging the reform
BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Can it ever be reasonable to have a wholly positive outlook for printing paper? The answer would seem to be "no," at least from the buyer's perspective. Paper is so essential to print that one feels compelled to look for any potential sign of trouble. The cost of being caught short is too high and memories of the bad times (shortages and soaring prices) too lasting not to err on the side of caution. Plant strikes are just the latest additions to the list of reasons for paper buyers to adopt a cautious outlook. Other concerns have been
Some people are just plain good at running a printing company by the seat of their pants. They don't need a computer or any organized data system at all. I can't do that. Just haven't got the knack for it, I guess. Me? I've gotta have some numbers to help me make decisions. I can't do "seat of the pants." Take this accompanying table, for example. Job Throughput HoursJobPaper in InventoryWork in ProcessHours to BillingCollect RcvblTotal HoursAnnual Turns A835872451,4802,6473.3 B720542534501,4775.9 C1,452984801,3683,3982.6 D976541989802,2084.0 E74872041,3501,7155.1 Total4,0573801,3805,62811,4454.2 Avg.811762761,1262,2894.2 I don't think you've seen the likes of it before because I just devised it for this article. It's totally blue-sky. But I'd sure like to have
Job Throughput Hours Paper in Work in Hours to Collect Total Annual Job Inventory Process Billing Rcvbl Hours Turns A 835 87 245 1,480 2,647 3.3 B 720 54 253 450 1,477 5.9 C 1,452 98 480 1,368 3,398 2.6 D 976 54 198 980 2,208 4.0 E 74 87 204 1,350 1,715 5.1 Total…
In late May of this year, just a month before my 63rd birthday, I realized that I had denied myself the luxury of a mid-life crisis. A lot of my friends and business associates had some sort of mid-life crisis. Their stories of a fast break from the routine boredom of their ho-hum lives sounded exciting and fun. My opportunities for some mid-life fun just passed me by. I was always too busy doing a deal, writing a column, making a speech or trying to keep up with my 30 ballplayers—cleaning the men's and women's port-a-potties and making sure we had enough game balls
STAMFORD, CT—In an effort to turn around its lackluster performance, International Paper (IP) revealed a transformation plan that is designed to improve returns, strengthen the balance sheet and return cash to shareholders. The plan includes narrowing the company's portfolio to two key platform businesses—uncoated papers and industrial/consumer packaging—improving shareholder value via mill realignments in those businesses, and exploring strategic options that could entail selling or spinning off other businesses. Uncoated paper and packaging accounts for more than 70 percent of IP's sales. Among the IP assets being re-evaluated: IP's 50 percent stake in Carter Holt Harvey, the coated and supercalendered papers business (including the coated groundwood
"The buck stops here," as President Harry Truman put it. Responsibility starts at the top —with the Chief Executive Officer of every printing company—every company, in fact. The CEO sets the policy for the company, sometimes consciously, most often unconsciously, by his or her demands and actions. Take the question of when a job can be billed. Is it with the first product delivery, mailing, or shipping? Or is it when the final delivery or shipment is made? It's up to the CEO to say, isn't it? What's the policy in your shop? Is it different for different customers? Do you even have an articulated
I was soaking in my spa reading the March 16th edition of Time magazine. The jets were pulsing hot massaging surges and I was thinking, "It doesn't get any better than this." But, then again, I'm old and easily satisfied. I read a column by Patricia Marx about the famous and enormously publicized runaway bride. The column made me laugh out loud and when I finished reading, I said, "Wow! I wish I'd written that!" I'm an envious cuss and it always sparks my petty jealousy when someone does something that I do better than I do. (I know that last sentence was lousy,
by Vincent Mallardi, C.M.C. Energy price hikes are tanking economic energy. Real GDP, net of fuel and power, is zero, which means any growth in '05 will be in the second half. Printing sales are up at a nominal 6 percent pace, but with less value-added because of energy-related inflation in paper, electricity and freight costs. Most benefitting from the present 4.3 percent inflation rate at the consumer level is banking/insurance ($2.68T, +5 percent; with $14B to print). Commercial banking ($>9B to print, +21 percent) is cashing in on the tougher federal bankruptcy law and lesser restrictions for charge card issuance. Bank on
By Erik Cagle Senior Editor Postal reform is the rally cry for 2005 in the commercial printing industry. Though it seems the cries are strong only from a select group, as opposed to a unison shout from the industry collective. In other words, a relatively small amount of people are making a big stink to Congress about the need for reform of the United States Postal Service (USPS), an entity that is still operating under guidelines set in 1971. Guidelines, mind you, established before the onslaught of private sector parcel delivery options and well before the invention of the Internet, both of which have
