Into Print, The University of Iowa Business Services' quarterly newsletter, aims to educate, inform, and entertain its readers, with a goal of fostering positive communication between the department, its staff, and its clients.

TypeStrikes

General news
Combine efforts: administrative team pulls it off
Detour to MBSB: If you get to Hills you've gone too far
Reviews support programs, recommend improvements
New faces on the front lines
Recycled copy paper purchases still at 64%

Central Mail System
Follow address conventions, save money
Campus Mail takes fast footwork

Laundry Service
Retraining follows new building, equipment, methods
Stain removal our specialty
The teamwork cycle
Character Counts: Meet Aggie Rochwick

Materials Management
Order copy paper from General Stores for best prices
How 'bout those trucks!
Staff changes at General Stores

Printing Department
PostScript or no...
PostScript pitfalls
"Pick up old film" a convenience made obsolete by tech advances

We are . . .

Business Services directory

If you expect to purchase a copier in fy '99, start the process now. This will allow time for research and machine trials, which can take several weeks. Send a written request to the Printing Department by the end of April. We will honor later ones, but you may run short of time for machine trials. After you test machines and make a decision, send us a requisition by Monday, June 21, so we can process it and send it to Purchasing in time for the deadline there. Specify that you want the funds encumbered for fiscal '99.

The team, comprising administrative support staff from Central Mail, Equipment Rental, General Stores, Printing, Publication Orders, and Surplus, has eliminated duplication in tasks and established backup for its members' work areas. "Some units didn't have enough staff to cover all the areas or the expertise in some areas to provide backup," says team leader Carolyn Iles, Printing Department administrative accountant.

Some similar tasks that had been performed within each unit were consolidated to eliminate duplication. One person now does all the payroll for the different departments and one does all the personnel work, for example.

To develop a backup system, each person identified each task that was a component of his or her job. "We made lists of tasks and identified a primary and secondary backup for each task," says Iles. Individuals chose the tasks for which they wished to cross train and perform backup.

"We were combining like functions, identifying gaps in backup, and filling the gaps by cross training," says Iles. "It forced everyone to look at what their tasks are daily, weekly, monthly, annually."

"Within three to four months, people had been cross trained. Some are cross unit. It's not supplemental, though, it's strictly backup," Iles says. This assures that every job can be performed even in the absence of individual staff members.

"Not a lot of peoples' duties changed," she says. For the one person whose duties did, it was a result of downsizing in her area, and the new tasks compensated for that.

The team will work to maintain and improve upon its accomplishments, says Iles. "We will meet periodically to make sure it's working and to reevaluate whether other functions can be combined."

A number of things, such as customer base and financial information, were included in the reviews. True says his intent is for administrators and managers to use the information for their departments' benefit. Richey worked with staff in both units to prepare the reports and recommendations.

Printing Department
This report states the Printing Department "provides excellent services to highly satisfied University customers." The trend toward a paperless society "has affected adversely the volume of business." The department should "continue its present services to the University community," but also should increase efforts "to control costs and to increase revenue."

In its recommendations, the report supports the department's new initiatives, such as records scanning. It also states the department should continue to purchase printing through competitive bids when more than two colors are used but recommends the service of purchasing such printing be self-supporting.

Surplus Stores
The Surplus Stores' report finds the operation provides needed services such as pickup of surplus items, competitive sales, and delivery of items to the landfill. "Most importantly, it reduces significantly the amount of materials going to landfill.... These disposal services are of major benefit to the University," it says.

The recommendations for Surplus are that it continue to operate as it is currently structured; improve communication with its University customers; and revise its staffing structure, financial reports, and recording system.

"Joe Hennager and I enjoyed working with Mr. Richey," says Materials Management manager Gary Anderson. "He was able to quickly understand the way Surplus operates, made valid suggestions for improvement, and was able to open some doors for us. We are now in the process of implementing the recommendations."

Kim Scott has replaced John Gilbert at the Printing Department. Scott's printing industry experience includes customer service, estimating, and account management at printing businesses in Cedar Rapids, Chicago, and Iowa City. She worked in a UI pediatrics research lab before coming to the Printing Department.

At Central Mail, Chris Huber will assist customers with, and answer questions about, bulk mail orders. In the short term, he expects to look at how Mail Service and UI departments work together, he says. In the long term, he expects further automation to increase business at Mail Service. Huber has been employed in Mail Service for approximately six years and will retain some of his existing responsibilities in the bulk mail center as he adds the new ones associated with customer service.

To help meet the quota, order Xerox recycled paper from General Stores. The stock numbers are 58875 (8.5 x 11) and 58885 (8.5 x 11, 3-hole punch).

The U.S. Postal Service instituted standardized addresses so mail could be sorted on high-speed optical character readers. An OCR can sort more than 30,000 letters an hour. A fast human may accomplish 1,200 in the same time span. Automation keeps the mail flowing at low cost and with relative speed.

Hand-written addresses and incorrect addresses keep costs high and slow the mail. The USPS handled 15 billion handwritten mail pieces in 1998. Seventeen percent of the U.S. population moves each year. There are costly processes to use for forwarded and handwritten mail. Most expensive is the bad address.

What constitutes a bad address? The first example below is a good address that is readable by every OCR in the country. Alphanumeric combinations are not acceptable combinations in the primary address. Use alphanumeric room numbers following your standardized address, such as 2222 Old Hwy 218 S RM 115A. Mail sent to the bad address must be diverted from the OCR and sent for manual processing. Simply, manual costs more. When you fill in a subscription form, address a piece of mail, tell someone your address, or in any manner give an indication that your address is anything other than the assigned standardized address, you are costing every mailer time and money.

Why should we care if it costs the USPS extra to process mail when we are careless with address usage? After all, our First-Class postage is only 33 cents for a letter. Sure, but the same service costs 66 cents in Germany and 59 cents in Japan. Our costs could escalate to these levels if everyone is careless.

Last year the USPS processed more than 197 billion pieces of mail -- more than 650 million per business day. It was handled by 792,041 postal employees at a cost of more than $57 billion. In five of the last ten years the Postal Service operated at a net loss. It is self-supporting and receives no tax dollars from Congress, so mailers' apathy slows the mail and will add to postage rate increases.
Lou Eichler

Both work in Campus Mail, Waldschmidt on one of the seven regular campus routes and Swart as a fill-in wherever she is needed. They say they like working together, although they don't see much of one another because they spend so much time out of the building.

Waldschmidt, Swart, and six other full-time staff, plus a cadre of student employees, deliver, pick up, and sort your mail -- not just every day but several times every day.

Their work day cycles between "runs" and "sorts." The first run begins at 6:30 a.m. Everyone races out to deliver the previous day's final sort and pick up the morning mail. Then they hurry back to the mail center to sort.

An air of concentration makes quick work. Beyond the sounds of the radio, the only noise is the shuffle of paper. Stacks of envelopes dwindle as each piece is sent sailing toward a cubbyhole. Within minutes the stacks have disappeared, leaving a few stragglers, and before long, everything is in place. Then run. Sort, run, sort, run, and, at the end of the day, sort.

Four runs and four sorts each day add up to a lot of footwork. Waldschmidt, for example, has 20 buildings on her route, most with twice-per-day delivery. She expects at least one tub of mail for delivery and one for pickup at each stop. Some stops may have 10 or more tubs. Repeated trips, from the mail center to the van to the department, back to the van, to the next department, and, eventually, back to the mail center, count up quickly. There might be 100 trips a day, if it's not too busy.

The last sort brings closure, but only temporarily. By then, most of the nearly 200 cubbyholes contain mail -- ready for the next run.

Over the winter, Gray revamped these programs with the help of Carol Showalter and David Hackbarth of the Health Protection Office. Their in-depth technical expertise helped assure that all state and federal government requirements were addressed. The resulting programs are succinct, up-to-date and technically correct.
Jo Anne Worley

Correct treatment prior to the initial cleaning greatly aids stain removal. Stainmeister Jerry Miller is also available to answer your questions about stain removal. Call Laundry Service at 335-4940 for assistance.
Jo Anne Worley

• Bag items to be laundered. Mark and securely attach a Laundry checklist with your department's name and location to the bag.
• Have the soiled linens at the pickup location before the scheduled pickup time.
• Call if you expect a change in the usual routine.
• Call when you have laundry that requires special care.

Raised on an Arkansas cotton farm, an older sister who was employed at the UI Laundry persuaded Aggie to work as summer help there after she graduated from high school. She meant to quit at summer's end, but family problems derailed her educational plans.

That same summer she met fellow employee Frank Rochwick, and they began "the cleanest romance in town," according to Aggie. While Frank moved on to construction work, Aggie remained at the Laundry. Asked why she has stayed at the same job so long, Aggie says, "The work hours and weekends off were ideal for raising our son, 'Tiger.'" The years just got away, she says, and it's much easier than working in the cotton fields!

In the late '60s, working at the Laundry was very different than it is today. Linens were often hand pressed, hand folding was the norm, and employees were only permitted two, ten-minute breaks. They couldn't speak to each other while working. Conditions are different now, but Aggie says the job is still highly stressful. She cites the stringent production schedule as the main stressor.

Aggie loves to read. Her favorite novelist is Stephen King. She also enjoys swimming, shopping, and target practice with her Bearcat .22-caliber pistol. On weekends she and Frank attend gun shows, selling related items like ammunition, scopes, and sights, plus archery items. But her passion is collecting John Wayne memorabilia. She has knives, belt buckles, posters, clocks, books, and commemorative guns. Is The Duke a rival for Frank? "You bet," says Aggie.
Jo Anne Worley

To be sure you are buying the best for less, order Xerox recycled #58875 on SIGS or on your General Stores' requisition. Please consult Section II of the 1999 General Stores' catalog for other stock numbers.

Remember that General Stores' requisitions require both a requestor and a departmental approval signature. Make sure your requisition contains the proper approvals before you send it to General Stores.

Burch adds that the new trucks make economic sense because "it cost a lot more to drive them [the old trucks]. It's cheaper to lease them through Motor Pool than it was to maintain them for ourselves." He says replacing the fleet "was one of the first things Gary [Anderson] did as manager of General Stores. He immediately gained credibility and upped morale. That's important."

We welcome Deb Parizek, who replaces Wilbur at Central Receiving and Shipping. Her experience includes working with freight and receiving at Maintenance Stores and Facilities Services Group Receiving for the past seven years. She will continue to handle receiving for FSG in addition to receiving and shipping at General Stores.
Gary Anderson

But, ohhhh! The agony of collecting all the fonts (Do you remember which ones you used?), gathering all the photos and art files (Don't forget any you placed in an illustration), and getting everything into one folder to go on a disk or be FTPd (in which case an additional step, compression, is needed).

Now, that's a mouthful, and saying it is the easy part. You might think it would be easier to make a PostScript file (print the file to disk). Everything's right there on your computer, and all you have to send is the PostScript file. This may sound easier than going to the trouble of collecting all the parts, but, unless you know what you're doing, you can create more problems than you solve.

When you send a PostScript file to be printed, what you send is what you get. There is nothing we can do but print it. So if you see a mistake in your job after you have sent it, you'll have to make the change, create another PostScript file, and send it again. If we had the original file, with fonts and images, we could make the corrections.

I've found when it comes to PostScript files saved for a service provider, it is not necessarily knowing the program and the ins and outs of creating a PostScript file that count. These are important, and most people who send PostScript files have a pretty good grasp of the options available when making the file. Where they go wrong is in determining which options to use and when to use them; this can change from job to job and from output device to output device.

The only consistent thing about making a PostScript file is that if you're going to go to the trouble, call us first. Then we can help you create a PostScript file with the specifications needed for your job and our equipment.
Chris Swart

Crop marks: Crop marks, for the most part, should be included in your PostScript files. However, there are cases where crop marks should be left off. An example would be some jobs that are printed on our DocuTech system.

Fonts: Be sure to include all PostScript and Truetype fonts in your PostScript file.

Images: Include all images when printing to disk. In PageMaker select "optimized subsampling" in the print options dialog box.

Composite/Separations: If you've used only one color, select composite when creating the PostScript file. Any color besides black will print as a screen and appear gray unless you check "Print colors in black." If you have used two or more colors you should select "separations" when you print the file to disk. Also, be sure your file doesn't need to trap. If it does, a whole different type of PostScript file, called a SEP file, needs to be created. Be sure to call before attempting this.

Page orientation: For the most part, the page orientation you use when you send your file to your own printer will work just fine. However, there are exceptions. An example would be when you send 8.5 x 11-inch pages to our imagesetter, which uses 14-inch-wide film. Orient such pages sideways to reduce film waste.

It's not that simple now. We reuse film when we can, but, these days, removing elements, such as photos, from old film and placing them on new film is sometimes not possible and always less desirable. It is time consuming, costly, results in a lower quality printed image, and introduces a risk of human error.

Previously, a pasteup board with text and line art were imaged onto a large sheet of film, which was used as a base. Halftones were imaged separately onto small sheets of a finer grade film, aligned on the base sheet using corner marks, and taped in place. When it was time to reprint a publication, the halftone film could be lifted off the base and transferred to a new, revised base film.

Electronic publishing technology allows us now to incorporate all the elements of a publication on a single sheet of film. We cannot cut halftones out of a sheet of film to reuse them because there would be no corner marks to guide placement. Also, today's film is not meant to be layered and distorts the image if it is. What's more, it is not possible to pick up elements with screen tints, reverses, knockouts, or other special effects.

The next phase of electronic publishing, which the Printing Department is approaching and some vendors have reached, eliminates the film stage altogether by sending electronic images directly to a printing plate.

Start collecting photos and graphics early, when you begin working on your publication. You're going to need them.

We are . . .

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The University of Iowa prohibits discrimination in employment and in its educational programs and activities on the basis of race, national origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preference. The University also affirms its commitment to providing equal opportunities and equal access to University facilities. For additional information on nondiscrimination policies, contact the Coordinator of Title IX, Section 504, and the ADA in the Office of Affirmative Action; phone 319/335-0705 (voice), or 319/335-0697 (text); The University of Iowa, 202 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1316.