The Importance of a Flexible Production Line
ITP is a full-service commercial offset and digital printer in Elizabethtown, PA. The printer also specializes in graphic design, marketing, large format, digital storefront technologies, comprehensive in-house mailing, warehousing, and fulfillment. Phillips Graphic Finishing has supported ITP with third-party binding and finishing services for more than 20 years. Our partnership is rooted in trust and quality, but also our ability to flex with moving target timelines.
“At ITP, our goal is to provide each of our customers with an experience that exceeds expectations for service and quality and in doing so, makes ITP the partner they’ll choose for their next project,” said Patrick McCauley, Chief Operating Officer for ITP. “We cannot achieve this without flexible partners.”
ITP strives to meet all their customers’ printing needs, according to McCauley, which means they take on projects both large and small, new and established, high pressure and low stress. Phillips has worked with ITP on a broad range of projects over the years, from perfect bound books and larger wire-o books to die cutting.
When a job starts, an ITP production planner reaches out to Phillips to set the schedule, but anything and everything can change from there. Flexibility is key because when you are at the end of the production line like we are – everyone is looking to you to bring the job home.
“Phillips may set a schedule in their shop for our job, but then our customer might need more rounds of review than we planned. Or we might get busy and need to bump our printing schedule. The next thing you know we get our work to Phillips on a different date and now they have to adjust their schedule and the jobs they are committed to,” McCauley said. “We appreciate that Phillips is always very flexible and does whatever they can to turn a job around as quickly as possible.”
No matter how big the production window is, Phillips remains committed to quality. ITP is about a 10-minute drive away from Phillips. Depending on the difficulty of the job or anticipated issues, our team will bring ITP in for an inspection to get their final pre-production approval. Phillips’ in-house die making adds both flexibility and convenience. When a die needs a tweak, changes can be made same day. Print finishers who outsource die making would need a two-to-three-day deadline extension.
“It is never a problem for me to come and look at a job, whether they called me, or I called them,” McCauley said. “Everyone at Phillips is always friendly and when there are times when I feel a job needs adjustments before running, the team is always accommodating.”
When the schedule changes, customers are not always willing to move the original due date. ITP works with many customers who print work for large conferences at convention centers. Final deadlines are non-negotiable because otherwise programs, displays, signs, and the like would not make it in time for the event.
“Phillips has been a great partner over the years,” McCauley said. “They have pulled us out of the fire a few times by accommodating scheduling changes and constraints. They are always willing to be helpful, from the owner to someone on the production line, and everyone in between.”