In the Spotlight: Print Shop and Repro Magnify the Message
By Paola Adler
If you have a printing job, big or small, LADWP’s Print Shop and Reprographics teams are able to handle many of the Department’s printing needs. Having in-house printing facilities was important to LADWP’s engineering work for most of our company’s history in order to create printed drawings, designs and maps. As many of those processes became digital, the shops expanded their projects, and they are now a crucial part of many Department operations and communications campaigns. Both are located on the B-level of JFB.
Wondering which shop you need for your project? Print Shop processes jobs printed on paper that are 11x17 inches or smaller. Reprographics (Repro for short) prints items that are bigger than 11x17 inches and can print on different types of coated or uncoated materials (such as paper or vinyl) that can also be mounted on foam or sintra board. Each shop has four skilled team members.
Print Shop
For the Print Shop, typical projects can include business cards, mailers, training manuals and reports. The shop prints many items employees frequently use, such as the Briefing Book, Water Quality Report, Department letterhead and bid notices. Recently, the team has been focused on processing mailers for LADWP’s new Level Pay program. The process involves 600,000 printed flyers that are finished as a self-mailer, and will be distributed over the course of five months. The mailers are a key strategy to help the Department reach more customers effectively, introducing them to a program that can help make paying their bills more manageable.
“Our work is crucial to the Department in a number of ways, as the benefits of having an in-house printer are immeasurable. We provide our colleagues with high-quality printed materials on demand and often with same day turnaround.”
Maurice Harrington, Sr. Duplicating Machine Operator
Similar to many other divisions, the Print Shop is also evolving to embrace newer technologies. The shop is transitioning from the historical process of offset printing to digital printing, which will make jobs more efficient, and is also planning on launching a digital store-front website to allow customers to easily submit requests online.
Reprographics
If you’re attending a Department event and see a poster, display or banner, chances are that Reprographics helped print these impressive items. The variety of jobs processed by the team include engineering drawings, decals, pull-up banners, presentation boards, backdrops and much more. The displays created for recruitment events, community fairs, parades and internal events help showcase LADWP’s branding, programs and campaigns, reaching audiences in creative and eye-catching ways. The group often works closely with the Department’s Graphics team in Corporate Strategy and Communications to create these products, as well as other divisions.
“Our job is very fulfilling, and it’s great to be able provide support through our work with different employees. We look for team players with good attitudes, who are willing to learn. Being responsible and friendly is also important when interacting with customers.”
Oskar Solares, Sr. Reprographic Operator
One of the shop’s recent projects was creating the elements of the CicLAvia event booth, which involved different types of banners, backdrops, posters and signs. Due to the team’s experience, the project came together smoothly without any problems. Other project highlights include manufacturing the banners and truck decals for LADWP’s appearance in the Kingdom Day parade (check out their work on the cover of this issue) and the floor-to-wall displays outside the Board room on the 15th floor of JFB.
Careers with Print Shop and Repro
The two small but knowledgeable teams are overseen by Industrial Graphics Supervisor Luis Alderete and Printing Services Supervisor Rafael Pena. In addition to experience operating printing machinery and working with printing materials, excellent customer service skills, collaboration, ability to troubleshoot, attention to detail and working under tight deadlines are all qualities important to the job.
Job positions at LADWP include Duplicating Machine Operator, Sr. Duplicating Machine Operator, Reprographic Operator, Industrial Graphics Supervisor and Printing Services Supervisor. You can learn more about these jobs and check for current, upcoming, and all job opportunities at www.joinladwp.com.
Team Members
Supervisors: Industrial Graphics Supervisor Luis Alderete, Printing Services Supervisor Rafael Pena
Print Shop: Sr. Duplicating Machine Operator Maurice Harrington; Duplicating Machine Operators Joe Martinez, Ellen DuVan and Kaycee Tinsman
Reprographics: Sr. Reprographic Operator Oskar Solares; Reprographic Operators Jerry Loukatos, Johny Guevara and Robert Silva
Photos by Chris Corsmeier
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This publication is written and published by the Corporate Strategy and Communications Division. For other 2022 issues, click the three horizontal lines icon next to the Contact logo at the top left of the document. Then click the “Editions” tab. For issues from 2000-2021, see Intranet page MyDWP/.
