2024 Innovator of the Year: Book Manufacturer CPS Reinvents Itself Into a Digital Powerhouse

Editor's Note: Innovation may look different for every company; however, the industry leaders make innovation part of their DNA. By utilizing new technology, developing comprehensive investment strategies, implementing unique human resources practices, and integrating top-of-the-line processes, they can stand out as true innovators.

Our six Printing Impressions' 2024 Innovators of the Year were nominated by printing industry experts and consultants who identified them as pushing the boundaries of innovation. The business tactics and philosophies they employ may provide some inspiration to take your company to similar, greater heights.

The summary of Core Publishing Solutions (CPS) that follows shares what makes this company innovative, interesting, and exceptional. The insight it presents may provide the inspiration you need to take your company to a new level, or in a new direction.

What does a publisher with extensive in-house printing capabilities do when its legacy business of manufacturing books for the legal and tax industry faces a shift as a portion of the customer base transitions to its offerings in other media types? That was the dilemma for Thomson Reuters Global Print segment, which had to completely reinvent itself after a 150 year-run publishing and manufacturing books for legal and tax professionals.

Although a multi-faceted and long-term endeavor, the transformation has been remarkable, earning its 1.3 million-sq.-ft. book manufacturing, warehouse, custom kitting, and fulfillment facility, located right on a rail spur in Eagan, Minnesota, the distinction as a Printing Impressions 2024 Innovator of the Year.

The printing operation’s reinvention didn’t happen overnight, however. It began well before West Publishing was acquired in 1996 to become part of what is now Thomson Reuters.

As overall demand for legal and tax books diversified toward online media and software solutions, the need for shorter-run printing capabilities grew. The acquisition of Timsons Zero-Makeready (ZMR) web offset presses and investments in early digital printing technology provided some step-level cost structure improvements.

Declining run lengths of a finite catalog of titles for its Thomson Reuters professional legal and tax business left excess capacity to serve publishers external to Thomson Reuters. Strategically, the Core Publishing Solutions brand was created in 2013 as a commercial printing enterprise to provide printing, warehousing, and fulfillment services to book publishers outside of Thomson Reuters.

That has proven to be a winning growth formula — a move that required hiring more than 100 additional workers to what is now a 500-employee, 24/5 operation.

Core Publishing Solutions’ senior leadership team (left to right, front to back) includes Kari Hurtis, Sarah Lightfield, Steve Zweber, Dave Pease, Brandon Nowak, Rocky Aune, Jill Gaarder, Steve Greer, Larry Soler, Mike Slagstad, Vickie Jensen, Barb Lindsey, Frank Cancino, and Tim Hughes.

“The majority of the titles (jobs) we produce each year are for Thomson Reuters professional markets in the legal and tax space where we are the publisher,” explains Steve Zweber, vice president of Global Print
Manufacturing & Operations, and a 23-year Thomson Reuters veteran. “However, the majority of the total books we produce are for other publishers. We serve well over 100 publishers outside of Thomson Reuters, including top publishers in North America. We primarily serve the professional, association, university, government, educational, faith-based, trade, and children’s book markets.”

The facility completely changed its operating model, reports industry consultant David Zwang, who nominated Core Publishing Solutions for Innovator of the Year recognition. “What they did provides many lessons for other printers watching their core businesses evolve and that are faced with reinventing themselves.”

Responding to Short-Run Demands

Changing publisher requirements to carry less inventory by requesting shorter press runs, more reprint orders, and quicker turnaround times, also required Core Publishing Solutions to become an early adopter of high-speed inkjet printing technology to support its existing fleet of three Timsons and three Mitsubishi web offset presses.

An HP PageWide T360 monochrome inkjet web press was installed in 2015, followed by another mono T360 press, a four-color T485 press in 2020, and a four-color T485 last year. The mono PageWide presses have upgrades to HDNA technology, and the four-color models use HP Brilliant Inks.

The 30"- and 42"-wide PageWide presses are paired with in-line signature folding Magnum FlexBook and Müller Martini SigmaLine III systems to create tack glued book blocks for subsequent near-line finishing, primarily on Müller Martini and Kolbus hard and soft cover binding systems. As technology advanced in finishing for short-run book production, key investments have been made in solutions that offer automated make- readies and touchless workflows.

On the cut-sheet color inkjet printing side, a pair of Canon varioPRINT iX-3200 inkjet presses also replaced a pair of varioPRINT i300 models in 2023.

Its fleet of web offset and digital presses enables run lengths of 10 to more than a million, although Core Publishing Solutions’ sweet spot is a few hundred to a few thousand books. More than 85,000 active titles exist in the Thomson Reuters publishing catalog alone.

Core Publishing Solutions operators Joe Beckers and David Glesmann work on the operation’s most recent install of high-speed inkjet capacity — an HP PageWide T485 web press with Brilliant Ink paired with a Müller Martini SigmaLine III.

Longer run book covers are produced in-house on a Komori sheetfed offset press, while shorter-run book cover production is handled by a pair of Kodak Nexpress digital cut-sheet machines. Digital cover embellishment, laminating, hot-foil stamping, and UV coating round out cover production.

Four-Color Inkjet Enables Growth in New Segments

Long known for its high-page-count books, highly embellished hard covers with hot foil stamping (including the unique ability to do six hits in one pass through its series of hot foil stamping machines), and printing on lightweight book stocks, Core Publishing Solutions’ vibrant four-color inkjet printing capabilities have enabled the operation to further grow its trade, educational, and children’s book manufacturing and its backlist printing business.

“I credit the executive support from Thomson Reuters (including his predecessor, Todd Roth, who recently retired) that provided the opportunity for us to be in the first-mover position with inkjet adoption,” Zweber says. He also credits Core Publishing Solutions’ dedicated and skilled workers with fighting through the challenges that come with being on the bleeding edge of technology advancements.

“If our teams hadn’t gotten really good at leaning out our processes, streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and controlling costs, we could have never been in a healthy position to expand and grow like we are today,” Zweber adds.

On the Forefront of Best Practices

The desire to solve problems and improve manufacturing processes through teamwork has long been an integral part of the culture at Core Publishing Solutions and predates the Lean manufacturing initiatives launched internally more than 15 years ago.

“We’ve experienced exponential value coming from continuous improvement initiatives as we’ve evolved and refined the approach,” Zweber points out. “Today, with a Tiered Management System, our team members know what is critical to success. They own that part of the operation and drive daily improvements when things are trending negatively or when they see opportunity for innovation.”

The Tiered Management System ensures proper support, resources, and escalation if — and when — it is needed. Year to date in 2024, more than 100 continuous improvement initiatives have been implemented and are sized to net $550,000 of run-rate savings.

Core Publishing Solutions relies on an SAP ERP system, combined with MII and EFI modules for plant-floor-level data collection. Highly automated digital production workflows were designed to serve publishers’ evolving business models and requirements. The integration of software tools, including Switch, Kodak Prinergy RBA, Ultimate Impostrip, Canon Prisma, and Müller Martini Connex, work in concert to optimize efficiency and quality throughout the production process.

The operation also has the benefit of a long tenured workforce, including many staff members with more than 20 years of printing industry experience, to drive production workflow efficiencies. Its Golden Club alone comprises 33 workers with more than 35 years of tenure and a dozen with more than 40 years of service.

Despite an industry-wide skilled worker shortage, Core Publishing Solutions has been successful in maintaining its existing workforce and attracting skilled workers from other area businesses for all three shifts. Zweber credits it, in part, to a strong culture built around teamwork, the opportunity for training and advancement, a market-leading differential paid to second and third shift workers, and the excellent overall corporate benefits package offered by Thomson Reuters.

Onboarding of new hires — including hiring 100 people in the past 18 months in response to growth — is also a very formalized process. Training consists of seven standard components and is facilitated by a central operational excellence function. Though the main components are standardized, the criteria for each component are dynamic to the specific area/role. “It helps ensure consistency and accountability across our operation, while providing a structure for accelerated advancement to new opportunities,” he explains.

Still, Zweber notes automation advancements will also remain an important part of the success equation. “We’ve been investing in traditional robotics for decades and are now investing in collaborative robotics as they rapidly advance to support industrial applications and handle heavy products such as books,” he says.

With the transformation Core Publishing Solutions has already undertaken to reinvent itself, these new levels of robotics automation will only serve as another chapter in its book manufacturing journey.

The transformation of Core Publishing Solutions from a traditional book manufacturer to a cutting-edge printing and fulfillment powerhouse is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the team at Thomson Reuters. By embracing technological advancements — such as high-speed inkjet printing and robotics — and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, Core Publishing Solutions has navigated the challenges of a shifting market and continues to set new industry benchmarks.