Chris Illa, Director of Operations at Japs-Olson, and Expert of Lean Manufacturing, Passes

MINNETRISTA, MN—August 13, 2014—Chris Illa of Minnetrista, MN, died July 27, 2014, after a long illness with cancer. He was a dedicated and well respected employee of Japs-Olson Co. in St. Louis Park, MN, for 24 years.

Illa started his career at Japs-Olson in the prepress department. He went on to manage several production departments including: prepress, data processing, workflow systems, operations and continuous improvement and lastly director of operations. He was instrumental in the implementation of the company’s Lean initiatives and workflow improvement. Illa's leadership within the printing industry on both the technical and the people side have had a lasting impact.