VENDOR PARTNERSHIPS:
WALKING THE WALK

Newspapers often talk the talk about wanting closer relationships with their suppliers. According to at least one of those suppliers, the St. Petersburg Times also walks the walk.

Recalling the most recent of a series of problem-solving meetings that bring together all the newspaper’s press-and-material suppliers, Steve Waddell did a quick head count. Along with more than 30 vendor representatives present at the meeting, the Times had brought in 38 of its own people, including many line workers.

“They are the ones that turn our half ideas into the whole solutions,” said Waddell, newspaper specialist with Anchor Lithkemko Inc. of Orange Park, Fla.

Started in early 1997, the meetings were based upon a simple concept, according to David Tallmadge, the paper’s press-production manager. Since offset printing relies so heavily on the interaction of a variety of materials -- ink, paper, chemistry, blankets and newsprint, not to mention the printing press itself -- why not bring together the same mix of suppliers and see how they work together?

And that’s exactly what happened. Every vendor to which the Times extended an invitation opted to participate. The meetings did have their share of “contentious” moments at first, Tallmadge admitted, but staff managed to shift the focus away from finger-pointing and towards finding solutions.

At first, vendors and suppliers exchanged information on such issues as railway consolidation, 50-inch webs and Y2K. Then they began drilling down to specific production issues at the Times, and by breaking into teams composed of suppliers and staffers, began addressing them. To wit:

o By working with the paper’s four newsprint suppliers, staffers were able to reallign warehouse configurations and load patterns on rail cars, according to Newsprint Manager Jim Balch. Those moves have saved approximately $22,000 thus far -- “not monumental, but the cumulative effects are quite positive,” he said.

o Newsprint suppliers, on the other hand, found ways to improve their own standing with the Times. Finding itself ranked fourth among suppliers in terms of overall web-break ratios, Abitibi Consolidated Inc. worked with Times staffers to observe the causes of breaks, said senior technical-services representative William E. Bright. As a result, its Alpharetta, Ga., mill established a pulp quality-management system and made other process changes that “improved the product for all our customer base,” Bright said. Likewise, Bowater Inc. reps studied detailed web-break data provided by Times staffers to discover the root of its own runability issue -- startup problems on short regional-edition press runs. It responded with newsprint featuring higher bulk and greater elasticity, said James B. Harrison, quality-assurance director of the Greenville, S.C. company.

o Ink suppliers, too, found the opportunity to work side-by-side with production personnel enlightening. “Most vendor meetings are triggered by crisis situations,” said Dennis Cheeseman, customer-service director of US Ink of Carlstadt, N.J., which established a cross-training program between lab technicians and press operators. And Flint Ink has taken the relationship it has developed with the Times and applied it to other customers, including Dow Jones & Co. and Tribune Co., said Norm Harbin, director of news-ink products for the Ann Arbor, Mich., company.

o Anchor Lithkemko, too, gained a better product as a result of the partnership, which brought it and a blanket manufacturer together to test a modified fountain solution.

As for the paper, the partnerships “have not solved all our problems,” admitted Tallmadge. “But we and our vendors as a group have enhanced and effective ... communications and a relationship.”

In other words, they can definitely talk the talk.

-Mark Toner