Trimming labels in the die-cutting department are, from left, Rosa Lepez and Samira Zomaia.

"OTIF" – on time and in full – is a phrase every manager likes to hear in a printing operation. But at the Fort Dearborn Company in Niles, Ill., "in full" must include the quality and new technology for which the company and its employees – members of Chicago 458M – are well known.

In its mission statement, the company explains: "The aim of the Fort Dearborn Company is to serve our business partners by adding value through a commitment to continual improvement, innovation, and mutual satisfaction."

Feliz Garcia, a GCIU member for 22 years, uses a G4 Mac to preflight customers' digital files. He checks for sequence, job order, and prepares files for assembly.

Fort Dearborn was established by Nick Adler in 1925 as a one-press print shop in Chicago. Still family-owned, Fort Dearborn was named after the large and well-equipped government fortress at the mouth of the Chicago River.

According to a company statement, Adler "vowed to build a business that would live up to its namesake. . . . With the help of his three sons and their sons and daughters, Fort Dearborn today prides itself on being one of the best-equipped high-end packaging printers in America."

By the 1930s, Fort Dearborn had a strong position in label production, and today the company is the largest combination packaging label printer in the country, said Al Presco, president and chief quality officer.

Last year, Presco said, the Niles division produced some 6 billion labels for food, personal products, and paint products. "People generally can't go into a grocery store without touching our labels," he said.

Combining labels from different products onto the same plate for a press run saves customers time and money, but it makes for a very complex operation. First client orders are sorted by die cut, quantity, delivery date, and special colors. Then those sorts are laid out for a combo plate. The process requires Local 458M members to meet strict color requirements for the name-brand products and to track UPC and other tags so labels get cut and sorted properly for shipment.

Chicago 458M member Martin Hurd works on a Mitsubishi 51-inch press at Fort Dearborn.

Jim Kulpinski works with a Creo Trendsetter 4557 Quantum thermal platesetter. Kulpinski said he is "the last of the Mohicans" as a film expert because the state-of-the-art CTP system rarely calls for film.

Wayne Barazowski, a Chicago 458M shop delegate since 1965, works on the control panel of a 51-inch Mitsubishi. Noting the technological changes since he began in the trade, he said the "biggest asset is the color console. It saves you running up and down stairs."

Combination printing demands good scheduling and a lot of communication between departments, Presco said. "It's a moving target that requires the coordination of every computer, plate processor, press, and cutter we have."

The company's headquarters has been in Niles since 1950 in a 150,000 square-foot plant that has grown to five seven and eight-color presses with in-line UV capabilities. During canning season from May through October, Local 458M members work in three shifts seven days per week.

Fort Dearborn also has grown to operate 11 production facilities in the United States, England, Ireland, Poland, and Mexico. The facilities include flexible packaging and design and prepress operations.

The winner of numerous printing awards from industry associations, Fort Dearborn stresses to its clients: "Customer-driven, quality-based systems, state-of-the-art printing presses, along with craftspeople of the highest caliber combine to deliver packaging with maximum shelf appeal."

To deliver on this pledge, Presco said, the company "is very focused on process improvement and maintains an in-house quality facilitator in each division. We stress lots of associate education and subsidize that education." This ensures that employees – many of whom have been at the company for 30 or more years – are the best in their areas, he said.

The company is so proud of its employees that it holds a "Partners for Success" seminar each spring with a walkthrough of the plant so customers can talk and work with the workers who actually produce their labels.

Local 458M members have used education to adapt to the new technology. The company has been 100 percent computer-to-plate (CTP) for three years using a Creo system.

"It's a digital world so we were one of the first label printers to go to CTP," Presco said. He said the first six months were challenging because "it was a big change," but "print quality has been absolutely improved. There is a lot less dot gain and customers received it very well."

The process helped Fort Dearborn achieve the lowest plate remake percentage of members of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Presco said. "That's a real honor, especially in light of the kind of high quality work we're doing," he said.

Presco said the company also is using digital means to improve customer service with a "live" website that will "tie the plants together" and that customers can use to interact with the company. The company already uses e-mail to receive orders and communicate with clients. It uses a T1 link to receive files from its design and prepress house, Virtualcolor in Elk Grove, Ill., he said.

Presco said the company is very proud of its safety record at the sparkling clean plant. Noting workers have logged 200,000 hours without a lost-time injury, he said: "We are very serious on safety."