Managing Strategic Assets and Saving Space–The Impact of the Digital Age on the Government Printing Office
U.S. Government Printing Office
The Washington, DC complex of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) includes one three-story and three eight-story buildings, totaling almost 1.5 million square feet. As the printing world has evolved over the past 30 years the number of GPO employees within these structures has declined from nearly 10,000 to approximately 2,300.
The Strategic Vision for the GPO is to eventually move to a facility that provides a more functionally compliant environment for digital age printing. While the GPO is working on an aggressive timetable to accomplish that vision, measures are being taken to operate more efficiently by embracing innovative real property management solutions.
The decline in demand for ink on paper, and the associated staffing attrition, has significantly reduced the GPO’s operational footprint requirements. This dictated the need to reallocate, reconfigure, and renovate resources in every department in order to effectively meet the demands of GPO’s customers. It was accomplished through a comprehensive ongoing logistical plan that has entailed over 120 projects and more than 700 personnel moves to date.
Through this continuous improvement process, that has spanned over two and a half years, the GPO has effectively consolidated departments and freed space for its innovative “space sharing” program.
As a result, there are essentially two projects that have comprised the effort. The first, is the establishment of a more effective operational environment, and the second is the utilization of the vacant space to produce a bottom line result of more than $1 million in annual revenue at virtually no cost.
Contact:
Tom Gibney
Strategic Assets Manager
U.S. Government Printing Office
tgibney@gpo.gov
