With a production schedule like that,  running around 70 million broadsheet pages a week, keeping the presses humming and complaints at a minimum might seem to be a daunting task.

But they're obviously succeeding – with 80 print jobs a week of 2.5 million copies, the company received only 12 complaints in a year about color register problems.

"The customers want to know, with such a busy schedule, what do we do when things go wrong," says Michael O'Brien, head of operations at Webprint. There is an 80-page manual for the customers, when things go seriously wrong.

Mr O'Brien's presentation examined a near obsession with automation of processes and measurements – there are electronic logs and absolutely no handwritten notes, performance tracking shared with employees, whose bonuses are based on the results, automated ordering and customer relationship processes and much more.

Mr O'Brien was particularly proud of the company's human rights policies, which emphasizes performance, flexibility, learning, teamwork and safety.

The approach is working. In addition to its original newspaper customers, which continues to provide 60 percent of their business, the company has attracted a significant business in commercial printing. "What really is interesting for us is that we're now in the business of advertising not just to publishers, but directly to advertisers as well," he says.

This has led to print runs of between 500,000 to 1.25 million for folded leaflets and trimmed magazines for special events, or, as Mr O'Brien puts it, "that's a copy for every household in the country that we're attracting."