Joe Cichon is no stranger to ink industry honors. During his 44 years in the ink industry, he has received the 1995 NAPIM President’s Award, the 1996 NAPIM Award for Technical Achievement, and a 2001 NAPIM Printing Ink Pioneer Award. Even with that, he was surprised when he was selected to receive the 2018 Ault Award, the highest honor presented by the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM).
 
“I never dreamed I would receive this type of recognition,” said Cichon, who is VP manufacturing technology operations for INX International Ink Co. “It is an honor to be in the company of the other recipients, many of whom I must credit for helping me advance in my activities.”
 
John Hrdlick, president and COO of INX International Ink Co., said that Cichon is certainly deserving of the award.
 
“Joe has always been a significant source of knowledge for all of us at INX International and the entire industry as well,” Hrdlick added. “He is a passionate teacher, mentor and advisor to all willing and wanting to learn. Joe has been a personal advisor and colleague for me throughout my career but especially for the past several years.”
 
Early Career
 
Cichon got his start in the ink industry in 1974 while picking up ink from Acme Printing Ink.
 
“While I was studying in college, I had worked at several print shops,” recalled Cichon. “For two summers before I graduated, I worked at a bag manufacturer that did both flexo and offset printing. I had done everything from setting type, (the old-fashioned way with melted lead), running machines and driving a truck.
 
“On several trucking trips, I had to make pick-ups at the ink supplier and I had the opportunity to meet Art Franke, the general manager of Acme Printing Ink Company in Kansas City,” he added. “He told me that when I graduated college to give him a call, as he wanted to hire a chemist for the Kansas City operation. I thought it was a good opportunity to get some experience before moving on to work for a larger chemical company; 44 years later I am still here, and happy I stayed.”
 
In 1977, Cichon attended NAPIM National Printing Ink Research Institute’s (NPIRI) Summer Course at Lehigh University, which added to his interest in the scientific side of ink making.
 
“The sprawling campus was beautiful, and I was delighted to see all the science that was involved in manufacturing printing inks,” said Cichon. “In 1982, I was able to attend the advanced NAPIM summer course at Lehigh. After Lehigh I was always eager to volunteer for activities with NAPIM and NPIRI, and the upper management at our company always supported these activities.”
 
Cichon became more involved in NPIRI, serving on the Conference and Symposium Committee starting in 1992, as a member of the NPIRI Water Pickup Task Force and becoming NPIRI president in 2007 and 2008. On a personal note, Cichon has also served as a longtime member of the Ink World Advisory Board.
 
In 1979, Cichon became the assistant manager of the Kansas City plant when his predecessor, Joe Grushao, retired. Since that time, his career involved many special challenging projects.
 
“Some of the early projects were working with computers to handle formulation calculations (mind you in 1974, a calculator was ½ half the size of a shoebox, and the display was nixie Tubes),” he recalled. “Later I created programs for inventory management and graphic arts color plots. In the 1980s with some encouragement from Hallmark Cards, I got involved with ASTM Subcommittee D01.56, which was great experience in standards and statistics. It was great to learn the protocols of creating international standards. I am still a voting member of ASTM and ANSI today.
 
“In 1986 I had the opportunity to start up and program the first ACS color computer that was sold to an ink company in the US,” Cichon continued. “Back then, ACS had a tremendous two-week course on Color Science that I attended. As time went on, our management team asked me to work on several projects related to information management. Other projects included raw material code systems, business computer systems, and data management. I was asked to evaluate a business computer system to replace our old IBM mainframe computer and move from all paperwork, to Unix based local networked computers at our plants. Although I was the assistant manager of our Kansas plant, I was getting involved with many activities that would influence all of our locations.”
 
In 1988, Cichon had the opportunity to visit Japan when Acme was acquired by Sakata INX.
 
“The trip was great and it was impressive to see the hospitality and discipline of the Japanese people,” he noted. “You could see it, all the way from pre-school to business. I was also amazed by the level of engineering used to make ink in Japan, and their investment in chemistry.”
 
In 1991, Cichon became the GM of INX’s Kansas operation, when Franke was promoted to president of Acme Printing Inks, but that was short lived.
 
“In 1992, Jerry Braznell (president or INX) asked me to become the VP of quality enhancement. He was not sure that would keep me busy, so later that year he added responsibilities for EHS and Color Systems Engineering group,” Cichon noted.
 
“In 1994, our president and chairman of the board supported activities in strategic planning (Hoshin Planning), and we were able to put plans together that shaped our future,” Cichon continued. “In 1996, I became the SVP of manufacturing technology. In the same year, I received the NPIRI Award for Technical Achievement. That year the award was presented by Bob Bassimer, which made it very special, because I think Bob Bassimer was one of the smartest ink scientists I had ever met.”
 
In 1997, INX felt it was time to replace its Unix based local computer networks and move to a nationwide real time ERP system.
 
“The company asked me to lead a team of our best finance, IT, and operations administrative staff to install networks, new computers, and SAP software systems to all of our plants,” Cichon said. “That was the most challenging and aggressive project of my career. While I was dedicated to the new project, all my responsibilities were temporarily delegated to our Quality Systems group and Engineering groups until the project completed.
 
“Our objective in 1998 was to work with consultants, configure the system, facilitate change management and determine design functions by the end of 1998. Then the team had one year to convert 40 branches to the new SAP system and prepare for the impending Y2K ‘monster’ before Dec. 31, 1999. It was a very rough two years, but again, we had the best of the best people from all of INX on the project, and we completed on time. (Of course, there was no Y2K monster after all).”
 
Cichon continued to take on new challenges at INX.
 
“Late in 2000, I had my second most challenging and exciting opportunity when Rick Clendenning asked me to manage our Research and Development Group,” Cichon noted. “At the same time, I had our Quality Systems, Procurement, and Engineering groups reporting to me as well. While managing R&D, I also served on the INX Board of Directors for five years. Although this was a big challenge, it was also a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the role. I had a great team of people to work with, and we had many accomplishments.
 
“In 2006, R&D was passed on to Rick Westrom. We created a separate Engineering division and Quality Systems group, and I was asked to lead another initiative for INX. This time it was to lead the company into Lean Manufacturing using the Toyota production system tools called TPM as practiced by the JIPM (Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance),” said Cichon. “This is another great learning experience and opportunity to learn from our Japanese consultants and our Sakata mentors about TPM the Japanese way. TPM in Japan is quite different than TPM taught as part of Lean in the USA. In 2010, the Edwardsville, KA plant under the lead of GM Chris Tucker received the “Award for TPM Excellence Category A” which was presented to INX in Japan in 2011.”
 
Cichon said that he has been fortunate to have had many mentors in his career, beginning with Art Franke.
 
“As I look back at my career, my first mentor was Art Franke (retired president of Acme Printing Ink),” Cichon said. “He taught me a lot about this industry and scientific methods. Art Franke totally understood and practiced most of the principles of ISO 9001 long before it became a standard. He demanded discipline and was willing to teach anyone who was willing to listen. He kept tons of literature and references on printing inks, which I loved to review.
 
“Working with Hallmark Cards over many years, and some of their top scientists was always a joy,” Cichon added. “I loved working with people from NAPIM/NPIRI such as Jackie Fetsko (NPIRI) and Jim Renson (NPIRI), and Jim Sutphin (NAPIM). Jimmy had a process for planning that involved posting sticky notes all over the wall and turning it into a plan, and I continue to use this method today. He had great people skills and was a great director for NAPIM.
 
“I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet and work with a great people and scientist like Bob Bassimer (Sun Chemical) I had and still have the pleasure of working with a great team of technical experts on the NPIRI board of directors and conference planning groups. Another person at INX that was a supporter and a driver for INX was Rick Clendenning. He amazed me with his stamina, and always supported me in my activities, ideas, proposals, and participation with NAPIM.”
   
Outside of work, Cichon enjoys a number of hobbies with his wife Debbie.
   
“I dabble in photography and have always loved to take photos, but my wife is my idol at the creative hobbies,” he said. “Every hobby that we share, such as golf and photography, she always excels beyond me. I like computers, electronics, gadgets, cosmology, fishing, flying drones and 3D printing. My wife and I love to watch the Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Science channels, and explore our country and the universe together.”
 
Cichon has seen a lot in his 44 years in the ink industry, and he sees plenty of opportunities for the future.
 
“Print will always be an important industry,” he said. “I cannot imagine a world without information printed on containers. Perhaps someday, we may find a way to transfer solid color directly to a substrate, but until then we will always need ink. I am sure that we will find new ways to print items beyond pictures and words. Printed electronics is a good example and is happening now.
 
“Technology is changing at an accelerating rate,” Cichon added. “Back in the year zero, it used to take 10,000 years to make an impressive change, but today, the same amount of change occurs in less than three years. In the future, change rates will be even faster. Just the general technology in our factories, such as LED lighting, motion sensors, integration of cell phones, desk phones, email and the use of the internet etc. has been amazing in just the last five years. I can see a time (less than three years) when we will see robots taking a role in ink factories for routine tasks. Much more automation and controls instead of dials and cranks on machines.
 
“I believe that the ink making future holds a young work force tuned in to using technology but not understanding it. In order to continue our advancement, it is important to create teams, smart teams comprised of IT professionals and engineers, to work together to use data collection and artificial intelligence to optimize the performance of our machines, people, and business systems,” Cichon continued. “‘Artificial Intelligence’ is our next frontier. It will change the world and our industry as well. PLCs are not new to industry. However, when they are connected and we use smart computers, we can predict problems and help to identify optimum settings. Then we can reach a completely new level of performance.”