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I worked for Kodak from 2002-2009 in their Windsor, CO plant, in the Thermal Media Manufacturing division and also wrote the occasional post for the corporate b

I worked for Kodak from 2002-2009 in their Windsor, CO plant, in the Thermal Media Manufacturing division and also wrote the occasional post for the corporate blog (thermal media == Dye sublimation printer media used in Kodak Picture Kiosks mainly). AMA. It was the same thing every year - digital is cannibalizing film faster than we thought, we need to close down X or lay off N people. A year or two of that sure but over and over again and it became clear the executives were just not getting it. Looking back I wonder if they just decided to slowly ride the ship down, extracting nice salaries along the way. I still can't understand how someone - activist shareholders, a board member with half a brain, an executive willing to speak out - didn't make a bigger stink and try to get fresh leadership. I remember one year at an all division meeting they showed the latest corporate "motivational" video - "Winds of Change" (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYW49bsiP4k http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYW49bsiP4k). We thought finally, they get it and are admitting we've been stagnating and now we're gonna turn it all around. Everyone was super pumped up for weeks. Then we realized the only thing that had changed was our ad agency who had produced the video.

musesum 10y ago
Wow, that is an amazing video! 2006. Facial recognition. Sharing to your PDA ... oops! Then, a few months later, the iPhone happened.
- asimuvPR 10y ago
  And beat Kodak with the grace of an anaconda eating a chicken...What a way to shut them up.
evan_ 10y ago
Haha, I worked for a photography studio during that time period and we used your printers. We had an 8660, which destroyed itself spectacularly and violently during an event, and an ML-500, which destroyed itself somewhat more slowly and had to have virtually every mechanical part replaced numerous times. When they worked they were great, but that never lasted very long. I spoke with Kodak support people quite a bit during that time and they always gave me the impression that Kodak was not giving them the support they needed to keep up with demand. The ML-500 at least seemed to have been hand-built, and when I called in because it stopped printing yellow or whatever I would often end up speaking to one of the actual engineers. Great for figuring out what was wrong with it, but it seemed really weird that these guys were seemingly fielding calls all day. The main thing I remember (other than the printers broke constantly) was that after a few years it became next to impossible to get media for it- we'd call our distributor and he'd say "I don't have any this month, try xxx." So we'd call them and they'd give us another lead, and eventually we'd find some and order as much as we could, and then start the process again the next month. We always assumed that most of the stock was reserved for kiosks. I'd love to hear more about what was going on with that, if you know.
- thisjustinm 10y ago
  Oh man, you brought back some memories for me - I mainly referred to the printers by their internal codenames so thinking back through and connecting the model numbers to codenames really took me back. There was a few years there where demand really outstripped supply. We were the only place in the world that made the media for Kodak at the time and I'd say 2002-2006ish the kiosks were really doing well and we just couldn't keep up (good or bad Kodak didn't seem able to predict the market for it's products). They added on and doubled our capacity somewhere around 2005 and then added on another manufacturing center in Rochester towards the end. It's interesting to hear your experience with printer breakdowns - I always thought of them as real workhorse machines. But then again I was surrounded by dozens and dozens of each model (except the ML 500, we only had 4-5 of those) and there was a full staff of mechanics running around and a handful of them fixed the printers in addition to the other industrial machines / electronics around. The 6800/6805 was my favorite - we used to take it out to local events and print off 1000s of free 4x6s for people (we'd take some digital cameras too and set up some sort of "scene" for people). Even running non-stop in the 90 degree sun I only had one overheat on me a couple times.
  - evan_ 10y ago
    I'm sure traveling wasn't great for the health but we definitely had a lot of trouble with it, as did other studios we talked to. To Kodak's credit they were always really great about fixing them quickly. Can't complain too much. We did a lot of school athletic tournaments and stuff like that, we could shoot a team and we'd have 8x10s ready to sell to parents before the kids got off the risers. Assuming everything was working smoothly it was a license to print money!
- dev360 10y ago
  Wow. yeah the printers.. I remember buying a Kodak printer that I had changed/replaced at least 3-4 times then I gave up. I liked my Kodak digital camera though - probably one of the last before they went out of business.
bkjelden 10y ago
Do you know what happened to the facilities? I'd imagine Kodak's 2nd largest manufacturing facility had quite a footprint.
- thisjustinm 10y ago
  About half was health related film (X-rays and such) and was sold off as another company who's name escapes me. I'd heard that one building was demolished but I believe most of it is still there
  - slang800 10y ago
    Carestream Health Inc
- slang800 10y ago
  According to http://bizwest.com/deconstruction-on-kodak-campus/ http://bizwest.com/deconstruction-on-kodak-campus/, demolition began on 2011-06-01, but that didn't get rid of the entire campus, since a few buildings were still being used. In 2012 Kodak sold 320 acres of it to become a part of the 1,800-acre Great Western Industrial Park [0][1]. In 2013 they sold of the last 200-person facility (which makes Kodak kiosk media) to the "U.K. Kodak Pension Plan", which has kept it running [2]. So there probably aren't any cool abandoned buildings there... The only one I've been able to find is [Kodak building nine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_building_nine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_building_nine) in Ontario. [0]: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/kodak-s-windsor-location-to-become-industrial-park http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/kodak-s-windsor-locatio... [1]: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/01/19/halliburton-plans-54-acre-storage.html http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/01/19/halliburto... [2]: http://www.denverpost.com/2014/01/20/200-kodak-alaris-jobs-remain-in-windsor-after-sale-2/ http://www.denverpost.com/2014/01/20/200-kodak-alaris-jobs-r...
  - thisjustinm 10y ago
    Thanks for these links, I hadn't been back in a long while and this fills in the gaps of what's happened since I left. Glad to see C29 still stands and is in use even if it's days are certainly numbered.

musesum 10y ago

Wow, that is an amazing video! 2006. Facial recognition. Sharing to your PDA ... oops! Then, a few months later, the iPhone happened.

asimuvPR 10y ago
And beat Kodak with the grace of an anaconda eating a chicken...What a way to shut them up.

evan_ 10y ago

Haha, I worked for a photography studio during that time period and we used your printers. We had an 8660, which destroyed itself spectacularly and violently during an event, and an ML-500, which destroyed itself somewhat more slowly and had to have virtually every mechanical part replaced numerous times. When they worked they were great, but that never lasted very long. I spoke with Kodak support people quite a bit during that time and they always gave me the impression that Kodak was not giving them the support they needed to keep up with demand. The ML-500 at least seemed to have been hand-built, and when I called in because it stopped printing yellow or whatever I would often end up speaking to one of the actual engineers. Great for figuring out what was wrong with it, but it seemed really weird that these guys were seemingly fielding calls all day. The main thing I remember (other than the printers broke constantly) was that after a few years it became next to impossible to get media for it- we'd call our distributor and he'd say "I don't have any this month, try xxx." So we'd call them and they'd give us another lead, and eventually we'd find some and order as much as we could, and then start the process again the next month. We always assumed that most of the stock was reserved for kiosks. I'd love to hear more about what was going on with that, if you know.

thisjustinm 10y ago
Oh man, you brought back some memories for me - I mainly referred to the printers by their internal codenames so thinking back through and connecting the model numbers to codenames really took me back. There was a few years there where demand really outstripped supply. We were the only place in the world that made the media for Kodak at the time and I'd say 2002-2006ish the kiosks were really doing well and we just couldn't keep up (good or bad Kodak didn't seem able to predict the market for it's products). They added on and doubled our capacity somewhere around 2005 and then added on another manufacturing center in Rochester towards the end. It's interesting to hear your experience with printer breakdowns - I always thought of them as real workhorse machines. But then again I was surrounded by dozens and dozens of each model (except the ML 500, we only had 4-5 of those) and there was a full staff of mechanics running around and a handful of them fixed the printers in addition to the other industrial machines / electronics around. The 6800/6805 was my favorite - we used to take it out to local events and print off 1000s of free 4x6s for people (we'd take some digital cameras too and set up some sort of "scene" for people). Even running non-stop in the 90 degree sun I only had one overheat on me a couple times.
- evan_ 10y ago
  I'm sure traveling wasn't great for the health but we definitely had a lot of trouble with it, as did other studios we talked to. To Kodak's credit they were always really great about fixing them quickly. Can't complain too much. We did a lot of school athletic tournaments and stuff like that, we could shoot a team and we'd have 8x10s ready to sell to parents before the kids got off the risers. Assuming everything was working smoothly it was a license to print money!
dev360 10y ago
Wow. yeah the printers.. I remember buying a Kodak printer that I had changed/replaced at least 3-4 times then I gave up. I liked my Kodak digital camera though - probably one of the last before they went out of business.

bkjelden 10y ago

Do you know what happened to the facilities? I'd imagine Kodak's 2nd largest manufacturing facility had quite a footprint.

thisjustinm 10y ago
About half was health related film (X-rays and such) and was sold off as another company who's name escapes me. I'd heard that one building was demolished but I believe most of it is still there
- slang800 10y ago
  Carestream Health Inc
slang800 10y ago
According to http://bizwest.com/deconstruction-on-kodak-campus/ http://bizwest.com/deconstruction-on-kodak-campus/, demolition began on 2011-06-01, but that didn't get rid of the entire campus, since a few buildings were still being used. In 2012 Kodak sold 320 acres of it to become a part of the 1,800-acre Great Western Industrial Park [0][1]. In 2013 they sold of the last 200-person facility (which makes Kodak kiosk media) to the "U.K. Kodak Pension Plan", which has kept it running [2]. So there probably aren't any cool abandoned buildings there... The only one I've been able to find is [Kodak building nine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_building_nine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_building_nine) in Ontario. [0]: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/kodak-s-windsor-location-to-become-industrial-park http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/kodak-s-windsor-locatio... [1]: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/01/19/halliburton-plans-54-acre-storage.html http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/01/19/halliburto... [2]: http://www.denverpost.com/2014/01/20/200-kodak-alaris-jobs-remain-in-windsor-after-sale-2/ http://www.denverpost.com/2014/01/20/200-kodak-alaris-jobs-r...
- thisjustinm 10y ago
  Thanks for these links, I hadn't been back in a long while and this fills in the gaps of what's happened since I left. Glad to see C29 still stands and is in use even if it's days are certainly numbered.