http://www.emcdocsys.comAs the mailing industry enters the 21st century, satisfied that Y2K problems are behind us and secure in the thought that Internet communication is not going to become the primary advertising and transaction medium any time soon, it may be an appropriate time to address your shop's productivity specifically that of your inserting equipment. Since letter shops invoice their customers per thousand pieces inserted, it makes sense that the more productivity that can be achieved per inserter, the more profitable the letter shop.
I was visiting a prospective client a few months back and was proudly shown through new offices with everyone busily working on new computers. I also saw a new warehouse and several other newer pieces of equipment. But the inserters? The median age had to have been 25 years, and there was one that my guide was especially proud of a 1945 model that had been in service during WWII!
Why, I wondered, would a company invest so heavily in building and office machines but try to run 21st-century production on 25- to 30-year-old equipment? In other industries, companies purchase new production machinery on a regular basis to keep up with the productivity standards common to their industries. The mailing industry seems to pride itself in squeezing the last drop of life out of older equipment and then buying more rebuilt equipment of the same type and age!
Productivity for letter shops can be defined as the most pieces completed in a given period of time with the least labor. Therefore, if a shop is producing 6,000 pieces per hour on two antiquated inserters, there is a perceivable productivity gain when the same shop can produce 6,000 or more pieces per hour with only one operator on one machine. Finishing jobs sooner means reduced turnaround time for your customers (and earlier billing). It also means that additional jobs may be accepted and scheduled into the available time. Those two factors can contribute to your bottom line.
Today's inserters may look similar to those manufactured 30 years ago, but all of them have, over the years, received upgrades to their drive systems, electrical systems and processing equipment. Older inserters were designed to achieve maximum cycle speeds of 5,000 to 9,000 cycles per hour. None of today's manufacturers advertise cycle speeds lower than 10,000 cycles per hour, and some advertise faster. There are reasons for those claims.
How the inserter is driven makes a decided difference in the cycle speed capability. The fewer energy transfers, the less energy lost. Unitized drives, parallel or conjugated cam configurations and belt drive systems are examples of new, more efficient drive systems.
Electrical systems controlling modern inserters differ in many ways from the older style relay or slide valve wiring. Older machines, even after rewiring, cannot compare to new inserter electrical systems from any contemporary manufacturer. Solid state, expendability, ease of installation and simplicity of repair are trends that improve overall performance while reducing requirements for service. Bell & Howell uses TTL logic to control its basic machines. Inscerco has recently introduced Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) systems. EMC uses solid state relays.
Perhaps the greatest strides have been made in the area of document processing. Productivity increases are only a few dollars away for those companies whose products lend themselves to in-line processing. Processing the entire mailpiece on one inserting system, from continuous-form · or cut-sheet paper to final mailpiece, addressed, sealed, metered and ready for the mail tray with one operator cannot help but increase productivity. The math is simple. As it becomes more difficult and costly to hire qualified personnel, letter shop managers will perhaps consider new machines with in-line processors that increase overall shop productivity rather than simply adding personnel to increase job production. The days of off-line cutting or bursting and folding are numbered.
Fortunately, companies like Bell & Howell, Pitney Bowes, EMC Document Systems, Böwe and others have put plenty of their research and development dollars into developing document processors in recent years. Now, almost any type of document can be cut, burst, trimmed, accumulated and folded prior to hitting the inserter raceway. Machine-readable codes can be added to documents that tell both the document processor and inserter how to treat each form "intelligently."
EMC boasts its Maximizer (Cl2O), Bell & Howell its AIM configurations suitable to many applications, Böwe offers a wide variety of application solutions, Pitney Bowes has concentrated its development efforts on dedicated solutions for specific applications. Regardless of the manufacturer, there is a system available to suit every need and nearly every budget. Inserting systems are finding their ways from the insurance and banking industries to letter shops that have invested in high-speed laser printing systems to personalize mailpieces. As more printing is done in-house, it makes more sense to consider the benefits of in-line processing.
Faster, universal, easier to use, easier to maintain these are not simply catch phrases from the advertising manual. In the case of inserters, the machines being marketed today are not the same as Grandpa used. Times, and the inserting machines that are the backbone of the mailing industry, have changed. For the most part, the changes are found beneath the cosmetic safety covers and result in the productivity increases required by the economics of this century.
Richard Stahnke is director of Sales and Marketing for EMC Document Systems. For additional information, call 630-879-7788 or visit www.emcdocsys.com.
