Direct mail and transactional communications remain thriving pieces of the print industry—even with the growth of email marketing campaigns and the slow but steady adoption of online bill payment and presentment. Printed communications offer a higher return on investment (ROI) with the inclusion of personalization and the use of recipient demographics as well as purchase history and cleansed marketing databases.
Many steps occur before a printed piece hits the mailstream. Addressing, folding, inserting, sorting, and postal preparation are often required to ensure mail is sent to the correct destination in the most cost-effective, efficient means possible.
“Finishing is of paramount importance,” states Luca Bortoletto, international product manager, CEM Spa. “As our service and information economy continues to drive demand of personalized communications and new opportunities present themselves to marketers—such as TransPromo—digital printing is more ubiquitous. With this handling of personalized communications comes an increasing need to control output through automation and integrity control, as well as finishing and fulfillment solutions that reduce costs and manual intervention—including folding, cutting, inserting, and sorting.”
Profit Potential
Gordon Galloway, product manager, Bowe Bell + Howell, agrees with the importance of finishing in the print industry. “Finishing enables printers to expand service offerings and become full service providers to their customers. The addition of folding, inserting, and sorting allows print service providers (PSPs) to serve as the single source for print and mailing needs,” he says. Bowe Bell + Howell offers a suite of products and services that support complete, automated document factory production, including document composition, postal cleansing and sorting, integrity and quality inspections, high-speed intelligent finishing, and real-time tracking software.
In addition to offering customers a complete package, finishing procedures are key to profitability. “To remain on top in today’s market—with increased competition, shorter job runs, and one-stop expectations—printers need to offer new services, maximize efficiency, and find cost-effective ways to increase customer value,” states Clint Dally, VP, product management, Pitney Bowes. The company designs mailstream software, hardware, services, and solutions to help large enterprises, service bureaus, and third party mailers produce quality customer communications.
“The post-press or finishing department offers the largest potential for value-added sales. In today’s printing companies, the post-press department typically has the highest labor expense and is the largest bottleneck to reducing cycle time,” explains Peter Doyle, corporate workflow and integration manager, Muller Martini Corp. The company manufacturers saddle stitchers, perfect binders, and inserting lines, including a digital soft cover book line. Doyle says Muller Martini’s newest machines are designed with increased automation to reduce staffing needs.
Dally notes low cost per mail piece as just one benefit of modern finishing equipment. “Economic conditions and rising costs mean mailers need to find new ways to boost the bottom line. “With Pitney Bowes’ ultra high-speed, ultra-flexible mail finishing systems, intelligent output management, paper-saving pinless feeders, and more aggressive postal sorting, high-volume mailers can process more mail—and more types of jobs—in less time with fewer resources,” he states.
A number of multitasking solutions are currently available. Operations such as folding, inserting, and sorting are vital to operations specializing in mail, notes Larry Corwin, president, Rollem. “The availability of so many functions as part of one system eliminates mistakes and waste as well as reduces the dependency of labor to produce higher quantities of a finished product. Once printed, Rollem equipment can handle all the cutting of a printed sheet and perform pattern perforations—T-perf and L-perf applications—as well as score and fold documents in a single operation.” Rollem equipment integrates multiple finishing steps into one solution. “Productivity is increased with the ability to operate inline with folders, glue units, and inkjets,” adds Corwin.
Postal Savings and Compliance
Sorting solutions help organizations earn postal discounts and other valuable savings. Bšwe Bell + Howell’s NetSort software is one such solution, offering the ability to mail merge from multiple-site operations. “Early results show as much as a 25 percent improvement in five-digit qualification levels when sharing mail. NetSort also minimizes the probability of errors by using item-level tracking and centralized data for mail moved between sites,” says Dave Schwaba, product manager, sorting, Bšwe Bell + Howell. He notes address cleansing as a way to achieve additional value.
New United States Postal Service (USPS) requirements go into effect this year. In May 2009, the USPS plans to implement updated requirements for Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMBs) and POSTNET barcodes with delivery point routing information required in barcodes on automation letter, flats, and carrier route letters. According to the USPS, “Intelligent mail is a comprehensive, integrated program designed to revolutionize all aspects of how the Postal Service accepts, processes, and transports mail by using the IMB. The IMB notifies mailers when a job is inducted into the mailstream and allows the tracking of individual mail pieces as they travel through the postal network.”
Pitney Bowes provides a host of solutions to implement the USPS IMB. The company’s document composition software allows the addition of the IMB upstream as customer communications are created. Its production intelligence software allows the addition of the IMB downstream prior to printing. Inline envelope printing on Pitney Bowes’ high-speed inserters prints each individual barcode as the piece is collated and finished on the inserting system. Pitney Bowes’ sorting systems also apply barcodes after a piece is produced, while being sorted.
“Secap addressing equipment can print IMBs and offer an addressing solution when the new USPS barcode requirements go into effect in 2009,” notes Bill Koch, marketing director, Secap. “Our tabbing equipment offers an easy way to comply with USPS regulations for sealing open-ended media. Folded, un-enveloped, letter-size mail pieces prepared for automation mailings must be secured to prevent an open edge from jamming USPS’ processing equipment.”
Behind the Scenes
Commercial print shops, enterprise groups, and mail service bureaus require powerhouse equipment to finish printed communications and circulate the final product into the postal system. Opportunities for appealing design, postal savings, and increased efficiency are available in a number of places throughout the workflow.
Manage, Monitor
Bowe Bell + Howell’s new JETVision Print Inspection System performs real-time analysis for a variety of inkjet and laser print engines. JETVision also performs a range of quality checks, including ANSI barcode grading, postal validation, print alignment, and color verification. The JETVision can be positioned between a print engine and winder or between an unwinder and finishing device.
In addition, the Bowe Bell + Howell VEKtor camera system integrates with the company’s inserting equipment, reading a wide variety of code types including the IMB.
Cut, Score, Fold, Stack, and Tab
CEM Spa is a company that manufactures high-performance continuous stationery cutters as well as book finishing systems for the security printing industry. The company’s newest product, the DocuConverter, works inline with digital production presses, such as the Xerox Nuvera 288 DPS and the Oce VarioPrint 6250 production printer. DocuConverter allows customers to print multiple images on the most cost-effective base stock and deliver documents stacked in the right sequence.
Duplo USA Corporation provides a variety of cutting, folding, and creasing systems with their extensive finishing line. In addition, the company offers its DT-900 Tabber, which connects inline to a Duplo DF-915 or DF-920 Folder.
Graphic Whizard offers a range of numbering, perforating, scoring, and slitting systems, including the FinishMaster 100 and 150.
The Kern Page Mailer is a self mailer, capable of turning plain paper into a complete, mail-ready piece. Page Mailer produces up to 18,000 cut-sheet mail pieces and 30,000 continuous, two-up mail pieces per hour.
Muller Martini Corp’s SigmaLine is a fully automated digital production system installed inline with a variety of digital print engines for the purpose of producing short run books and directories.
The Advantage is Rollem’s newest, mid-level scoring, perforating, and slitting machine. Designed for both offset and digital printers, the Advantage scores, trims, gutter slits, creases, and perforates stock ranges from 20 lb. paper to 16 pt. cover.
Rollem’s Jetstream is a fully automated system for finishing multiple-up flats. It trims, slits, scores, and perforates in both directions. New features include the Auto-Scan system for perfect cut registration accuracy and Auto-Collation for gathering finished cards into sets—ideal for games and playing cards.
The Rollem TR System performs multiple finishing including edge trimming, slitting, scoring, and perforating while maintaining the product output in zip code order.
Insert
Bowe Bell + Howell’s new Combo inserting system is a multi-application inserter changing over from flats to letters in minutes, rather than hours.
Kern specializes in production mail equipment for high-volume mail producers. Kern introduced its latest high-speed inserting system, the Kern 2600 (K2600), at Graph Expo 2008. The K2600 produces 16,000 mail pieces per hour. The flagship Kern 3500 High Speed Inserting System produces up to 22,000 finished mail pieces per hour.
Pitney Bowes offers its mailstream Productivity Series, which is part of the company’s next generation of ultra high-speed mail inserters. Dally says the new family of intelligent mail finishing systems runs up to 26,000 mail pieces per hour. “Driven by the newly designed mailstream engine, interchangeable friction and rotary feeders, high productivity inputs, and enhanced envelope sealers, the mailstream system combines an 18 percent increase in speed with a ten percent increase in reliability and performance for an overall 28 percent boost in achieved throughput,” says Dally.
Secap’s SI5400 folder inserter allows letters and flats to be processed on the same system. Mailers appreciate this solution because in the past, this task required two separate systems.
The SI5400 utilizes a next generation user interface that can memorize up to 24 different job settings, enabling users to effortlessly switch applications and program repeat mailings for simple integration into the workflow process. The main feeder tower holds up to four interchangeable feeders and features a high capacity envelope feeder. The system can be configured with two optional high capacity sheet feeders with two trays each that will hold up to 1,000 sheets each. An optional envelope power stacker can be added to assist with handling the high output. The SI5400 processes up to 5,400 pieces per hour and load-on-the-fly capabilities allow the system to pause until new material is loaded, increasing productivity. For the highest level of integrity and security, optional advanced document scanning software is available.
Standard Finishing Systems introduced the Standard KAS Mailmaster 465HS and 465 Compact Mail Inserters at Graph Expo 2008. Mailmaster inserting systems offer quick job changeover, superior document feeding capability, touch screen controls, and high productivity. The company says the KAS inserting equipment line fits well in their post-press portfolio as more printers augment offerings by adding mail services.
Sort
Bowe Bell + Howell’s new Criterion APEX sorter is configurable as either a multi-line optical character reader (MLOCR) or barcode reader, and is available in multiple models to fit varied sorting needs. The company states that the Criterion APEX sorter delivers sorting speeds up to 35 to 40 percent faster than previous models. It processes up to 70,000 postcards per hour and 55,000 #10 envelopes per hour.
Organizations that mail between 500 and 10,000 flats each day can take advantage of bundle-based discounts in just one sorting pass with the Pitney Bowes EZ-Flats Sorting Solution. The semi-automated solution combines an automatic front-end process, which includes reading, labeling, and automating, with bin assignment.
With the recent USPS increased postage discounts for flats, Pitney Bowes’ new high-volume VariSort Mixed Mail Sorter is designed to help mailers obtain discounts up to 46 cents per piece. The sorter processes a wide variety of mail pieces and creates revenue opportunities based on size, shape, and weight.
Into the Mailstream
Printed mail is a common method for mass communication. Many vendors strive to offer hardware and software solutions to efficiently take mail pieces from the press the mailstream. Often, these same vendors also offer pre-production capabilities with sophisticated software. We were able to provide a sampling of solutions available.
It is important to consider finishing and mailing capabilities when investing in new digital equipment. An accurate assessment of finishing needs helps reduce costs and increase the value of your service offerings. For more information on vendors in this space, be sure to visit www.dpsmagazine.com and search our Buyers’ Guide.
