Real World Lessons from the Plain Paper Pioneers

Reaping benefits such as reduced inventory and storage costs, time savings, more impactful marketing, and enhanced personalization options were a few of the reasons cited by the early adopters of plain paper factories at GRAPH EXPO 16.

Hosted by Bell and Howell (Booth 849), the users explain how their mail production facilities can now rely on plain white paper rather than pre-printed shells, forms and envelopes to improve profitability and productivity. These pioneers using Bell and Howell’s Inveloper Finishing System discussed how it impacted their business.

Using the Bell and Howell plain paper factory system, the Inveloper can produce full color, digitally printed individual mail pieces as well as digitally printed inserts. It will then cut the mail pieces and inserts using optimal space provided, minimizing or completely eliminating wasted material entirely. The Inveloper will then wrap each mail piece with digitally printed paper to create the envelope, accurately matching the correct envelope with the mail piece and insert. Envelopes can be produced in different sizes to accommodate any company's needs and can be perforated, ready for the client.

Better control of the look and message was an advantage for David Fox, Executive Vice President of Operations, Valpak. “Not only did the machine have better quality, time to market was reduced by three days. This is a major benefit to our franchises. Because production employees now have more control over the process, it helped developed teamwork.

“We were also able to add benefits,” said Fox. “Every 60,000 envelopes can have a different advertising message we can sell. We are exploring the possibility of offering targeted messages within the Valpak to specific homes within the normal 10,000 mailing. This is another benefit of having that control.”

There were challenges, Fox said it took time to fine tune the glue so it wouldn’t open at the post office. “How the envelop is opened by the consumer was a change we had to make sure didn’t affect our customers.”

Robb Cass, President, AccuDoc Solutions, was the newest Inveloper user on the panel. His company streamlined inventory since they now know their volume for the entire year. He also saw a reduction in production hours and went from 22-hour work days to 10-hour work days. Said Cass, “Our biggest challenge was training our staff. We move inserter operator to the Inveloper. Some got frustrated and one resigned. I wish I had changed the training process from 30 To 60 days.”

Bill Gaddy, Senior Director, Broadridge Financial Solutions, got the equipment because he didn’t have the insertion capability to keep up with his mail volume. The new equipment has been a major cost benefit. “We have no waste. We take a roll of paper and produce the envelop. We take the paper and wrap the mailing content. We can even put content into self-mailers.”

For Gaddy, glue was an issue, especially in the hot regions. “Customers also complained the envelop was hard to open. We put perforations in and printed ‘open here.’ Other than that, we hit the ground running.”

Gaddy recommends, “If you have an opportunity to move something to a wrapper, you could start with just eliminating your envelopes. It pays for itself very quickly, and you get to learn about the equipment.”