Case Study #1

Company: Large Financial Printer

A printer focused on the national mutual fund companies

Challenge: Finding USPS Discount AND Reducing Labor Costs

Postal rates were increasing and threatening their volume from major customers due to their inability to lower the overall postage expense.  As an additional challenge, the plant is multilingual, so the presort needed to be customized to a level that puts actual truck numbers on each piece down to the envelope level for cross referencing.  Finally, the Large Financial Printer was able to run the presort software, but created a sub-optimal plan.  Deeper postal penetration was costing them money; transportation and labor costs skyrocketed.  An overflow of required documents created confusion and error.

Solution: Custom Presort and Planning; Output sequencing; Integrated Documentation

WIT analyzed the printer’s process from presort to delivery.  In doing so, WIT started by running a side-by-side presort.  WIT then estimated labor and transportation costs generated by various customized presort outputs.  Finally, WIT and the printer determined the optimal balance between production and transportation costs and postal discounts.  With the appropriate presort and planning strategy in place, WIT moved to the execution stage and created a clear and manageable integrated documentation process.  Output was now sequenced for loading resulting in optimization of floor space and freight expense.

Results: Faster turn-around times; savings to pass-on to customers; labor constraint optimization

The Printer was able to focus on its printing expertise while outsourcing non-core activities to WIT.  Labor costs dropped; “work-in-process” space was cleared; net postal discounts increased; transit times decreased; and unnecessary direct costs were shifted to variable.  The Printer was able to bring more value to their customers while passing on increased savings.  The end result was an increase in business with their customer.

Case Study #2

Company: Large Industrial Distributor

An industry-leading distributor of industrial components with annual catalog

Challenge: Design and manage 270 truckload mailing with two-day in home window

Our customer  wanted their audience to receive the catalog within a two-day window.  270 truckloads of catalogs coming from two different printing plants over weeks increased the stakes.  Postage and transportation costs needed to drop.  Errors were unacceptable.

Solution: Custom Presort & Planning; Logistics Expertise

WIT designed the mailing through our custom presort and planning process.  As the list changed, WIT responded with new files within 24 hours.  WIT set aside warehouse space for staging as the printer did not have room to hold the product.  WIT designed the presort output sequence to reduce labor at the staging facility.  WIT dropped into over 250 SCF’s within the two day period.

Results: Flawless Execution

WIT reduced the overall per piece rate over previous year; postage costs dropped over $1 million.  WIT delivered savings net of transportation over 35% percent versus the prior year before.  All catalogs were received within the specified window.  No errors.

Case Study #3

Company: Large Financial Printer

A national financial document printer with critical in-home requirements

Challenge: Getting the product in the hands of the customer before they make a reorder request

Our customer was spending a lot of money reprinting and redistributing product because customers were not receiving their financial documents within the specified delivery window.  Of the 8 million orders placed every year, over 3.5% or 280,000 of their shipments to customers resulted in reorders.  The cost of a reorder is approximately $10.  The delivery issues were a result of poor service in the distribution network of another large national printer/logistics provider and the performance of a number of SCFs.  Their logistics provider put a priority on internally printed materials, which slowed transit regularly.

Solution: Create custom distribution strategy to fix delivery issues and reduce reorders

WIT designed a plan to use “p-route” service through the BMCs to improve transit in the USPS network.  In many cases, avoiding the SCF level was imperative due to service issues at several of those locations.  WIT also developed a time definite plan where the product would move into the USPS network at two day intervals, regardless of the other product in the WIT pipeline.  WIT worked with the customer to devise a custom program that met their internal production requirements and the expectations of their customers.

Results: Huge savings, happier customers

Our customer now has reorder requests less than 0.5% of the time.  As a result, they are able to save over $2 million a year vs. the previous solution.  They can now count on their product flowing through a defined network without getting pushed aside for product printed by their former distribution partner.  Moreover, they can track their shipments through WIT’s advanced online tracking to continuously measure the effectiveness of this solution.  WIT’s custom planning and tailored program has enabled our customer to realize hard dollar savings and higher customer retention rates.