It's All In The Delivery

You want your paper delivered now. But what goes on behind the scenes to get it there so fast?

Ordering paper used to be much easier—back before there were so many choices.

"It used to be one size fits all," remarks Doug Cole, sales manager with Champion International. "With the expansion of product lines and the addition of value-added items, we've really had to change our approach."

Paper vendors haven't had it easy in recent years. Customers are ordering smaller shipments and more product varieties—and they want them right away. Just-in-time delivery—where the paper vendor stores the paper and delivers to the customer just before it's needed—are still quite popular among in-plants.

Despite these difficulties, however, vendors like Champion have been coping admirably, with heavy focuses on customer service and on delivering paper as fast as possible. This is enabling local merchants to store less paper in-house but still offer a greater selection of products—needed items are just shipped overnight from the manufacturer.

Georgia-Pacific, for example, says it can deliver to 95 percent of the country overnight from its six regional warehouses.

"We know that our items will move if they're on our distributors' floors," says Pat Thomas, marketing manager for G-P's Printing Papers business unit. So getting its products to those distributors quickly is crucial. To enable this, the company came up with G-PNOW (national overnight warehouses). Placed strategically around the country (Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington), the warehouses enable G-P to reach most of the country overnight.

"A lot of times printers and designers fear the words 'mill item' because if it's not in the merchant's warehouse, they think it's going to take a week to get it there," Thomas notes. "We want them to consider the G-PNOW warehouse as an extension of their own warehouse."

Distribution Center Upgrade

Likewise, Fraser Papers has taken steps to speed up delivery. Fraser recently invested $3 million to upgrade and computerize its West Chicago, Ill., international distribution center (IDC). This included a new software program, bar code scanners and rail-guided pick trucks. Together, the IDC improvements have allowed Fraser to get orders picked faster and on the road earlier.

The proprietary management system reviews orders, pinpoints the location of each product and determines the most efficient way of picking products for the pallet. Monitors installed on each pick truck direct workers to the locations, where they use bar code scanners to make sure they have the right product and to aid in tracking. The system automatically adjusts inventory levels in real time.

"The volume of orders running through the IDC has more than doubled since it was first constructed," notes Russ Puppe, director of operations at the center.

The 200,000-square-foot IDC warehouse was designed to increase efficiency and reduce travel time. A forward pick area holds the most requested items. Workers now spend 80 percent of their time picking and just 20 percent driving—the opposite of the way it was a few years ago.

The management system offers Fraser a number of advantages:

• Paperless transactions.

• Radio frequency data collection.

• Online, real-time updating of data.

• Computer-directed task assignments.

• Workload planning and control.

• Inventory and order fulfillment accuracy: picking and shipping errors have been virtually eliminated, and physical inventories are a thing of the past.

All this effort has paid off, according to Fraser. About 80 percent of the market gets shipments within 24 hours.

Because manufacturers like Fraser are delivering orders faster, merchants like Unisource Worldwide, one of Fraser's biggest customers, are able to keep less paper on hand but offer customers better availability and a wider selection of products.

"We try to offer as broad a selection as we can locally," says Joe Ranson, vice president of marketing for printing and imaging papers.

Unisource has 140 stocking locations and 11 customer service centers. Each of these "mega customer service centers," as Ranson calls them, employs about 100 salespeople, increasing Unisource's responsiveness. Consolidating its salespeople at these 11 locations also lets Unisource provide better training and ensure that its salespeople are familiar with its product line.

Outsourcing Distribution

The need to reduce order cycle time has also prompted other paper vendors to take action. Avenor's White Paper Group recently announced that has outsourced its logistics and distribution services to Ryder Integrated Logistics. Ryder will manage distribution centers in Minneapolis, Chicago and Brampton, Ontario. Avenor says this move will speed up delivery and enhance its own customer service.

Likewise, Champion is investigating third-party distribution and regional warehouses, according to Ken Baker, sales/brand manager for cut-size papers. Currently Champion distributes from four mill locations. Baker insists customer service is more than just overnight delivery, though.

"Merchant customers don't necessarily need it overnight as much as they need to work with their supplier to get a steady supply," he says. Champion is trying to avoid having to rush paper to its customers overnight by understanding what papers they will need in the future and making sure their inventories are stocked.