Merging Print & Mail

At these in-plants, combining the print and mail departments has not only reduced costs but streamlined operations and allowed more cross-training.

By W. Eric Martin

When you manage an in-plant, you have a boatload of responsibilities—which is why it may seem strange to hear you should take on one more, specifically, the mail operation."Combining the manufacture of printed documents with their distribution is the most logical of efficient processes," says John Eichmann, the Central Services Division manager for the City of Boise, Idaho, which combined print, mail and office supplies procurement in the 1970s, and has been going strong ever since.

Your customers obviously care about the timely delivery of their work. So why deliver printed goods outside your in-plant only to have them handled again in preparation for mailing?

In addition to providing faster service, merging print and mail can lower costs to your parent company and avoid mailing difficulties.

Getting More From Less

Sometimes company divisions lower costs on their own, and sometimes they have those decisions made for them. In 1992, for example, the University of Oregon, in Eugene, eliminated the annual quarter-million budget for Mail Services and gave those responsibilities to the self-sustaining Printing and Copy Services, which already handled non-profit bulk mail distribution.

J.R. Gaddis, who became director of Printing and Mail Services in 1994, views this forced merger as a blessing in disguise.

"We've been able to eliminate redundant processes across campus, cross-train our employees, and through negotiation of express service and mail discounts, cut the former $250,000 yearly expense down to $170,000," he says.

At the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, Gary Anderson, associate director of Business Services (which includes printing, mail, laundry, parking, purchasing and travel), went through a similar budget-slimming process.

"Originally, each department had its own personnel, its own accounting, its own payroll. They all had to take care of themselves," he says. "We combined as many departments as we could into one payroll, one IT area, one administration. That's been able to save us a lot of money."

Other savings have come from moving wide media and blueprints from printing to mail.

"Blueprint used to be on the other side of the building," says Chris Kula, mail manager for the University of Iowa. "But we now work closely with them in our shipping area so they're easy to get out. We've been able to downsize and through cross-training my employees can do wide media or other jobs. With the state of the economy and our budget, we're looking at doing more cross-training to keep folks busy."

John Eichmann of the City of Boise's in-plant also sees value in cross-training, both for efficiency and employee satisfaction.

"If there's a rush printing project, we'll devote whatever resources are needed, including mail personnel," he says. "If there's a particularly large or complex mailing, we'll pull in print shop people. Incidentally, this seems to add to our team's job satisfaction as employees enjoy the break from their usual routine."

Mailing Without Wailing

Additional savings come through careful attention to the size and shape of a design prior to printing.

"We save our employer a lot of money by avoiding the need to redesign or reprint an inaccurate mail piece, not to mention the possibility of wasted postage or postage surcharges," says Eichmann.

If a piece would fall into a cheaper mail category by, say, using a lighter grade of paper or being rectangular instead of square, the mail manager will recommend or insist that the changes be made to lower the cost of the project.

"One of our problems is that with the proliferation of desktop systems, nearly everyone considers him or herself to be a graphic designer," says Eichmann. "However, when it comes to designing pieces for mailing, most of our customers have been educated—some painfully—to seek our counsel first."

"It's been helpful for mail services to have an advocate 'in the loop' as the print staff prepares a piece for printing or copying," adds Barbara Buchanan, manager of University Service at Millersville University, in Millersville, Pa. "My bindery person is also our bulk mail 'expert,' and the rest of the staff frequently question him before printing or copying a project."

Chris Kula goes so far as to hold classes on mail design for campus departments at the University of Iowa.

"To design a one-ounce mail piece and have five ounces mailed with it will cause problems, such as knocking us out of our discount program," he notes. "That can greatly increase the postage they're paying."

Even worse than a blown budget, however, is a blown deadline.

"A project manager does not want to hear that his or her mailing was refused at the post office for non-compliance with postal regulations," says Eichmann. "That means reacting to a crisis situation, which can potentially have enormous costs as everyone scrambles to salvage the project."

Joining Forces—Peacefully

Merging print and mail makes sense in both money and time, but don't start planning a hostile takeover within the parent company. Instead, approach the current mail manager and discuss how you might work together, either by cross-training employees, splitting pickup and delivery duties, or otherwise sharing responsibilities that will lower costs across both organizations.

However, if mail is currently outsourced, then by all means approach upper management with your urge to merge. To prepare, John Eichmann suggests answering some questions: "What do you hope to accomplish by combining the operations? What staffing levels will be needed? Which areas can overlap, including budget?"

Explore insourcing possibilities for a potential mail department as thoroughly as you do for print.

"We've talked about outreach opportunities with nonprofit agencies where we could process their mailings and save them money," says Chris Kula. "We've saved the University of Northern Iowa about $172,000 a year by taking over their mailing operation. To us as Iowa taxpayers, that's a welcome thing."

You also have to consider what equipment you'll need to purchase, how long it will take to earn back the cost, and where to set it up. Ideally, the two facilities should be adjacent, to speed printing and mailing, encourage communications on design issues and allow for employees to work in both areas.

Adjacent facilities aren't required, though, as long as communication is easy; Millersville University has functioned with print and mail in separate buildings for the past seven years, but Buchanan says they'll finally be together by the end of 2004.

"Everyone in the print area is free to call the mail supervisor with questions," she says, "but both supervisors are looking forward to being a few steps away rather than a block and a phone call away."

At heart, adding responsibility for incoming and outgoing mail to an existing print shop can secure that in-plant's place in the organization. The efficiencies gained will save funds and make the in-plant a smaller piece of the company's entire budget, in addition to providing faster mailing service to all customers with fewer items returned to sender due to postal predicaments.

Faster, cheaper, better: it's hard to argue with that combination.