In any business, operational redundancy is essential, especially in transactional print and mail. Without it, you could face disruptions, which have severe consequences. Our clients have these concerns, and we address them by having two locations. PCI Group President and Co-Owner Chris Kropac offered insights on the topic in this episode of Ask the Experts.
“In 2017, we opened a duplicate facility in Irving, Texas that’s 60,000 square feet. We have the same equipment, printers, inserting technology, and processes. LEAN manufacturing helps us process the same job in two facilities and get the same exact result,” Chris said.
With parallel operations, that also boosts our ability to be accurate. We currently have a 99.9999% accuracy rate, which isn’t perfect but represents one error per million mailings. We keep operations moving with redundant locations, and they are purposely in two different areas of the country.
“It’s key to have facilities in different parts of the country because of weather events, electrical grid, or other incidents that are localized. With multiple backups and facilities, we can still get the work out,” Chris explained.
There are other advantages to having dual operations. “We load balance based on production capacity and where mail is going. East coast mail is out of the main location, and west coast is the Irving facility. That helps with delivery time—two to three days is average from time of mail deposit to in a customer’s mailbox,” Chris shared.
One of the biggest elements of redundant operations is standardization. We do variable print, but what really matters is the envelope. “You don’t want to have to shift to a different location that doesn’t have the envelope or has to make changes to use it. A standard envelope gives you full mobility,” Chris added.
