The Project Should Begin with an Assessment

When moving to outsourcing, an initial assessment is imperative and should be the first step that a vendor recommends. An evaluation of your current operations should include:

• The current state of your in-plant.
• Identification of gaps between current and desired state discovered in the evaluation.
• Recommendations to move from current to the desired state.
• Implementation timeline for moving everything to outsourcing with detailed steps.

Define the Teams and Resources Needed

The next step is discussing who needs to be involved in the move to outsourcing. Your new provider should define the resources they will contribute, including implementation, project managers, account managers, and support services. They should also advise you of the people on your side that will need to be part of the project, such as IT teams and those currently involved in print and mail tasks. Bringing this group together and documenting responsibilities will support a friction-free transition.

Be Prepared to Adapt to New Possibilities

Running an in-plant has many limitations. There are many parts of the process that your new partner can optimize. These are things you may be unaware of or did not have the scale to achieve.

Here are some examples:

• Moving to a White Paper Factory model: In this type of printing, rolls of white paper feed into the printer. Documents and envelopes print simultaneously. The WPF also marries fully digitally composed files with in-line print production and intelligent insertion. With this approach, you no longer need inserts or pre-printed inventory, as you can dynamically print on each letter.
• Transparency in operations: Moving to outsourcing shouldn’t mean you won’t know the status and information behind every job. Print and mail companies like PCI Group provide clients with a secure online business document management portal to track all jobs, pull reports, view postage costs, and more.

Take the Next Step to Outsource Printing with PCI Group

You can expect all these things and more from our team. We have a proven history of transitioning in-plants to outsourcing. Since we have a singular focus on transactional print and mail, we can deliver a migration that’s straightforward and smooth. Learn more about our outsourcing today.

Want to learn more about how PCI Group can help you improve your customer transactional print communications?

We offer a free 30-minute consultation.

If you’re ready to improve the productivity and efficiency of your communications and drive better customer engagement
contact us today.

Print and Mail Lean Manufacturing: The Value for You

Deciding to outsource your transactional mail, from billing statements to healthcare communications to collection letters, has many advantages. You’ll save money and remove the burden from your internal team. You may have apprehensions about quality, accuracy, and compliance, but those implementing Lean excel at these. Here’s why.

You can count on quality.

The quality of your letters matters. You want to ensure that these represent your brand faithfully and always look professional. Lean builds quality into every aspect of production. In Lean, an organization shifts from inspection to prevention, identifying issues early. Constant auditing of the processes means that quality is always monitored.

You’ll worry less about accuracy.

Getting the right paper into the correct envelope seems simple, but at high volumes with automated workflows, mis-mailings can occur. The best way to mitigate this is by leveraging Lean principles of continuous improvement.

Transactional print and mail companies, like PCI Group, use sophisticated and intelligent insertion along with 2D barcodes printed on each piece and scanned with mini cameras to preserve accuracy. Embracing Lean helped develop these protocols and keep them consistent. We know this to be true because we’ve achieved a 99.9999% accuracy rating.

You’ll be confident in compliance.

The third benefit you’ll realize by working with a Lean Manufacturing organization is more robust compliance practices. The accuracy components described above align with compliance measures regarding privacy and confidentiality. Additionally, compliance has a lot to do with guidelines around the process and ensuring delivery within a timeframe, if applicable.

Lean Manufacturing assists here as well, with its streamlined workflows that don’t deviate. The process follows the rules dependably, which means there’s less risk of a delay.

PCI Group: Print and Mail Lean Manufacturing Experts

Becoming a Lean Manufacturing environment was a deliberate move to deliver the best quality, the most accuracy, and the highest level of compliance. It’s made our operations seamless and empowered our team to perfect processes, which is valuable to our company and yours. Find out more about how Lean gives you an advantage by contacting us today.

Want to learn more about how PCI Group can help you improve your customer transactional print communications?

We offer a free 30-minute consultation.

If you’re ready to improve the productivity and efficiency of your communications and drive better customer engagement
contact us today.

5S

5S is also critical to Lean. Its purpose is to eliminate waste by keeping work areas organized and prepared. The five practices are:

• Sort: Remove anything necessary from the space.
• Set-in-Order: Organize what workers need for the task at hand so they are easily accessible.
• Shine: Keep workstations clean.
• Standardize: Establish guidelines that all items must repeat.
• Sustain: Maintain standards of workspaces based on the 4S.

Standard Works

Standard works are the development of precise procedures and tasks in sequence. With a standard in place, deviation and errors occur less frequently. Standard works evolve over time to continue adding value and efficiency.

The Lean Manufacturing Printing framework includes many more practices and principles. They all have the same objective—delivering value to the customer. In the field of print and mail, you can appreciate value, in general, but what does it deliver more specifically?

Transactional Print and Mail Value Delivery from Lean Manufacturing Printing

When it comes to customer communications containing confidential customer data, quality is critical. The adoption of Lean by transactional print and mail companies provides value to you in these ways:

Consistent Quality

Lean constantly improves every process to deliver a reliable product every time. Standard works and 5S support quality as the operations culture moves from inspection to prevention. Audits continually happen to maintain quality.

Near Perfect Accuracy

With transactional mailings, accuracy must be a priority. For compliance adherence and maintaining customer trust, every document in every envelope must be correct. Continuous improvement of processes coupled with advanced technology will boost your accuracy. Our rating is 99.9999%, and maintaining this level of accuracy is possible with Lean.

Cost Reductions

Lean roots out waste and costs. Waste that costs money includes:

• Errors in printing or mailing, which require the use of more materials to redo
• Pre-printing templates and storing them
• Obsolete inventory
• Slow and manual workflows, which can hamper SLAs
• Unnecessary steps, which can delay processes and mismanages labor

With Lean, excess costs either disappear or are substantially mitigated. All the efficiencies create savings, so you have a higher value service at a lower cost.

Stronger Compliance Practices

As noted, accuracy is vital to compliance with certain print or mail regulations. Compliance isn’t optional and requires strict adherence and documentation of such. Transactional print and mail providers that use Lean have an advantage because of the focus on consistent practices. Equipment also helps especially high-tech inserters that validate documents reach the proper envelope.

If compliance is top of mind to you, Lean is a method that supports it.

Enjoy the Value of Lean Manufacturing Printing by Partnering with PCI Group

Lean manufacturing printing is a sustainable approach to improving quality and accuracy. It’s something we believe in and implemented years ago. It keeps our team focused on value delivery for customers. Learn more about how we do this by contacting us today.

How Removing Waste Further Supports Quality

Another principle of Six Sigma is waste removal. It’s process improvement that has a purpose. Waste removal occurs in concert with minimizing variability and creating a continuous flow between tasks. It can include eight types of waste:

• Defects
• Overproduction
• Waiting
• Nonutilized talent
• Transportation
• Inventory
• Motion
• Extra-processing

The sub-groups classify waste in a new way. It’s not just about the foundation of the process; it’s every factor that impacts it, as well. In short, Six Sigma doesn’t let any part of the system slip through the cracks. There’s a concentrated focus at every level of production. Isn’t that the kind of print and mail operation you want to entrust your communications?

Our Six Sigma Certifications and Capabilities

Becoming a Six Sigma organization requires significant work. Quality teams must achieve certification by belts:

• White Belt: Entry-level designation that reports process issues.
• Yellow Belt: Requires a strong understanding of Six Sigma principles and participates in project teams.
• Green Belt: These people start and manage Six Sigma projects and must have detailed knowledge of the methodology.
• Black Belt: This role is mentor, coach, and project leader.
• Master Black Belt: Develops key metrics and strategic direction and trains black and green belts.

At PCI Group, all our Quality team members have a Green Belt or higher. This dedication to Six Sigma enables us to process over three billion images and mail over 450 million packages with a 99.9999% accuracy rate every year.

There’s no room for quality issues or waste in our business. That’s why we employ such quality measures. Learn more about how to sustain quality and accuracy by contacting us today to discuss your transactional mail needs.

Six Sigma vs. Lean: Similarities and Differences

Six Sigma is rooted in Lean, so that’s why many use them interchangeably. However, there are key distinctions between the two. Let’s look at how they are similar and different.

Defining Waste

Waste (and its elimination) are crucial points of both methodologies. They aren’t defined the same way, though. Lean defines waste as any process or task that doesn’t add value to the customer. Whereas in Six Sigma, it results from a process variation.

To eradicate waste, Lean focuses on an optimized process to deliver value. Six Sigma seeks to remove it by reducing variability. Both are critical in the transactional space.

Lean Printing Is a Mindset; Six Sigma Printing Is a Practice

Another angle on Six Sigma Printing vs. Lean is what they are. Lean printing is a mindset backed by a set of principles. When followed throughout the facility, it’s always in a state of continuous improvement. Lean is a cultural philosophy that everyone must adopt to drive efficiency.

Six Sigma printing is an actual program—a structured approach to solving organizational challenges by getting rid of variability and reducing risk. Six Sigma has a certification system with five distinct roles:

• Black Belt: Leads problem-solving projects and trains and coaches the project team.
• Green Belt: Assists with data collection and analysis for Black Belt projects.
• Master Black Belt: Trains and coaches Black Belts and Green Belts, develops metrics and strategic direction, and is the organization’s Six Sigma technologist and internal consultant.
• Yellow Belt: Participates as a project team member and reviews process improvements that support the project.
• White Belt: Works on local problem-solving teams for overall projects and understands basic Six Sigma concepts from an awareness perspective.

With these differences, they each provide value to an organization. Six Sigma is a hierarchical model with defined roles to work on complex problems. The approach is all about the data relating to why the issue arises or continues.

Lean is less rigid and encourages all employees to be problem-solvers no matter their title. Lean is about cultural change and focusing on behavioral change to rid the process of waste.

The Role of Six Sigma Printing and Lean Printing in Transactional Print and Mail

So, why do these approaches to efficiency, accuracy, and quality matter in transactional print and mail? There is no room for error or waste in this business. Processes must be exact, or mistakes get made. Those mistakes are no small things when considering compliance regulations.

Our commitment to these approaches includes standard work documentation for every production operation. Every member of our Quality Team has achieved a Six Sigma Green Belt or higher. Other employees have earned these, as well. These efforts make our plant floors as optimized as possible.

Other ways Lean and Six Sigma improve everything we do:

• They both ensure accountability, which is critical in the business and provides every person on the team with awareness of expectations and goals.
• Lean and Six Sigma enable us to have an industry-leading 9999% accuracy. That comes from the concentration on waste removal, standard works, and continuous improvement.
• We use these methodologies together to drive quality and standardization, shifting to a prevention culture versus an inspection one. We continue to audit processes over and over.

PCI Group Leverages Lean and Six Sigma to Deliver Quality and Accuracy

Our dedication to these methodologies is what sets us apart in the industry. If quality and accuracy mean everything to you in print and mail, then we’re the partner for you. Contact us today to see why so many companies rely on us to manage their mission-critical print and mail communications.

What Are the Elements of Standard Works?

In Lean Manufacturing, standardizing work includes three components:

• Takt time: The rate of product production needed to meet demand.
• Work sequence: The steps required to perform within Takt time in the order they must occur.
• Standard inventory: The minimum quantity of equipment and materials necessary to run operations.

With these elements at the crux, standard work development can begin.

How Do You Develop Standard Works?

There are many ways to go about developing the steps. In some scenarios, leadership defines them. However, that strategy can be flawed, since management don’t do the work. When we implemented Lean Manufacturing, our approach was to tap our top-performing operators. They do these activities every day, so they are the experts. Having them lead this effort also encouraged greater engagement and buy-in, which is critical in developing a Lean environment.

We now have over 270 standard works! Our staff created them, and employees had to agree that the works were accurate. Within those, the majority relate to actual print and mail tasks. The others are support functions.

How Standard Works Enhance Quality

In deploying these into operations, they have a significant impact on quality. Here’s why.

• Little to no variability: Standardization drives efficiency in processes and reduces variation in output. As such, the work becomes predictable, which can reduce costs while boosting quality and compliance.

• Your people have clear guidelines: When a new operator hits the floor, their training consists of learning standard works. It doesn’t matter who the trainer is or when that new hire comes on board; it’s always the same. Having them actually makes training much easier since there is a single source of truth on how to complete a process. It can also accelerate the onboarding process.
• Continuous improvement is central to maintaining the works: Kaizen, another Lean principle, is the concept of continuous improvement. Standardizing work delivers a foundation for this. To optimize processes, you have to keep improving them. We do that with structured audits regularly to identify any opportunities to do so.
• Scaling the works doesn’t dilute visibility: Transactional printers produce millions of documents weekly. With such a high volume, scaling them is necessary within the same facility and others. these documented processes keep this stable and uniform. Visibility of activities isn’t out of sight when everyone follows the same protocols.
• The focus is on the process, not the person: Workers obviously have to execute the process, but the works put the onus on the process. Process problems can keep efficiency and quality goals unmet. If there are breakdowns or errors where workers are following the them, you know it’s the process that needs retuning.

Standard Works Drive Quality

If quality and accuracy concerns are preventing you from outsourcing transactional print, look for a firm that embodies Lean principles. You can feel confident in allowing experts to handle your critical transactional communications when you know they use standard works.

We’re proud to be Lean, and our adoption of it has led to higher quality and consistency for our customers. Learn more about our dedication to quality!

What Are Standard Works?

Standard works come from 5S and document how operators perform work. Processes can have hundreds of steps, and a standard work breaks them down in the correct sequence. In doing so, you can optimize the tasks to improve quality and accuracy.

The reason they are so valuable is that they ensure consistency. Otherwise, operators may do the same tasks differently, which can cause issues. If there’s no definitive way, then there are many ways, and that’s confusing and detrimental.

So, how does a company create standard works? For PCI Group, we put those in the hands of the people that actually do the work. Our top-performing operators defined these and agreed on the “best” way. In all, we have over 270 standard works related to transactional mail and print.

Lean Manufacturing Solves Accountability Concerns

Another essential part of Lean Manufacturing and its impact on accuracy is its implementation facilitates accountability. The optimized processes hold all those involved accountable.

Everyone is cognizant of their goals, and tracking of those occurs. We display KPIs (key performance indicators) visually, so workers see them, keeping them top of mind.

Lean is much more than a strategy or tactic. It’s a culture, and when everyone is on the same page, Lean lifts an organization’s efforts holistically.

Lean Manufacturing Accuracy Supports Transactional Print and Mail’s Stringent Guidelines

In transactional print and mail, accuracy is EVERYTHING. There is literally no room for error. Because errors can cause big problems, from exposing confidential information to being non-compliant with regulations.

That’s why Lean Manufacturing is such an ideal practice for the industry. Process auditing happens regularly to identify any variabilities and work to improve them. This pursuit of continuous improvement never ends, and staff can continue to hone their skills and drive positive change.

Since we implemented it, its impact on accuracy has all been positive. In turn, it’s motivated employees to suggest standard work adjustments to keep moving the needle on accuracy, which currently sits at an industry-leading 99.9999%.

For any organization with a high volume of transactional mail, working with a Lean Manufacturing provider should be a priority. There’s just no room for error when it comes to these type of mailings.

Learn more about working with our Lean-focused operations today.