Trends in Print and Mail

“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.” – June 1735

The print and mail industry is an era of innovative technologies that are transforming the largest and the smallest operations. The rise of cloud-based systems and software-as-a-service remove the obstacles to improved address management, document enhancements, and workflow. Inkjet printing, wide-format equipment, and better finishing hardware continue to drive down costs. In-plant operations and service bureaus have more options to exceed their customers’ expectations.

An option that always needs to considered is changing your operating and customer service hours.

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“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”  February 1736

Ben Franklin understood that self-improvement is a lifelong affair. He developed a chart to track how well he adhered to the virtues he espoused as essential to a good life. Ben even made a “black mark” any time he failed to live up to his goals. 

We can follow the same philosophy for how we manage our operations. We must be diligent in our efforts to find ways to improve our processes. That means we must continue to work on our workflow.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information / process / workflow

“One today is worth two tomorrows.” April 1757

Benjamin Franklin was a strong believer in personal responsibility. One of the virtues he listed in his autobiography was “Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”

To “perform what we ought”, we need to account for our actions, and the actions of our department. That means integrating systems that monitor not just every job, but pieces within that job. Just as important as any technical tool is the attitude of the individual performing the work. The team must adopt a culture of accountability.

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