“What's measured improves” - Peter F. Drucker
Well documented policies. Quality control procedures based on lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. Job information files that track piece-level information throughout the print and finishing processes. Full-service intelligent mail to trace pieces as they move through the US Postal Service.
All attributes of a high-performing operation.
All useless without a high-performing staff to execute.
Following best practices for maintaining and updating mailing addresses seems to be a logical aspect of good business management. However, when we recommend process improvements to clients that will improve their address databases, we’re often faced with pushback. The most common reasons:
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A new Postmaster General. The long-awaited Appeals Court ruling on the Exigent Rate Case. Another rate increase. And more inaction by Congress on President Obama’s nominees to the US Postal Service’s (“USPS”) Board of Governors.
These are just a few of the subjects that dominated the mailing industry in 2015, and were covered by our blog – Trends in Print and Mail. Articles about the US Postal Service and rate changes generated the most interest. The readers’ comments on our website and in the LinkedIn groups helped add to the conversation.
2016 looks to be another interesting year. It’s likely that First Class Mail rates will actually decrease this spring. A comprehensive postal reform bill has started to gain interest – in Congress and the national media. With presidential elections taking place, and absentee voting by mail increasing, the USPS will be under close scrutiny. We’ll be sharing our insights and opinions as these events unfold.
In case you missed them, here are the 10 most read posts from 2015:
Senate Causes Crisis for US Postal Service: A Call to Action
The citizens of this country deserve to have a full Board of Governors for the USPS. (Note: This blog generated almost 10 times the number of views as an average post.)
Preparing for the First USPS Rate Change of 2015
Here are 5 steps every mail operations manager can take now to prepare for the first USPS rate change (Competitive Products) of 2015.
Court Ruling Impacts Future Postage Rates
The United States Court of Appeals’ decision supports the Postal Regulatory Commission’s approval of a temporary exigent rate case, while dismissing calculations of the financial losses of the USPS.
2015 Postage Rate Case Update
There have been several events that will impact mailers as the US Postal Service implements the first postage rate case of 2015.
Impact of the US Postal Service New Standards
Mailers need to prepare for the new, slower USPS delivery standards.
Effective Address Management Part 7: Processing Return Mail
Mailpieces that are returned to your company add no value to the relationship with your customers.
Postal Regulatory Commission Ruling on the Exigent Rate Case In English
The PRC orders that the exigent postage rate increase will remain in effect until the USPS recovers an additional $1.91 billion.
Twenty Questions To Ask When Purchasing Equipment
In addition to legal questions and pricing information, here are 20 questions you should ask when purchasing equipment.
The Mismeasure of Mail
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Focusing on Single Piece First Class Mail is a distraction from the real issues facing the USPS.
It’s Process, Not Product
Leverage the new tools available to you, and take your first steps to achieve Total Process Management.
It’s hard to believe it’s the holidays again. Soon, we’ll be gathering with family and friends for festive dinners and annual get-togethers. Of course, being in the mail business, you’ll be preparing for the big year-end statement runs and handling a lot of packages for co-workers.
It’s also a good time to reflect on the past year and contemplate next year. What awaits us in 2016? There’s an old saying that fortune favors the well-prepared, and the well-prepared learn from the past. Seriously consider what has happened, how you reacted, and what you’d do differently next year. Oscar Wilde said, “Only the shallow know themselves.” To which I’d add, “But only a fool wouldn’t try.”
First, conduct a review of your operation. Gather your monthly status reports and weave a story of what you’ve accomplished. Although you probably do this as part of your own annual performance review, you may focus only on the positive (in order to secure bonuses and raises). I’m suggesting that you also delineate your failures, or things that you wanted to accomplish, but didn’t. This doesn’t mean you should dwell on the negative, but you need an honest assessment.
A nice tool is a simple three-column spreadsheet listing your unit’s goals, the results (success or defeat), and the impact on your operation. Discuss this assessment with your staff and determine what could be done to be more successful. List those goals that will carry over to next year, and what new challenges the team hopes to overcome.
Next, look at your staff. Again, these aren’t formal performance reviews. Rather, evaluate key people as part of the team that produced success over the past year. Make sure you reach out to people and thank them for their efforts. I know you thanked them at the time of the success, but nobody gets tired of hearing what they’ve done well.
Of course, no one in their right mind would leave you. However, one or two members of your staff may be thinking about finding a job elsewhere. What can you do to help them stay? Or if appropriate, help them move on? Steer these workers toward the resources available within your company, and remember to share your personal stories when you made similar decisions at a similar point in your career.
Now that you’re done looking at others, it’s time for the real challenge - looking at yourself. Self-assessment is no easy task, and shouldn’t be treated lightly. Seek out a place where you won’t be disturbed (away from work and home).
An excellent place that you might overlook is your public library. An interesting thing about libraries is that they’re full of books that you may never have a chance to read. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to read all those books. What a fantastic reminder that there’s so much we don’t know, and so much we’ve yet to learn. So shut off your cell phone, grab a pad of paper and a pen, and find a quiet spot in the stack of books.
To start your self-assessment, make a checklist:
Consider each of these questions from a professional and personal point of view. Ponder whether you would have made the same decision with the knowledge you have today. If you conclude: “I would have done things differently”, then determine your motive for making the “wrong” move last year. For your successes, describe those key actions that led to your success. Perhaps you can find a way to mimic those actions to accomplish next year’s goals.
Did successes from one aspect of your life negatively impact another part of your life? Maybe you completed that project, but it meant spending too many hours away from home. Hard work and long hours are often necessary, but so is balance. Time is a valuable currency; make sure to spend yours wisely.
Now, contemplate your future. Where do you want to be a year from now? Maybe you’d like to get a promotion, or achieve professional certification, or submit an article for publication in a trade magazine. It’s possible you’re thinking about an even bigger step: a new job. There’s a lot involved with each of these decisions. You’ll need to conduct some research, study reference material, and draft a resume or article.
Most importantly, to reach your goals, you’ll need to create a plan with measurable action steps and deadline dates. Be as detailed as possible, and include target milestones. If you’re really bold, share the plan with someone, and discuss your progress on a regular basis with this person. Schedule a date for this same time next year to conduct another complete review.
We often choose not to make significant changes because of fear. Traditionally, print/mail managers have spent their entire careers at one company. With the shifts in the economy and the multitude of mergers, this may no longer be possible. Approach these challenges as opportunities.
A good friend of mine recently changed jobs after 17 years at the same company. The apprehension of starting a new job was balanced by the prospect of designing and implementing new systems. While he still faces many of the management and political issues that existed at his old company - they’re usually the same no matter where you go - he’s very upbeat, and confident he’ll succeed. It’s great to see the improvement in his attitude.
Conducting a self-assessment may not sound like the most enjoyable way to spend the holidays—especially with all the other pressures—cooking, buying gifts, and year-end reports. But can you think of a better gift for yourself and your operation?
Most companies have some sort of Information Technology (IT) recovery plans. These plans range from nightly back up with offsite storage of data; to fully redundant, mirror IT systems established at different locations. However, startling few companies have complete document processing disaster recovery plans.
Most managers say that employees are their most important asset. Their actions must be consistent with their words. Good managers take responsibility for the people who work for them. Their employees are paid a good wage, are treated with respect and have individual professional improvement plans.
All employees must have the opportunity to grow. This includes everyone from meter operators to mail clerks to high performing supervisors. While the scope of the personal improvement plan is different for each person, the components are the same:
“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.” Benjamin Franklin.
I was channel surfing the other day, and came across a repeat of one of my favorite television shows - American Hot Rod. The show followed the inner workings of the late Boyd Coddington’s garage as they built custom hot rods for exclusive clients. Broken equipment, unforeseen delays and personality clashes had to be overcome in order to complete the project correctly and on-time.
Sounds like the everyday life of anyone who works in mail.
Over the last decade some people in the print/mail industry have compared mail operations to factories. Software and hardware vendors have “Automated Document Factory” or “ADF” solutions. Companies rename their print/mail departments to “Bill Factories” or “Document Factories.” Some conferences have entire tracks of classes dedicated to the ADF.
I’ve never liked the term “ADF”. It sounds good. But what does it mean? Few people can tell you exactly what an ADF is. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who says they have an ADF, or vendors who claim to have an ADF solution. Every person you speak to will have a different answer.
I’ve sought alternatives to the ADF, and even proposed a few. I’ve written about the “Digital Document Command Center” and given talks on how print/mail managers should take their lead from the U.S. Army. Some people criticized my ideas as having “too militaristic a tone”.
Maybe a better role model would be mechanics. And you don’t have to watch American Hot Rod to understand the similarities. If you’ve ever owned a car, you’ve probably had to deal with a mechanic at least once. Probably more than once. Besides, aren't many mail operations called “shops”?
Mechanics are excellent role models because like mail operations:
The most tangible evidence of addressing errors in any mailing that leaves your company is the volume of return mail. Instead of treating return mail as a nuisance, managers should consider it another tool to improve their address list.
If a company has done a good job with cleaning their addresses, then their return mail will be below 1%. However, if that company mails out 50,000 bills a day, that still means 500 envelopes will be returned each day. Over 10,000 pieces will be returned in a month. That’s a lot of mail.
So, what should a company do? We recommend a multi-step approach:
At Graph Expo in Chicago this week, I’ve had the opportunity to see some amazing technology – color inkjet printers producing output cheaper than black and white devices, software that integrates physical and digital messaging, and hundreds of finishing devices that will cut, perf, bind, insert and palletize your finished product.
The show demonstrates that print is still a vibrant market and method of communication. But if you’re focused only on production speeds and cost-per-piece, instead of adding value, then you’re headed in the wrong direction. You need to devote your attention to reviewing the entire process - not just the printed document.
Until recently, print was the preferred means of information distribution. Other methods – fax, diskettes, file transfer, and e-mail were considered alternatives to print, but paper was still the standard. Due to the proliferation of Internet usage and improvements in technology, print is now only one of many options – and there is no standard.
This doesn’t mean it’s time to panic, or to throw out those printers and inserters just yet. It does mean you have to widen your sphere of influence from one step in document production – like print/mail – to being involved with the entire document process.
For many operation managers, this requires moving out of the “comfort zone” of paper, hardware and scheduling, and into the worlds of marketing, databases and information technology. IT and marketing professionals need to learn about the new capabilities available in print/mail, and forge cross-departmental relationships. These new hybrid organizations will work together to develop comprehensive solutions to document processing challenges.
At The Berkshire Company, we call this approach Total Process Management. Not to be confused with TQM, Total Process Management isn’t a methodology to define your procedures. Rather, it’s a business philosophy that emphasizes an awareness of the entire process cycle – those elements that take place before activity begins, the activity itself, and the expected results of that activity.
For example, when mailing statements, you may focus on the pieces processed per hour. However, the entire cycle of the document should be considered. In a typical billing operation, the cycle includes:
Using software certified by the US Postal Service (USPS), like the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) and NCOALink, companies can format and update their customers’ addresses. To take the next step, mailers have access to additional USPS tools to improve address quality, including the Address Element Correction (AEC) and Address Change Service (ACS) programs.
Mailers may have pieces that were delivered by the USPS, however the addresses don’t generate a Delivery Point Validation (DPV) when run through CASS software. That means the mailer is foregoing postal discounts and is unable to take advantage of all the Full Service IMb benefits. The best USPS programs for this situation are AEC and AEC II.
AEC is best described as “CASS Plus”. With input from the mailing industry, the USPS developed specialized programs that break down the elements of the address, and perform a series of evaluations and comparisons. Through these logarithms, the AEC software is able to add missing elements and correct many errors that commercial software can’t resolve.
For the tougher addresses, mailers can request the AEC II service. Under this program, the addresses are sent to the local USPS delivery unit for resolution. The USPS is then able to tap into their proprietary "Delivery Force Knowledge" system. In other words, they ask the letter carriers responsible for that address for their help. That’s right, a human being with actual knowledge of the problem address – not software – corrects the list.
For unidentified moves, mailers should consider the Address Change Service (ACS) program. With ACS, if an address on a mailpiece is incorrect, the USPS sends the mailer an electronic file with the change of address or other reasons for non-delivery. To participate, the mailer needs to enroll and then modify their address block or mailing label. When the modified pieces are processed by the USPS on the Postal Automation Redirection System (PARS) or Computerized Forwarding System, an ACS notification is generated. The notifications are forwarded to the National Customer Support Center, and then consolidated into a file for the mailer.
There are 4 different methods for implementing ACS:
