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

“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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United States Postal Service / Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Postage Rates / Leadership / mail / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / information

“Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.”  January 1735

Benjamin Franklin’s success as a printer, postmaster general, and politician assured his place in history. Yet he was also a scientist and inventor.

He demonstrated that lightning was electrical in nature, and used that information to invent the lightning rod. He studied the Gulf Stream (actually naming it), and charted its course. The Frankling stove improved the efficiency of heating the home, and is still in use today. And some of us of a certain age appreciate his work in optics, including the invention of bifocals.

These discoveries and inventions, now considered basic knowledge in our society, were cutting edge technologies. By pushing the boundaries of what was known, Franklin changed the lives of people in the 18th century, and we still feel the impact in the present.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / Postage Rates / Leadership / print / The Berkshire Company / learning / inspiration / management / growth / strength / employees / Ben Franklin / professionalism / AI / artificial intelligence / education

The US Postal Service (USPS) is in financial trouble. The decline in mail volumes has accelerated in the last year. At the same time, the USPS is losing market share in the package shipping market. Aging facilities and vehicles hamper efficiencies. Congress appropriated billions for electric vehicles and charging stations, but that will only cover a small percentage of the investment needed. 

The response from the USPS is to raise rates – aggressively. The current plan is to raise rates twice a year, in January and July. The January rate increase will be based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) and the July increase will be CPI-U plus factors for mail density and retirement payments. This tactic is driving down mail volumes at the fastest rate since the Great Recession. 

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Mail Security / United States Postal Service / Technology / USPS / Digital / Postal Reform / Postal Regulatory Commission / Postmaster General

Production inkjet presses. File-managed processing with job and piece level tracking. Seamless acceptance for full-service Intelligent Mail barcode mailings. Artificial intelligence extracting information from inbound paper documents.

Implementing just one of those solutions is a challenge. Taking advantage of the capabilities of those technologies requires transforming digital and production workflows. In most cases, print and mail professionals will need to venture far outside their comfort zones.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy / USPS / Digital / U.S. Postal Service / Quality Control / mail

When I started as a mail clerk in the early 1980s, postage meters were clumsy mechanical devices. We’d use a fan scale to determine postage, and then turn dials by hand to set the amount. For postage refills, I’d pack the meter into a plastic case, and lug it to the post office .With a check in hand, wait in line for a window clerk, who would break the lead inspection seal, reset the meter, attach a new seal, and hand it back.

I was a mail center supervisor when “postage by phone” refills were announced, and scales were integrated with the meters. Several years later, electronic information-based indicia (IBI) meters became mandatory. Meters were then connected to the internet, allowing for remote monitoring and management. Instead of static slugs, users could add digital messages using their meters.

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Mail Security / Technology / USPS / U.S. Postal Service / mail / envelopes

It seems that every day, there’s a news story about hackers stealing customer information from a computer system. Most publicized cases involve large companies being hacked for credit card information and passwords for millions of people. Small companies are hacked too, but those stories don’t seem to grab as much attention.

Physical mail is fairly secure and is protected by federal laws enforced by the US Postal Service Inspection Service (USPIS). With a heritage that traces back to Benjamin Franklin, the USPIS aggressively pursues criminals who use the mail to attach or defraud victims. Companies and individuals put great trust in a sealed envelope marked “First-Class Mail”.

In the past, creating transactional mail documents was performed by companies using internal systems. Printers were directly attached to the mainframe computer system. The mail services department was in the same building, if not in the same room. There were tight controls from data to print to insert to delivery to the post office.

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Mail Security / Industry Vendors / Technology / Outsourcing / Strategy / Quality Control

The technology used in the print and mail industry is changing rapidly. Every year, equipment speed and capability is improving. It’s challenging to buy for the present and keep an eye towards the future. So how do we solve today’s issues and prepare for tomorrow’s needs?

There are 4 key principles to follow when buying and planning:

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Operations Management / Technology / Outsourcing / Strategy / Purchasing

As my clients know, I’m a fan of Dr. Atul Gawande, the surgeon and writer. At one point in almost every engagement, I hand the manager a copy of Dr. Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto – a book that explains the importance and effectiveness of using checklists. If pilots and doctors can use checklists to prevent errors, so can we who work in the print-mail industry.

I recently read one of Dr. Gawande’s earlier books – Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. He shares his lessons learned as a young intern, the struggles encountered as a volunteer dispensing vaccine in India, and his thoughts on accountability. The decisions we make every day impact ourselves and our professions.

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Operations Management / Technology / Strategy