Driving Productivity with Digital Print Océ helps Merrill Corporation increase productivity by 100 percent
Supporting the business-critical communication needs of leading companies in the legal, financial services, insurance and real estate industries is serious business. And its getting more serious as customer expectations rise, turnaround times get shorter and quality requirements become more exacting. Thats why the Merrill Corporation counts on Océ for a fleet of digital workhorses.
Océ and Merrill Corporation Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Merrill Corporation built its business on successfully serving customers in markets with complex information, document, and communication requirements. Merrill Corporation differentiates itself by providing rapid turnaround, high quality and comprehensive one-stop outsourcing solutions in four key markets: legal, financial services, insurance and real estate.
The company serves regional and national customers via an offset production facility in St. Cloud, Minnesota and digital production facilities in Sartell, Minnesota; Tewksbury, Massachusetts and Grove City, Ohio. Services include document and data management, litigation support, branded communication programs, fulfillment, imaging and printing. Staying at the leading edge is a key element of the successful service bureaus ongoing success.
The challenge: Improving throughput, image quality and uptime Merrill Corporation had an enviable challenge they needed additional capacity to support new business and growing volumes. The company was outsourcing nearly 500 million impressions per month to a third-party provider in Dallas, Texas. The bulk of the work consisted of enrollment kits, quarterly investment statements, and prospectuses. The cost of outsourcing was high and getting higher.
The first step was to bring outsourced volumes in-house and migrate offset press work to productive digital machines. The company wanted to replace a fleet of aging cut-sheet systems with more advanced technology. Our primary focus was consolidating outsourced clicks to an internal manufacturing platform that would support peak volumes and same and next-day turns, recalls Vice President of Technology, Jeff Weiss. We were also looking for an enterprise replacement for a deteriorating fleet of cut-sheet devices hobbled by downtime, slow output and inability to handle clients diverse requirements, says Weiss. It was becoming increasingly difficult to deliver the quality our customers expected. We needed a more productive platform that would allow us to produce high-quality benefits booklets for our Fortune 500 customers, consolidate volumes and reduce costs.
The print team began researching digital duplex cut-sheet printers that could deliver the required quality and throughput. The criteria were simple. The system had to deliver uptime of more than 80 percent. Rapid service response was a must. So was timely parts availability to ensure that the print center never experienced downtime while a supplier sourced parts. The ideal system would provide excellent quality and robust throughput. The company also began investigating continuous feed solutions to consolidate offset volumes and bring outsourced work in-house.
The solution: Océ digital printers and workflow software In May 2007, Merrill Corporation installed an Océ VarioPrint® 6250 and a competitive cut-sheet device in a six-month head-to-head trial at its Grove City production facility. The idea was to put the two machines through their paces and see how they performed in a real-life environment. Weiss recalls. The performance indicators we established were image quality for halftones, along with speed, reliability and uptime. For six months, the print shop tested the two machines.
The Océ VarioPrint 6250 was much more productive than the other device, which was down about 50 percent of the time, states Weiss. We ran all of our work on both machines throughout the trial and the Océ VarioPrint 6250 clearly outperformed the other device in terms of reliability, throughput, quality and productivity. Merrill Corporation purchased the Océ VarioPrint 6250 system along with Océ PRISMAproduction® workflow management software. The biggest issue we faced had to do with our workflow, Weiss adds. We were using Xerox job tickets and banner pages and had to find a way around that. Océ resolved the problem with Océ PRISMA® workflow software and custom scripting that allowed the Océ VarioPrint 6250 system to interface with our Xerox workflow.
With the Océ VarioPrint 6250 system up and producing millions of prints per month, Merrill was ready to tackle its next challenge: bringing outsourced volumes in-house and migrating work from offset to continuous feed digital presses. Once again, the print team decided to compare two systems in a head-to-head trial. Merrill installed the Océ VarioStream® 8750 Twin and a competitive device in February 2009. We measured performance against criteria like uptime, ease of use, operator friendliness, service and organizational responsiveness, recalls Weiss. From day one, Océ scored high on every aspect of operation.
Merrill again encountered a workflow challenge as it transferred outsourced work to the trial systemsa requirement to process PDF files and enrich them with barcodes and OMR for finishing. The files were so big that we couldnt process them quickly enough for the printers, says Weiss. Océ software experts created a custom fix that encapsulates the PDF files, wraps them in an AFP wrapper and places them in the queue. When the PDF files are transmitted from Océ PRISMA workflow software to the printer, the Océ VarioStream 8750 SRA controller unwraps and processes them natively to bypass the rip process, compressing a 35-hour process to about 30 minutes.
Pleased with the first Océ VarioPrint 6250 and the Océ VarioStream 8750 Twin systems, Merrill replaced its aging fleet of cut-sheet devices with 15 Océ VarioPrint 6250 systems, with Océ BLM500 booklet makers and BGB1208 perfect binders to produce finished books and booklets. We replaced every three of the old devices with two Océ VarioPrint 6250 systems to increase efficiency and reduce costs, notes Weiss. At the same time, we tripled our capacity, enabling us to complete jobs faster.
The print operation today Today, the Merrill Corporation print center produces 35 million prints per month on the 16 Océ VarioPrint 6250 systems and 22 million prints per month on the Océ VarioStream 8750 Twin systems. The facility runs three shifts, 24 hours a day, six days a week. Merrill Corporation runs the Océ systems around the clock.
We produce documents on the Océ printers with OMR marks and then feed them into stitch liners. The marks tell the stitch liners where sets begin and end and when to stitch. We print large volumes of booklets, so this is critical, says Weiss, and so far, its working well. The Océ VarioStream 8750 systems are teamed with Hunkeler pre- and post-processing systems and are used primarily for investment statements, annual enrollment kits, and pharmacy and provider directories.
Result: non-stop uptime raises the productivity bar Already, the Merrill Corporation print facility in Grove City has realized impressive results. Because the Océ VarioPrint 6250 system supports all types and weights of media with ease, it can handle just about any job that comes through the door. Productivity and uptime are definitely improved, states Weiss. The quality of the documents is excellent, he adds, and our customers are impressed.
In addition to improvements in productivity, Weiss concludes, weve been able to take on jobs that we couldnt before and print on a wider range of coated stock. From a quality standpoint, the Océ system gives us a better look when were presenting samples to clients as part of an RFP response. The excellent image quality gives customers confidence that we can produce high-quality documents on a digital output device, and thats a big advantage.
As for the Océ VarioStream 8750 systems, Merrill Corporation has greatly improved productivity. When you compare the productivity of the Océ VarioStream 8750 system, which runs 60 million pages a month to the machine we had before which ran two million pages a month on a good day and factor in maintenance and labor, the new machines are about 100 times more productive, says Weiss.
Merrill Corporation is pleased with its workflow improvements as well. The Océ software team was able to take our existing workflowfrom receipt of file, composition, and impositioning to validation of data, integrity and post composition marksto produce output a thousand times more efficiently, says Weiss. With custom programming, we eliminated eight manual steps, automated the entire process and cut hours of work cycle. Were saving a lot of time, which adds up to big cost savings.
Our clients are very happy with the quality theyre receiving, Weiss concludes, and were very happy with the throughput. Were more productive and were doing more work using fewer machines. As a result, we can go after new business, take on more work and really grow our business. Were definitely pleased with our decision to go with Océ.
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About Océ Océ is a leading
international provider of digital document management technology and
services. The company's solutions are based on Océ's advanced software
applications that deliver documents and data over internal networks and
the Internet to printing devices and archives -- locally and around the
world. Supporting the workflow solutions are Océ digital printers and
scanners, considered the most reliable and productive in the world. Océ
also offers a wide range of display graphics, consulting and
outsourcing solutions.
Océ employs around 22,000 people, with
2009 revenues of approximately $3.7 billion, operates in around 100
countries and maintains research and manufacturing centers in the
Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, the
Czech Republic, Romania and Singapore. Océ North America is
headquartered in Trumbull, CT, with additional business units in
Chicago, IL; New York City; Boca Raton, FL; Salt Lake City, UT and
Vancouver, BC. North American revenues represent approximately half of
Océ's worldwide business, and employment is approximately 10,000. For
more information about Océ, visit . Outside the U.S.,
consult .
"Océ"
and the Océ logo are registered trademarks of Océ-Technologies B.V. All
product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks and
are the property of their owners and are respectfully acknowledged.
