An eCommerce company selling eco-friendly products, that prided itself on its customer unboxing experience, was struggling to find packing operators that put a focus on the customer experience. Rather than continue their hiring campaign, they approached PSI to automate as much of their process so they could to continue scaling their output without expanding their team.
Their process required two operators to pack one order – one to make sure the products were packed with void fill in a presentable manner, and the other to gather between 2-5 marketing inserts for each customer. The PSI Solutions team understood that maintaining a manual process was key to ensuring a pleasant unboxing experience for the end customer. The marketing document insertion, however, could be automated to fulfill just as many orders with fewer operators.
This relatively minor investment in pack station automation provided the highest and quickest ROI for The Company. Secondly, there was a significant positive impact on the bottom line due to the reduced need for labor.
Automating Personalized Messaging
Two of the inserts, a thank you card and color brochures, needed to be printed on demand to be customized for each customer. PSI’s Print Feeder printed and folded the thank you cards and brochures before inserting them into the open boxes passing on a conveyor. With rates of up to 20 documents per minute, this automated process took a fraction of the time it used to manually.
Marketing Inserts
Included with every order was any combination of the latest issue of The Company’s magazine, coupons for the customer’s next order, and/or a seasonal flyer. The orders placed on the conveyor would be scanned to determine which marketing pieces needed to be included. Each LC In Feeder down the line contained and dispensed a difference marketing piece and inserted the appropriate one(s) into the customer’s order. This process ensured that the correct inserts were included 100% of the time.