An Online Grocery Company was struggling to keep up with the exponential growth over the past few years. Realizing that the majority of errors occurred at the document insertion station, they worked with a Consultant to optimize this transaction along with the rest of their process in the new fulfillment centers. PSI designed and installed a document insertion conveyor line that automated this transaction using Print Feeders.
THE SITUATION
A rapidly growing grocery delivery company is working with a Consultant to open several fulfillment centers across the country that are designed and optimized to efficiently fulfill customer orders in the fastest, most cost-efficient process. The Company is committed to delivering fresh, locally sourced produce to their customer base at a reasonable price, so they were looking for ways to ensure orders were processed quickly and with minimal errors to keep their operating costs low.
Included in every order is a thank you card, a referral card (with a personalized promo code for each customer), and a flyer advertising upcoming promotions or new products. These inserts vary in size from 6.42”x7.58” to 8.5”x14”. For new customers only, a welcome brochure was included with their first order.
At existing facilities, document printing and insertion is completed manually by a team of up to 10 operators whose job it is to pick the appropriate documents from the stacks of pre-printed materials, print the personalized promo code on the referral card, and insert the right documents into the customer’s order. This manual process results in a high error rate where the wrong code gets sent to the wrong customer or the wrong advertisement is inserted. Since the amount of material required varies each month (depending on order volume and marketing campaigns in place), there is always too much or not enough of the pre-printed material available.
THE RECOMMENDATION
Three Print Feeders were installed in-line to print on demand the full-color on cardstock and insertion of the documents required (one document type per Print Feeder). As the carton passes by on the conveyor, the barcode is scanned and each Print Feeder prints the appropriate promotional flyer, referral card with personalized promo code, and personalized thank you card and inserts it into the order. One LC In-Feeder was installed downstream of the Print Feeders to feed the welcome brochure into orders for new customers.
THE RESULTS
Using the Print Feeders to automate document printing and insertion, this customer saved over $500,000 on labor costs alone. The Print Feeders installed take up less space than the station they had initially planned for with manual operators. Automation has also decreased the number of errors in document insertion to zero.
