Sumbitted by: http://www.os-od.com
By: Richard W. Pavely
An empty mail center forgives all sins! Wittingly or unwittingly, this simple metric is being applied every day in mail centers all across the country. What it means is, no matter how you did it, by hook or by crook, if the mail center is devoid of incoming mail by the end of the day, then the mail center staff and supervision has completed a day’s work. But the empty mail center only tells part of the story. For example, it may ignore the fact that the sortation process was woefully inefficient-who cares how many misdeliveries actually occurred; so what if departments all over the building received unwanted mail; if the sort bins are empty, then we’re going home satisfied that we did our part.
In corporate mail centers that receive 5,000?20,000 pieces of mixed mail per day, this metric is often the only way the mail center can measure its own performance. It’s a natural and convenient method for defining success in a high-volume, stressful production environment. If you’re dealing with 20,000 pieces of mail, you don’t have time to do fancy things. Any thought of refining the process to decrease the labor component or improve the end result is lost in the shuffle to get the mail out the door. The objective has devolved into narrow-minded execution.
Outgoing mail meets the same fate in big busy mail centers. Who has time to shop for rates? Could those flats be folded into a smaller envelope for less postage? No charge slip on a handful of outgoing-don’t worry about it-charge it to a big user but get it out of here!
If any of this sounds familiar, then your mail center may have an insidious problem. The interesting part is that management probably doesn’t know its mail center is actually out of control. Though the mail center may be on the manager’s table of organization, the controlling manager rarely gets involved at the operating level. To him, the empty mail center metric makes sense. Management certainly wouldn’t want to be around to observe when the real work of high-volume sortation and distribution takes place.
Caught in the rush to meet the daily demands, what should the mail center supervisor do? How can he ever have the time to make thoughtful adjustments to the process? Since this is the start of another exciting year, it might be useful to explore some relatively long-term cost-saving possibilities. Armed with new knowledge and enthusiasm, the besieged supervisor might be able to end the new year with far more than 250 empty mail centers.
Time management
Every mail center operates on a timetable. Although the actual timetable might not be published, which is another problem in and of itself, a schedule does exist. The key components of a typical mail center schedule are the arrivals of incoming mail, the dispatching of internal deliveries, and the departure of outgoing mail. There may be more, but these are the three main events. Everything else is sandwiched between and among them and is subject to momentary distractions.
The trick for accomplishing long-term improvements is to identify a 15-minute period each day during which you can rise above the day-to-day and think holistically. By default, the quiet period usually ends up at the end of the day, when the bins are empty and the staff has departed. Unless the supervisor is uniquely gifted, that’s also the time when he’s equally tired and least creative.
So where do you find the 15 minutes of thinking time? Possibly in the morning just after the first internal delivery has left the mail center, or during lunch if you eat at your desk, or in the late afternoon as the staff makes the final sweep prior to the metering rush. The specific timing isn’t as important as maintaining a persistent attitude.
Extracted value
Fortunately, the days of the totally manual mail center are about over. Believe it or not, some form of automation has reached its way into most mail centers, often through a slow and painful process. With automation, mail centers can handle more mail and parcels with less effort and far greater control and accountability. The most common examples of this automation are improved mailing machines, digital scales and postage meters, tabletop folder/inserters, postage by phone arrangements, automated incoming mail accounting systems, automated lookup, and voice-response units.
However, in an alarming number of instances, these timesaving automation systems aren’t used to their full capabilities. Very often, the systems have been justified and procured with a specific application in mind, yet the software and equipment is far more capable than the initial application. Fabulous features are ignored and valuable benefits are missed by the staff and supervision simply because they weren’t part of the initial justification. The newly procured unit is thrust into service and takes its place within the daily grind.
Using the precious time released by better time management, the supervisor should become familiar with the full range of features on all available mail center equipment. If need be, the original sales rep should be invited back to complete the original sale by repeating a full-feature presentation.
Interdiction of unwanted mail
A long-term project with enormous cost-savings potential is? a proactive program of eliminating unwanted mail. Left unattended, this blight on corporate mail centers can accumulate to as much as 40 percent of the total incoming volume. Waiting for the affected departments to issue deletion orders to persistent mailers and for departed employees will never stem the tide. Culling out and recycling the unwanted mail is an unending process with continuous cost consequences. The most productive solution rests with the mail center, but that will take time, energy, plus an effective plan. Some proactive action must be taken for every piece of unwanted mail. It won’t stop on its own.
Auditing express invoices
Express carriers are under extreme pressure to control their own costs. To protect themselves, while maintaining adequate levels of customer satisfaction, the carriers have resorted to the addition of extra charges for extra services. If you stay within the boundaries of “normal” services, then nothing happens. Seemingly harmless excursions into off-normal service can add significant cost, even if your firm has negotiated a favorable contract with the carrier in question. The first line of defense should be the sender, followed quickly by the mail center. If nothing else, careful reviews of express invoices will be an education for the mail center supervisor, yielding important lessons to pass along to the senders.
Quality initiatives
With Malcolm Baldridge, ISO 9000, and other highly-effective quality programs being pursued by the corporate staff, few if any of the cross-functional quality team members would ever consider the high cost of low-quality mail. That just doesn’t occur to them, unless the mail center supervisor suggests it. Therefore, to raise the awareness for this blockbuster concept, go in search of the highest-ranking person responsible for quality within your firm. Mention the fact that low-quality outbound mail can diminish any message, whether it’s from the marketing department, stockholder relations, membership development, or whatever. You might be surprised by the enthusiastic reception and newfound support for more automation and staff enrichments.
Volunteers
Unless you have an unusual mail center, the depth of the staff is probably close to the level of effort required to complete the expected daily assignments. The differences between what you have and what you need are usually measured in small numbers. This typically translates into a busy set of people, working very hard to keep up with the day-to-day workload. One way to get the help you need for your favorite long-term project is to look for volunteers, those who might be able to log just a few hours per week. Sources of volunteers vary from situation to situation and might include new employee indoctrination programs, after-school students looking for pre-employment experience, interns, trade schools looking for case studies, and other possibilities.
The key to implementing any process improvement is to establish the mechanism for working and thinking outside the confines of the daily routine. Remember, an empty mail center forgives all sins but one-the failure to improve.
Richard W. Pavely, MSE, is an OfficeSolutions contributing editor and president of Corporate Management & Marketing Consultants Inc. of Randolph, N.J., a firm that specializes in mail center process improvement planning. He can be reached at 973/989-0229 or via e-mail at rpavely@cmmcinc.com.
