As featured in MAIL: The Journal for Communication Distribution
By Tom Embley, CEO, Precision AirConvey Corp.

Bank One had earned praise throughout the business media for its rapid growth strategy and string of successful acquisitions. But when M&A activity prompted the company to bring the printing of its statements back in house, the increased volume overwhelmed its mail center in trim waste and sparked an outcry from aggravated personnel. To handle the increased volume, Bank One Real Estate Division Project Manager Dan Leverington was charged with remodeling the facility. With state-of-the-art printing and inserting equipment already in place, he focused on the increased volume of trim waste, which was a weak link in an otherwise seamless chain of state-of-the-art operations. “The old manual waste hauling system just could not keep up,” says Mr. Leverington. "Our waste had become completely unmanageable." He upgraded the waste handling function to a state-of-the-art, automated system. "By installing an automated trim removal system from Precision AirConvey, I instantly provided a cleaner, safer environment, opened up floor space, cut labor costs and streamlined my recycling initiative," added Mr. Leverington.

Bank One is an example of a growing number of companies that are increasing throughput and cutting costs by considering how the waste handling function contributes to (or detracts from) the overall efficiency and profitability. Let’s face it. The mail center doesn’t get the glory, glamour and attention that marketing and other departments enjoy yet it’s the backbone of nearly every company’s cost-cutting initiative. In many cases, the company’s most high-tech, automated equipment is located in the mail center. And waste handling rarely gets the attention that printing gets. Until recently, once managers secured funding for their automated printing and inserting equipment, they often neglected to consider that their production lines end not when the invoice, statement or other document is inserted into the envelope but when the mounds and mounds of trim waste is removed from the facility for recycling or disposal. I find it to be a great irony of the mail industry that some of the largest healthcare, financial, travel, insurance and other companies process their mailings in some of the most advanced, automated, pristine facilities in the world yet they still rely on manual laborers to carry out the trash.

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