Process Control Requirements for Combining the Printing Process and the USPS -Mail Requirements for Inline Direct-mail Production

摘要

Direct-mail produced directly off the end of a printing press has dramatic implications for direct-mail production. Recently inkjet printing has become more common creating a hybrid press. Hybrid-printing combined with inline finishing produce completed products ready to ship out the door. The most popular use of inkjet printing on press is addressing pieces that go in the mail. It is now commonly believed the majority of printing is mail that goes in the postal service mail steam. Individually addressed mail pieces directly off a hybrid-press seems like a process workflow improvement. But in contrast, with the United-States-Postal-Service (USPS) requirements for mail, addressing on press without automatic traying has not lived up to expectations and arguably it can be said it has been a productivity setback. Taking addressed mail pieces off press and traying in a separate area mail department area causes delays and allows for mistakes. Combining the press department, which is a craft, with the mail department, which is procedural, into the small area at the end of the press, has many challenges. These challenges and the technical problems that had to be solved will be discussed in this paper. The reason it has taken many years to achieve the production of addressed mail directly off press will be investigated. Five or more different departments in the printing/mailing plant are affected by this process of Traying-On-Press-System (TOPS™). The traying of mail has many little known nuisances that complicate the entire process. The results are that rather than taking days to tray addressed mail in another department, mail is produced on press and in the mail trucks within the hour. Labor costs are dramatically reduced. TOPS is not a machine but an entirely new way of running a printing plant.