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Product category: Print Finishing (Binding, Folding, Inserting, Stitching, etc.)
News Release from: KAS Paper Systems | Subject: Mailmaster 565HS enveloping machine
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial Team on 04 April 2007

Council's Enveloping System Solves
Taxing Problem

Milton Keynes Council has installed a Mailmaster 565HS from KAS Paper Systems to more than double the speed of production and replace a machine from a competitor .

Milton Keynes Council has installed a Mailmaster 565HS from KAS Paper Systems to more than double the speed of production and replace a machine from a competitor Paul Richardson, mail services supervisor at Milton Keynes Council, said: "Like all council mailing departments, we are under pressure in March to send out the Council Tax bills

We used to have 15 days to complete the exercise but every year we have more bills to send as Milton Keynes expands but less time to do the job.

Of the 700,000 items we mailed last year, 99,000 of them were sent in one month.

It meant that we had to work from 9.00am to midnight for 11 days to get the Council Tax bills and accompanying literature despatched in time.

It is a big billing package." He continued: "We needed the reliability and the speed of a new enveloping machine, which had the capacity to handle an increasing workload in the future." The UK council went out to tender to six manufacturers before placing the order with KAS Paper Systems.

Richardson commented: "The KAS 565HS Mailmaster was the only machine that met our specification and production requirements We wanted a machine that would envelope to a maximum format of C5 because 99 per cent of our jobs are inserted in to C5 envelopes.

Having made the commitment to buy a new machine, we had to make sure it was going to last.

The KAS machine is heavy duty and well built and KAS tell me that there are models out there that are still going strong after 20 years." The Mailmaster 565HS was specified with five insert stations, OMR reading and the facility to collate and fold up to seven sheets, envelope them and stack them on an extended conveyor.

The OMR reader reads the marks on the Council Tax bills, so that they can be sorted to achieve maximum discount from the Royal Mail, said KAS Paper Systems.

Richardson explained: "We've had excellent service from KAS.

They trained three staff and are always available on the end of the phone if we need advice.

Its proximity to us is very useful and the response rate of its service engineers has been almost instant - either the same day or first thing the following morning.

That is very reassuring, particularly during our forthcoming busy period." Paul Richardson said he is confident that he will complete the despatch of 100,000 Council Tax bills within two weeks with much reduced overtime.

"My challenge is to get the message across to all departments that we have this facility, which is currently under-utilised for the rest of the year.

They need to know that if they are spending two or three days hand filling 1,000 envelopes, the Mailmaster can do it in half an hour," he emphasised.

And he continued: "We have already done a number of jobs with up to 15,000 runs and I am optimistic that word will spread by recommendation.

I am sure that there is well over 10 per cent of the council's mailing that we currently don't have and could handle.

My aim is to bring it in-house through this department and process it on the KAS Mailmaster.".

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