Enveloping system doubles DM firm's productivity

Mailing Guy, has doubled its productivity and increased profit margins with a new KAS Mailmaster 565HS enveloping machine.

The Mailmaster 565HS, which is claimed to insert into envelope sizes up to C5 at speeds of over 7,000 envelopes per hour, is said to benefit from ease of operation and quick change-overs.

It can be ordered with additional features, including sheet feeders with accumulation and folding in-line, OMR, BCR or 2D reading facilities, error divert, camera reading technology on the input and output control integrity, management information, in-line stapling and address printing on-line.

Mailing Guy in east London, UK, offers a range of mailing services, including database management, digital and litho printing, personalisation, fulfilment, creative and web design.

The company's customers cover a spectrum of organisations from one-man businesses to corporate businesses, museums, charities and health authorities.

Wayne Nugent, the managing director of Mailing Guy, said: 'I bought the Mailmaster because we were having a problem turning the jobs round in time.

This meant working 12-13 hour shifts on a regular basis.

When I bought the company in 2008, it was going nowhere with only seven customers.

We have expanded our customer base almost eight-fold in less than two years but further expansion was limited by the equipment we had.

I inherited a three station enveloping machine, which operated at 3,000 items an hour, then I bought a six-station machine but it too only operated at 3,000 items an hour.

He explained: 'I wanted an enveloper that could handle inserts from C6 to C5 on a wide range of stock, including gloss, silk and laminate and booklets with spine widths up to 4mm thick.

It had to be quick, simple and easy to set up but compact as we are tight for space.

Above all, it had to more productive to give us the additional capacity we so dearly needed.

The KAS Mailmaster inserts at up 7,000 items an hour and incorporates all the features we required.

We specified the KAS Mailmaster 565HS PF1/6, which has an integral sheet feeder folder and five further stations so we can process up to six inserts.

It also has an output conveyor.

Nugent said that the main advantage of the KAS Paper Systems' machine is that it is built to suit customers' specifications.

Currently Mailing Guy does not have any "intelligence" on the Mailmaster because the company does not need it.

However, if it did expand into the type of financial mailing that required security features on the machine, KAS could retrofit them to the Mailmaster 565HS.

He continued: 'The machine means we can handle everything we put on it with ease.

Unlike the other two mailing machines we have, it doesn't slow down when we use more insert stations.

It is easy to adjust and we can run it at speeds suitable for specific jobs.

We have already enveloped 2.7 million items this year and we are on track to double the output of last year.

In only two and-a-half months since its installation, we are reaping the benefits of our investment.

It handles the lion's share of our workload, although, if we have long runs on the Mailmaster, then we may operate all three machines at the same time.

Our typical run lengths vary from 4,000 to 160,000.

However, Nugent added that Mailing Guy has also just completed a 280,000 run, which it printed and inserted in three days.

In the past that would have been impossible.

The company is now able to turn jobs round more quickly and customers are noticing that improvement and giving the firm repeat business.

If a job is really urgent then the company also does its best to complete it in 24-48 hours depending on the run length, for example.

On average run lengths, Mailing Guy can now envelope three jobs in one shift using one operator.

Nugent commented: 'We are a small company with low overheads, which means that, with this machine, we rarely lose a job on price these days.

Our profit margins are confidential but all I will say is that we are delighted with them and that is entirely due to the Mailmaster.

We don't have a salesforce, relying instead on word of mouth for recommendation.

We have had so many positive reviews that we can't put them all on our web site at the same time.

Besides the repeat business we are winning about two new jobs a month.

We bought this machine to grow with us.

However, we are confident that the machine will pay for itself within the first year and if the business continues to grow at this rate, we will definitely need another.

If all goes to plan we will have a second KAS Mailmaster within the next two years.

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