Christopher J Pizzi

Automated Manual Packing and Mailing Process

Challenge: Manual process of assembling instructions for thousands of contractors is slow and wasteful

Solution: Develop software that automates the process around a high-volume digital printer

Part of National In-Store's (NIS) business is to coordinate the efforts of thousands of independent contractors to perform retail merchandising services. At fixed intervals, NIS sends out packages of documentation to its contractors with instructions for which stores to visit and what to do in those stores. Contractors may have to visit more than one store for a given job, or may have more than one job to do at a particular store.

NIS originally performed this task manually. Staff would print copies of job-specific documentation on a mid-range copier and place them in pigeon-holes. They would then compile a cross-tab that listed contractor names in rows and job numbers in columns. For each contractor, the appropriate documents were picked from the pigeon-holes and stuffed in an envelope or parcel box. This process was naturally laborious and error-prone.

In order to make the process more efficient, NIS purchased a high volume Heidelberg laser printer. The service company that sold NIS the printer contracted Access Orlando to write software to perform the "picking" digitally. I developed that software by combining an Access database, a custom C++ front-end, and a 3rd-party print driver that sent output to TIFF files instead of a printer.

NIS staff would load spreadsheets containing lists of jobs, stores, and contractors into the Access database. They would use the front-end to associate PDF documents with the various jobs. When an operator started a print job, the front end would use the data in the Access database to produce each contractor's documentation, including mailing and return address labels. In order to take full advantage of the Heidelberg's capabilities, each contractor's packet was sent to the printer as a series of TIFF images and a small text file describing how the images were to be assembled and how the output should be finished.

The application I developed transformed a process that took 6 people 10 days to one that took just a few mouse-clicks and a matter of hours. The efficiency introduced by the batch print application paid for the application itself, the Heidelberg printer, and allowed NIS to take on more work.