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Introduction: Relyco received a
distressed call from JJill, a women’s catalog
apparel retailer, indicating that they were
having a lot of problems with their shipping
processes and needed help. As we do in
many such instances, we made a site visit to
investigate, and as part of the process, we
followed the various forms in question
throughout their entire life cycles to see how
they were printed, processed and handled, and
where we might be able to make improvements.
Following is a description of each of the four
major problems that we encountered, and what was
done to correct each one.
1.
Problem: Multiple forms being
“married” incorrectly
Resolution: Integrated Label/Form
Combination – 3 Forms in 1
Description: At the time that we were
contacted, JJill was using 3 different forms.
One was a Packing List that was being laser
printed. Another was a Shipping Label,
which was being printed using thermal “zebra”
printers, and finally there were the Return
Shipping labels, which were pre-printed and
being thrown into the box after apparel was
packed.
The problem
that this was causing was that, in many
instances, the Packing List was not being
“married” to the right Shipping Label, with the
result being incorrect shipments. This was
causing return freight charges, plus additional
freight charges for shipping the correct
products, and perhaps more importantly,
dissatisfied customers and a diminished
corporate image.
What we did
was simply show them how they could combine the
Packing List, the Shipping Label, and the Return
Labels into a single, laser-printable form.
This way, the Shipping Label would always be
married to the correct Packing List, which meant
that the customers would be sure to receive the
right product the first time. This
saved the client a lot of money in unnecessary
shipping charges (to fix the mistakes that were
occurring), helped improve their image in terms
of customer service, and also helped them
completely eliminate the thermal “zebra”
printers and the costs associated with them.
Further, the print quality of the laser printed
Shipping Labels was a dramatic improvement from
the thermal printed Shipping Labels that were
previously being used.
2.
Problem: Difficulty peeling the
liners from the Shipping Labels
Resolution: Easy-peel “thumb notch”
using patterned adhesive
Description: During our tour around
the shipping facility, we came upon a long row
of tables, at which were seated dozes of women
whose job it was to pack the apparel into boxes
and get it ready for shipping. We noticed
that they were having difficulty peeling the
Shipping Labels off of the liners (imagine
yourself trying to find the edge of the Scotch
tape when it comes off the dispenser cutter and
adheres back to the roll). This doesn’t
sound like that significant a problem, until one
realizes that JJill ships about five
million packages per year. Even if the
peeling problem cost an average of just one
second per label, that would translate to
nearly 1400 hours of wasted time – about two
thirds of a full year’s worth of 40 hour weeks.
We were able to completely eliminate this
problem using a technology called “Patterned
Adhesive.” Basically, most labels are what
is known in the industry as “tape product”:
the label is manufactured such that the adhesive
goes all the way to the edge of the label,
completely covering the back side. Even
most “laser” label stock you’ll find in office
stores – the 8 ˝” x 11” sheets that have address
or file folder labels on them – are simply
standard sized sheets that have been cut from a
huge roll of label stock.
This is not the case with Patterned Adhesive.
With Patterned Adhesive, the forms are actually
manufactured in-line – glue, liner and
everything - which means that the
adhesive can be applied (or not applied) to any
area or in any shape that is needed, just as if
it were an ink color. There are several
advantages to this: first and foremost, labels
can be manufactured such that there is a small
area of about 1/16th or even 1/32nd
of an inch around the outer edge. The
reason for this is that when labels are run
through laser printers, the heat from the print
fuser causes the adhesive to melt and ooze
slightly. With “tape product”, where the
adhesive goes all the way to the edge of the
form, this means that a small amount of adhesive
actually oozes out into the printer. The
amount is small enough that it can hardly be
observed, if at all, but as it builds up over
the course of time, it will cause severe damage
to the printer, resulting in premature
replacement of fusers, rollers, and other parts,
and eventually in shortened overall machine
life. Leaving the narrow adhesive-less
border around the outer edge of the label gives
this adhesive someplace to go so that it does
not contaminate the laser printer.
Another
advantage of using Patterned Adhesive is the
ability to eliminate adhesive from certain areas
of the label. For example, a grocery store
might want a label that sticks to a product, but
has a coupon on a perforated “tail” that is not
affixed to the box so that a consumer can easily
remove it. In the case of JJill, we were
able to eliminate the adhesive from one corner
of the label – a “thumb notch”, if you will -
making it very easy for the users to separate
the label from the liner. We even
consulted with them first to find out which
corner they would most likely be working from!
3.
Problem: Going Postal!
Pre-paid vs. Postage Due Return Labels
Resolution: Making them different
sizes and printing the labels differently
Description: Unbeknownst to most of
us, the apparel industry – and especially the
catalog apparel industry – has an extremely
high product return rate, somewhere in the
vicinity of 25% to 35%. As indicated
above, JJill sends out about 5 million packages
each year, which means that 1 million product
returns would be a very conservative estimate –
in actuality, the number may be closer to 2
million. Add to this that the shipping
facility is located in Tilton, New Hampshire, a
small town with a population of about 3,300
residents. You can imagine, then, what the
Tilton Post Office looks like! Needless to
say, it is not very big at all, and yet JJill’s
returns were forcing literally thousands of
return packages to be sent there each day.
With that in mind, it was no surprise that the
Postmaster was getting very agitated with the
situation. Interestingly, the problem was
not the sheer volume itself, but rather
distinguishing between which packages needed
postage, and which were to be applied to JJill’s
account. You see, JJill uses two different
types of return labels: one a Postage Paid label
that is used by people who received the wrong or
defective product; and the other a Postage
Required label, used by people who decided they
didn’t want the product, or who order multiple
sizes and returned the ones that did not fit.
Much like the women struggling to peel off the
Shipping Labels, the Post office was wasting
valuable time trying to make this distinction,
and the cause of the problem was that the labels
looked exactly alike.
To remedy this problem, we simply added a bright
pink bar on the Postage Paid label, which
enabled the Post Office to easily separate the
two types of packages, making their job a lot
faster and easier, and relieving the tension
between the Post office and JJill. Since
that time, the pink bar has been removed, and
they have instead changed the size and printed
appearance of the two labels so that they are
still easily distinguishable form one another.
4.
Problem: Lack of space available
for Instructions on returning products
Resolution: Printed Liner
Description: Because we had
condensed what was once 3 separate forms into
one 8 ˝” x 14” Label/Form combination, printing
space was at a premium. JJill needed a
place to put the instructions for product
returns, but they did not want this information
to clutter the forms and make them difficult to
read.
Thanks again to Patterned Adhesive technology,
we were able to solve this problem easily.
With the usual “tape products” described above,
forms are manufactured from rolls of label
stock, which means that the only place that can
be printed is the face of the label. To
print on the back (the sticky side) of the
label, or on the label liner, is simply not
possible. However, because labels with
Patterned Adhesive are manufactured in-line, it
is possible to print on both the back side of
the label (if it is going to be stuck to a
window, for example), and on the face of the
liner. So, all we had to do was print the
Return Shipping Instructions on the face of the
liner behind the Shipping label. This way,
once the box is packed, the shipping label is
removed from the liner and placed on the outer
carton. The Return Labels are situated
beside the Shipping Label on the form, so that
when the Shipping Label is removed, the
instructions on what to do with the Return
Labels are exposed. The instructions
therefore take up no space on the form, because
the Patterned Adhesive allows us to print on the
liner material itself.
Conclusion:
By solving the four problems outlined above,
Relyco was able to save JJill thousands of
dollars each year, make their employees’ jobs
easier, reduce the number of product returns,
repair their relationship with the Post Office,
eliminate an entire line of printers and their
respective consumables, and improve their
corporate image. Executives at JJill
readily acknowledge that although this project
did indeed save them considerable sums of money,
the importance of the problems that it solved
made the project worthwhile even if the end
result had been a more expensive form.
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