Time-to-Market is Essential in Envelope Production

At Parkland Direct, we are always looking for ways to improve productivity and turnaround time. In our business, time-to-market is vital to quality customer service! Consequently, after assessing our manufacturing procedure and efficiency levels, we decided to take another significant step toward enhancing production by removing our last envelope die-cutter, thereby bringing the process in-line.

Although some view it as a necessary part of manufacturing, die-cutting is the greatest bottleneck in litho envelope production. As you know, striving for consistent time and efficiency at a high volume is essential to staying relevant in the direct mail world. Therefore, our R&D team went to work and successfully developed a process to entirely remove the need for off-line die-cutting!

Traditional litho-print flat sheet envelope manufacturing is time-consuming and requires a multistep process:

• Sheets are printed

• Printed material is moved to an envelope converting facility (often at another location)

• Die-cutter is set up

• Sheets are loaded into the die-cutter (mostly by hand)

• The die-cutting process is executed

• The waste caused by die-cutting is thrown out (by hand)

• Die-cut envelopes are unloaded and stacked by hand

• Stacks are moved to the machine to be folded into envelopes
  

However, our in-line process is much more streamlined to gain valuable time and better productivity:

• Product is printed and rewound

• Printed material is taken to the machine to be folded
  

Typically, die-cutting requires wrapping the art 1/8” on both the top and bottom of the envelope (1/4” total) due to the sheets of paper being pulled in one direction or the other when cutting. However, by removing the die-cutting process, we no longer need bleeds at all, which allows art to cross over from the flap to the back of the envelope permitting images to extend completely to the edge and improving efficiency!

Additionally, die-cutting requires a very expensive high-die and storage for all the different sizes, not to mention the steep cost of maintaining the equipment and providing regular sharpening of all the stored dies.

Although die-cutting is sometimes referred to as an “art,” paying for all that wasted movement is not practical or reasonable for our customers. If you prefer benefitting from an efficient, consistent, innovative, in-line system that produces timely, superior quality, cost-effective envelopes, we are ready and willing to assist you in meeting your business needs!

To find out more on how we can assist you with exceptional litho envelopes for your next direct marketing campaign please contact us today!