How I Plan to Embrace the Future of Print with APTech
When APTech announced it was accepting nominations for its Board of Directors (BOD), I was honored to be nominated. When I was informed that I would be joining the Board (pending ratification by the members at PRINT 19), I started making a list of industry issues I hear about from our employees, clients, and business […]
IWCO Direct “Postal Nerd” Kurt Ruppel Adds “EMA Member of the Year” to His Resume
The annual EMA Spring Meeting is like a family reunion with all your favorite relatives in one special place. The theme of this year’s meeting, “Expanding the Possibilities,” telegraphs what EMA does best. It recognizes challenges, conducts economic and trends research to help members understand those challenges, and provides a forum to help […]
Project Uptime Enhances Our Personalization Operations
At the end of March, Robert Clark, Manager of Digital Print Operations, attended the Lean & Six Sigma World Conference, where our Project Uptime initiative was up for the LSS Project of the Year award. Although we didn’t win, it makes it easier to swallow knowing who our winning competition was―the Dr. Pepper Snapple […]
Get the Download on drupa 2016
Every four years something truly inspiring and transformational happens. Can you guess what it is? No, I’m not talking about the presidential elections or the Olympics. I’m referring to drupa, the world’s largest trade show dedicated to print technologies, which gathers the most forward-thinking and influential […]
Graph Expo 14 Dazzles with Interactive Print & New Finishing Technologies
Last week IWCO Direct sent a diverse team of operations leaders, content development specialists and marketers to Graph Expo, the premier North American graphic communications show. Our goal was to meet with key suppliers and check out the latest technology trends. The exhibit hall was a bit smaller this year than it has been […]
PRINT 13 Recap: Five Days of Digital
Every four years the print industry convenes for one of its biggest events. This year’s rendition, PRINT 13, was held Sept. 8-12 at McCormick Place in Chicago. I had the privilege of attending and representing IWCO Direct with several colleagues including Frank Boncore, Director of Mailing Operations in Hamburg, Doug Brustad, Manufacturing Operations Manager, and […]
The Lessons We’ve Learned About Lean Manufacturing Principles
After nearly four years of implementing Lean Manufacturing principles at IWCO Direct, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, the positive impact Lean has had for us and our customers, and share some advice we’d give to others who are just beginning their own Lean Journey. What are some […]
Lean Journey Continues at 2013 Continuous Improvement Conference
Our Lean Journey has been well documented, and as promised, we’d like to update you further on our progress. The latest stop on the road to meeting our efficiency goals was attending the 2013 Continuous Improvement Conference held in Indianapolis and sponsored by the Printing Industries of America. My colleagues Paul Overn, Russ Palm, […]
Value Stream Mapping: IWCO Direct and King Solutions Work Together to Provide Consistent and Predictable Delivery
Efficiency is crucial to our business because consistent and predictable delivery is central to our customers’ ability to provide personal, relevant and timely offers. Our efficiency has long been driven by Lean Manufacturing – the process of eliminating wasted time and resources from the production process through steps like Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Now our […]
Lean Journey Recap Part 2: Goals for 2013
On Monday we posted Part 1 of our Lean Journey Recap, which focused on the key achievements we made this year toward our Lean Manufacturing goals as we continuously pursue becoming more efficient for our customers’ benefit. Now that the new year is almost upon us we decided to write the last chapter in […]