Features/Benefits Provided: Improved delivery and version accuracy to inserters and collators Increased delivery accuracy to distribution centers Reduced storage space for pallets of inserts

A national newspaper company (circulation over 600,000 Daily and 1,000,000 Sunday) needed to retool their mailroom facilities. Their current material handling equipment was obsolete and posed a constant threat to meeting deadlines. This situation was coupled with a need to grow revenues by increased micro-zoning of advertisements and enhanced proof of delivery accountability for advertisers.

To achieve project goals, this newspaper teamed with multiple suppliers to design a modern, mailroom-centric material handling system that utilized bundle and pallet handling as its core process. To provide overall mailroom supervisory system control and integration among the material handling systems, the newspaper partnered with the supplier's material tracking and control (MTC) software and automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS).

The two-aisle, high density storage system uses freestanding rack, each containing a storage retrieval machine (SRM). The double deep racks allow the SRMs to store two loads in an opening. The multi-floor, multi-facility campus site poses unique challenges in tracking advertiser inserts (FSI), press product (ROP) and completed packages. Using radio frequency (RF) equipment, MTC's insert manager module directs operators and tracks FSI. MTC users have real-time, enterprise-wide inventory views of all FSI and ROP campus wide pallet moves. High density storage provides the capacity and selectivity of over 4,000 pallets in an extremely small building footprint.

The production of Sunday collated packages required a combination of buffer storage and just-in-time delivery of inserts to the collators. Using RF scanning and barcodes, MTC package manager directs operators to deliver pallets to the appropriate scheduled dock door or staging area.

is a Proud Member of the AS/RS Product Section of Material Handling Industry of America

P. O. Box 1512
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1512
Toll Free: 1-800-HKSYSTEMS
hkinfo@hksystems.com
www.hksystems.com