New machine helps service bureau increase productivity up to 90 percent on certain plastic card jobs

Entrusted with printing and mailing more than 11 million customized American Automobile Association (AAA) membership cards every year, Ancor Information Management prides itself on a culture of quality and customer satisfaction. The company’s dependability is evident through the 3,500 jobs processed annually, 90 percent with a 48-hour turnaround. Their accuracy and efficiency has also produced a 99.7 percent on-time delivery rate for AAA mailings.

Based out of Troy, Mich., Ancor became an independent company in 1986 after operating as a subsidiary of American Natural Resources Co. for three years. The company is a diversified services organization offering a variety of customer communications and information management solutions such as personalized print and mail, statement processing, electronic bill presentment and payment, data capture and mining, and Web-based customer communications.

“We’re the largest non-secured printer in our region for outsourced projects,” said Kelly Colohan, director of the Membership Business Unit. “We currently represent 36 automobile clubs and also print over a million membership cards for other organizations.” 

From backup to first-string

Colohan and his team were originally looking for a backup card mailing machine when they spotted Bell and Howell's Plastic Card System (PCS) at a trade show. Although their existing card machine had served them well for a number of years, they wanted to have another system on standby should their primary machine experience a major malfunction. Impressed with the PCS system’s demonstrated capabilities, Ancor placed an order and took delivery in December 2005.

“The PCS had some functionality we didn’t have,” said Colohan. “We wanted to explore health care as a growth area and definitely saw the advantages of having the Bell and Howell machine do that work. After seeing the PCS system’s speed and quality processing, it didn’t take long for us to start thinking of it as our primary machine.”

Among the features that most impressed Colohan was the PCS system’s card-reading capabilities. The PCS system can identify a wide array of codes such as 1D or 2D barcodes, contact or contact-less chips, magnetic stripe and optical character recognition (OCR).

Colohan also cited the PCS system’s “superior” camera system for OCR and its ability to divert problems and continue running, as opposed to other machines that are very linear in design and that require shutting down to address problems.

The PCS system can accommodate a wide variety of document format processing, including 1-up and 2-up formats, letter, legal or 11” x 17” as cut-sheets or continuous web. The machine also provides numerous folding, inserting and delivery options, while providing a detailed audit report of what cards were mailed and when. The PCS system can integrate with automatic booklet makers, mail inserters, and various monochrome and color printers using its Doculink or Weblink modules.

Increased productivity and opportunity

Colohan has been pleased with the speed and quality of the PCS system since it was installed in January 2006. On one- and two-card applications, he claims their PCS system is running about 35 to 40 percent faster than Ancor’s previous card machine. On three- and four-card applications, Colohan has seen an astounding increase in productivity of around 80 to 90 percent. The PCS system has cycle speeds of up to 8,000 cards per hour.

The PCS system is currently processing AAA membership cards and other health care jobs, while providing Ancor with the confidence to pursue additional work.

The PCS system is currently processing AAA membership cards and other health care jobs, while providing Ancor with the confidence to pursue additional work. “I’ve got a quote out on a job for 8 million cards that we probably wouldn’t have gone after previously,” Colohan stated. “One advantage of this machine is the ‘wow factor’ it elicits when we show it to potential customers. It’s very impressive to see in operation.”

As Ancor’s growing health care business involves production of an extremely high number of membership cards within a short time frame to meet calendar-year enrollments, the flexibility and reliability of the PCS system has given them confidence to take on such intensive jobs.

Reliable products and service

Bell and Howell's Plastic Card System enjoys a good reputation among plastic card issuers. Currently, six out of ten banks and financial institutions that issue plastic cards use the PCS.

Colohan reports that while Ancor is still gathering performance metrics, so far they have not experienced any significant down time. He also lauds the availability and professionalism of their local Bell and Howell service representative, who is always ready if needed. Backed by a field service staff of more than 1,100 professionals, Bell and Howell is uniquely qualified to provide service on mailroom and office equipment throughout North America.

“As with any high-volume equipment, we do have some minor outages on occasion,” said Colohan, “but our local Bell and Howell service rep has been very good to work with.”

As Ancor continues to expand its business, the PCS system has become an integral part of its operations. “We sell ourselves on quality,” added Colohan. “The reason we made this investment was to bring a higher quality product to market, and we’ve achieved that goal.”