Intelligent Buhrs packaging solutions improve
efficiency at Japanese (non-store operations)
specialist PAL System Coop
Case study
PAL / March 2014
Business Case Summary
PAL System Coop is a consumers’ Cooperative Union that delivers goods and
food to some 780,000 members of its
home delivery service every week.
Together with their weekly delivery,
members receive a customized mail pack
containing a personal selection of
brochures and leaflets and an order form
they can use for next week’s shopping
list.
Already operating four Buhrs systems for
many years, PAL System Coop decided
to replace two of these systems –
installed in 2000 – with two new state-ofthe-art intelligent Buhrs 3000 packaging
solutions.
The systems – fully customized to further
improve operator ergonomics – are
capable of putting together a selection of
up to 26 different items in one run, by
using a gathering section with selective
feeders. Both systems are equipped with
highly intelligent Buhrs Data Controller
software.
Improve accuracy, reliability and
efficiency
The Pal System Consumer’s Cooperative
Union was established in 1977 as a cooperative with a mission: ‘to improve the
living culture of union members’. In 1990,
a ‘Personal Delivery System’ program
was started by some of the Coop-groups.
Today, the PAL System Coop operates
as a mail-order company that delivers
goods and food to members in Tokyo and
nine other prefectures on a weekly basis.
Out of a total of 1,370,000 members,
some 900,000 subscribe to the program
with 780,000 members actively using it
every week.
“The mail pack will also contain a
personal selection of up to 20
brochures and leaflets.”
Although an internet-based ordering
system – ‘On-line PAL’ – was introduced
in 2001, and members can also buy the
products at retail PAL shops in town, PAL
System puts great effort in sending out
printed mail packs together with the
weekly home deliveries. Mr. Atsushi
Ishida, Executive Director explains: “A
typical mail pack consists of a series of
personalized documents: a statement of
the ordered products, an invoice (once a
month) and an order form for next week’s
shopping list. Customers could also
receive a reminder concerning any
unpaid invoices, and twice a year a
seasonal gift order form will be included.”
“The mail pack will also contain a
personal selection of up to 20 brochures
and leaflets.
Buhrs B.V.
Vredeweg 7 • 1505 HH Zaandam • The Netherlands • T +31 (0) 75 7990600 • F +31 (0) 75 7990610 • E info@buhrs.com • www.buhrs.com
VAT no. NL 8228.84.811.B.01 • Chamber of Commerce – nr. 50717529 • IBAN NL23 ING B0653 6594 23 • BIC INGBNL2A
This selection is based on database
analyses and profiling customers by order
behaviour, age and family structure.
People can order via the Internet or by
sending back the paper order form – in
which case the information is fed into the
ordering system using OCR-technology.”
“The reliability of the systems has
been proven in the past 13 years.”
PAL System Coop installed its first Buhrs
systems in the year 2000. Today, it
employs four such systems to ensure a
smooth and secure production of all its
mail packs. As the organization manages
to grow its membership base (from
around 1 million members in 2005 to its
current 1,37 million members) and plans
to achieve an annual 3 per cent growth
for the next five years, it needs to keep its
operation up to date. That is why it
decided to replace the two oldest systems
by two new state-of-the-art mail systems.
Choosing Buhrs as the provider for these
new systems was the obvious choice,
says Mr. Ishida “The reliability of the
systems has been proven in the past 13
years. Plus, Buhrs delivers a very good
after sales service.”
“This is truly a very large project and an
important investment”, says Mr. Koichi
Kobayashi (MD-Buhrs Japan K.K.). “PAL
System Coop is planning to run the
existing application on the new systems
and could therefor order a dedicated
system that exactly fits their needs and at
the same time enables them to increase
productivity, reduce waste and optimize
quality control. The customer insisted on
a more user-friendly overall design to
improve operator ergonomics. Also, our
new and advanced Buhrs Database
Controller (BDC) was to be included to
ensure high accuracy, reliability and
efficiency.”
“By sharing experience and expertise
with our customer, we were able to
build a highly dedicated solution.”
Building a highly dedicated solution
PAL System Coop has been running the
‘Personal Delivery’ application for many
years on Buhrs equipment already.
“However, these systems do not use the
Buhrs Database Controller yet”, says Mr.
Arjan De Vries, Buhrs’ Engineering
Manager. “This time, we are able to offer
our complete solution. And that gave us
the opportunity to fine-tune both hardware
and software for this customer and this
specific application. By sharing
experience and expertise with our
customer, we were able to build a highly
dedicated solution.”
The two new Buhrs 3000 systems have
the same configuration, offering a
gathering section of 21 selective feeders.
On request of the customer, this complete
section has been lowered to allow the
operators better access to the units, says
Mr. De Vries: “Additionally, this section of
these systems has been built
asymmetrically to make it even easier to
fill up the feeders with printed materials.”
A line of five feeder units has been placed
at a right angle with respect to the rest of
the system. This not only reduced the
total length of the system (still stretching
an impressive 36 meters) but, more
importantly, allows for a series of
lightweight inserts to be collated before
joining the central lug chain. Mr. De Vries:
“In this way, we reduce downtime that
paper jams from these units could cause.”
Next in line are 5 system channels,
feeding up to five personalized
documents to the matching mail pack that
has been put together selectively. Every
individual set is then film wrapped and
sealed, ready to be sent out together with
this weeks’ delivery of the ordered food
and goods.
Every pack has to be right
The application has no need for inline
printers, as all materials (including the
personalized documents) for the mail
packs are pre-printed. “That also means
there is no room for mistakes and every
pack has to be right. You can’t restore
any mistakes by reprinting items inline.
This demand for a ‘zero defect’ operation
was the biggest challenge we faced: at
the end of the line, every pack needs to
be perfect.”
“The system also constantly knows
the exact position of each and every
individual mail pack during the
operation.”
As it is impossible to rule out malfunctions
during gathering completely on systems
as large as these, the solution lays in
constant monitoring and providing
operators with clear information in case of
any failure, explains Mr. De Vries: “Our
Controller allows us to monitor every
feeder and detect any missing or double
delivery of printed materials. The system
also constantly knows the exact position
of each and every individual mail pack
during the operation. In this way, it can
clearly indicate on two large screens to
the operator where the failure occurred
and what needs to be done to repair the
mistake – for example: ‘brochure 13 is
missing in the mail pack currently on
position 45’ – and get the production
started again. By making this information
available in a very transparent way,
downtime is reduced to a minimum and
every mail pack has the right content.”
Additionally, inspection cameras control
the flow of the personalized documents
on the five system channels, making sure
that the right information reaches the right
person.
Integration of hardware and software
Building an integrated solution of
hardware and software also allowed
Buhrs to implement other new features,
says Mr. De Vries: “For instance, we have
now introduced new functionality to the
packaging module, where mail packs are
film wrapped and sealed. In standard
operations, we need a series of dummyproducts at the start-up and at the end of
each run to keep the film-module
occupied with items to wrap and seal.
Now that we monitor the entire system by
our Buhrs Database Controller, we are
able to keep the film-module from running
until the moment the line is filled with
actual products that need to be wrapped
and sealed. We only need 7 or 8 dummyproducts, instead of some 60 pieces, to
get a new production running at full
speed. This saves on printed materials
and film, and reduces waste and time.
Although this new functionality was not
specifically requested by the customer, it
proved to be highly appreciated.”
True partnership
In July 2013, representatives of PAL
System Coop travelled to the Buhrs
headquarters in The Netherlands for a
Factory Acceptance Test. During a threeday session, the complete system was
put to the test to make sure the
application was running as required
before shipping the two systems to
Japan. Mr. De Vries: “By working together
with our customer’s experts and building
on their experience in running this
application, the test was completed
successfully. This is always an important
moment for us, because we need to be
absolutely sure everything is exactly
right.” To ensure a smooth start-up of
both systems at the actual production site
in Japan, Mr. De Vries will be at PAL
System Coop for two weeks to give
technical support.
Mr. Kobayashi emphasizes the
importance of true partnership in large
projects like this: “Why did PAL System
Coop again choose Buhrs as its solution
provider? It is all about trust, quality,
sustainability and our ability to
understand and work with the customer to
develop a perfectly fitting solution.”
Buhrs is partner to postal organisations,
publishers, printers, binders, mailing houses,
letter shops, banks, service bureaus,
insurance
companies, fulfillment companies and many
other businesses, from medium-sized to large
and leading. With a large installed base
Buhrs is wellestablished and proud of its reputation for
quality and reliability.
Headquartered in Zaandam - The
Netherlands, Buhrs has a network of
subsidiaries in the United States and, Japan,
as well as industry-qualified distributors to
provide global coverage.
Buhrs' long history goes back more than 100
years. Buhrs has been a subsidiary of Value8
(www.value8.com), listed at the NYSE
Exchange Amsterdam, since 2010 and is part
of the Value8 Tech Group
About Buhrs
Buhrs is a leading worldwide provider of
mailing and fulfillment solutions. The
company develops, manufactures, sells and
services systems for poly and paper wrapping
and fulfillment.
Buhrs systems prepare media products, such
as magazines, newspapers, documents,
direct mail products, books, videos, compact
discs and cards, for distribution. Buhrs
systems perform the following functions:
collating (in- and onserting), addressing
(inkjet or label), wrapping (in poly or paper),
back-end sorting and stacking.
Buhrs provides software solutions for
database connections, read and print, closed
loop, integrated systems control, production
management and mailroom management.
Buhrs systems can be equipped with reading
and verification devices, such as bar code
scanners, OMR readers and cameras.
Value8 and Value8 Tech Group
Value8 is a company investing in medium
large companies, aiming for long term growth
and shareholder value.
Within Value8, The Value8 Tech Group
represents a group of technical companies
(GNSBrinkman – Fire door & Shutters
solutions, Axess - Lift Solutions and HaakProduction and Engineering Solutions),
providing centralized management, financial
structure and operational support to
safeguard short delivery times.
The company focuses on the wrapping &
packaging market and delivers safety & entry
solutions.
More information
On this or other customer cases:
info@buhrs.com
www.buhrs.com