The company SAZ Services GmbH in Garbsen / Germany expands its in-house production and relies on a new fully automatic MB Bäuerle folding system with mailing components.
For more than 40 years SAZ has established itself as an international developer and supplier of industrial solutions for marketing and sales, direct marketing services and address databases. Particular emphasis is placed on customer acquisition and customer relationship management.
The direct marketing services of the SAZ-Group include customer advisory services, the development and implementation of multi-channel campaigns, the analysis and prognosis of customer attitudes, fulfilment, telecare and a wide range of services in connection with address updates and validation. The CRM System smartBASE® developed by SAZ comprises up to 220 individual pieces of information for each address and can, for example, be used for creating customer profiles or screening address lists. Date security is a high priority for the company. For more than 10 years SAZ has been working with its own call center software which is hosted in-house. This prevents the misuse of data, because all customer data are available to SAZ and there is no need to export them to external call centers. The customers are primarily based in the German-speaking countries and come from different industries. The focus is placed on the care for target groups from the non-profit sector respectively fundraising, consignors, publishing houses as well as companies with customer loyalty programs.
To meet future challenges of the market, SAZ has decided to introduce technical improvements in the lettershop department at its Garbsen location by adding news solutions in the field of data-driven print. “This allows us to react even faster and to be more flexible. Transport routes are also reduced, which has a positive influence on the environmental balance in the form of lower CO2 emissions”, describes Karsten Klemm, Manager Commercial Systems, the initial position. For this reason two new cut sheet printing systems have recently been installed. “The products and their visual imagery have been more individual, this leads to a significant reduction of the individual print runs while the number of the campaigns is growing“, explains Karsten Klemm. Therefore a folding system was needed in the field of print finishing which offers a high degree of automation and also considers the peculiarities of the products to be handled. After comparing the offers from several manufacturers, a decision was made in favour of the fully automatic folding system prestigeFOLD NET 52 from MB Bäuerle.
The folding machine is equipped with six fold plates in the first and second fold unit. “The prestigeFOLD is a great help when the despatch has to take place at a specific date. We are now able to run different jobs simultaneously with the printing systems and to finish them soon afterwards. Thanks to the integrated job memory and the solutions for automation it no problem to interrupt jobs with larger volumes and to squeeze in smaller folding jobs“, explains Bernd Rump, who is responsible for the lettershop department, his experience with the new folding machine. At SAZ all formats and jobs which occur frequently are stored in an internal memory. In connection with the complete automation this leads to a considerable reduction of set-up times, because all important elements from the feeder to the delivery are set automatically to the chosen type of fold by simply pushing a button.
Another criteria in the investment decision was to produce special applications on the basis of certain specifications, such as producing a cover letter with a transfer form inside. For this application it is necessary to install a gate fold plate in position five. After the fold in the first and second fold unit, rotary edge trimming takes place in the second fold unit so that the transfer form is detached. “MB Bäuerle was the only manufacturer with a coherent concept. In connection with the solutions for automation we are now able to create a substantial added value in our lettershop department. The simple operation of the machine also makes it easier for new staff who do not have the necessary bookbinding know-how to work with the folding machine. This means more flexibility”, adds Bernd Rump. In addition to the folding machine SAZ has also invested in a vacuum belt with hot glue system which can be used together with the folding system. “This enables us to increase the production of self-mailers and to try new things so that we can offer our customers even more creative solutions“, gives Karsten Klemm an exciting outlook into the future.
Caption:
Convinced by the fully automatic machine concept: Karsten Klemm, Jens Jacobsen (MB Bäuerle Sales Representative for Northern Germany) and Bernd Rump (from the right).
