Case Study: Physicians Mutual

• Lowered department costs by 28% in staff reallocation efficiency and 7% in production costs

• Boosted employee and customer satisfaction

• 15-20% efficiency gains by automating job tickets

• 98% time-savings running reports with Avanti Slingshot™: from one hour to one minute

• Automated processes save the Master Scheduler two hours daily or 25%

• WebCRD™ cut service level time by 14%, from seven days to six days so they could sell more and complete jobs faster

• Saves hundreds of hours per year with RICOH ProcessDirector™

• Operating hours decreased by 56% with modern, continuous feed printers

Covering the entire print workflow process, Avanti Slingshot™ was a main driver in transforming the in-plant business. The team has visibility of their work-in-process, which allows them to meet SLA requirements at expected levels. Chargeback and other reporting (such as employee utilization and productivity) were reduced by hours.

Avanti Slingshot also limited redundant processes, data entry, and record retention. French explained that it used to take the Master Scheduler two hours to walk the floor each day to inquire about each job status. Now, he receives real-time data at his desk, increasing efficiency and accelerating orders.

The platform significantly reduced manual touchpoints for mailings, decreased production time, and expedited premium processing. With increased efficiency, 28% or 30 employees were reallocated to focus on higher-value work. Not only did employee job satisfaction improve but customers experienced expedited delivery of their orders.

RICOH ProcessDirector™ saves Physicians Mutual hundreds of hours annually due to faster pre- and post-press processing, better collaboration with the Marketing team in creating perf recipes and image overlays, and the ability to automatically select samples for marketing review — all contributing to major cost savings. Customers are getting speedy deliveries with more productive employees. Automating processes and creating a better infrastructure allows Physicians Mutual to be more flexible, scalable, and adaptable in any economic downturn, labor shortage, new product offering, or unforeseen changes.

Over 700 agents now use the WebCRD™ platform to place their orders. By automating the ordering process, Physicians Mutual only needs two people monitoring jobs, a process that used to be accomplished by seven staff.

The continuous feed printers also streamline operations by allowing in-plant hours to change from being open 24 to 10.5 hours, requiring fewer shifts and overhead. The new printers increased output by 2.5X from 23,000 to 55,000 pages per minute. ROI was quick, quality was enhanced, and employees had a better work-life balance. “All of our Ricoh printers have paid off themselves,” stated George.

“We’re incredibly grateful to our Ricoh team — from sales and service to support — it’s been an incredible journey and a true partnership,” said George. “Employees are our biggest asset and engagement is key to success. We still have a lot to accomplish but our long-term vision is paying off.”

To learn more about our print workflow automation services, managed print service benefits, and process optimization, request an assessment here.