Reduce, reuse, recycle

Check Printers got a 430% return on its investment in plastic containers, eliminating corrugated boxes.

By By Noël P. Bodenburg, Managing Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2006

It's not often a project delivers a financial payback within nine months. But that's what Check Printers banked when it moved from corrugated boxes to plastic containers.

After adding 7,000 returnable plastic containers (ORBIS, 800-999-8683) to its facility, Check Printers cashed in on a return on investment of more than 430% during their five-year service life.

Check Printers, a 40-year-old, Nashville-based operation, manufactures and prints 38 million standard business-sized envelopes a year. It also supplies the financial industry with the printing and mailing of monthly statements and reply envelopes.

The containers holding all those envelopes travel from manufacturing, to storage, to production. Before using returnable containers, Check Printers relied on corrugated boxes. But it wasn't cheap—the boxes cost an estimated $69,282 annually. And, that system also required personnel to break down the boxes and bail them for recycling.

The move to returnable containers "provided us with an economical packaging solution for our materials handling system, which resulted in financial benefits and operational efficiencies," said Check Printers' materials manager Tony Thomas. His background in the automotive industry included use of returnable containers and the benefits.

But beyond dollars and cents, moving to a system of reusable containers provided the printer with additional benefits. With plastic containers, employees would no longer have to work with box cutters—improving safety on the floor.

In addition, the new containers have handles—improving handling and offering employees a more ergonomic work environment.

Efficiency was also improved because each plastic container now accommodates 1,200 envelopes. The stacks of boxes are more stable and workspaces are free of miscellaneous materials. When palletized, now 79,200 envelopes can be stored.

Once the program was implemented at the facility, Check Printers was able to expand the use of its containers to regional suppliers to ship and store the product, cutting costs even further.