PackagingManager™

Packaging Manager's Pub's Tab

The premier package planning tool in use today and successfully deployed at over 50 major production facilities throughout North America, the BURT PackagingManager™ gathers the necessary production information from Circulation, Advertising, Transportation and Packaging, and represents the missing piece in the packaging and distribution puzzle.

Key Benefits

• Proven design
• Full-featured functionality
• Web-based access

Key Features

• Circulation Interface

Circulation Draw is imported from any circulation system, down to the carrier route level, through a standard file interchange specification, thus allowing all functions to be performed with the most up-to-date circulation quantities.

• Order Entry

Central to the system is the ability to record the precise zoning and routing desired for inserts within a publication, even down to the carrier route level, for both customer-supplied and press products. While ad zones are the norm, support exists for targeting individual ad routes or for configuring alternate zones that may be geographic or demographic in nature. When targeting areas of distribution, ad zones, alternate zones and ad routes may be combined and defined as inclusions or exclusions to satisfy the ever-evolving needs of the advertising customer.

Fill Priorities allow a customer’s preference for handling variances in available preprint stock — either shortages or overages — to be respected. In the event of insufficient preprint stock to satisfy the routing, ad routes may be selectively targeted to not receive the preprint. In the event of a surplus, remainder zones or additional areas of distribution may be targeted to receive the preprint, provided production problems with the piece do not arise.

• Package Assignment

Allows an inserts distribution, or portion thereof, to be assigned to the package of your choice.

The sophisticated "Build Prepack by Zone" utility can make creating even the most confusing Sunday package a snap.

• Inventory & Receiving

Support for skid-level inventory of both incoming preprint stock and completed product.

Support is included for rack storage systems.

Optional support for radio-frequency, hand-held barcode readers is available and allows inventory movement records to be generated so that the precise location of an individual skid is known at all times.

Optional support for the process of creating and maintaining receipts associated with preprint versions from multiple unique BURT System databases in one BURT System application is available.

• Bundle & Unitizing

PackagingManager calculates bundle sizes based upon established user-defined rules. The system calculates unitizing specifications (number of bundles per skid, cart, etc.) and fully supports disparate loading units within an individual package.

• Production Planning Options

These configurable options allow the packaging process to be based upon either expected preprint stock or actual on-hand inventory. Production may be prioritized by any or a combination of methods, with the requirements allocated to the available shifts and machines participating in the production plan. Restrictions, be they preprint, truck, trip, product type, class of sale, etc., can be expressed to ensure the proper assignment of production quantities to the machines on the production plan.

Sample Packet Chart

• Statistics

Statistics from Packaging, Production and Advertising perspectives are preserved for historical reporting. Advertising can easily track purchasing and volume trends over weeks, months and years. Packaging can see the cost and productivity information for any inserting machine, shift, machine operator, package or publication.

• Reports

The BURT System contains a plethora of standard reports that satisfy all perspectives.

Reporting capabilities can be significantly enhanced by implementing the optional BURT ReportManager module which affords access to all packaging, distribution and staffing data through state-of-the-art OLAP tools. A complete business intelligence toolkit, BURT ReportManager, is customizable and scalable and may be seamlessly integrated with other technologies such as Lotus Notes® and Microsoft® BackOffice®.