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Case Study

Marine Corps Institute

America's modern military relies on cutting-edge technology and top-notch training for its personnel - and a key group of military trainers has come to depend on top civilian technology from Pitney Bowes to keep up with demand for its services.

The Marine Corps Institute (MCI), the center for occupational training and continuing education programs within the U.S. Marine Corps, recently completed the installation of a Pitney Bowes system that allows 24-hour turnaround on orders that used to take days or even weeks to fulfill.

The new MCI shipping system ensures that order fulfillment no longer keeps Marines in the field waiting longer than necessary, said Capt. Stephens. "Every order that we receive, without exception, goes out the next day."

The many duties of the Marine Corps Institute include distributing books and other printed materials all over the world, for use by Marines pursuing educational requirements and opportunities through correspondence courses and distance-learning programs. On any given day, MCI receives roughly 2,000 orders for course materials, ranging from requests for the large stacks of books used in officers' career education programs to relatively slim "red books" detailing proper usage and care instructions for weapons and other pieces of equipment.

To process all those orders, the Marine Corps Institute maintains the Marine Corps' second-largest postal operation, staffed by 28 Marines and two civilians. Even so, said Capt. Stephens, until the implementation of the Pitney Bowes system earlier this year, the order volume and a system that required outbound shipments to be hand-sorted according to ZIP code sometimes overwhelmed the dedicated personnel.

To illustrate the problem, Capt. Stephens recalled his own experience while stationed in the Pacific, prior to landing his MCI assignment. After ordering a set of officers' training books, he waited more than three months for delivery, he said. "When they finally arrived, I'd been reassigned and I wasn't even in Okinawa anymore."

The new system combines Pitney Bowes's Ascent™ shipping management software with an automated selection, sorting and conveyor system designed by Glen Road Systems, Inc. (GRSI), a Pitney Bowes alliance partner since 1996. Orders received through postal mail or the MCI Web site are fed into Ascent, which then directs the system to retrieve materials from one or both warehouse sections of the MCI post office to fulfill the order. Ascent automatically generates shipping labels for each order, and bar-code readers assist in sorting all shipments by ZIP code and in verifying that order contents are correct and complete.

One of the challenges Pitney Bowes and GRSI had to overcome to set up the new MCI shipping system was fitting the sophisticated conveyor/scanner hardware into the MCI logistics center. The historic Navy Yard building was categorically not designed to house a state-of-the-art shipping management system. Space considerations had necessitated MCI to store its inventory in two separate sections of the building - one for textbooks and other materials that must be shipped as small parcels, and another for the "red books" and other materials that can be shipped in pouches or smaller packages.

Pitney Bowes and GRSI's designers nevertheless devised a serpentine, multi-level conveyor track system and sorting carousel that links the separate warehouse areas within inside the relatively small space. The system fully supports the common need to combine materials from both warehouses in a single shipment.

The new Pitney Bowes shipping management system has provided welcome relief for the staff of the MCI logistics center, eliminating backlogs and freeing staff members to do more of the other official duties that fall to MCI personnel - serving as ceremonial honor guard and parade staff at official White House events.

But the biggest benefit of the new system, said Capt. Stephens, is the way it benefits Marines on assignment around the globe, including those in combat duty. "There's no question about it," he said. "The Pitney Bowes system is definitely making things better for Marines in combat right now."