In 1991, Chubb & Son spent nearly $7 million on outside printing. Every insurance company's business is forms-driven, but every policy written meant money spent on printing and storage costs. It had 54 million printed pages in inventory—materials covering everything from employee training manuals to magazine reprints to marketing collateral to documents detailing coverage options for clients and policyholder contracts.

The Client
	Chubb & Son, a premier provider of property and casualty insurance coverage worldwide, is a division of the Federal Insurance Company. The Federal Insurance Company is a component of the Chubb Corporation, the 22nd largest diversified financial organization in the United States with annual revenues of more than $6 billion and assets totaling $20 billion.

Chubb needed to reduce the money spent on printing, staffing, and leasing warehouse space, as well as the enormous amount of staff time devoted simply to managing paper. For example, a Learning and Development trainer who wanted materials shipped to a branch would have filled out two, or possibly three, separate forms. One form would have requisitioned pre-printed items stored in a warehouse. Another form, addressed to the electronic printing facility, would have requested print-on-demand documents. The Print Purchasing group might have received yet another requisition for unstocked items ordered on-request or provided by vendors. Worse yet, facilities were located 20 miles apart, and a day could be lost simply in shipping between facilities. The resulting fulfillment problems were leading employees to order more forms than they needed to ensure they had an adequate supply. Chubb was wasting money producing and shipping forms that became obsolete before they were needed, and staff time was being drained by processing chores.

Next Page