The US Postal Service is to install new mail sorting equipment that will improve service whilst reducing costs.
This technology successfully boosted postal efficiencies in the processing, distribution, and delivery of letter mail. The new system will soon be applied to the sorting of “flats” – large envelopes, magazines, catalogues, and circulars.
Known as the Flats Sequencing System (FSS), the equipment is designed to sequence flat mail at a rate of approximately 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled to operate seventeen hours per day, each machine will be capable of sequencing 280,500 pieces per day to more than 125,000 delivery addresses.
Phase I of the program calls for an initial order of 100 FSS machines to be deployed to 33 postal facilities beginning in the summer of 2008.
A prototype FSS was installed earlier this year at the Indianapolis Mail Processing Annex, where it was tested sorting mail in delivery sequence for carriers in that area. A full-size pre-production machine will be installed at the Dulles, Virginia mail processing facility, where it will operate six days a week for a one-year period (August 2007 to July 2008).
As this test proceeds, the USPS will study and measure the system’s effect on downstream transportation, logistics, work methods, and other long lead-time activities required to support deployment in 2008.
According to Walt O’Tormey, vice president of engineering, delivery remains the postal service’s biggest cost, accounting for 43% of all expenses.
“That, combined with costs to serve almost two million new addresses each year, means we must pursue every opportunity to improve our efficiency and the service we provide to our customers,” said O’Tormey
