Delivery Direct Traffic Re-Engineering

[POSTMAN]

12LTB050 Date: 27th January 2012


To: All Postal Branches with Postal Members
Postal Divisional Representatives
Area Processing Representatives
Area Delivery Representatives



Dear Colleague

Delivery Direct Traffic Re-Engineering –
Revised Direct Traffic Measurement Core Standards/Procedures

Branches and Representatives will be aware of a number of concerns being raised by Bob Gibson, Assistant Secretary Outdoor, regarding the presentation and measurement of Delivery Direct Traffic. Originally inadequacies and concerns were raised by local Birmingham CWU representatives, Neil Lambert and Scott McGeough, in regard to the presentation and accurate traffic recording numbers of direct mail going into Delivery Offices.

Delivery Direct traffic is traffic that in some Mail Centres is referred to as Delivery Traffic Re-engineering (DTRE). It can be in bags or trays of mail that are labelled direct to the Delivery Office. The shortcomings identified by this initiative were that large letter bundles were loose loaded into Yorks and their volumes only estimated. Equally, products were being mixed in Yorks and were not visibly clear, part filled packet containers were being measured as full, customer walk sort mails were not being identified separately and trays were being filled inconsistently.

At the request of Bob Gibson a presentation was given by the local Birmingham CWU representatives to the NDG making the point that these inadequacies were frustrating Delivery Office planning and also having a potential impact on estimated financial performance against assumed traffic levels. The presentation was well received, the points made were compelling and the financial department of Royal Mail showed sufficient interest that a national joint study was commissioned in Birmingham to assess the situation and develop potential solutions.

In essence the initiative is basically about an improvement in the volume recording, visibility and presentation of Delivery Direct mail being dispatched from the Mail Centre to the Delivery Office. To this end, the joint initiative at Birmingham has utilised good practice observed at other Mail Centres and designed a new measurement system based on York container cards, with a new recording grid stamp which utilises a standard five bar gate system to identify each traffic stream and the numbers of trays etc.

The initiative has now been adopted by all parties as the core standard that should be operated in all Mail Centres and as a consequence the Union has negotiated a Joint Statement attached as (Annex A) which confirms that the initiative is Nationally supported and will be rolled out jointly with the full involvement of the CWU at all levels.

Mahmood Ali, PEC, has been nominated to lead on behalf of the CWU and has already made initial contact with Divisional Representatives regarding the deployment/arrangements programme which is detailed below.

We would like to take this opportunity to record our thanks to Neil Lambert and Scott McGeough, local Birmingham CWU representatives, for bringing this to our attention and also Paul Chapman in assisting in developing the solution and to Mahmood Ali, PEC, for the support he has and continues to provide to our departments.

Regional Launch

Will be via Conference Calls (Live Meeting) which will be used as the conduit to launch the Delivery Direct (DTRe) product to Regional Traffic and Hours Managers, Regional Lead Traffic Measurement Managers and CWU Divisional Representatives. The conference call will be facilitated by Alan MacKenzie, Royal Mail Business Process Lead for Traffic and Mahmood Ali, CWU Postal Executive Lead.

Launch Workshops will take place at 14:00 on the following dates:

 31 January – Scotland, N. Ireland and North East
 3 February – Midlands, Thames Valley and South West
 6 February – Wales and North West
 8 February – Anglia, London and South East

Mail Centre Launch

For a 3 week period following each Regional Launch the following arrangements/actions will take place:

Cascade of process to Mail Centres - Regional Traffic Measurement Manager and CWU Divisional Representatives will jointly ensure the deployment in each Mail Centre has taken place, that a feedback process is in situ and that the new system is compliant with the revised agreed process.

Unit Launch to Mail Centre – will include Production Control, Operations Managers, and CWU Area Processing Representatives – workshops will be facilitated by Regional Traffic Measurement Manager (or another appropriate manager) with full involvement of the CWU Divisional Representatives.

Local Communications/WTLL to work area teams – brief will be provided centrally by project leads.

Weekly Support Conference Call held each Thursday at 14:00, commencing February 9th. This call will be lead by Mark Smithard from the Central Traffic and Hours Team and will include the Regional Lead Traffic Measurement Managers and a CWU Divisional Representative.

Go Live Criteria signed off locally – Go/No Go given, with full involvement of the CWU Area Processing Representative.

Deployment Tracking will be in place in order to monitor the successful deployment of intended objectives communications shared with the CWU Project Lead, Mahmood Ali, CWU Postal Executive Council.








Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, e-mail: dwyatt@cwu.org quoting reference number: 714.04.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger Bob Gibson
Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary
ANNEX A


JOINT STATEMENT FROM ROYAL MAIL AND THE CWU
DELIVERY DIRECT TRAFFIC (DTRe)


Background

In 2010, as part of the National Strategic Involvement process, a presentation was made regarding Delivery Direct Traffic recording and presentation to Delivery offices.

The compelling strength of that presentation was such that a more detailed joint piece of work was commissioned to validate the assumptions of the presentation and work up solutions where required to improve core Traffic Measurement standards and procedures.

The Methodology

A more detailed review was undertaken at Birmingham Mail Centre and a joint working party established consisting of Mail Centre Managers, Operators from Processing & Distribution, Local and Area CWU and Regional and Central, Traffic & Hours team.

Delivery Direct traffic is bags or trays of mail labelled direct to a delivery office.

The review topics were:

Review the Delivery Direct Traffic recording processes
Improve the measurement system
Simplify the Instructions

The findings of the review in Birmingham, along with the outputs of the Traffic and Hours Programme Review of Traffic Measurement (Summer 2010), identified a number issues.

What were the key issues identified in the field?

Large Letter bundles loose loaded to Yorks and volumes estimated
Mixed formats on Yorks are not visibly clear
Mail hygiene and containerisation of mixed formats
Part filled packet containers measured as ‘full’
Customer Walksort Mails not identified separately
Trays not filled consistently (plimsoll line)
Non ‘traffic’ items included on Yorks – D2D
Traffic measurement instructions not clear or easily accessible

Based upon the key findings and taking account of good practise from Mail Centres, a joint exercise was carried out at Birmingham Mail Centre where suggested Traffic Measurement standards were successfully piloted during the spring and summer of 2011 and recommended as generic Mail Centre Traffic Measurement standards.

Royal Mail Process Design and the CWU Delivery Design Committee have endorsed the new process.

National Deployment

We will now adopt the proposal worked up at Birmingham Mail Centre as a Traffic Measurement standard for all Mail Centres.

Overseeing National rollout will be Alan MacKenzie, Royal Mail Business Process Lead for Traffic and Mahmood Ali, CWU Postal Executive. Local deployment will be supported in each Region by a Lead Traffic Measurement Manager and CWU Area Processing Representatives.

To ensure the method of working is supported and understood by all end-users a briefing/training pack has been developed and will be delivered jointly by locally determined Managers and CWU Representatives. All local managers, CWU Representatives and operational staff involved in the Delivery Direct containerisation and measurement process will be briefed on the requirements of the Traffic Measurement standard.

Technical support will be provided by the Central Traffic and Hours Team.

Deployment will be carried out during January and February 2012.

Against that backdrop deployment will be on a regional basis deploying x2 regions in tandem with each other so that they can support each other during deployment. The programme for deployment will be determined by the joint overseers of this project.

Deployment progress will be monitored weekly, and once deployed compliance to process will be measured via the Unit Compliance Review process.

Any questions about this Joint Statement should be referred to the respective National leads.






Neil Armstrong Terry Pullinger
Programme Integration Manager Assistant Secretary
Royal Mail CWU