Walk Sequencing machines:Its a goer.

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 18 Jan 2008, 19:30

On the website of the NALC it has an artical about the impact of walk sorting machines on the postie's of the good ol USA and the deal they got instead of the crap one we got.

mailman71 · Post by **mailman71** » 18 Jan 2008, 19:30

the problem withthese machines are all the mail must be put through them so our manager says that when they start we will be on a 7am-3pm day,because we wont be needing an early start ,

Post by **dvbuk55** » 18 Jan 2008, 19:30

There's no way I'm dressing like that - - - well not in those colours.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 18 Jan 2008, 19:32

dvbuk55 wrote:

There's no way I'm dressing like that - - - well not in those colours.

Safety shoes!!!

bandit650 · Post by **bandit650** » 18 Jan 2008, 20:08

POSTMAN wrote:
dvbuk55 wrote:

There's no way I'm dressing like that - - - well not in those colours.
Safety shoes!!!

I love that strippey tabbard i think it will go with my hair colour but not so good when riding a bike on delivery.

24601 · Post by **24601** » 18 Jan 2008, 20:12

We've been trialling the Solystic machines for the last 18 months.

Been told that the 2 machines we have are going to be scrapped and replaced with 3 new ones.

They will never replace all manual sorting,so many types of mail they can't handle.

Also the mail centres will be struggling to get the mail into the batches these machines need before they can be used.

laudrup11 · Post by **laudrup11** » 19 Jan 2008, 11:26

Ive seen DVDs of these machines working (in a Dutch mail centre) and admittedly they are quite impressive. However, as an earlier poster said -there are so many types of mail that they cant handle the IPS frames would need to stay.
Im a rep so ive had plenty of updates on the trials around the country -it seems that in most locations the machines are saving at most 20 minutes a day. OK, thats 20 minutes per man, but nothing like RM envisaged when they started looking at buying them. some of the trials have been, frankly, a failure but RM dont like that publicised!

Post by **dvbuk55** » 19 Jan 2008, 11:37

laudrup11 wrote:Ive seen DVDs of these machines working (in a Dutch mail centre) and admittedly they are quite impressive. However, as an earlier poster said -there are so many types of mail that they cant handle the IPS frames would need to stay.
Im a rep so ive had plenty of updates on the trials around the country -it seems that in most locations the machines are saving at most 20 minutes a day. OK, thats 20 minutes per man, but nothing like RM envisaged when they started looking at buying them. some of the trials have been, frankly, a failure but RM dont like that publicised!

I must admit to having no knowledge of these machines, what they can do, how fast they can do it, the type of mail, how they are set up to sequence, how many operators, or the size. As our DO is one of the chosen ones it might be interesting to see a DVD of their capabilities. I did hear a rumour about the length of time it took because it had to do a walk several times before it was ready and that was one of the reasons that RM wanted the late starts, the alternative being using night shifts again.

24601 · Post by **24601** » 19 Jan 2008, 13:00

A machine is run by 1 operator and quite frankly it is hard work.

Load 18 - 20 trays of letters (roughly 5000 letters,around 12 walks)
Make sure letters are straight and tidy otherwise the machine jams up and one of the many many belts will fly off.
Keep the mail in 20 stackers tidy and print the labels and put in trays.
At the end of the first pass bring all the mail down from the stackers,turn it and push it along the conveyor belt to the feeder,once again keeping it tidy.
At the end of the second pass do the same again.Take out the rejects from the last stacker,tray up and take to IPS.
While the second pass is taking place start to load the next batch on to the end of machine ready to be pushed down to the feeder.
At the end of the third pass unload the mail into the labelled trays,load into a york and push to the holding area.
Start again.
All this takes about 30-40 minutes,longer if a tricky belt (and believe me some of them are tricky) comes off and saves a delivery person 10 minutes max.
On a Saturday because they start earlier but the mail arrives at the same time some of them have to wait an hour for their mail to be sequenced.
Before the mail can be sequenced it goes through a mail centre to be coded and batched.If the printed red code isn't perfect or say is printed over a company logo the letter will be rejected,also cards,plastics etc,etc

Oh the last job is go home rub IBULEVE on arms and wrists and go to bed !!!

axeman · Post by **axeman** » 19 Jan 2008, 13:08

looks like a bit of repetitive strain will be on the agenda ? perhaps quick way out from this downward spiraling company

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 19 Jan 2008, 13:12

axeman wrote:looks like a bit of repetitive strain will be on the agenda ? perhaps quick way out from this downward spiraling company

Sometimes you do get the impression that its a Black Hole sucking everything in, the closer you get to the bottom the faster it seems to go.

Post by **dvbuk55** » 19 Jan 2008, 13:23

24601 wrote:A machine is run by 1 operator and quite frankly it is hard work.

Load 18 - 20 trays of letters (roughly 5000 letters,around 12 walks)
Make sure letters are straight and tidy otherwise the machine jams up and one of the many many belts will fly off.
Keep the mail in 20 stackers tidy and print the labels and put in trays.
At the end of the first pass bring all the mail down from the stackers,turn it and push it along the conveyor belt to the feeder,once again keeping it tidy.
At the end of the second pass do the same again.Take out the rejects from the last stacker,tray up and take to IPS.
While the second pass is taking place start to load the next batch on to the end of machine ready to be pushed down to the feeder.
At the end of the third pass unload the mail into the labelled trays,load into a york and push to the holding area.
Start again.
All this takes about 30-40 minutes,longer if a tricky belt (and believe me some of them are tricky) comes off and saves a delivery person 10 minutes max.
On a Saturday because they start earlier but the mail arrives at the same time some of them have to wait an hour for their mail to be sequenced.
Before the mail can be sequenced it goes through a mail centre to be coded and batched.If the printed red code isn't perfect or say is printed over a company logo the letter will be rejected,also cards,plastics etc,etc

Oh the last job is go home rub IBULEVE on arms and wrists and go to bed !!!

Thanks 24601 - that is very informative. Do you need 1 machine per 12 walks? I would like to see one of these in action to get some sort of perspective on size and length of time to sequence the walks. I can't seethese things introduced to all those DOs any time soon.

24601 · Post by **24601** » 19 Jan 2008, 13:42

We have 2 machines and usually have enough work (8 batches) in the office when we arrive at midnight.

Mail comes in through the night from the mail centre 50 miles away usually 1 york on each lorry and we then run a further 8 batches from about 5 o'clock till we finish at 8.

On a busy night we don't always have time to sequence all the mail so we have to walk sort some of it which takes about 15 minutes to process 5000 letters.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 19 Jan 2008, 14:01

24601 wrote:Mail comes in through the night from the mail centre 50 miles away usually 1 york on each lorry and we then run a further 8 batches from about 5 o'clock till we finish at 8.

On a busy night we don't always have time to sequence all the mail so we have to walk sort some of it which takes about 15 minutes to process 5000 letters.

Does this mean that there is a chance we might get back nights in our DO as we lost them all 2yaers ago. If not the later starts are going to get later and if that's the case I am off.

Stormproof · Post by **Stormproof** » 19 Jan 2008, 20:34

120+ walks in my office, should be interesting