Walk Sequencing machines

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 12 Dec 2008, 19:03

TrueBlueTerrier wrote:
k979aaa wrote:
TrueBlueTerrier wrote:
k979aaa wrote:How many staff is a usual question in our office per machine i suspect looking at that it would be minimal like one or two at most!.
I suppose it depends on which one the go for but TMan should give us some idea I hope - my guess would be 3 maximum. 1 inputting the mail, 1 controlling the terminal, and 1 on the output stacking the trays. Though I am guessing it would be possible with less.
I heard it was one to feed it and one to empty it and both can opperate it just in case!. Ps T.B.T is that pic off the us postal worker's website and just look what happend over there when it kicked off!.
No its off solystics web site. TBH I don't think walk sequencing is going to be that much of an impact as I don't think its going to save the time RM thinks it will.

The problems we are facing in the near future are mainly going to be :

1. FT PT ratio.
2. Making PT up to FT.
3. Park and Loopy.
4. Longer walks.
5. Another change to Start times.
6. Less people to primary sort.
7. Longer journeys for post from and to MCs and DOs leading to 5.
8. Changes to delivery specs in many various ways.

Long term there are more:

1. Closing small DOs
2. Large Super DOs and MCs that will be outside urban areas because of cheap land or rent.
3. FT becoming Walk Preppers and walkers. (ie prep 4 and do 1 of them)
4. 20 hour walking contracts being the biggest you will get.
5. Higher turn over off staff leading to loss of experience and local knowledge.
6. Privatization - complete or partial.
7. Pension problems getting bigger and bigger, probably in the end being written off or taken off the books by Government so they sell RM. Whichever way it goes I am pretty sure our returns will diminish again.

Thank's again T.B.T for your input and analysis of the situation we now find all ourself's in no one will escape this by burying their head in the sand or the book's of this company!. It is not global meltdown but the NEW LABOUR government of 1997 who of all thought this that we would all be stabbed in the back by the very government we thought would unleash the shackles of the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher and her puppy dog john major!. I am sorry for getting all political on here but i wish i had done so many moon's ago and this whole travesty of power and might and dogma and deceit was ended before this had to be said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!.

pinstripe · Post by **pinstripe** » 12 Dec 2008, 20:16

So just why are RM implementing changes to start times, delivery lengths, pegasus etc, when they don't have these super machines yet (if ever) and they haven't completed trials to see if they work or are suitable?

Oh, I know, it's RM.

k979aaa · Post by **k979aaa** » 12 Dec 2008, 20:37

pinstripe wrote:So just why are RM implementing changes to start times, delivery lengths, pegasus etc, when they don't have these super machines yet (if ever) and they haven't completed trials to see if they work or are suitable?

Oh, I know, it's RM.

I think it's a case of mowing the staff count down if you like sending them over the top for one last hurrah!. lion's led by donkey's spring's to mind!. :cfo & :lfo and their minnion's and the govenment :mfo

Tman · Post by **Tman** » 12 Dec 2008, 22:03

pinstripe wrote:So just why are RM implementing changes to start times, delivery lengths, pegasus etc, when they don't have these super machines yet (if ever) and they haven't completed trials to see if they work or are suitable?

Oh, I know, it's RM.

They have decided they are suitable and the way to go, although the installation project is on hold.
Borrowing the odd £100,000,000 to buy them is (allegedly) proving more difficult now, although another school of thought is that due to mail volumes continuing to fall, such a capital investment in DOs may prove to be a waste, and the money would be better spent on iLSMs and the next generation of automation.

axeman · Post by **axeman** » 12 Dec 2008, 22:07

So are you saying that lateone & crazier have squandered the funds loaned to them by hm government already

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 12 Dec 2008, 22:26

Excellent job creation scheme, don't forget the "machineable" mail must be walk sorted before it can be walk sequenced

Sandyman · Post by **Sandyman** » 12 Dec 2008, 23:23

Does the OCR on these things work if a letter does not have a postcode?

Can it tell (like I did this morning) when a Christmas card for Mr & Mrs Brierley at No 81 has 87 handwritten on it in error and make sure such an item is prepped and delivered correctly?

Can it decipher "To Barry, two streets up from the Red Lion, on the right, blue door" ?

Sorry, we were told where we are in 1980 that we would get ALL of our letters walk sorted from the mech office. 28 years later, it still isn't happening. As someone said earlier, the RM 2000 frames have been an excellent tool to improve efficiency, but this could have minimal impact at maximum cost. Tman reckons the business needs £100m to buy this kit. This could be a great waste of money IMHO. Therefore, I really can see :cfo and :mfo going for it in another spectacular balls up by people who have no idea how to do the job.

Almost as daft as Consignia.

BELIAL · Post by **BELIAL** » 12 Dec 2008, 23:40

Lets not forget our real customers who after seven
years of returned mail are still sending gas bills to Mr schmidt ,The Top end of Arnscombe Road top flat(198 houses ,and it's dead level)

Post by **stokes11eg** » 13 Dec 2008, 04:13

k979aaa wrote:
al64 wrote:I wouldnt worry to much about them, weve had pegasus in now for 3 months now and was told that the prep time would not be taken into consideration because the walk sequencing machines would save us at least 40 mins on the prep, weve now been told we will not be getting them because they havent got the money , what id like to know is were did the money from the government go that was earmarked for all this new machinery
Maybe :cfo or :lfo or even him :mfo or a Russian oligarch!.

Same here,for over a yesr and a half we were told our office was to get the machines. Based on that assumption,
more and more people were taken of the I.P.S.----needless to say, although we are not getting the machines,
they have not replaced the folks on I.P.S.

Tman · Post by **Tman** » 13 Dec 2008, 09:41

BELIAL wrote:Lets not forget our real customers who after seven
years of returned mail are still sending gas bills to Mr schmidt ,The Top end of Arnscombe Road top flat(198 houses ,and it's dead level)

True enough, but then machines don't waste time talking about the weekend's footie results, or what a great night out they just had, or spend ten minutes moaning about how bad their hangover is, or gossip about who's knobbing who, or how bad the manager is, or come in ten minutes late "'cos they couldn't find the car keys", or have fifteen minutes having a fag break, or spend another fifteen minutes looking for work/labels/trollies/a pen, etc, or phone in sick at the last minute, or go on extended sick "'cos I'm just soooo stressed out" or set the machine up so poorly that it jams and/or rejects more than it should, or text someone over on the primaries for twenty minutes, or show the whole crew some photo on their mobile, or read(!) yesterday's Sun back pages, or make rubber band balls, or a million and one other things.

Gotta love those Man vs Machine threads...

borders · Post by **borders** » 13 Dec 2008, 11:01

or waste 10 minutes writing out that post !!

Post by **stokes11eg** » 13 Dec 2008, 12:22

Tman wrote:
BELIAL wrote:Lets not forget our real customers who after seven
years of returned mail are still sending gas bills to Mr schmidt ,The Top end of Arnscombe Road top flat(198 houses ,and it's dead level)
True enough, but then machines don't waste time talking about the weekend's footie results, or what a great night out they just had, or spend ten minutes moaning about how bad their hangover is, or gossip about who's knobbing who, or how bad the manager is, or come in ten minutes late "'cos they couldn't find the car keys", or have fifteen minutes having a fag break, or spend another fifteen minutes looking for work/labels/trollies/a pen, etc, or phone in sick at the last minute, or go on extended sick "'cos I'm just soooo stressed out" or set the machine up so poorly that it jams and/or rejects more than it should, or text someone over on the primaries for twenty minutes, or show the whole crew some photo on their mobile, or read(!) yesterday's Sun back pages, or make rubber band balls, or a million and one other things.

Gotta love those Man vs Machine threads...

We don't have time to talk in our office/ even if you are just asking someone about a work related matter, up pops a line, and shouts stop talking!!! (And I promise you, I hardly ever do)
a

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 13 Dec 2008, 13:06

stokes11eg wrote:
Tman wrote:
BELIAL wrote:Lets not forget our real customers who after seven
years of returned mail are still sending gas bills to Mr schmidt ,The Top end of Arnscombe Road top flat(198 houses ,and it's dead level)
True enough, but then machines don't waste time talking about the weekend's footie results, or what a great night out they just had, or spend ten minutes moaning about how bad their hangover is, or gossip about who's knobbing who, or how bad the manager is, or come in ten minutes late "'cos they couldn't find the car keys", or have fifteen minutes having a fag break, or spend another fifteen minutes looking for work/labels/trollies/a pen, etc, or phone in sick at the last minute, or go on extended sick "'cos I'm just soooo stressed out" or set the machine up so poorly that it jams and/or rejects more than it should, or text someone over on the primaries for twenty minutes, or show the whole crew some photo on their mobile, or read(!) yesterday's Sun back pages, or make rubber band balls, or a million and one other things.

Gotta love those Man vs Machine threads...
We don't have time to talk in our office/ even if you are just asking someone about a work related matter, up pops a line, and shouts stop talking!!! (And I promise you, I hardly ever do)
a

Ditto - I love to work in a DO that allowed you to talk at your frame or anything else in that long list. Mind you us humans can work when there is no electricity. We can evacuate a building if there is a fire. We can tell when they is a backlog. We can spot the jam on a machine and sort it out.

However as TMan intimated Man V machine threads are a little pointless as we are more adaptable to situations where as a machine has to be told when to change its task. Machines however usually have a better fail rate and work faster for longer as well.

axeman · Post by **axeman** » 13 Dec 2008, 13:16

Biggest problem teaman has is when they break the unfortunate part about that is they need human intervention to get them back up and running but of course whilst they recive this the mail goes unsorted ...yes the way forward i see it now

humans rarely break down like machines and are far more adaptable perse

Tman · Post by **Tman** » 13 Dec 2008, 13:33

You may have stumbled on something there, Agent Yorks.
Maybe you'd better tell all those industries world-wide who use mass production machinery and methods that there's an error in their thinking when they believe machines work for longer, faster and better than humans. Maybe they haven't spotted the mistake in the logic.....

Then again TBT thinks he can work in the cold and dark when there's no electricity... and he must be the first RM employee who could