WALK SEQUENCING REPORT

[F0zziebear]

Skelator me thinks, but close

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Skelator me thinks, but close

Correct but Skeletor does bear a striking resemblance to someone

[k979aaa]

Skelator me thinks, but close

Correct but Skeletor does bear a striking resemblance to someone

If adam could take his smug grin off we would see the grim reaper!.

[24601]

Here in Taunton we usually have around 12-16 trays for each batch when we start our shift at midnight.It then takes around 30 minutes to seg the trays into batches as it all arrives in yorks as mixed batches or 2 batches per york.

After that each lorry arriving from the mail centre brings one further york of 20 trays which amounts to about 2 or 3 trays for each batch.

The last lorry arrives at 7 usually carrying 2 yorks or 40 trays.We finish at 8 so obviously with a full batch of 5000 letters taking around 35-40 minutes to sequence most of this mail gets walk sorted or put on the ips to be hand sorted.

With 2 machines,if the mail arrived in 2 waves,one when we arrive and the other one around 4am we could easily sequence up to 80,000- 90,000 items per night but the problem is with the erratic arrivals from the MC.

Our reject rate is nothing like as bad as 10-15%. The bad quality of the printed bar codes is the main reason for rejects and we tend to think that using ageing LSM's in Bristol to service brand new machines in Taunton is not the brightest of ideas.

in Kirkcaldy "Apparently there is only one person staffing each machine,which is completely contrary to our agreement" - walk sort machines are staffed by one person.

The machines are not crap,just do the maths.The mail has to go through an LSM,get trayed up and loaded onto a lorry.It is then driven 50 miles to be unloaded and segged.It then takes 35-40 minutes to sequence 5000 letters giving 8 to 10 walks 1 tray of mail. This saves each delivery officer around 5 minutes prep time per tray.

Also any rejected letters which have been through a machine process 4 times ends up being sorted by hand.

[pickaname]

sounds like a total waste of money

[Tman]

sounds like a total waste of money

Why do you think that?
They haven't built cars "by hand" since Henry Ford designed the Model T, so why would letter processing be any different?

[pickaname]

Saving 5 mins per tray doesnt really seem worth it - if they could sequence directly into the frame then maybe it would be...some people sort faster than others anyway so there is still be problems and sorting sequenced mail will give you a bad back and arm ache when youre in one position too long - every set in D2D's? Nightmare...

How can you equate building a car to sorting mail? What a nonsensical analogy!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

What they need to do to save time is get machines that can cut down on time spent on IPS and flats this is where a lot of time is wasted IMO. Also at the moment coded bundles are never completely correct I'd guess between 25% and 5% of a coded bundle are usually wrong I cant see sequenced bundles being any better.

[Tman]

Saving 5 mins per tray doesnt really seem worth it - if they could sequence directly into the frame then maybe it would be...

These things are still in the trial stages, and that includes both performance of the machines and how they fit into the organisation. You surely appreciate that in time the saving will be much more than the quoted 5 mins per tray?

How can you equate building a car to sorting mail? What a nonsensical analogy!

It's not equating car-building to mail sorting, it's equating manual handling to full automation in a given process, and the resultant savings and efficiencies, but thanks for the compliment anyway.

[pickaname]

It just seems that when RM try to change a system that has worked for 300 years they almost always cock it up...call me cynical but RM management at all levels doesnt really have a good track recored with regards to innovations i.e. Starburst?

Sequencing will go the same way as all the other hairbranied schemes...

[F0zziebear]

To call them hairbrained shows the lack of appreciation as to what is going in the inudstry in general.

Walk sequencing has existed for a long time, and it's just the fact that RM's equipment and processes are poor. They really should bring in someone senior from elsewhere who has done this before. The current senior 'Scottish mafia' mgmt are in my opinion fairly good, but too much of a closed shop and not open to what is going on outside. I am available to lead this, but it will cost you millions of Ugandan dollars.

As for Starburst. I believe it worked in some places and not in others. Not surprisingly one solution doesn't fit the whole country. Again this approach works in some other country's not too far away from here, and I understand that was where the inspiration came from.

So I would conclude that whilst we have 300yrs experience, it doesn't exclude us from looking at what others are doing, as we are NOT the best postal business in the world at the moment.

F0zz

[DirtyHarry]

So I would conclude that whilst we have 300yrs experience, it doesn't exclude us from looking at what others are doing, as we are NOT the best postal business in the world at the moment.

F0zz

And let us hope we never are the best postal "business" in the world. We, hark at me, we ! I mean those with the responsibility to do so, can put all
their mis-spent energies into making Britain's postal SERVICE, the best POSTAL SERVICE in the world. After all's said and done, it once was the best, it
can be so again.

[Tman]

"pickaname"]It just seems that when RM try to change a system that has worked for 300 years they almost always cock it up...call me cynical but RM management at all levels doesnt really have a good track recored with regards to innovations i.e. Starburst

?


There's more than a grain of truth in that, I must admit. One of the biggest cock-ups (STILL not sorted out) is not having an entirely separate "operator" grade to run the various machines. All too often it's the part-timers/casuals/64 year olds/bone-idles who do the job much to the detriment of the mail and machines, although the UCW (as was) had a large part to play in this particular fiasco by insisting on the jobs being filled by the usual seniority method rather than by merit.
Who else but RM would work like this?

Sequencing will go the same way as all the other hairbranied schemes

You're about as wrong as it's possible to be on that. Walk-sequencers are the last piece of the automation jig-saw, and work in conjunction with all the other mech. Do you really believe that after an investment of maybe half a £billion they're now going to dispense with it all?
It's part of the infra-structure which will ensure RM will always be better equipped than the other cream-skimming firms like DHL, TNT etc to deliver the mail as cheaply as possible.

[bertie]

'Do you really believe that after an investment of maybe half a £billion they're now going to dispense with it all?'

Consignia ?

[Tman]

'Do you really believe that after an investment of maybe half a £billion they're now going to dispense with it all?'

Consignia ?

Good point, though I don't think a stupid name change idea quite equates to the massive investment in automation equipment we've seen over the last thirty years, somehow.