Warrington mail centre transformed by parcel sorting machine

Post by **POSTMAN** » 13 Jul 2018, 16:24

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Colleagues at Warrington mail centre can now process up to 10,000 parcels an hour thanks to the installation of cutting-edge sorting technology.

Following a 16-week build and a further month of testing and training, the plant’s new parcel sorting machine (PSM) was fully commissioned on 1 May.

The machine is operated by 11 people and reads handwritten addresses and barcodes on parcels, moving them along conveyors to 81 destination bins.

Parcel automation planning manager, Tony Nolan, says the team has wholeheartedly bought into the new processes, transforming performance.

‘So far, 90 people have received training, making sure we understand every aspect of the PSM and why the business has invested in it,’ he said.

‘There’s been a rapid learning curve, but because of the motivation and enthusiasm of the people working around it, there hasn’t been any impact on the operation.’

After trials with test packages, the number of parcels processed every week since go live has increased.

‘The team has adapted really well to it and we are now more than self-sufficient,’ said Tony. ‘They are enjoying it because of the efficiency it gives us.’

The PSM can handle 86% of parcels. Many of the 550-strong team at Warrington have expressed an interest in being trained.

Postman Paul Morgans was one of the first colleagues to be trained.

‘It’s made a big difference to how many items need to be sorted by hand,’ he said. ‘It’s phenomenal really.

‘Tuesday is our busiest day and normally we’re struggling to get everything done, but now we’re helping other sections as well. As we get quicker and more familiar with the machine it’s only going to get better.’

Post by **Navalron** » 13 Jul 2018, 22:41

Yes it's phenomenal. Watch duties walking out the door. Unbelievable sometimes.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 14 Jul 2018, 06:39

To give an idea of the size of it, how big is it compared with a 80 stacker long iLSM?

empireboy · Post by **empireboy** » 14 Jul 2018, 16:06

I'm happy for you that your mail centre got one and really happier ours did not. Like to keep some jobs for the younger workers who if given Royal Mails way it would all be run by machines and managers.

Post by **jmcg** » 15 Jul 2018, 00:43

It is a phenomenal destroyer of parcels.....it excels at damaging an awful lot of items,

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 15 Jul 2018, 00:46

jmcg wrote:It is a phenomenal destroyer of parcels.....it excels at damaging an awful lot of items,

Any partiuclar size of parcel getting chewed up by it or just all sizes of parcels in general?

Spedley · Post by **Spedley** » 15 Jul 2018, 12:00

Sounds great to me. 1 parcel every 4 seconds per person isn't amazing but if that is actual figures and accuracy is near 100% then I'm all for it. Why anyone would want to do the job of a machine is beyond me.

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 16 Jul 2018, 15:35

Just because someone has a different viewpoint or political position to you, it does not mean that they are a 'Manager' or a 'Union fanatic', any posts making such assumptions or generalisations will be pulled or amended and the poster warned. This also applies to posts that are not aimed at individuals but at groups.

mrgund · Post by **mrgund** » 19 Aug 2018, 23:14

Do these PSM's mean redundancies? There's one on the way next year to our MC. Hmm, should we be worried?

Post by **Skuse** » 13 Oct 2018, 19:56

Navalron wrote:Yes it's phenomenal. Watch duties walking out the door. Unbelievable sometimes.

Actually overtime and duties have not gone , in real terms the machine only sorts around 7000 items an hour and there are lots of breakdowns for the engineers to sort out , there are also a big reject rate the machine spits out they go to manual sorting and this takes time , Warrington mail centre have just won a 11 million a year contract from Amazon and around 60 staff have been upgraded to 35 hour contracts

Post by **Skuse** » 13 Oct 2018, 19:58

SpacePhoenix wrote:To give an idea of the size of it, how big is it compared with a 80 stacker long iLSM?

About the same length but overall a oval shape so takes about the size of 2 ILSM

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 13 Oct 2018, 20:35

Skuse wrote:
Navalron wrote:Yes it's phenomenal. Watch duties walking out the door. Unbelievable sometimes.
Actually overtime and duties have not gone , in real terms the machine only sorts around 7000 items an hour and there are lots of breakdowns for the engineers to sort out , there are also a big reject rate the machine spits out they go to manual sorting and this takes time , Warrington mail centre have just won a 11 million a year contract from Amazon and around 60 staff have been upgraded to 35 hour contracts

How does it handle the Chinese mail?

Skuse wrote:
SpacePhoenix wrote:To give an idea of the size of it, how big is it compared with a 80 stacker long iLSM?
About the same length but overall a oval shape so takes about the size of 2 ILSM

Based on that most MCs could probably house one. What's the estimated % reject rate (and what sort of % of that is Chinese and other foreign mail)? Some of the breakdowns might be just staff not used to its operation. If the breakdowns are in a few limited areas then the engineers will probably do an analysis and might modify something. Say it had been sorting Tracked and now 1C (or 2C) needed to be sorted, roughly how long would it take to prep it for running the 1C or 2C (loading the right sort plan, replacing all sleeves in the outputs, etc)?

Post by **blue1873** » 13 Oct 2018, 21:07

"How does it handle the Chinese mail"
Suppose it will 1."Chop "them. 2".Stick" them in reject bin.

I'll get my coat.