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Parcel Sorting Machine

A forum for our Mail Centre, Processing and Distribution colleagues.
clashcityrocker
Posts: 15880
Joined: 22 Sep 2009, 13:50
Gender: Male
Location: strummerville

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by clashcityrocker »

Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
At Christmas we had our parcels segregated at the MC.
It stopped after xmas with no explanation.
More Blacks.
More Dogs.
More Irish.
Less chocolate.
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 11658
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by SpacePhoenix »

clashcityrocker wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 19:20
Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
At Christmas we had our parcels segregated at the MC.
It stopped after xmas with no explanation.
Probably no budget for it, either that or it was taking too long, with potentially 1,000 walks+ between all the DOs covered by the MC the mail would have to be broken down into batches with each batch being a separate sort plan. The sort plan for each batch likely wouldn't be run until all the mail had passed through the breakdown plan
citypostie
Posts: 877
Joined: 08 Apr 2009, 19:42
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by citypostie »

Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
Surely that require alot more trucks? Take our office, only small but 60 walks so that would.be 60 individual York's of parcels if sorted to the walks. There's a driver shortage already isn't there?
clashcityrocker
Posts: 15880
Joined: 22 Sep 2009, 13:50
Gender: Male
Location: strummerville

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by clashcityrocker »

citypostie wrote:
01 Feb 2022, 19:14
Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
Surely that require alot more trucks? Take our office, only small but 60 walks so that would.be 60 individual York's of parcels if sorted to the walks. There's a driver shortage already isn't there?
One york per van share.
More Blacks.
More Dogs.
More Irish.
Less chocolate.
citypostie
Posts: 877
Joined: 08 Apr 2009, 19:42
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by citypostie »

clashcityrocker wrote:
01 Feb 2022, 19:28
citypostie wrote:
01 Feb 2022, 19:14
Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
Surely that require alot more trucks? Take our office, only small but 60 walks so that would.be 60 individual York's of parcels if sorted to the walks. There's a driver shortage already isn't there?
One york per van share.
Would still be alot more than now and would require more runs or replacing all the 7.5t with bigger trucks
adb2aber
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 303
Joined: 01 Feb 2009, 15:37
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by adb2aber »

Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
Highly unlikely. Letters don't go in it nor flats. If you're a very large DO there is a small chance you'll get a few "buddy" yorks like you do of flats from an FSM but generally speaking doing even that level of sortation means clearing down the full machine from general Inward so is not likely to be time unless mail is held back to the following day.
123456
POST OFFICE
Posts: 84
Joined: 03 Sep 2010, 14:39
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by 123456 »

Can anyone say how the job is on a Psm,regars graft.??.
Is it hard work and constant or is it steady?.
Also do you go on different parts and rotate the various jobs?
Munchboii
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 261
Joined: 15 Oct 2019, 21:25
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by Munchboii »

clashcityrocker wrote:
01 Feb 2022, 19:28
citypostie wrote:
01 Feb 2022, 19:14
Munchboii wrote:
31 Jan 2022, 17:39
Mail centre near me is getting a PSM and we have been told it will sort all packets, parcels and letters into our seperate rounds.

We are worried we will lose our IPS time and have longer delivery times. :pray

Does anyone know if that claim is true? Is a PSM really that good to sort into rounds at another MC ?
Surely that require alot more trucks? Take our office, only small but 60 walks so that would.be 60 individual York's of parcels if sorted to the walks. There's a driver shortage already isn't there?
One york per van share.
Thanks for the info. Our walks are normally 3 yorks of parcels per duty, as we do all the amazon plus yodel. Thank you.
denhamhoop
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 303
Joined: 07 Oct 2010, 19:53
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by denhamhoop »

123456 wrote:
02 Feb 2022, 17:18
Can anyone say how the job is on a Psm,regars graft.??.
Is it hard work and constant or is it steady?.
Also do you go on different parts and rotate the various jobs?
Depends whether you are upstairs or downstairs Upstairs in theory picking out Oversized Tracked and Specials and turning them up the right way for the readers in reality sitting having a snooze. Downstairs changing Yorks when light flashes or on the segregating what gets chucked down the overflow or loading the yorks on which will involve cutting and tipping from time to time. It's fairly steady but not exactly digging ditches but more scope to grab a wee or a tea
123456
POST OFFICE
Posts: 84
Joined: 03 Sep 2010, 14:39
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by 123456 »

So having had some experience is it worth looking at working on it or would you and your colleagues recommend giving it a swerve.👍
redheadedwoman
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 132
Joined: 17 Aug 2011, 14:58
Gender: Female

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by redheadedwoman »

denhamhoop wrote:
02 Feb 2022, 18:51
123456 wrote:
02 Feb 2022, 17:18
Can anyone say how the job is on a Psm,regars graft.??.
Is it hard work and constant or is it steady?.
Also do you go on different parts and rotate the various jobs?
Depends whether you are upstairs or downstairs Upstairs in theory picking out Oversized Tracked and Specials and turning them up the right way for the readers in reality sitting having a snooze. Downstairs changing Yorks when light flashes or on the segregating what gets chucked down the overflow or loading the yorks on which will involve cutting and tipping from time to time. It's fairly steady but not exactly digging ditches but more scope to grab a wee or a tea
Early vibe is that all staff on the machine will rotate the duties as staff do on our FSM and ILSMs
Raize
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Mar 2010, 10:25
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by Raize »

PSM staff have to follow a rotate around the machine, mainly due to the safe systems of work meaning a maximum time upstairs, before moving downstairs on to another role. To be honest, a lot of the staff find that working upstairs for too long is tiring, not because it is hard work, but because they can almost fall asleep due to the monotony.

Our office have roughly 1.5 hours in each role across five sessions on a shift. That seems to work quite well.

The hardest role is tipping the york’s of work as you need to keep the belt going up into the machine full at all times - it is easier when you get into a rhythm with the other tipper - one removes the empty york and the other replaces it and presses the button to tip it. The “empty” york (which often has work stuck in it, then gets manually emptied in manual tipping point at the side.

The other hard bit is getting into the mindset of quick turn-around between plans. If you start on inward and switch to outward (or vice-versa), then you have to get the empty sleeves ready for a quick turn-around (labelled etc). The new aim is for a formula 1 style switch over (2 minutes) with all the crew apart from the tippers coming downstairs to switch over. The tippers prime the machine with the new workplan and then its ready for the manager to switch over.

Walksorting on the PSM is possible, but time consuming and won’t be done until the inward is completed and generally by then, its time to set up for the outward on Early shift or late shift.
wowiezowie
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 45
Joined: 16 Jul 2010, 02:23
Gender: Female

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by wowiezowie »

Management have already cut the amount of staff on our PSM from 10 down to 6. And they still want the same throughput. We have one person operating two tippers, which should be a two person job.
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 11658
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by SpacePhoenix »

How many physical outputs do they have (presumably 1 of them will be a rejects output)?
wowiezowie
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 45
Joined: 16 Jul 2010, 02:23
Gender: Female

Re: Parcel Sorting Machine

Post by wowiezowie »

SpacePhoenix wrote:
01 Aug 2022, 02:59
How many physical outputs do they have (presumably 1 of them will be a rejects output)?
I think it's about 25 each side plus 2 reject outputs.