D2D Automation Trial

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches







To: All Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleagues

D2D Automation Trial

In recent months the Outdoor Department has been actively engaged in talks with Royal Mail concerning Door to Door and the businesses future strategy with the product. This followed on from numerous concerns that were being reported by Branches and Representatives across the UK into the department relating mainly to “cold calling” and other un-agreed delivery arrangements Royal Mail were attempting to introduce locally.

As a result we wrote to Royal Mail raising our concern generally around the Door to Door product, along with these specific concerns and a high level meeting was held with Royal Mail Group. The meeting was attended by both the Indoor and Outdoor Departments and was aimed at understanding in more detail the company’s future strategy, whilst also dealing with the issues that Branches had raised.

One of the items on the agenda was that Royal Mail wanted to look at a trial consisting of a form of automation, as they stated that this had remained an aspiration for the business in the long term, particularly as there had been an increase in growth of Door to Door across some postcode sectors which they felt provided them with an opportunity to trial and examine alternative methods of preparation for Door to Door.

Royal Mail as a result have had the opportunity to loan for the period of the trial a machine from a company called ‘Duplo’ this machine will be used for the purposes of collating the items inside a Royal Mail branded WRAP system. The trial will be used to evaluate fully the effects of collating the items, the entire impact that has on the operation and will be used to determine the further investment case for purchasing similar machinery in the future potentially across the UK.

Therefore we have agreed for a trial to take place and have concluded a Terms of Reference (see attached) which ensures that all operational processes are covered between the Swindon WBC, where the machine is being located and the Delivery Offices which will be included and serviced throughout the trial

We have also requested that all information that is gathered will be shared with the CWU to enable a joint assessment of the operational impact these trial arrangements have had on WBC operations, Network operations and Delivery operations.


Throughout the trial there will be joint visits to both the Swindon WBC and Delivery Offices to see firsthand the impact and following the trial discussions at national level will take place between the CWU and Royal Mail to review the success or failure of the trial and to determine and agree the next steps.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 230.03
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Any enquiries to Terry Pullinger’s Office, quoting reference 214.14
Email address: dwyatt@cwu.org



Yours sincerely






Mark Baulch Terry Pullinger
CWU A/Assistant Secretary CWU Assistant Secretary

[TrueBlueTerrier]

ROYAL MAIL & CWU NATIONALLY AGREED TRIAL GUIDELINES

DOOR TO DOOR AUTOMATION TRIAL

Introduction

The growth of Door to Door across some postcode sectors has provided an opportunity to trial and examine alternative methods of preparation for Door to Door in units where the average amount of items is 4 or more items per week.

The purchase of machines dedicated to the collation of Door to Door remains an aspiration of Royal Mail but as of yet none have been purchased and there has been limited formal study of the potential impact on the operation.

The trial will examine the impact of collation on

Preparation time (This will require the establishment of the time currently allocated to each walk for the preparation of D2D items)
The accuracy of items/contracts for each walk
The safe storage of items under the frame/within the unit
The perception of the product amongst Royal Mail employees
The handling of collated sets at the frame/bench (and identifying best practise)

The trial will also consider

The importance of handover from customers to Door to Door Walk Bundling Centres
The importance of item type for automation (thickness, material etc.)
The timing of network runs to mail Centres
The viability of the WRAP

To be able to understand and examine the potential impact of automated collation it has been agreed to run a formal trial across a number of Delivery Offices served by Swindon Walk Bundling Centre. The offices have been chosen using the following criteria:

Offices served from Swindon WBC
Offices with high demand for the Door to Door service (4 or more items)
Areas where booking customers are willing to participate in the trial
Offices willing to participate and are not due any major revision activity during the trial period
A grand total of no more than 250,000 - 300,000 delivery points

The Offices involved in the trial are listed in Appendix 1.

The trial will run for 12 delivery weeks starting on the 9th September and will cease on Saturday 30th November 2013. There will be no extension of the trial past this point, unless agreed at national level.

Machine installation in Swindon WBC and initial training will be provided in August. Familiarisation with Door to Door contracts will take place in preparation for the trial starting properly for delivery w/c 9th September.

As well as SAC1 and PUWER assessments, the CWU locally/nationally will be involved in the creation of Risk Assessments and Safe Systems of Work. The CWU will also be involved in the creation of operator training once demonstrations and familiarisation have taken place with Duplo Int.

Service Outline and Operational Processes
.
Items will be collated at the Swindon WBC centre prior to arriving at the delivery office.
The items are planned to be presented in trays, however, some sets may be strapped into bundles as part of the trial investigations. Where items are strapped any time associated with removing the strapping and preparing the items for presentation to the walks in the delivery office will need to be recorded.
Any changes to operational arrangements at the Swindon WBC and Delivery Units will need to be agreed locally between management and the CWU and have no impact on QofS, duty structures or earnings.
It is planned that WBC volunteers will be trained in the use of the machine on the 20th, 21st and 22nd August. Training will take place throughout the day. There will be no loss of allowances for individuals being trained.
It is envisaged that WBC volunteers will then work on their normal shifts. If there are any mutually agreed changes during the trial all allowances will be honoured.
The trial will have no detrimental impact on employee earnings expectations
or the existing number of duties.
There will be no alterations to any delivery office duties for the period of the trial.
Any potential future alterations to duties will be dependent on the agreed outcome of the trial and carried out in line with the nationally agreed revision process.
Industrial Engineering observations may be undertaken at the respective delivery units. The CWU will be informed 2 weeks prior to any IE observations taking place in any unit and will be fully involved in this process. All information/data derived from any such exercise will be shared with the CWU at national level.
Any Industrial Engineering Observations will also take account of how the D2D items are collated with addressed mail for delivery preparation, particularly where space deficiencies on prep frames are Identified (Double address slots etc.)
CWU National officials will have open access to any office participating in the trial.
Records will be kept of the numbers of items for each delivery for every week of the trial and will be shared with the CWU on a weekly basis.
There will be regular joint workshops to review progress across the trial.

The process

1. Contracts arriving in Swindon Walk Bundling Centre will be identified as being for the trial area and labelled accordingly for storage.
2. As more contracts are available the team will work out the best order to run the contracts through the machine
3. Contracts will be moved to the machine on pallets and the operators will load the machines and remove the collated sets.
4. The sets will be gathered in trays (or bundles if we are testing them) and labelled for each delivery walk.
5. Items will be placed in labelled Yorks as they are today.
6. Door to Door items will be presented to the delivery prep frames collated into sets.
7. The items in each set will be held together by a Royal Mail branded folder/wrap, enabling them to fall loosely on the floor when delivered to the consumer.
8. Timescales for the arrival and delivery of the items remains unchanged i.e. there will be no change to the current D2D workplan and all items will continue to be available for delivery on Monday. There will be no change to the existing delivery practise in any delivery unit.
9. The process will provide information to enable answers to the points to be examined for the trial. These are included in Appendix 2.

Trial Review

Information1 will be gathered and shared with the CWU to enable a joint assessment of the operational impact these trial arrangements have had on WBC operations, Network operations and Delivery operations. Following the trial there will be discussions at national level between the CWU and Royal Mail to review the success or failure of the trial and to determine and agree the next steps.



Signed……………………………….. Signed………………………………………
Bob Gibson – CWU Terry Pullinger – CWU



Signed
Andrew Knight - Royal Mail
Appendix 1

Delivery offices in the trial…..

Delivery Office
PCA
DP Count
Guildford DO
GU
41420
East Reading DO
RG
32125
Woking DO
GU
30887
Sandhurst DO
GU
13391
Camberley DO
GU
27188
Aldershot DO
GU
22621
Farnborough DO
GU
22610
Dorcan DO
SN
21638
Godalming DO
GU
16725
Farnham DO
GU
21856
 
Total
250,461

The trial will start with Guilford and Sandhurst Delivery Offices receiving collated sets through the familiarisation period. When the operators are up to speed (planned for week 4) the remaining offices will become automated.


Appendix 2

Points to be examined during the trial

Customer Handover and WBC
1. What customer handover flow do we need to ensure we can start collating on time and complete all the planned Delivery Offices?
2. How do we decide what areas to collate at what point of the week?
3. How do we split and store contracts?
4. How do we run the machines?
5. How many machines would we require?
6. What is the potential impact on staffing levels
7. How long can the machines be run for and how fast taking full account of H&S and fatigue?
8. Do we need to rotate the operators?
9. What engineering support will we need in reality?
10. How much space is required for the machines? What are the utility requirements?
11. What are the additional equipment requirements (pallet lifters etc?)
12. How do we present the items – trays or bundles?
13. Do we continue with a wrap for the items? Is this the right size, texture etc?

Network, Mail Centre and Local Distribution
14. What is the tray requirement
15. Is there an additional York requirement
16. How to schedule and transport to MCs?
17. Is there any Impact on MCs?

Delivery
18. Is there any change to accepting items in the DOs?
19. What are the storage implications in DOs?
20. Can we improve presentation of items to the walks?
21. Should we prepare into the frame, before or after sequenced mail or merge on bench?
22. Do we collate all walks or only those with 4 or more items
23. What is the impact on the indoor operation based on above?
24. What are the implications of using a wrapped set?
25. If there are any opportunities identified, how might these be realised?
26. Is there an internal change in perception of the product?
27. Was there a change in the current trend of a unit in terms of QofS?
28. Is there in any impact on the timing of addressed mail delivery?
29. Is there in any change in the percentages of unaddressed mail delivered early, on time and late
30. Is there any change to the level of “surplus D2D items” that is declared by the unit
31. Is it easier or more difficult to visually manage the delivery of D2D items throughout the week?
32. Was there an increase in D2D complaints for these offices during the trial?
33. What is the impact on the prep of other mail items? Capacity in frame?
34. How do we present the items – trays or bundles?
35. Do we continue with a wrap for the items? Is this the right size, texture etc?
36. What is the best way to label the tray / bundle and how will we know what the volume of items is in the tray/bundle?
37. What effect does this machine have on the accuracy of bundle/tray counts?

General
38. What has been the impact on consumers (households)?
39. What has been the impact on booking customers?


This list is not exhaustive.

[dvbuk55]

That's showing 'em CWU - there you go, dig your heels in, don't agree any new processes - ESPECIALLY ones that are likely to impact on delivery times in the future - that is not the way to protect members. Still they have "requested" that the information garnered is shared............there's a true partnership right enough.

[fishtank]

Royal Mail as a result have had the opportunity to loan for the period of the trial a machine from a company called ‘Duplo’

[fishtank]

Machine installation in Swindon WBC and initial training will be provided in August.

It is planned that WBC volunteers will be trained in the use of the machine on the 20th, 21st and 22nd August.

How long has this been lying in Uncle Bob's out tray?

[dvbuk55]

Machine installation in Swindon WBC and initial training will be provided in August.

It is planned that WBC volunteers will be trained in the use of the machine on the 20th, 21st and 22nd August.

How long has this been lying in Uncle Bob's out tray?

Maybe he got the month wrong and I want a duplo set to complete my Lego collection

[Danelectro]

classic CWU - talk like Jimmy Reid then walk like Richard Branson

First Moya gets to do a Pebble Bill at One during the National Reps forum then Gibbo decides to grant a trial during a ballot and strike period and imagine what damage hes gonna do with all that data during negotiations.

How long before the weak and strong area paradox starts shaping national negotiations? Lovely jubbly

[Cut Off King]

I,m thinking about joining UNITE, same cosying up to the employer, but for a lower cost......

http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-ou ... tionrates/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SpacePhoenix]

http://www.duplouk.com/products/collators/dm-19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's probably that machine, I wonder if RM intend to install at least 1 of them in every MC and possibly MPU eventually

[fishtank]

http://www.duplouk.com/products/collators/dm-19

It's probably that machine, I wonder if RM intend to install at least 1 of them in every MC and possibly MPU eventually

I can't see it being a goer anywhere except a few areas that get screwed with D2D regularly.
Even then they have to find customers willing to do it which might mean discounting the product.a sleeve that works and relatively similar D2D for the machine to handle.
Given all that they'll still have to show big meaningful reductions in the indoor time in DOs to justify it.

[k979aaa]

http://www.duplouk.com/products/collators/dm-19

It's probably that machine, I wonder if RM intend to install at least 1 of them in every MC and possibly MPU eventually

I can't see it being a goer anywhere except a few areas that get screwed with D2D regularly.
Even then they have to find customers willing to do it which might mean discounting the product.a sleeve that works and relatively similar D2D for the machine to handle.
Given all that they'll still have to show big meaningful reductions in the indoor time in DOs to justify it.

Saves on manual handling they all go in the bin without looking at them.

[hans solo]

doesnt bother me our office d2ds prepped in by backshift or people on ot
couldnt make it up

[glenfiddich]

damn some blokes won't have anything to keep the kids occupied on a weekend now

[Lounge Lizard]

http://www.duplouk.com/products/collators/dm-19

It's probably that machine, I wonder if RM intend to install at least 1 of them in every MC and possibly MPU eventually

But how many Walk Bundling Centres does Royal Mail have, and where apart from Swindon are they located ?

[SpacePhoenix]

http://www.duplouk.com/products/collators/dm-19

It's probably that machine, I wonder if RM intend to install at least 1 of them in every MC and possibly MPU eventually

But how many Walk Bundling Centres does Royal Mail have, and where apart from Swindon are they located ?

6, assuming this is up to date:

http://www.royalmail.com/marketing-serv ... ibution-ce" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The machine doesn't look that big so probably every area could fit at least one in, in either the MC itself or an MPU. It's more worrying for DOs, as that machine can deal with upto 18 d2ds at the same time