The national postal service of Singapore is replacing all of its 26 existing sorting machines, which have been operating for more than 14 years, awarding the supply contract to Toshiba Asia Pacific Ltd.

The new system will be an integrated combination of 16 various machines sorting letters, packets and publications.

The investment in new machinery should see a higher level of automation at the company, reducing its reliance on manual sorting.

The company said its mechanization rate for sorting letters will rise from 85% to 95%, while for parcels the mechanization rate will rise from 85% to 90%.

Mechanisation levels for publications will rise from 58% to more than 90%.

Machine throughput is expected to increase by 21%, while sorting capacity for letters will rise by 17%.

Dr Wolfgang Baier, the SingPost chief executive, said the new technology would allow his company to maintain the highest service standards as customer needs change.

“Upgrading our postal infrastructure with the latest technology will give SingPost capacity to process mail items faster, thereby enhancing service quality and productivity in the process. This investment will also prepare us for a new economy with fewer letters and more packets,” he said.

e-commerce

The new sorting machines come as part of an S$100m investment programme for SingPost that also includes the introduction of 24-hour parcel locker terminals to make it easier for consumers to receive parcels, particularly for e-commerce deliveries.

SingPost said its new sorting infrastructure will add intelligent capabilities for the company to handle growing volumes of e-commerce items, including the ability to read QR codes and tracking details, sort outgoing international mail according to countries and read mail for redirection to alternative addresses.

At the moment, outgoing international mail and redirected mail are manually sorted in a labour-intensive process. SingPost said it would be able to raise productivity levels and improve delivery accuracy with the new technology.

“We are continually reviewing and investing into our operations in order to improve processes and reap greater efficiency. Upgrading our mail sorting infrastructure will help to increase productivity which will translate to better service,” said Baier.

Toshiba

Toshiba Asia Pacific Ltd, a subsidiary of electronics giant Toshiba Corporation, said installation of the new SingPost equipment would start in March 2014, with completion by the end of October 2014.

The equipment being installed includes a Culler Facer Canceller, OCR Letter Sorting Machine, Delivery Barcode Sorter, Flat Sorter, Packet Sorter, Tray Handling System, consolidated OCR and Management Information System.

“We are delighted that Singapore Post will adopt our equipment and system,” said Takehiko Miyashita, Vice President of Toshiba’s Social Infrastructure Systems Company.

“At Toshiba, we draw on over 40 years of experience in supplying letter handling machines, and our systems support high speed processing and high accuracy address reading rates. We offer solutions that are cost-effective and ergonomically designed. They deliver low noise levels, low power consumption and low life-cycle costs.”

Source: Post&Parcel/SingPost

Tags: mail sorting, Singapore, SingPost



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