Mailing Systems Technology - September/October 2008 - (Page 34) Operations Companies ers have rapidly moved to reading machine print, cursive and handwritten text. Current technology takes advantage of dynamic cross-validation of partial recognition results with information available in a reader database without separating the recognition and assignment processes. This approach makes it possible to handle mail with poor print quality, misspellings or character smearing. Arriving at the number of bins required is critical to maximizing efficiency. This is driven by the number of sort destinations, the grouping among these destinations, available footprint and time available for sorting. A general approach is to sort out high-volume destinations with dedicated bins in the first pass and fine-sort lower volume destinations through carefully designed subsequent passes. Lessons from Leading How to choose the best incoming mail sorting solution By George Varghese and Kaz Jaszczak Processing a high volume of incoming mail is a challenge for many mail centers. Sorting mail to the final end destination is one of the most difficult stages of mail processing that lends itself very well to automation. Several solutions are available today that go beyond basic sorting to offer many opportunities for efficiency improvements. Optical character recognition (OCR) technology, high-speed in-line processing devices and advanced data processing capabilities are some of the factors that help to automate processing of incoming mail, improve accuracy, speed delivery and significantly reduce manual sorting costs. Deriving the most benefits involves selecting the right solution, configuring it correctly and implementing recommended practices for the problem areas to be addressed. This article reviews these areas at a high level and presents some solutions implemented by leading companies. Selecting the Right Solution Selecting the right solution starts with the selection of a transport appropriate to the type of mail and the expected volume. A range of solutions are available, from lowvolume (less than 4,000/hr) mixed mail sorters that can handle complex flats to high throughput (40,000/hr) letter sorters. Selection of the transport has a large impact on the benefits and efficiencies achieved, as well as possible future upgrades. The next step is to determine the desired reader options, based on the mail stream. Readers sort mail based on P.O. Box, text strings, numeric ZIP Codes, keywords and, of course, barcodes. The simplest readers handle only barcodes, but with recent advances in OCR technology, read- Selecting the appropriate inline devices is the next step. Devices can be used for detecting checks, spraying a mailstop code, sorting based on size, etc. Devices are available for measuring thickness, height, length, metal content, MICR content detectors as well as printers, selective opener and markers. With current technology, these devices can be used inline without loss in throughput. Finally, the desired data storage and data transfer options should be selected. It is possible to archive images, connect to an organization’s network, import a database using an automated utility or remotely edit the sort scheme. Example 1 A large international oil and gas company needed to automate incoming and interoffice mail. A good proportion of both were handwritten. Handwritten mail was assumed by default to require manual sorting. This company selected a mixed mail, vertical feed sorter since most of the mail volume was 34 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2008 | WWW.MAILINGSYSTEMSTECHNOLOGY.COM http://www.MailingSystemsTechnology.com
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