Siemens Postal, Parcel & Airport Logistics (SPPAL) has been commissioned by New Zealand Post to equip the country’s sorting centres with the latest mixed-mail sorting machines and extensive corresponding software.
Three new Open Mail Handling Systems (OMS) will be installed in Auckland, the country’s largest city, and in Christchurch, where they will be used for the efficient sorting of letters, flats, newspapers, open and plastic-wrapped magazines and small parcels. With two induction lines, the OMS can process up to 25,000 items of mail every hour.
Siemens will also implement a suite of comprehensive software packages that will control all mail sorting operations across the whole country. New Zealand Post’s existing sorting machines will be integrated into the overall system so that they can interoperate seamlessly with the new software.
“We view the collaboration with New Zealand Post as a strategic project that sets an important precedent,” said Michael Reichle, CEO of Siemens Postal, Parcel & Airport Logistics.
The key features of the OMS include the high level of automation for letter and flats sorting, coupled with fast sequencing and sorting processes in an ergonomic environment. The software suite comprises the trend-setting fingerprint technology, the address reading software ORCA (Open Reading Coding Architecture), and the reliable Address Data and Sort Plan Management system (ADM-SPM). The fingerprint technology and ORCA guarantee high read rates with the lowest possible error rate, and reduce overall network costs. The system is designed so that it can be adapted to changes in requirements in the future. Because the machines are connected to statistics software, the customer is able to obtain a comprehensive overview of the system’s capacity utilization at any time.
“We opted for the high-performance technology from Siemens because the OMS is capable of processing the maximum bandwidth of New Zealand mail types and formats, in an ergonomic way. This ensures our people’s health and wellbeing is preserved. We feel that in Siemens, we have an experienced partner that can provide us with an integrated solution that has been proven in many other postal organisations around the world and will provide us with the flexibility to adapt our solution as the volume and mix of mail products changes over time,” explained Nicola Wright, Programme manager Processing Innovation Project, New Zealand Post.
New Zealand Post is a state-owned enterprise and processes almost 600 million items of mail in the country every year. Alongside postal and parcel services, the company also offers various transport and logistics services.
Source: The STAT Trade Times
