AU2006202645A1 - A method of combining letters and large-format and/or non-mechanizable postal items in a single delivery round - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves passing an insert (52) carrying visual codes (53, 54) and sorting information into a sorting machine. The sorting machine is programmed to distribute the insert based on the sorting information to fragment letters (51) of a postman`s walk into several letter groups, where the insert separates the groups into two consecutive distribution points of the walk. Large and non-mechanized objects are manually inserted between the letters by marking letters using the visual codes.

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority Related Art: Name of Applicant: Solystic Actual Inventor(s): Francois Gillet Address for Service and Correspondence: PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys 367 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 AUSTRALIA Invention Title: A METHOD OF COMBINING LETTERS AND LARGE-FORMAT AND/OR NON-MECHANIZABLE POSTAL ITEMS IN A SINGLE DELIVERY ROUND Our Ref: 775521 POF Code: 469254/458825 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to applicant(s): -1- 6006q A METHOD OF COMBINING LETTERS AND LARGE-FORMAT AND/OR NON-MECHANIZABLE POSTAL ITEMS IN A SINGLE DELIVERY ROUND This application claims priority from French Patent Application No.0551726 filed on 23 June 2005, the contents of which are to be taken as incorporated herein by this reference.

The invention relates to a method of preparing a delivery round or "postman's walk" with large-format postal items or "flats" and/or "non-mechanizable" postal items that are combined with letters, which method consists, firstly, in a sorting machine, in making up the delivery round with the letters, and then in inserting the flats and/or the non-mechanizable items in between the letters in the delivery round.

Preparing a delivery round with letters and with flats, e.g. bundles or magazines, and/or non-mechanizable items, e.g. certain letters that cannot be machinesorted, combined with the letters consists in sequencing the letters and the flats and/or non-mechanizable items in the order of the delivery points on the delivery round so as to enable a person to deliver the round with a single bag.

"Sequencing" postal sorting machines exist that can handle both letters and flats as indicated in US Patent No. 6 822 182. Unfortunately such machines are as yet not very cost-effective because of their low throughputs.

In order to prepare a single delivery round containing both letters and flats, it is also possible to proceed as follows. Firstly, a delivery round is prepared with the letters only. Then the same delivery round is prepared on another sorting machine with the flats. Then the two rounds are combined manually to form a single round. Preparing the single delivery round thus currently requires many handling operations that increase the cost associated with delivery, which currently represents about two-thirds of the total cost of handling a postal item. In addition, numerous small-size sorting centers do not have sorting machines for flats.

Preparing the delivery round with flats must therefore be done entirely manually, which makes it particularly 2 lengthy and tedious to prepare the combined delivery round. Thus, manually inserting flats among the letters is tedious and the operator must search through a larger number of letters in order to locate the proper place at which to insert a flat.

An object of the invention is thus to provide a simple solution for facilitating preparation of a delivery round with letters and flats and/or nonmechanizable items combined with the letters.

To this end, the invention provides a method of preparing a delivery round or "postman's walk" with flats and/or "non-mechanizable" postal items that are combined with letters, which method consists, firstly, in a sorting machine, in making up the delivery round with the letters, and then in inserting the flats and/or the nonmechanizable items in between the letters in the delivery round, said method being characterized in that, while the letters are being machine-sorted, the method further consists in passing separators through the sorting machine, each of the separators carrying a visual code and sorting information that is readable by the sorting machine, in that the method further consists in programming the sorting machine so that it distributes said separators in the sorting outlets as a function of the sorting information affixed to the separators, so as to split up the letters of the delivery round into a plurality of groups of letters, said separators separating the groups of letters between two consecutive delivery points on the round, and in that the method further consists in an operator manually inserting the flats and/or the non-mechanizable items in between the letters, the operator being guided by the visual codes affixed on the separators.

The basic idea of the invention is thus to use separators which serve as visual identifiers and as dividers for splitting up the delivery round into bundles or small groups of letters at the places corresponding to changes in delivery points in the delivery round.

In particular, the letters of the delivery round are firstly sequenced in the order of the consecutive delivery points of the round.

When a flat or a non-mechanizable item is to be inserted into the round of letters, the operator can use the separators to identify visually the place at which said flat or item is to be inserted into the round.

In this way, the operator no longer needs to search through a large number of letters in order to look for the appropriate place at which a flat or a nonmechanizable item is to be inserted, which contributes to accelerating this operation of manually inserting flats and/or non-mechanizable items.

It is known by experience that operators in charge of preparing and combining items in delivery rounds know how to associate quickly and visually a postal address and a delivery point in a delivery round.

With the method of the invention, certain points in the succession of letters making up the round are thus identified visually by separators, which facilitates manually searching for places at which flats or items to be sorted manually are to be respectively inserted.

Programming the sorting machine consists, for example, in: inputting into the machine a value "n" identifying the size, in terms of number of delivery points, of the interval between two consecutive separators; and inserting imaginary delivery points into a list of delivery points resulting from a sorting plan stored in the machine, the imaginary delivery points corresponding to the sorting information affixed on the separators, and being spaced apart by delivery points in said list of delivery points.

Programming the sorting machine may also consist in: inputting into the machine a value of letters to be separated by two consecutive separators; assigning an assumed number of letters to each delivery point; and inserting imaginary delivery points into a list of delivery points resulting from a sorting plan stored in the machine, the imaginary delivery points corresponding to the sorting information affixed on the separators, and being spaced apart in pairs in said list of delivery points by a number of delivery points computed on the basis of the assumed numbers of letters for each delivery point and of the value of letters to be separated by two separators.

The method of the invention can present the following features: the sorting machine is programmed to distribute the separators at uniform intervals over all of the delivery points of the delivery round; each visual code affixed on a separator is an alphanumeric code; the operator uses a manual-sorting assistance system which plays back information indicating a visual code of a separator in response to address information; and the manual sorting assistance system includes an address recognition system using voice recognition.

By distributing the separators equidistantly over the succession of delivery points in the delivery round, it is possible to accelerate the mental association for the operator between a postal address of a flat or item to be inserted and a location at which that flat or item is to be inserted in the groups of letters. In practice, it is possible to use several tens (50 to 60) of separators on a delivery round made up of several hundred delivery points.

With the method of the invention, insertion of the flats and of the non-mechanizable items between the letters can be performed directly in the sorting outlets of the machine at the end of preparation of the delivery round of letters, but the invention also applies to manual insertion into trays of letters grouping together the letters taken from the sorting outlets of the machine.

The method applies advantageously when the delivery round is prepared, for example, in three sorting passes on a sorting machine having a small number of sorting outlets. This type of machine is today very widely used in postal distribution centers.

The invention will be better understood on reading the following description and on examining the accompanying figures. The description is given merely by way of indication that is in no way limiting to the invention.

In the figures: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a postal sorting machine arranged to implement the method of the invention for preparing a delivery round; Figure 2 is a simplified flow chart showing how the sorting plan is prepared; Figure 3 is a flow chart showing the steps implemented in the method of the invention; Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view showing a voicerecognition manual-sorting assistance system for implementing the method of the invention; Figure 5 shows a tray containing a set of letters split up into groups of letters by means of separators; and Figure 6 is a simplified flow chart showing how the sorting plan is prepared so that the separators are distributed as a function of the volumes of letters for the various delivery points.

The invention thus consists in preparing one or more delivery rounds containing both letters and items to be inserted manually. Such "items to be inserted manually" are flats and non-mechanizable items to which the invention is applicable jointly or separately.

For preparing a delivery round with letters and items to be inserted manually that are combined with the letters, separators are used in the invention. The use of separators in postal sorting is known per se, e.g. for 5 separating the items of two delivery rounds in a sorting outlet tray or in some other receptacle.

tt The separators used for implementing the method of N the invention are naturally designed to be distinguishable visually from other, conventional separators used in postal sorting.

This can be achieved by choosing a particular color (N or a particular format so as to make them easily identifiable by an operator.

In the invention, each separator carries a visual code and in particular an alphanumeric code that is easily visible to the operator when the separator is inserted between letters, e.g. in a sorting outlet tray.

A separator of the invention thus also carries a sorting code that is readable by the sorting machine, e.g. a bar code. The sorting code serves to insert the separator by machine into the flow of sorted letters.

In the method of the invention, it is possible to use a set of. about fifty separators for a delivery round, each separator carrying a numerical code going, for example, from 1 to 50. The numerical code can be affixed at all four corners of the separator so that it is always identifiable by an operator regardless of the angular position of the separator between the sorted letters.

Figure 1 shows a sorting machine 1 in which a delivery round is prepared in three letter-sorting passes.

The machine comprises a letter unstacker 2, a code reader a bar code reader) address recognition device 3 or an optical character recognition (OCR) address recognition device 3, and sorting outlets 4, e.g.

sorting outlets provided with stackers.

Conventionally, the letters exiting from the unstacker 2 are sent in series and on edge into the device 3 for recognizing their addresses, and they are then directed as a function of the automatically recognized addresses towards respective ones of the sorting outlets 4. This conventional sorting process is thus repeated three times in a sorting plan having three passes.

Figure 2 is a simplified flow chart showing the process of preparing a sorting plan also incorporating a preparation (programming) phase in which the sorting machine is prepared (programmed) to take account of the above-indicated separators.

In a first step 10, an operator edits, on the screen, one or more delivery rounds by using software means to input the delivery points of each round in the order in which the delivery person goes around the round.

In step 11, delivery rounds are already recorded in a memory and the operator then merely has to load the delivery rounds that are the subject of the sorting plan.

The number of sorting passes can also be input by the operator.

Generally, the number of sorting outlets of the machine for preparing delivery rounds is a parameter that is already recorded. In the invention, the operator activates an optional machine function for combining flats and/or non-mechanizable items with letters, and inputs a value indicating the size of the interval between two separators in the list of delivery points (DPs) of a round.

In step 12, the delivery points of a plurality of selected delivery rounds can be concatenated by the dataprocessing system so as to generate a single list of delivery points.

In step 13, the data-processing system inserts into said list a separator sorting code (an imaginary delivery point) at uniform intervals as function of the value "n" input previously. Separator sorting codes corresponding to separator numbers 1, 2, are thus inserted into the list.

In step 14, the system generates and stores a sorting plan on the basis of said list of delivery points and of separator sorting codes. The sorting plan thus contains an association between the separator sorting codes and the sorting outlets so that a separator is sorted in the same way as a letter, as a function of its separator sorting code.

In step 15, the system can also associate in the memory a correspondence between each delivery point of the delivery round(s) making up the sorting plan and information indicating the visual code of the separator that is associated with the delivery point. It should thus be understood that the functionality of this step, which is the last step, is of use to the voice recognition system for inserting the separators in with the letters.

Figure 3 is a flow-chart showing various steps of sorting in a plurality of passes, including steps of the method of the invention after the stage in which a sorting plan is generated as indicated above.

Firstly, in step 20, the letters to be sorted are inserted into the sorting machine 1, and then a set of separators of the invention are inserted in step 21.

In step 22, a first sorting pass is performed in the sorting machine 11 using the sorting plan indicated by reference 7.

In step 23, the letters in the sorting outlets with the separators are grouped together in sequenced manner and re-inserted (step 24) with the separators into the inlet of the sorting machine for a second machine-sorting pass (step Once again, in step 26, the letters in the sorting outlets with the separators are grouped together in sequenced manner so as to be re-inserted (step 27) into the inlet of the machine for a third and last sorting pass (step 28). At the end of the third sorting pass, the separators separate the groups of letters between two consecutive delivery points of a delivery round. The letters can be left in the sorting outlets if, for example, the sorting outlets are provided with stackers.

The letters can also be stored with the separators (step 29) in storage trays B (see Figure 5) associated with respective ones of the sorting outlets of the machine or indeed in a device specially designed to facilitate the insertion operation.

It can thus be understood that each tray contains one or more separators that separate groups of letters and that are, for example, distributed uniformly every delivery points.

The flats can be inserted (step 30) into a suitable sorting machine 5 so as to be pre-sorted (step 31) in a single pass (pre-sort), for example, which makes it easier for them to be inserted subsequently between the letters stored in the storage trays B. In said sorting step 31, the sorting machine 5 can use the sorting plan 7 and the flats can, at the end of the pre-sort, be transferred from the sorting outlets of the machine 5 to receptacles R.

The non-mechanizable items are pre-sorted manually in step 38 in receptacles R by an operator, by complying with the same sorting plan as for the pre-sort of the flats.

The operator then semi-manually combines the flats and the non-mechanizable items between the letters stored in the trays B.

For this purpose, the operator can be assisted by a voice recognition system 6 for recognizing postal addresses. Such a system is, for example, known from Patent Application US 2002/0036160. For implementing the method of the invention, the system 6 is programmed suitably so as to associate a postal address with information indicating a separator visual code and so as to play back said information in sound or visual form in response to a postal address.

In order to combine the flats and items with the letters, the working environment of the operator can be designed ergonomically, e.g. with the trays B aligned on a display rack and the receptacles R placed in easy reach of the operator, on a trolley.

In step 33, the operator takes hold of a flat or item to be inserted manually into a receptacle R, and reads the delivery address written on the item out loud into a microphone of the system 6. The system 6 associates the voice address information with information indicating a separator visual code (step 35) and plays back said information (step 36), e.g. in sound form into the operator's earphones.

On the basis of said information, the operator immediately identifies the separator in question in the trays B by means of the visual code of said separator and searches through the group of letters defined by said separator and inserts the flat or the non-mechanizable item at the appropriate place (step 37).

This insertion operation is repeated by the operator for all of the items to be inserted manually that are stored in the receptacles R until all of the items to be inserted manually are combined with the letters.

The fact that the flats and the non-mechanizable items are pre-sorted in steps 31 and 38 before they are inserted into the trays B makes it possible to reduce the number of movements the operator needs to perform when combining the flats and items with the letters.

Figure 4 is a highly diagrammatic view of a system 6 for assisting manual sorting by recognizing addresses using voice recognition. The system 6 comprises a headset 40 provided with a microphone 41, with earphones 42 and with a transmit/receive antenna 43, operating with a data-processing system 44 provided with a transmit/receive antenna 45. The data-processing unit 44 is, in particular, the data-processing unit that servers to generate the sorting plan.

It is also possible to use a manual-sorting assistance system in which the addresses of the postal items are determined by reading a bar code representative of the address of said postal item by means of a manual scanner.

Figure 5 shows a perspective view of a tray B in which letters 51 are stored that are split up into a plurality of groups by separators 52. It can be seen that said separators, which are of larger format than the letters, have visual codes 53 that are easy for the operator to see. A visual code 54 indicating a tray number or a sorting outlet number is also shown on the tray B. The trays are not filled entirely with letters, so that space is left for future insertion of the items to be inserted manually between the letters. In order to prevent the letters from slipping down, said letters are held in the trays by means of stackers, e.g. springloaded stackers.

An alternative to the uniform distribution of the separators that is described with reference to Figure 2 consists in splitting up each delivery round with a constant number of separators, where N is a number chosen by the operator on generating the sorting plan.

In which case, for each delivery round, the dataprocessing system computes, as a function of N and of the number of delivery points on the delivery round, the interval (the number of delivery points) between two consecutive separators in a storage tray B so that said interval is constant for the delivery round.

In order to prepare a plurality of delivery rounds simultaneously, it can be necessary to have a plurality of sets of separators, one set for each delivery round.

In another alternative, it is possible to program the sorting machine so that the distribution of the separators in the delivery round takes account of the volume of items to be sorted for each delivery point, which volumes can be known statistically.

Each delivery point receives a different number of letters. Thus, by distributing the separators every "n" delivery points, it is possible for two consecutive separators to flank 300 letters while two other consecutive separators flank only about ten letters.

Insertion of flats is made more difficult if the number of letters between two separators is too large. Thus, certain separators are placed unnecessarily if the number of letters between two separators is very small. This variant of the invention consists in taking account of the number of letters addressed to each of the various delivery points, it being possible to determine that data statistically or in real time.

Figure 6 is a simplified flow chart showing the process of preparing the sorting plan for distributing the separators as a function of the volumes of letters at the various delivery points.

In step 10', the operator edits one or more delivery rounds on the screen. In the step 11' for programming the machine, the operator loads the rounds edited, for example in step 10', that are the subject of the sorting, and inputs the desired number of passes for performing the sorting. The operator also activates the optional machine functions for combining flats and/or nonmechanizable items with the letters and for distributing the separators as a function of the volume of letters at each of the various delivery points. An approximate number of letters to be separated by separators is selected by default. That default number is, for example, 50 letters, but the operator can change that number if so desired.

The delivery points of the various delivery rounds are then concatenated in step 12' so as to generate a single list of delivery points.

In step 13', the data-processing system retrieves from the memory a given number of letters for each delivery point. Those numbers of letters in correspondence with the various delivery points can be obtained in various manners. For example, they come from statistical data, for example, the mean number of letters addressed to the various delivery points for each delivery point, which number has been determined on the basis of the stored analysis of the distribution of the letters over the various delivery points during a large number of sorting processes already performed. That data is pre-recorded in the postal sorting machine. Refined statistical data can also be obtained by also taking account of the day of the week before taking a mean, since certain delivery points receive a larger number of letters on certain days of the week. Those numbers of letters in correspondence with the various delivery points can also be known from data stored during presorting passes outward sorting) and loaded in the machine, e.g. during programming of the machine in step 11' In step 13", the data-processing system inserts separator sorting codes (or imaginary delivery points) into the single list of delivery points obtained in step 12', while distributing said separator sorting codes such that the volume of mail, i.e. the number of letters, between two consecutive separators is almost constant.

For this purpose, the data-processing system searches the list of delivery points and is programmed such that it sums the numbers of letters determined in step 13' for the consecutive delivery points, and, when the resulting sum exceeds the number of letters to be separated by default), it inserts a separator sorting code into said list, and it repeats the same operation until it has searched the entire list of delivery points. Naturally, it is understood that-each separator sorting code is inserted between two consecutive delivery points and that the separators are therefore disposed between letters addressed to different delivery points.

In step 14', the system generates and stores a sorting plan on the basis of the list of delivery points and of the separator sorting codes.

In step 15', the system associates, in a memory, a correspondence between each delivery point of the round(s) and information indicating the visual code of a separator.

With such a method, the volume of letters between two consecutive separators is approximately always the same.

Naturally, in the method of the invention, the letters can be sorted in fewer than three passes or in more than three passes, and the items to be inserted manually can be inserted between the sorted letters without pre-sorting being performed.

As indicated above, the items to be inserted manually can be combined with the letters directly in the sorting outlets of the sorting machine 1.

The information indicating a visual separator code can also be played back by the voice-recognition assistance system 6 in visual form, e.g. on a display screen. In a variant that information given to the operator can comprise the visual codes of the two separators that define the group into which the item to be inserted manually is to be inserted.

The numbering (alphanumeric visual code) of the separators can be incremental for an entire delivery round, for the contents of a tray or for a plurality of concatenated delivery rounds.

In addition to the number of the separator, the assistance system 6 can indicate the ranking of the delivery point of the item to be manually inserted from among the delivery points assigned to the group concerned by the separator.

The method of the invention offers the advantage of being easy to implement on existing sorting machines.

Claims (7)

1. A method of preparing a delivery round or "postman's walk" with large-format postal items or "flats" and/or "non-mechanizable" postal items that are combined with letters, which method consists, firstly, in a sorting machine in making up the delivery round with the letters, and then in inserting the flats and/or the non- mechanizable items in between the letters in the delivery round, said method being characterized in that, while the letters are being machine-sorted, the method further consists in passing (21) separators (52) through the sorting machine, each of the separators carrying a visual code (53) and sorting information that is readable by the sorting machine, in that the method further consists in programming the sorting machine (10-15) so that it distributes said separators in the sorting outlets as a function of the sorting information affixed to the separators, so as to split up the letters of the delivery round into a plurality of groups of letters, said separators separating the groups of letters between two consecutive delivery points on the round, and in that the method further consists in an operator manually inserting the flats and/or the non-mechanizable items in between the letters, the operator being guided by the visual codes affixed on the separators.

2. A method according to claim 1, in which programming the sorting machine consists in the following steps: inputting into the machine a value identifying the size, in terms of number of delivery points, of the interval between two consecutive separators; and inserting imaginary delivery points into a list of delivery points resulting from a sorting plan stored in the machine, the imaginary delivery points corresponding to the sorting information affixed on the separators, and being spaced apart by delivery points in said list of delivery points.

3. A method according to any preceding claim, in which the sorting machine is programmed to distribute the separators at uniform intervals over all of the delivery points of the delivery round.

4. A method according to claim 1, in which programming the sorting machine consists in the following steps: inputting into the machine a value of letters to be separated by two consecutive separators; assigning an assumed number of letters to each delivery point; and inserting imaginary delivery points into a list of delivery points resulting from a sorting plan stored in the machine, the imaginary delivery points corresponding to the information affixed on the separators, and being spaced apart in pairs in said list of delivery points by a number of delivery points computed on the basis of the assumed numbers of letters for each delivery point and of the value of letters to be separated by two separators.

A method according to any preceding claim, in which each visual code affixed on a separator is an alphanumeric code.

6. A method according to any preceding claim, in which the operator uses a manual-sorting assistance system (6) which plays back information indicating a visual code of a separator in response to address information.

7. A method according to claim 6, in which the manual sorting assistance system includes an address recognition system using voice recognition. Dated: 22 June 2006 PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Attorneys for: SOLYSTIC 1A'