JPH11253891A - Mail sorting method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mail sorting method and device by which sorting efficiency can be improved. SOLUTION: In this sorting method, plural pieces of information indicating an address given on mail is read to form plural address code (steps 103, 104 and 105), and information for matching the address codes with the collecting box where the mail has been sorted and information showing the degree of specifying the collecting box and the address are referred to, and the mail is sorted (steps 106 and 107) according to the degree of specifying the address on the formed address information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail sorting technique for coding address information attached to an address surface of a mail to sort the mail into an accumulation box according to a destination.
The present invention relates to a mail sorting method and apparatus capable of improving sorting efficiency.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, post offices have been sorting mail using a mail sorting apparatus. The mailing address of the mail processed by the mail sorting device includes the postal code and address written by the sender, the barcode printed by the sender encoding the destination address (hereinafter referred to as a customer barcode), and the postal matter. There are a plurality of pieces of information for identifying a destination, such as a barcode (hereinafter, referred to as an intra-office barcode) obtained by coding and printing a destination address written on a mail by a sorting device or the like.

[0003] The mail sorting apparatus scans and inputs the address surface of a mail, and generates and stores an address code indicating the destination of the mail based on the above-described information. When determining the sorting destination of the postal matter, one of a plurality of stored generated address codes is adopted, and a sorting information table in which the adopted address code is associated with the stacking box is searched. A stacking bin for sorting the mail is determined. Conventionally, when one of a plurality of address codes is employed, priority is given to each piece of information for identifying an address, and an address code generated from information having a high priority is employed. In general, priority is assigned to information with high reading accuracy at a high priority, and information at low reading accuracy is assigned a low priority.

[0004]

However, in general, the address notation for the same address is not unique, and a plurality of addresses for one address such as omission of delimiters (such as "-"), omission of small letters, and old address notation are used. There is a variant notation. Therefore, even if the address written on the mail or the bar code given by the sender can be read correctly, the address code generated therefrom may be different from the description on the sorting information table. . The same applies to the intra-office barcode printed by a mail sorting device or the like, since information such as an address and a customer barcode written on the mail is based on the barcode. That is, even if the address code is generally generated based on information such as a barcode with high reading accuracy, the address code may not match the description on the sorting information table.

When the address code generated from the information having high reading accuracy does not match the notation on the sorting information table, and the address code generated from the information having low reading accuracy matches the notation on the sorting information table. However, if the sorting destination is determined using the former address code simply because the reading accuracy is generally high, as in the related art, it is not always possible to sort the bin into an appropriate bin. If it is not possible to sort the bins into the appropriate bins, it is necessary to manually re-sort the bins, which causes a problem that the efficiency of the sorting operation is reduced. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a mail sorting method and apparatus which can solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art and can improve sorting efficiency.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a mail sorting method according to the present invention reads a plurality of pieces of information indicating a destination assigned to a mail and generates a plurality of address codes. (Steps 103 and 10)
(4, 105), a step of referring to information for associating an address code with a bin to which mail is to be sorted and information indicating a degree of specifying a destination (step 106); and a degree of specifying the referenced destination. (Step 107).

Further, the mail sorting apparatus of the present invention provides a plurality of different address information (for example, a zip code 13, an address 14, and a customer bar code 15 assigned by the sender) representing the address assigned to the mail. , A plurality of address code generating means (postal code / address recognizing unit 5, customer bar code reading unit) for reading an address bar code 16 assigned in a post office and generating an address code for identifying a destination of the postal matter. 4, intra-office barcode reading section 3), storage means (storage device 11) for individually storing each of the address codes generated by the plurality of address code generation means, and a section for separating the address code and postal matter. Storage means (segment information table 20 shown in FIG. 5) for storing information for associating the preceding accumulation box and information indicating the degree of specifying the destination; A plurality of address codes, the information in the storage means and a means (control device 10) for determining an address code according to the degree to identify the destination.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of a mail sorting apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a mail sorting apparatus, and mails input from an input port 2 of the mail sorting apparatus 1 are conveyed by a conveying path 6 and accumulated in any one of accumulation boxes in an accumulation box group 8. Is done.
Reference numeral 9 denotes one accumulation box. Reference numeral 3 denotes an intra-office bar code reading unit, which reads an intra-office bar code of the postal matter when the mail conveyed by the transport path 6 passes through the intra-office bar code reading unit 3, and generates an address code. Reference numeral 4 denotes a customer bar code reading unit, which reads a customer bar code of the mail when the mail conveyed by the conveyance path 6 passes through the customer bar code reading unit 4, and generates an address code. 5 is a postal code / address recognition unit,
When the mail conveyed by the conveyance path 6 passes through the postal code / address recognition unit 5, it recognizes the destination postal code and address of the mail and generates an address code.

The storage device 11 stores a section information table which is information on the assignment of address codes to the collection box group. In addition, the storage device 11 includes an in-station barcode reading unit 3,
Customer barcode reading section 4, zip code / address recognition section 5
Is stored together with the priority information. The control device 10 has means for distinguishing each collection box of the collection box group 8, and retrieves and records data from each of the above-described devices and the storage device 11, determines an intra-office barcode to be attached to a mail, a barcode, It is responsible for printing the intra-office barcode by the printing device 7, determining the mail to be assigned to each bin in the bin group 8, and controlling the operation of each device.
The operation of each device is controlled according to a program stored therein.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a mail sorting process for a certain mail mass by the mail sorting apparatus. FIG. 3 is an example of information written on the address side of the mail sorted by the mail sorting apparatus 1. Of these information, zip code 13, address 14, and
The customer barcode 15 in which the destination information is coded is described by the sender, and it is not always necessary to describe all the information. The intra-office bar code 16 is a code obtained by encoding destination information, like the customer bar code 15, and is printed at the post office by the bar code printing device 7 in the mail sorting device 1 or another bar code adding device. Is done.

FIG. 4 shows address codes 17 to 19 generated by the in-office bar code reading section 3, customer bar code reading section 4, and postal code / address recognition section 5 for one mail in the storage device 11. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a table for storing. In this example, the address code of the intra-office barcode is assigned priority 1, the address code of the customer barcode is assigned priority 2, and the address code generated by postcode / address recognition is assigned priority 3.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a section information table stored in the storage device 11. As shown in the figure, the sorting information table 20 is composed of a record 21 group including an address code pattern 22, a sorting destination 23, and a sorting efficiency 24 for the sorting destination.
A sorting destination stacking box for mail having an address code matching 2 is defined by a sorting destination 23. “*” In the address code pattern indicates that a character string of an arbitrary number of characters is suitable. The sorting efficiency 24 indicates the efficiency (specific degree of destination) when mail is sorted into the sorting destination 23 of the record, and indicates that the larger the number, the better the sorting efficiency. In this example, the sorting efficiency = 3 indicates that the destination of the postal matter has been identified, the sorting efficiency = 2 indicates that the delivery area has been identified,
A division efficiency of 1 indicates that the destination station has been specified, and a division efficiency of 0 indicates that it is completely unknown. If the address cannot be identified, it must be manually classified,
The lower the sorting efficiency, the greater the amount of manual sorting work. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the details of the process (step 106) for determining the sorting destination of the mail in FIG.

Next, the operation of each unit shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, first, when the operator sets a group of postal materials to be sorted into the slot 2 (step 100), the control device 10 determines in step 101 whether a postal item exists in the slot 2. It is determined whether or not there is a postal matter (step 101: Y). The postal matter is fed out one by one from the input port to the transport path 6 and transported on the transport path 6 (step 1).
02).

When a mail conveyed on the conveyance path 6 passes through the intra-office bar code reading section 3, the intra-office bar code reading section 3
The in-office bar code 16 on the address side of the mail shown in FIG.
Is read and an address code is generated and stored in the in-station barcode address code area 17 in the storage device 11 shown in FIG. 4 (step 103). Next, when a mail conveyed on the conveyance path 6 passes through the customer bar code reading unit 4,
The customer bar code reading unit 4 reads the customer bar code 15 on the address side of the mail shown in FIG. 3, generates an address code, and generates a customer bar code address code area in the storage device 11 shown in FIG. 18 (step 104). Further, when the postal matter conveyed on the transport path 6 passes through the postal code / address recognition unit 5, the postal code / address recognition unit 5 displays the postal code 13 and the address on the address surface of the postal matter shown in FIG. 14 is read, the destination of the mail is recognized, an address code is generated, and stored in the postal code / address recognition address code area 19 in the storage device 11 shown in FIG. 4 (step 105).

After the mail conveyed on the conveyance path 6 passes through the bar code printing device 7, the control device 10
1, an address code group stored in the intra-office barcode address code area 17, a customer barcode address code area 18, a postal code / address recognition address code area 19, and a section information table for associating the address code with the sorting destination. 20 to determine the destination bin to be sorted (step 10
6). The mail is collected in the collection box determined in step 106 (step 107). This process is repeated until the mail is no longer in the slot (that is, until the determination result of step 101 becomes "N").

Next, the procedure for determining the destination bin to be sorted in step 106 of FIG. 2 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, first, the sorting destination candidate of the mail is set as an accumulation box for “hand sorting mail (mail that cannot be machined)”, and the maximum sorting efficiency, which is the sorting efficiency for the sorting destination candidate, is set to the minimum value. Is set to "0" (step 401). Further, the value i indicating the priority of the address code used for the classification is set to 1 (step 402).

Next, regarding the address code of the priority order i,
It is confirmed whether an address code has been generated (step 403). If the address code of the priority order i has been generated (step 403: Y), a record having the address code pattern 22 that matches the address code of the priority order i is searched in the sorting information table 20 (step 404). It is determined whether there is a corresponding record (step 405). If there is a record having an address code pattern 22 that matches the address code of the priority order i, if the partition efficiency 23 of the record is larger than the current maximum partition efficiency (step 406: Y), the record destination 22 is stored as the sorting destination candidate, and the sorting efficiency 23 of the record is stored as the maximum sorting efficiency (step 40
7). The maximum partitioning efficiency is a default value (corresponding to the partitioning efficiency when the destination is specified to the maximum, and is set to “3” in this example. The specified value is determined depending on what kind of partitioning is performed. (Step 408: Y), it is determined that an appropriate sorting destination has been obtained, the sorting destination candidate is adopted as the sorting destination (Step 411), and the process is terminated.

If the determination result is false (N) in any of steps 403, 405, 406, and 408, if the determination from step 403 has been completed for all the generated address codes, (Step 409: Y), the candidate for sorting destination is adopted as the sorting destination (step 411), and the process is terminated. If there is an undetermined address code (step 409: N),
In order to determine an address code having a lower priority, 1 is added to the value i indicating the priority (step 41).
0), and return to step 403 again.

According to the above-described embodiment, even if a low-priority address code generated from information with low reading accuracy is used, if a more appropriate sorting destination can be obtained, it is adopted. Since the sorting can be performed, the sorting efficiency can be improved. Further, in the above embodiment, the sorting efficiency is described in the sorting information table. However, instead of describing the sorting efficiency in the sorting information table, a separate table for defining the sorting efficiency for the collection box may be provided. The same processing as in the above embodiment can be realized.

[0020]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to sort a mail by adopting an address code which provides the highest sorting efficiency among a plurality of generated address codes. The effect is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of a mail sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a mail sorting process for a group of certain mails by the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of address information given to the address surface of a mail sorted by the mail sorting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a table for storing each address code generated for one postal matter according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sorting information table that associates address codes with sorting destinations according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed procedure of a process of determining a sorting destination of mail according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Mail sorting device 2: Input port 3: Intra-office barcode reading section 4: Customer barcode reading section 5: Postal code / address recognition section 6: Transport path 7: Barcode printing device 8: Stacking box group 9: Stacking Box 10: Control device 11: Storage device 13: Postal code 14: Address 15: Customer barcode 16: Local barcode 17: Local barcode address code area 18: Customer barcode address code area 19: Postal code / address recognition address Code area 20: Classification information table 21: Record 22: Address code pattern 23: Classification destination 24: Classification efficiency

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A step of reading a plurality of pieces of information representing a destination assigned to a mail and generating a plurality of address codes for identifying the destination of the mail, and classifying the address code and the mail. A step of referring to information for associating the bins of the sorting destination and information indicating the degree of specifying the destination; and a step of sorting the mail according to the degree of specifying the referenced destination. Mail sorting method. 2. A plurality of address code generating means for reading a plurality of different address information representing a destination given on a postal matter and generating an address code for identifying a destination of the postal matter; Storage means for individually storing each of the address codes generated by the plurality of address code generation means; information for associating the address codes with the bins for sorting mail items and information indicating the degree of specifying a destination; Storage means for storing a plurality of address codes stored in the storage means, referring to the information of the storage means, and a means for determining an address code according to the degree of specifying the destination, Postal sorting equipment. 3. The mail sorting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of pieces of destination information are one of a postal code, an address, a destination barcode assigned by a sender, and a destination barcode assigned by a post office. A mail sorting device characterized by the above-mentioned.