WO2004080616A1

WO2004080616A1 - Method for sorting postal articles according to their destination addresses

Info

Publication number: WO2004080616A1
Application number: PCT/EP2004/001460
Authority: WO
Inventors: Walter Rosenbaum; Dieter Wingberg
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2003-03-12
Filing date: 2004-02-17
Publication date: 2004-09-23
Also published as: DE10310760B3

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for sorting postal articles according to their destination addresses on sorting machines, which are located in sorting centers (1), in a number of sort runs according to the radix method. Said sorting centers (1) each have a number of delivery stations (2) in which deliverers (3) are active. The deliverers (3) of each delivery station (2) are logically numbered consecutively, and the deliverers (3) are combined with the same assigned logical numbers to form groups. The postal articles are sorted in the respective sorting centers (1) in the first sort run, the so-called exit sorting, according to sorting centers (1) and to the deliverer groups. One partial group at a time, which is assigned to a sorting center, is assigned to a deliverer group of a sorting terminal. Upon completion of the exit sorting, the sorted postal articles are transported to the respective sorting centers (1). In the now subsequent sort runs, the so-called entry sorting, a sorting terminal is assigned to each delivery station (2) of the respective sorting center (1). The postal articles of each delivery station (2) that are combined according to deliverer groups are then sorted into the assigned sorting terminals according to deliverers (3).

Description

Procedure for sorting shipments according to their destination addresses

The invention relates to a method for sorting mail items according to their destination addresses according to the preamble of claim 1.

The processing of unsorted consignments takes place through several sequential sorting processes until a desired sorting depth is reached (e.g. city, district, postcode, delivery agent or delivery point). Each of the aforementioned sorting depths represents a successive gradual refinement. As the sorting depth increases, this becomes more and more precise up to the clear information of the delivery point. The information required for this is contained in the destination address (cf. EP 0 509 280 A2, WO 03/004 178 AI). Radix sorting processes are used to reduce the sorting technology required. They offer a very high sorting depth with few sorting end points. The number of available sorting targets at the end of the Radix sorting process results from the number of available sorting end points, potentiated by the number of passes that the consignments complete through the machine. In other words, with a 20-fold item sorting system in which each item was processed 3 times by the machine, one can sort to 20 * 20 * 20 = 8000 = 20 ³ sorting destinations / destination addresses (cf. DE 43 02 231 C2, EP 1 258 297 AI). Although in theory the Radix sorting process appears to be highly efficient, there are significant problems when using physical objects and especially when sorting mail items. If you keep in mind that mail items are sorted in an existing network (FIG 1), you quickly realize that you are not able to sort all items, especially in the first sorting step. end parts of the sorting machine (even for machines with few sorting end points). While the radix sorting process can be fully used in the later sorting steps to gradually sort the mail items to hundreds of delivery offices, thousands of deliverers and finally millions of delivery points, this is normally not possible during outgoing sorting. During the outgoing sorting, in which only the number of nationwide sorting centers is sorted (cf. WO 03/004 178 AI), only a relatively small proportion of the sorting end points is used. This also applies to relatively large countries and thus relatively large postal networks.

If you now take into account that during the first Radix sorting run (outgoing sorting) only a part of the sorting end points was used and that additional time is consumed by the transport between the sorting centers, you can see that they are available for the incoming sorting standing time is very limited. For this

For this reason, the full effectiveness of the Radix sorting process cannot be used. Even if the number of compartments available in each sorting center were increased to several hundred, it is no longer possible to lose the efficiency lost during sorting

(by using only a small part of the sorting end points).

The invention is therefore based on the object of creating a generic sorting method with which the sorting capacities in the first sorting run are better used, so that the subsequent sorting runs are relieved in terms of the number of sorting runs and / or the number of sorting end points required.

According to the invention, the object is achieved in that the deliverers of each delivery office are numbered logically and the deliverers actuators can be combined into groups with the same assigned logical numbers. The consignments are sorted in the respective sorting centers in the first sorting run, the so-called outgoing sorting, according to sorting centers and the delivery groups, with each delivery group being assigned to a sorting end point. After the outgoing sorting has been completed, the sorted shipments are transported to the respective sorting centers and in the subsequent sorting runs, the so-called incoming sorting, a sorting end point is assigned to each delivery center of the sorting center. The consignments of one delivery office, each grouped according to delivery groups, are then sorted separately according to the delivery agents into the assigned sorting end points. This simplifies - the incoming sorting, since the sorting end points no longer have to be emptied as often,

- the number of transport containers for the consignments when delivering from the sorting centers to the delivery offices is minimized, - the number of sorting machines required is significantly reduced compared to current methods,

- minimizes the number of sorting end points required per machine.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are set out in the subclaims.

If a large number of delivery agents work in some delivery offices, the delivery office of a delivery office can be divided into two imaginary delivery offices to reduce the number of sorting stations required.

So that the mail items for the individual deliverers can be separated well in the respective delivery office, the end or the beginning of the sorted mail item stack of an individual delivery item is advantageously selected during the incoming sorting. marked opposite the adjacent batch of consignments from the next deliverer.

This can be done particularly cheaply by inserting separation cards.

It is also advantageous if the consignments of the local deliverer groups are combined with the consignments of the corresponding deliverer groups delivered by the other sorting centers and sorted together in each sorting center during the input sorting.

However, it may also be advantageous, taking into account the available capacities and the consignment quantities involved, to sort the consignments of the local delivery groups and the consignments of the corresponding delivery groups delivered by the other sort centers separately in each sorting center.

In order to keep the effort for emptying the sorting end points low, it is advantageous to only empty the sorting end points when the incoming sorting is complete or after the mail items have been sorted for the last deliverer.

The invention will be explained in more detail in an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawing.

1 shows a postal network in which the sorting method is used,

2 shows a schematic illustration for grouping the deliverers of a sorting center,

3 shows a schematic representation for deriving the required delivery groups, a schematic representation of the occupancy of the sorting end points during the departure sorting,

a schematic representation of the division of a delivery office into two virtual delivery offices to reduce the number of deliverers per delivery office,

a schematic representation of the exchange of the mail items for the delivery groups between the sorting centers,

1 shows a schematic representation of the consolidation of the items for 4 delivery groups in the incoming sorting center A from the respective local portions of the delivery group and from the portions from the other two sorting centers,

a schematic representation of the assignment of the sorting end points during the input sorting,

a schematic representation of the content of a

Sorting end point during incoming sorting,

a schematic representation of two sorting centers with associated delivery offices and delivery agents,

a conventional grouping of the deliverers for outgoing sorting according to FIG. 10,

a conventional assignment of the sorting end points for the outgoing sorting according to FIG. 10, 13 shows a conventional assignment of the sorting end points for the first two sorting runs of the input sorting in the sorting center A according to FIG. 10

(Nomenclature: ZA1-1 means: delivery office 1, delivery agent 1),

14 shows a grouping according to the invention of the deliverers for the outgoing sorting,

15 shows an assignment according to the invention of the sorting end points for the outgoing sorting,

16 shows an assignment according to the invention of the sorting end points for the input sorting in the sorting center B.

1 shows schematically a postal network with the mail flow. As before, a condition for departure sorting is that shipments can be sorted based on geographical features. The mail items are distributed to the sorting centers 1, in which the incoming sorting then takes place. The new principle makes it necessary that the basis of the departure sorting is no longer purely geographical, but that the information about the delivery office 2 and the corresponding deliverer 3, who distributes the items to the delivery points 4, is also used.

The new mixed (hybrid) procedure for outgoing and incoming sorting is achieved in that, as shown in FIG. 2, the deliverers 3 of a sorting center 1 are grouped. For this purpose, the deliverers 3 of the delivery offices 2 belonging to this sorting center 1 are numbered virtually for each delivery office 2. The number of delivery groups required per sorting center 1 results from the maximum Number of deliverers 3 in the delivery office 2 with most deliverers 3. In this way, the required number of delivery groups per sorting center 1 is determined. The addition of all groups of all sorting centers 1 gives the number of sorting end points required during the outgoing sorting (see FIG. 3). The number of required sorting points and their assignment is. same in all sorting centers 1 during outgoing sorting. An example of the assignment of the sorting end points during the outgoing sorting is shown in FIG. 4.

If it turns out that a few delivery offices 2 manage significantly more deliverers 3 than others, these delivery offices 2 could be supplemented by virtual delivery offices (see FIG. 5). In this way, the number of sorting end points required can be kept smaller during outgoing sorting.

Each group of deliverers 3 is assigned a sorting end point during sorting in a sorting center 1. In this way, the shipments of the individual delivery groups are sorted in the outgoing sorting center. The corresponding groups are then exchanged between the sorting centers (see FIG. 6).

The local delivery groups in the incoming sorting center must then be consolidated with those supplied by the other sorting centers. In the following example there are only the three sorting centers A, B and C. In sorting center A, the items in the group of the first deliverers are sorted into a sorting end point during outgoing sorting (as described above). In the further sorting centers B and C, the mail items for the group of the first deliverers in the sorting center A are also each sorted into a sorting end point. The consignments for this group are then transported from sorting centers B and C to A. After receiving the shipments in sorting center A, everyone is now Consignments of the first group of deliverers are summarized (see FIG. 7). This process is carried out with all groups of deliverers. After this consolidation, the items can be sent to the next sorting step.

Due to the outgoing sorting described above, it is now possible to sort the mail items onto each individual delivery person 3 with just one further radix sorting step (the incoming sorting). The method used is described below.

A sorting end point is now assigned to each delivery office 2 for the incoming sorting. The number of sorting end points required in a sorting center 1 results from the number of delivery offices 2 belonging to this sorting center 1 (see FIG. 8; note: this number will probably be different in each sorting center).

All groups of deliverers are now prepared for incoming sorting and are ready for processing. Before you start sorting, separation cards must be made available. Simple colored cardboard boxes (for better identification) can be used as separating cards in this process. These cardboard boxes should have the maximum size that can be processed by the machine. In this way, the separation cards can be easily found later (see below). These separation cards can later be collected and used again (after each delivery person 3 has received the items for his district in the delivery office 2).

The incoming sorting is now carried out according to the following procedure: First, the shipments of the first group of deliverers are distributed to the sorting end points (to the delivery offices). A separating card is then distributed to each sorting end. The mail items of the second group of deliverers are then distributed to the sorting end points. Then follow- the separation cards and then the mailings of the third group of deliverers can begin. This alternating distribution of mail items in a group and separating cards continues until the mail items of the last group have been distributed by delivery agents to the sorting end points. This then results in the following sequence for distributing the mail items during sorting:

Delivery group 1 - separation card -> delivery group 2 - »separation card -> delivery group 3 - ...

A sequence as shown schematically in FIG. 9 then results in each sorting end point.

A major advantage of this process is clear:

In conventional methods, in which the mail items are distributed to the individual deliverer 3, each deliverer 3 is assigned a single sorting end point. As a result, in conventional processes either machines with many sorting end points are required or many independent sortings are required, between which the sorting end points must be completely emptied. The former entails high investment costs and a large dividing area, and the latter entails longer downtimes of the sorting machine during the sorting end emptying. In contrast to this, the new method only requires one sorting end point per delivery office 2 and the complete emptying of the sorting end points only occurs once at the end of the incoming sorting. This will make them significantly smaller

Machines are needed and the downtimes of the sorting machines are minimized.

In the manner described above, the mail items for each individual deliverer 3 are physically separated from one another (by the separating cards), but the mail items for a delivery office 2 remain together. So it is in the Delivery office 2 easy to separate the shipments of the individual deliverers 3 from each other again, since the shipments for a deliverer 3 are each between 2 separation cards. In addition, each transport container receives a label on which it is noted for which or which deliverer 3 the shipments in this transport container are intended.

This now shows another clear advantage of the method: With conventional methods, only the consignments become one

Deliverer 3 sorted into a sorting end. This sorting end is then emptied. The emptying is done by removing the consignments from the sorting end and then placing them in a transport container, also called a tray. Each deliverer 3 is given its own transport container. Statistically, however, not all containers are filled completely, which results in a corresponding waste. As a result, more transport containers have to be transported to the delivery offices 2 later than would actually be necessary. This can only be avoided by manually folding the partially filled containers back together with other partially filled containers.

In contrast to this, with the new method a sorting end point is only emptied when it is completely filled, so that the capacity of the container is fully used. In this way, it is not necessary to insert another manual work step (to avoid partially filled transport containers) or to transport partially filled transport containers (which means that larger trucks or more trucks are required).

The following is a simple example to explain the most important features and advantages:

A postal company has 2 sorting centers 1 (sorting centers A and B) with 7 and 9 delivery offices, respectively. Office 2 is looked after between 3 and 5 deliverers 3. A total of 30 deliverers 3 belong to sorting center A and 36 deliverers 3 to sorting center B (see FIG. 10).

If the consignments are to be sorted to deliverer 3 with no more than 2 machine passes per consignment, machines with 30 or 36 sorting end positions are required according to the prior art. With outgoing sorting, only 2 sorting end points are occupied (one for sorting center A and one for sorting center B). Now, in order to reduce the size of the machines, 3 independent sorting runs could also be provided in the input sorting, which would reduce the number of compartments required to 12 (a different number of input sorting runs could also be provided - for reasons of simplification, only one variant is considered in this example) , For this purpose, the deliverer 3 would have to be combined into groups in the outgoing sorting (see FIG. 11). The grouping shown here is a classic grouping, as is typically done in practice today. As a result,

Sorting now has 6 sorting end positions occupied: one per input sorting run and machine (see FIG. 12).

In the case of incoming sorting, the 3 groups are now sorted one after the other in each sorting center. Everyone will

Deliverer 3 is assigned a sorting end point in exactly one input sorting run. All mail items for this delivery person 3 are sorted into this sorting end point. An example of such a sorting end assignment for the first and second input sorting runs is shown in FIG.

Conclusion: As already mentioned above, either machines with many sorting points are used or machines with fewer sorting points on which several input sorting runs then take place (or several machines with few sorting points). The former leads to a high investment volume and increased demands on the installation area. The latter leads to time restrictions, since all sorting end points of the machine must be emptied each time between the different input sorting runs. In practice, a considerable amount of time is required for this emptying process. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that in practice several such emptying processes per input sorting are necessary. However, this time is typically not available.

In contrast, only one machine with 10 sorting end positions is required for sorting with hybrid sorting per office. For this purpose, the deliverers 3 are grouped, as shown in FIG. 14. For the outgoing sorting one needs five sorting points for sorting center A and five sorting points for sorting center B (see FIG. 15).

For the incoming sorting, you need seven sorting points in sorting center A (corresponds to the number of delivery offices) and nine sorting points in sorting center B (see FIG. 16). Now the items in delivery group 1 are sorted first into the sorting end points in the incoming sorting. Then a separating card is sorted into all used sorting end points. Then the deliveries of delivery group 2 follow, followed by a separating card, followed by the deliveries of delivery group 3 etc. until the deliveries of delivery group 5 are sorted.

Conclusion: As can be seen from this simple example, the new sorting process requires either fewer machines or machines with a smaller number of sorting end points or fewer sorting runs, or a combination of these options. In practice, this leads to significantly lower investments at the postal companies and / or to optimized processes.

Claims

claims

1. Method for sorting mail items according to their destination addresses on sorting machines located in sorting centers (1) in several sorting runs according to the Radix method,

- whereby the sorting centers (1) each have a number of delivery offices (2) in which deliverers (3) are active, that is to say, that

- That the deliverers (3) of each delivery office (2) are numbered logically and the deliverers (3) are grouped together with the same assigned logical numbers - that the items in the respective sorting centers (1) are in the first sorting run, the so-called Outgoing sorting, sorted according to sorting centers (1) and the delivery groups, whereby a sub-group assigned to a sorting center is assigned to a delivery group of a sorting end point,

- that the sorted consignments are transported to the respective sorting centers (1) after completion of the outgoing sorting,

- that in the following sorting runs, the so-called incoming sorting, each delivery office (2) of the respective sorting center (1) is assigned a sorting end point, and that the consignments grouped according to delivery groups are each assigned to a delivery office (2) separated by the delivery agent (3) sorted into the assigned sorting end points.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that in order to reduce the number of sorting stations required, the deliverers (3) of a delivery office (2) are divided between two imaginary delivery offices.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, so that during delivery sorting the end or the beginning of the sorted consignment of consignments of one deliverer (3) is identified in relation to the adjacent consignment of consignments of the next deliverer (3).

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that a clearly recognizable separation card is sorted ^' during the input sorting in each case after the last shipment of a deliverer (3) ^' .

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, so that in each sorting center (1) the items of the local delivery groups are combined with the items of the corresponding delivery groups delivered by the other sorting centers (1) in each sorting center (1) and sorted together.

6. The method according to claim 1, so that the mailings of the local delivery groups and the mailings of the corresponding delivery groups delivered by the other sorting centers (1) are sorted separately in each sorting center (1).

7. The method according to claim 1, so that the sorting end points are only emptied when the incoming sorting is complete or when the mail items for the last deliverer (3) have been sorted.