Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Sorting special items – and certain methods and apparatus for... – Traveling item turned to predetermined position
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-16
2003-07-29
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...
Traveling item turned to predetermined position
C209S900000, C209S540000, C209S584000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06598748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for collating a plurality of items into a final sequenced set of the items in preparation for delivery to predetermined delivery points, some items being pre-sequenced according to a prioritized order reflecting the delivery points, and other items being in a different order than the prioritized order.
More specifically, the present invention and method relates to collating a plurality of mail items into a final sequenced set of the items for delivery to predetermined delivery points, some of the mail items being pre-sequenced in delivery point sequence (DPS) of selected carrier routes, and other mail items being in a different order from the delivery point sequence, all items then being merged into carrier walk sequence (CWS).
2. Description of Related Art
The United States Post Service (USPS) allows the mailing industry to prepare mail in a number of formats and sequences. Levels of savings incentives are provided to mailers to format the mail as closely as possible to the actual sequence that the mail is delivered. In doing so, the USPS creates internal savings by reducing the amount of processing and handling required to distribute and deliver the mail and passes a portion of this savings back to their customers through the incentives. For example, a mailing prepared to “carrier route” is prepared by separately packaging the product in bundles. Each bundle goes to a specific carrier at a specific post office. The USPS can then process this mail by shipping it directly to the specific post office rather than shipping it through a number of distribution facilities and processing it within those facilities. At the specific (destination) post office, the clerks can simply distribute each bundle to the appropriate carrier, rather than having to break down bundles and sort the mail within the bundle to the carriers. At each step in the distribution process, savings are realized by reducing the amount of processing required.
As carriers receive their mail for the day, they sort the mail in into what is referred to as “Carrier Walk Sequence”. They do so by “casing” the mail. This operation is the process of placing each piece of mail into a cubbyhole in a matrix of cubbyholes. This is done in such a manner that by placing and then removing the mail from the cubbyholes the carrier creates a bundle of mail that is in exactly the sequence that they will deliver it. All mail for each address in the route is together. As the carrier walks or drives their route, they simply remove mail from the top of the bundle at each stop. Various metrics are used to determine the rate at which mail can be cased. Mail presented to the carrier in walk sequence can be cased much faster than purely random mail. Typically a carrier cases random mail at 8 pieces per minute and sequenced mail at 18 pieces per minute. In order to facilitate more productive casing operations, the USPS will pass a portion of the savings created by sequenced mail back to the mailers in incentives (i.e. mailers are charged less per piece to mail a sequenced mailing than to mail a random mailing).
Recently, the USPS has identified the need for a Flats Bundle Collator (FBC), such as the system disclosed in the aforementioned parent application U.S. Ser. No. 09/310,221, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,099. This system takes multiple flats (periodicals and similarly sized mail) mailings and automatically collates them together into a single bundle similar to the output of the carrier casing operation. In order to perform this operation, it was '25 thought that each individual mailing would preferably be in carrier walk sequence and the system would then simply collate the sequenced mailings together. While this constraint is true for most collating systems, this invention describes a process that would eliminate this constraint for the Flats Bundle Collator by intelligently applying the inherent characteristics of the system design.
It is widely accepted in mailing and USPS circles that mailers would be provided incentives and would therefore provide mailings configured for processing on a Flats Bundle Collator. There are, however, a number of compelling reasons for expanding the capabilities of the Flats Bundle Collator described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/310,221, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,099, to process mailings that do not meet the criteria for these incentives.
There are a number of mail preparation options that are offered to mailers by the USPS. These options are tailored to accommodate varying mailing parameters such as the number of pieces per mailing, the density of mail per route, zone, or area, bar coding and addressing levels and the mail type itself (1st class, Standard A, or periodical). Within these options mailers determine the most cost-effective means of preparing and shipping their product.
This determination takes into account the time sensitivity of the mailing, the preparation costs and the mailing costs. To facilitate this process, the USPS provides customer data with regard to routes, zones and areas. The USPS does not provide mailers with complete sequence information (i.e. complete route information including 11 digit bar codes and the carrier walk sequence) to protect the privacy of its customers. The USPS does provide increasing levels of detail including zone and route customers and some modified sequence data (with corresponding incentives) constructed to maintain customer privacy but allow for casing operations to be more productive than casing random mail.
Currently, a large portion of flats mailings are prepared in a configuration know as Enhanced Carrier Route Line Of Travel (ECRLOT). This configuration provides flats in a quasi-sequence that overlaps Carrier Walk Sequence to varying degrees depending on the route itself and the carrier walk sequence. It is this configuration (LOT) and some levels of random mail that this invention addresses. The basic construction of LOT mailings is based on the concept (or mechanism) of “Block Faces”. A Block Face is a representation of a portion of the carrier route. Typically a Block Face includes both a range of zip codes and a direction of travel (either ascending or descending addresses within the block face). Rather than providing the complete sequence of stops on a route LOT creates a series of sequences in Block Faces (and directions) that provides a varying degree of correlation to the carrier route depending on the route itself and nature of the LOT for that route. A typical example of a “Carrier Walk Sequence—vs.—Line Of Travel” is as follows. An imaginary carrier has a route that consists of only one street with 20 addresses on it. The carriers walk sequence is to deliver up the odd side of the street and then down the even side of the street. The Carrier Walk Sequence for this route is 1,3,5,7, . . . 19, 20, 18, 16,14 . . . 2. An LOT for this route could be represented as stops “1-20 A” (ascending) on that street. The mailer would prepare the mail for this route as 1,2,3,4,5 . . . 20. Ideally, the LOT for this route would divide the route into two block faces; one for the ascending odd-side of the street and one for the descending even side of the street. This construction would create a 100% correlation between the LOT and actual carrier walk sequence. In practical terms, carrier routes are much more complex than a single street and carriers often deliver to a portion of a street, turn off onto side streets and eventually return to the remainder of the original street. While it is not uncommon for a single street to be represented by multiple block faces to account for this, there is a varying degree of difference between the actual walk sequence and mailings created in LOT.
For the purpose of illustration, we will assume that the route is represented by a single block face. In the next example, we will illustrate the impact of two different block face representations for a small route consisting of three streets.
TABLE 1
Carrier casing operations examp
Laybourn Robert W.
Mileaf Daryl S.
Beauchaine Mark J
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Walsh Donald P.
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