Machine that can sort 157,000 parcels a day installed at Royal Mail base in Wolverhampton

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/loc ... erhampton/

A new fully automated parcel sorting machine which can process 157,000 parcels per day has been installed in a Royal Mail centre in Wolverhampton.



The machine has been built by automated technology company Solystic and uses a system of conveyor belts and scanning technology to sort parcels.

It has been installed at the North West Midlands Mail Centre – based on Sun Street behind the railway station – as part of a multi-million pound move to speed up the process.

The machine can process up to 7,500 parcels per hour to delivery offices across the Midlands and the rest of the UK and can handle a variety of parcel shapes and sizes, up to 20kg.

Sarah Coulson, parcels automation programme director at Royal Mail, said: “We are transforming the way Royal Mail processes parcels given the rapid growth in online shopping in recent years. Our investment in state-of the-art parcel sorting machines will help us better meet the growing demands of our customers in the Midlands and the rest of the UK and is a vital part of the ongoing reinvention of Royal Mail.”

Parcel chiefs say the move will replace the manual sorting processes that can be "both time consuming and physically demanding" and help the company meet the surge in demand caused by online shopping – with the process believed to be up to four times faster.

Maurizio Puppo, director of strategy and business development from Solystic, said: "We are delighted to be part of this important initiative with Royal Mail. Our parcel sorting machines will help Royal Mail quickly and effectively sort the increasing number of parcels that are being posted across its network thanks to the growth in e-commerce. We look forward to supporting Royal Mail with this new technology."

A total of 39 Royal Mail parcel sorting machines are set to be in operation by October this year – nearly a 100 per cent increase in a year. This includes installations at new hubs being built in Warrington and Daventry, which when operational, will be able to process more than one-and-a-half million parcels per day.

[SpacePhoenix]

That'll be even more yorks and sleeves with Tracked and non-Tracked, large and small mixed together

[wallan]

Will there be the work to run it more than 12 - 14 hour,s a day

[SpacePhoenix]

Will there be the work to run it more than 12 - 14 hour,s a day

Once the hubs come fully on line I can't see the point in any MC having a PSM

[Nickvilla20]

I know a few people who work there. I think it’s only going to be for intra packets.

[SpacePhoenix]

I know a few people who work there. I think it’s only going to be for intra packets.

There's no way that there'd be enough intra packets at any MC to justify having one of these

[heathrow86]

Question is, what will they do with all the staff? It said it reduces manual sorting.

[SpacePhoenix]

Question is, what will they do with all the staff? It said it reduces manual sorting.

Locally it wouldn't make any difference just would mean no need for casuals/agency

The only way we'd ever be able to justify having one is if we didn't send anything to any of the new hubs

[ted_e_bear]

So is rm's plan to capture the business from a lot of new customers, reading above comments it appears that we currently don't have enough work to justify these machines, if so presumably they think they can take business from DPD etc, any ideas ? If that's the case then I forsee a bottleneck in do's like on the run up to Xmas, or is it go to that idea of parcels being delivered from some sort of hub as per the lat's ? It's all still a bit vague to me I'd even go as far as saying that they appear to be just bouncing from one idea to the next like headless chickens.

[Nickvilla20]

I know a few people who work there. I think it’s only going to be for intra packets.

There's no way that there'd be enough intra packets at any MC to justify having one of these

Wolverhampton does have quite a few postcodes though. It’s has WV/WS/DY/ST and TF. It does seem the Mail centre where they test things they were the first place to have a FSM.

[SpacePhoenix]

I know a few people who work there. I think it’s only going to be for intra packets.

There's no way that there'd be enough intra packets at any MC to justify having one of these

Wolverhampton does have quite a few postcodes though. It’s has WV/WS/DY/ST and TF. It does seem the Mail centre where they test things they were the first place to have a FSM.

Will they have enough work though once the hub takes a load of their parcels?

[moyaspawn]

Can anyone from Wolverhampton mail centre shed any light on the impact the machine is having on the workforce,
Evr's, buy down in hours, shift pattern changes.
My office is currently having a PSM installed - a couple of months behind WV.
We are just going through the process of a preference exercise.

[Nickvilla20]

I know a few people who work there. I think it’s only going to be for intra packets.

There's no way that there'd be enough intra packets at any MC to justify having one of these

Wolverhampton does have quite a few postcodes though. It’s has WV/WS/DY/ST and TF. It does seem the Mail centre where they test things they were the first place to have a FSM.

Will they have enough work though once the hub takes a load of their parcels?

I suppose it’s wait and see. They do cover a big metropolitan area though

Can anyone from Wolverhampton mail centre shed any light on the impact the machine is having on the workforce,
Evr's, buy down in hours, shift pattern changes.
My office is currently having a PSM installed - a couple of months behind WV.
We are just going through the process of a preference exercise.

I used to work there and still know loads who work there so I can ask for you. I gather they still have plenty of casuals so I would assume they would have to go first but this is Royal Mail and you never know

[wallan]

So the "Plan "is these machines will sort items that are Shoe Box Size & under for M/C To M/C to Despatches for Delivery from Local DO,s as now
While Larger items will be Despatched to One of the Two Hubs for Delivery from one of the LAT Offices ?

[SpacePhoenix]

So the "Plan "is these machines will sort items that are Shoe Box Size & under for M/C To M/C to Despatches for Delivery from Local DO,s as now
While Larger items will be Despatched to One of the Two Hubs for Delivery from one of the LAT Offices ?

Time for RM to get a lot more vans in the LAT offices as they'll certainly need them