Video: An
Introduction to the Flats Sequencing System
Video: FSS - Transforming the Delivery Operation in 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media Relations 202-268-2155
February 8, 2006
News Release No. 06-008
www.usps.com
BOARD APPROVES DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SORTING TECHNOLOGY
Washington - The Postal Service took another step toward completely
automating the mail sorting process with the approval by the agency's Board
of Governors today of a new technology.
The Board approved the redirection of funds toward the development and
testing of a Flats Sequencing System (FSS) which will allow the sequencing
of larger mail pieces in delivery point order.
Flat mail - which includes large envelopes, catalogs, magazines, and
newspapers - is one of the most labor-intensive categories of mail to
process, sort and deliver due to variations in size, thickness and address
label placement.
Similar to the Delivery Bar Code Sorters that were developed and implemented
under the successful Corporate Automation Plan for letter mail, the Flats
Sequencing System will arrange flats in the order of delivery. This will
reduce the time letter carriers need to prepare mail for delivery.
This April, a prototype FSS - one-half the size of the production machine -
will be installed in the Mail Processing Annex in Indianapolis, IN, with
field tests scheduled to continue through June. Following that, a full-size
pre-production machine will be built and tested through June 2007. Upon
successful completion of those tests, deployment of FSS equipment is
targeted to begin in the spring of 2008.
