Automation - the way to go
From where facility manager Jim Clausen sits at the Twin Cities Metro Hub, the U.S. Postal Service still has room to upgrade its mail handling with automation, especially on the information side of the business.
Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/1/2003
Modern: Some people fear automation. Others don't. It seems you fall in the latter category.
Clausen: I sure do. The APPS [automated parcel processing system] at the Twin Cities Hub is only the latest in a long series for me. I've been heavily involved in a sortation test program, a multi-line OCR [optical character recognition] letter sorter test and one for bar code sortation. Just as important, I'm still young enough to be willing to change so I'm not afraid of automation.
Modern: What's the goal of automation for the Post Office?
Clausen: To provide efficient service to the customer at a reasonable cost. We're a $65 billion a year business. The entire system handles a billion pieces of mail every day. This is a difficult, complex business. We have to be able to minimize the number of times we handle mail to provide the best customer service. Automation is the way to do that.
Modern: What's the biggest challenge of automation?
Clausen: Just keeping up with it. The technology changes so fast. It's always getting smaller, cheaper, faster, and we have to evolve with it.
Modern: Has automation at the USPS gone far enough with the APPS?
Clausen: We've made great strides but still have a ways to go. We don't have restrictive mailing requirements in the United States so we need automation to handle the wide range of items. We're on the cutting edge in this facility with APPS. That includes how packages are handled and data about items is collected and processed. The complexity of the equipment is incredible and we get lots of calls and visits to see what we have here.
Modern: How about beyond Twin Cities?
Clausen: The USPS is very good at handling technology. What we need now is more information technology. We need to extend where we are to compete. Ten years ago I never would have thought individual facilities would have their own Web sites, but we do. That helps customer service. But we can go still further. We could use bar codes on more things. We could use GPS [global positioning systems] to track all mail containers and tracks. Then we could make that information available to the customer in real time. It's all about tracking and tracing mail. Fortunately, the USPS is on the road to building an even better integrated information system for all involved.
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