FedEx carved out its niche in express air deliveries, building a reputation on speed and reliability. The parcel carrier's 1998 acquisition of Pittsburgh-based RPS has now allowed it to enter the lucrative ground market.

"FedEx wanted to compete on the ground side," says FedEx's Tim Olsen. "We (RPS) had an established ground network that complements their services on the Express side."

Combining the FedEx name and RPS infrastructure created FedEx Ground, already the nation's second-largest small package ground carrier behind UPS.

FedEx has committed $500-million to a 3-year expansion that will provide its ground network access to 98% of U.S. businesses and homes by the end of next year. Among the jewels of expansion is a new super hub to serve the New York area.

"The overnight ground market in metro New York is enormous. We have a very good position here now," says Olsen, who is managing director for the new hub, located in Woodbridge, N.J.

FedEx Ground is no stranger to innovation. Its predecessor, RPS, was the first to use bar codes for package sorting and tracking.

That tradition of innovation continues, as a high degree of automation makes this new center FedEx Ground's largest and most technically advanced hub. Open only since last August, it currently is the third-busiest hub in the Ground system and will become the top facility within the next year.

"We wanted to improve service, maximize our overnight ground potential, and be able to increase capacities by means of this automated facility," adds Olsen. "We improved many areas of the sortation system so it could accommodate more diverse and heavier packages."

The design has created more efficiencies, lowered handling costs, decreased product damage, and has reduced labor by one-third. It incorporates technologies such as bar code scanners worn as rings, voice recognition systems, and extensive sortation.

As a result, "We touch a package only twice," explains Olsen. "We touch it at unload and again at load. That's it."

While some administrative and sales functions are shared between FedEx Express (overnight air service) and FedEx Ground, both operate completely separate package processing. Therefore, the Woodbridge hub handles only ground packages.

All processing here is completed during four sorts that are spread throughout the day. The day and twilight sorts primarily handle receipts coming from other FedEx Ground hubs around the nation. Most of these products will be sorted to destinations in the N.Y. area including ten Metro satellite facilities.

The midnight and sunrise sorts process items received from the N.Y. Metro area for destinations elsewhere in the country.

Most packages are processed though the system's high-speed sorting system. Other processes handle non-conveyables. For example, oversize items are transported on tugger carts, while packages and envelopes that are too small for the main sorters utilize a tilt tray sorter.

Records for all parcels are transmitted to the facility before the delivery truck pulls up to one of the 32 unload doors. Oversize non-conveyables and small parcels, such as flats, are separated from standard packages and sent to their separate processing areas.

Sixteen four-stage power extenders aid workers in pulling the bulk of the cartons from the trucks. These feed into four processing banks, with one bank serving every eight unload doors. From this point to the outbound dock, processing takes less than 2 minutes for most packages.

Each bank of parcels is conveyed to an upper level mezzanine where the cartons first pass through a singulator that places them in single file order. Cartons are next aligned along the left side of the conveyor and then pass through indexing conveyors. These slow down or speed up individual cartons to provide adequate spacing between them for the other processes to follow.

The parcels then enter a scan tunnel that reads bar coded information on any of five sides of each carton. Within seconds and without the parcel stopping, the scanned information is sent to FedEx Ground's home office in Pittsburgh where it is matched to an existing record. This provides the data required to direct each moving parcel when it enters the primary sort. Cartons are also auto-dimensioned while they are scanned.

Four sliding shoe sorters make up the primary sort area, one on each of the four processing banks. At 540 feet, these four sorters are the longest sliding shoe systems ever made by the equipment supplier (Siemens Dematic, Rapistan Division, 877-725-7500, www.rapistan.com).

Using the information obtained from the scan, shoes push the cartons onto 14 possible diverts on each system.

Eight of the diverts steer cartons to secondary sorting areas. Four other divert lanes serve the needs of local packages earmarked for delivery in the metro New York area.

The other two possible destinations handle products for which no matching bar code record was found in Pittsburgh or else the bar code cannot be read properly by the automated equipment. These detour briefly to two special processing areas for problem resolution before re-entering the sorting systems.

Nine SWAK (scanning, weighing, and keying) stations handle the cartons without records. Workers first receive the cartons by conveyor from the primary sort. Each carton is scanned, weighed, and the delivery address is keyed in. The record is then tied to the existing bar code on the carton and the system is updated. The entire process takes less than a minute.

The BRUSH (bar coding to reduce unnecessary special handling) area consists of 12 stations where cartons without readable bar codes are sent. Workers here visually check the address on the box and either key in the correct zip code or speak the code into a headset where a voice recognition system directs printing of a new bar code label.

Once products exit the SWAK and BRUSH areas, they are re-circulated back to the primary sort where, this time, their bar codes and records should be read and matched properly.

Pop up wheel divertors are used in the eight secondary areas to further refine the sorting down to individual outbound dock doors. Upon entering the secondary sort, parcels are once again singulated, aligned, indexed, and scanned in-line. Pop-up diverts then sort by zip code to the 17 outbound doors fed by each secondary sort. Altogether, FedEx has 132 load doors in the facility, which are assigned dynamically.

Upon arrival at the dock, loaders visually check each carton to confirm that the zip code matches the assigned truck. The tracing system is then updated with every package loaded into that particular trailer. Gravity feed and expandable conveyors aid in loading trucks that then transport the cartons to other FedEx Ground hubs around the country.

Many of the FedEx Ground trucks are also designed with decks featuring side flaps that fold down about 2 feet above floor level. Once enough parcels are loaded below this area, the flaps are folded down to create a second floor. The design reduces the overall weight subjected to cartons on bottom levels and gives that trailer better stability.

Some parcels are too large, heavy, round, or flat to work with the automated sorting equipment. These are unloaded from inbound trucks and placed onto non-powered roller conveyors lanes adjacent to receiving. Workers here scan each carton using a bar code scanner worn as a ring. Data showing the assigned outbound door appears on the scanner display. The worker simply uses a marker to write the wing (A, B, or C) and the destination door on the outside of the carton.

They are then loaded for transport onto tugger carts, with each cart in the train assigned to a particular wing. Upon arrival, all cartons for that wing are pulled off the cart and placed onto a special-handling conveyor belt that runs through the middle of the wing, past each destination door. Loaders standing along the belt read the destination written on each parcel and pull the cartons assigned to their doors. These are then placed onto roller conveyors that feed each dock.

Small parcels and flat envelopes are also too small to be conveyed and sorted. Instead, they are processed using tugger carts and a tilt tray sorter.

Many of these small packages arrive at Woodbridge's receiving docks already grouped in bags from other facilities. Other loose items are placed into totes at the dock. These bags and totes are then loaded onto the tugger carts for transport to the small parcel sorting area.

Upon arrival in smalls processing, packages are removed from the bags and totes and manually inducted at nine stations onto a mini tilt tray sorter. The sorter consists of 191 trays that tilt each parcel at the proper moment into one of the 250 chutes surrounding it. Chutes are assigned dynamically based on destination zip code.

Twominutedrill Parcels arrive at unload doors (upper right) and are conveyed to an upper level mezzanine where they are singulated, aligned, indexed, and scanned. Most are diverted to secondary sorters along the three wings where they are sorted to outbound load lanes in less than two minutes. Items that cannot be read by the automation go to either the SWAK or BRUSH areas (upper right) for further processing. Small parcels are sorted by a tilt tray unit (upper left). Packages for metro NY are loaded onto vans at docks located between the wings.

Parcels are gathered in the bottom of the chutes and manually placed back into the bags. Any parcel that cannot be sorted due to an unreadable zip code is delivered to a SWAK/BRUSH chute where a separate processing area within the smalls zone checks the labels and bar codes in a similar manner to the main SWAK and BRUSH areas.

Once all small items are sorted, the bags are then loaded onto the tuggers and taken to the same outbound belts that handle the oversize items. It is here at the docks that items from all areas, including those that have passed through the main secondary sorters, are joined together on the outbound trucks.

The local sorting area performs most of its work overnight with receipts from other hubs. It works in similar fashion to the oversize area.

Receipts are diverted from the primary sort to four pre-load belts. Workers stand at 16 delivery van positions along the edge of each belt and pull cartons intended for their vans. There are 92 available van positions in the facility.

A key to productivity at FedEx Ground is to keep parcels flowing. If any of the primary or secondary sorting systems breaks down, plow divertors can reroute cartons to other systems. Similarly, a back-up system has been created to handle the smalls area if the tilt tray sorter goes down. This sort-to-voice system utilizes stacked bins for sorting. The worker speaks into the system the destination zip code for the parcel, and the system audibly tells which bin to deposit the package.

"The name of the game is moving boxes and making service," says Alan Star-key, assistant hub maintenance manager.

The facility still has room to grow, as more customers are being diverted as it continues to ramp up volume. The building can also be expanded - actually doubled in size. Olsen says that may come within the next 3-4 years.

With less than a year in operation, the Woodbridge hub is already providing customers better service and increased efficiencies.

"We continue to be above our planned goals," says Olsen. "We are pretty proud of that. From a materials handling and maintenance standpoint this facility is thumbs up."

"The company has learned a lot from building our facilities over the past 16 years," adds Starkey. "I have been in a lot of environments and by far, this is the best design I have ever seen."

Click on this icon to read about materials handling at another package service, Parcel Direct.