|
|
|
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR AUTOMATES SMALL PARCEL SHIPPING
Image Distribution Services (Image Entertainment) in Las Vegas, Nevada, ships Video and
DVD recordings to customers all over the United States. In order to get
the most favorable postal rates, they must sort the merchandise into
United States Postal Service (USPS) pouches according to delivery zones
for both First Class mail and Priority Mail. The guidelines issued by
the USPS define more than 120 separate postal zones for First Class
Mail, and another 120-plus for Priority Mail, but the two are not
identical. In order to properly sort the merchandise, IDS would need to
provide more than 240 separate sort lanes in order to fully segregate
the product being shipped!
In order to accomplish this feat, a sortation system implemented by
FloStor was designed to sort the product in two stages for each type of
shipment. Quantum QuikSort conveyors, each with 6 bi-directional
transfers were chosen to provide the sortation, and a database was
designed to provide for a primary and a secondary sort into the bins
alongside the conveyor. Running on the first QuikSort unit, bar code
scanners read the barcode on the shipping label, send the information to
the sortation software, and the primary sort table in the database sends
the package to one of 12 bins, each of which is assigned up to 12
separate Postal regions.
After the primary sort is accomplished, each of
the 12 bins is wheeled in turn to the second QuikSort conveyor and the
product is sorted a second time into Postal pouches according to their
final Postal region destination defined in the secondary sort table.
There are two separate databases, one for First Class Mail and one for
Priority Mail. Using two separate conveyors of 12 bins each allows for
sortation into 12 x 12 = 144 separate sort locations. Separate databases
for the First Class Mail and the Priority Mail deliveries allows IDS to
sort up to 2 x 144 = 288 distinct Postal regions on only two 27-foot
conveyors and 12 total transfers!
|
|
