A Better Bundle

Are you distributing mail as efficiently as possible?

Most companies, institutions, and agencies utilize what has been called the "relay system" of distributing mail . . . mail is sorted just enough to move it to another level of detail where it then becomes someone else’s responsibility. The distribution of incoming and interoffice mail for a large company for instance may have three steps:

	First it is sorted to buildings.
	Then, within each building, it is sorted to a mail stop.
	Finally, at the mail stop, someone else is responsible for delivering it to the ultimate recipient.

At the first two sorting steps, the detail of the address is viewed and often used by the clerk to determine which building or mail stop should receive the piece. However, much of the benefit of this task is lost once the piece is thrown into a bin and mixed with other pieces. The same detail must again be viewed at a later sorting step. If this system were used by a 4 x 100 yard relay team it would be similar to the first runner completing his 100 yard dash then throwing the baton back 50 yards for the next runner to retrieve.

Collated Bundles improve efficiency!

Sort-Glide improves efficiency by allowing early sorters to capture, and pass on some of the detail they note when they first look at an address. The label for a mail stop may extend across any number of comb separations depending on expected mail volume. To sort the mail with the same level of efficiency as is possible with standard systems a mail piece going to that stop can be put into any of the separations above the label. However, the clerk can easily use these comb separations to collate the resulting mail bundle in a way that helps later steps.

Here are some ways the mail bundle can be ordered.

	By recipient (alphabetically, or by location on the route).
	By location in the next sorting fixture (so the next clerk doesn’t have to move as much).
	By mail type (letters on top, interoffice in the middle, junk mail on the bottom).
	By mail priority (high priority at the top of the stack).

Used appropriately the concept of a collated bundle can produce dramatic efficiency and client satisfaction improvements.

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