The South African Post Office (SAPO) has completed a R61 million equipment replacement project, which called for the installation of new-generation high-speed mail sorting machines at several of its mail centres across the country.
The last installation was completed last week in Cape Town, at the CapeMail centre, while new machines were previously put in place at the Witpos and Durmail centres, in Johannesburg and Durban, respectively.
SAPO spokesman Twiggs Xiphu says the Siemens IRV 2000 (integrated reader video coding) and Siemens FSM (final sorting machine) were brought in from Germany.
"They will replace old processing machines, and signal the end of the single largest order ever placed for mail processing equipment by SAPO," he says.
The new equipment has the capacity to sort more than 40 000 items an hour, with a sorting accuracy up to 98%, and is capable of sorting all mail up to C5-size envelopes.
With this improved product handling capability, SAPO expects to see a 50% improvement in productivity, with a reduction in processing costs from 7.5c to 4.2c a letter, says Xiphu.
Running at a loss
Until now, he points out, the mail system has been running at a loss of 15c a letter, losing money on "return to sender" deliveries especially. The equipment replacement is expected to be a step towards profitability.
"I can't say if this will create an immediate turnaround, but we are aiming for a return to profitability in the near future, " says Xiphu, adding that this is also in line with SAPO's broad target of improving on its operational profit last year of R135 million.
According to Pierre Rossouw, automation engineering at SAPO's mail business, the old-generation machines needed to be replaced with new technology with advanced optical character and bar code reading features, as this allows for faster, more accurate automatic sorting.
Rossouw adds that the equipment's performance is measured using the overall equipment effectiveness system, which provides management and operational information for continuous improvement through analysis of quality non-conformances.
"The equipment replacement project, which began in 2005, has been one of the most successful capital projects undertaken by SAPO. With 10 new machines in six mail centres, operational efficiency will be realised for many years to come," says Xiphu.
Share