Transcript Slide 0

Postal Automated Redirection System
(PARS)
John Keegan
Manager, Automation Equipment
USPS Engineering
Agenda
 Background on USPS mail forwarding operations
 Overview of PARS
 PARS cost reduction Areas
 Change of Address Card Data Entry
 Forwarding Process
 Address Correction Service
 Lessons Learned
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Background
 The United States has half of the worlds mail
 Since 1988 USPS Engineering has purchased over
10,000 pieces of automation equipment to sort the letters
and flats
Delivery Bar Code Sorter
Advanced Facer Canceller
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Flat Sequencing System
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What is PARS?
…An initiative by the US Postal Service that drastically reduces the
cost of forwarding mail to a customer’s new address by automating
each of the manual or mechanized processes.
2003 cost to forward mail was over $1.5 billion
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PARS History
Signed a contract with Siemens in 2002 and from 2003 through 2007
PARS delivered the following items at 283 processing centers
nationwide at a cost of over $700 million:
 290 delivery bar code sorters retrofitted with a PARS labeling
module – Combined Input Output Sub-system (CIOSS)
 4,527 delivery bar code sorters (DBCS) upgraded with new
computers to intercept forwarded mail.
 8,270 computer servers installed to provide optical character
recognition and directory service.
 1,080 Advanced Facer Canceller Systems upgraded
 3,084 computer terminals placed at remote encoding sites for
image keying
 85 Change of Address Card Scanners
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PARS Statistics
55 million
Change-of-Address
orders for
customers that
moved in 2008
18% through the
internet
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PARS Statistics
USPS forwarded
over
billion
pieces of mail in
2008
2.4
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Original Change of Address Process
Delivery Unit
Forwarding Unit
Change
Card
Change
cards on file
18 months
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Memphis TN
National
database
National
Center
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PARS Change-of-Address Process
Memphis TN
National Center
Redesigned
Change-ofAddress
form
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Scanned and
processed by OCR
software along with
remote video
operators at 4
locations
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Old Mail Forwarding Process
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PARS Interception
If the
delivery
point bar
code and
patron name
matches the
database
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PARS
intercepts
and labels
over 60% of
the
forwarded
mail with the
new address
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Overview – System Architecture
Advanced
Forwarding
Reader
(AFR)
finalizes
over 60% of
images
Remote
Encoding
Forwarded mail pieces
are identified on all
equipment
Images are processed
on the AFR
If the AFR cannot resolve,
the image goes to a remote
encoding operator
 Any non intercepted
pieces the carrier sends to
the CIOSS
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Combined Input Output Subsystem (CIOSS)
Applies and prints
labels with new
address’s at over
30,000
pieces/hour
CIOSS
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Combined Input Output Subsystem (CIOSS)
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Combined Input Output Subsystem (CIOSS)
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High Speed Label Applicator
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Original Address Correction Service
 Address Correction Service is provided to mailers that want to
know if their customers have moved
 Pieces that require notification were identified
 Pieces were manually copied onto card stock with the new address
and sent to the mailer via manual mail handling operations
 The mailer pays $.70 for each card sent
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Postal Automated Redirection System
Address Correction Service
Form 3547 Fee due 70 cents
ACME Publishing
PO Box 15223
Somewhere NY 10013
John Doe
7 Miner Street Apt. 3
Anywhere MA 07890
7 Miner Street Apt. 3
Anywhere MA 07890
10 Main Street
Smalltown CA 90210
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TO THE POSTMASTER OF
ACME Publishing
PO Box 15223
Somewhere NY 10013
 Cards are
automatically
generated,
sorted by city,
and printed at
the National
Center
 75 million
cards printed in
2008
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Centralized Address Change Printer
Located at the National Center, Memphis TN
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Incentive Based Contract
 Business Case based on paying for a multiple of actual
USPS savings
TARGET CATEGORY
Baseline
Performance
Improvement
Performance at
End of Program
Savings per
Piece
Total Savings
($M)
Payout Factor
Payout ($M)
Increase UAA Intercept
68.73%
1.87%
70.60%
$0.0288
$1.35
1.75
$2.36
AFR INT Finalization Rate
65.00%
12.33%
77.33%
$0.0355
$6.29
2.00
$12.59
AFR CIF Finalization Rate
38.86%
5.72%
44.58%
$0.0355
$2.05
2.00
$4.10
AFR RTS Finalization Rate
59.21%
12.77%
71.98%
$0.0355
$7.22
2.00
$14.44
Improve REC UAA Productivity
720
59
779
$0.0027
$4.53
1.75
$7.93
Improve REC COA Productivity
159
38
197
$0.0310
$1.26
2.25
$2.82
TOTAL
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$22.70
$44.24
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Lessons Learned
 Business
Performance based incentive contract was low risk and a
win win for both USPS and Siemens
 Implementation
Acceptance and training of field operations personnel was
key
 Testing
Delays could have been avoided by gradual systematic
testing
 Testing at various sized sites would have been beneficial

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Lessons Learned
 Customer Service

A positive affect was the reduction of customer complaints
– 60 % reduction in complaints on forwarded mail
– Complaints on fraudulent address change cards
reduced from 27,000 in 2004 to only 368 in 2008
 Technical
Good results from Siemens using a graphical decision
tree representation to document over 3,000 forwarding
rules
 Excellent error rate on change of address cards with two
OCRs and keyers.
 Adding too many features into one release caused the
delay of valuable software that reduced operating costs.

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Summary of Benefits
Improved operational efficiency
 Change-of-Address Cards – reduce manual entry
 Interception – Eliminates extra handlings and reduces
manual keying workload
 Address Correction Service – eliminates manual copying
and sorting of mail
 Faster and more accurate service to customers
 Significant system performance improvements since 2004
 Interception rate went from 50% to 69%.
 The average OCR finalization rate 37% to 60%.
 Over $400 million in annual cost savings
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Future PAR Plans
 Continue incentive based contracts to further improve interception
AFR read rate , rejects and errors
 Planning PARS for Flats by retrofitting flat sorting machines and
using the same PARS OCR and keying terminals
Email any questions to [email protected]
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Questions
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