Case Study:
Background: CHINA POST, as a state-owned enterprise in China, has long held a pivotal position in the express delivery industry. With the rapid growth of business volume, the traditional sorting method—relying on manual search, identification, and sorting of each parcel by personnel—has proved inadequate. This method not only involves high labor intensity and low efficiency but also is prone to errors, making it difficult to meet the high standards of sorting speed and accuracy required by CHINA POST.
Solution: After in-depth site surveys and demands analysis, Realkey created a tilt tray sorter as a sample project for automatic parcel sorting for the Qingdao branch of CHINA POST.
Project Scale: 6 input ports, 268 tray units, 200 sorting destinations, 10 telescopic belt conveyors, and 320 meters of conveyor lines.
Implementation Time: From March 10, 2014, for planning and design to project completion on April 26, 2014, it took 46 days.
Effect Display: The tilt tray sorter easily solved the previous manual tasks of searching, identifying, and picking parcels on-site. Workers only need to place the parcels in the trays, and the sorter automatically identifies the destination and sorting path of the parcels, then transports them to the corresponding positions.
Sorting Efficiency Improvement: Compared to the traditional manual sorting method, the sorting speed of the tilt tray sorter is more than 10 times faster, capable of processing 12,000 parcels per hour.
Sorting Accuracy Improvement: The sorting accuracy rate has reached over 99.99%, increasing customer satisfaction.
Reduction in Labor Demand: During full operation, two-thirds of the sorting personnel can be reduced, significantly reducing labor intensity, shortening operation time, and reducing labor costs.
Manual sorting speed and accuracy are limited by the personal capabilities and fatigue levels of sorting personnel. Faced with a large number of parcels and express deliveries, manual sorting often fails to meet the requirements for rapid and efficient processing, resulting in low sorting efficiency.
During manual sorting, sorting personnel need to rely on visual inspection of address information on parcels and classify and sort them. However, due to human factors such as fatigue and lack of concentration, the sorting error rate is high, which may result in parcels being incorrectly sorted or missed.
Manual sorting requires a large amount of manpower investment, including sorting personnel, management personnel, etc. With the rise in labor costs, the cost of manual sorting also increases accordingly. In addition, additional expenses are required for training, welfare, etc., for sorting personnel.
During peak periods or holidays, the volume of parcels for postal express delivery significantly increases, putting enormous pressure on manual sorting. Sorting personnel need to handle more parcels, while time and manpower resources are limited, leading to further decline in sorting efficiency.