Patent ID: 6576857
Filing Date: 2003-06-10
Classification: B07C,G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of optimizing a mail sorting process, said sorting process including the performance of a first and at least a second sorting cycle, and being performed on a sorting machine (1), which receives a group of mail items (2) at an input (I) and supplies, at its outputs (U), said mail items (2) identified and separated according to given sorting rules; in a given sorting cycle, the mail items (2) being fed to the outputs (U) of the sorting machine (1) according to a predetermined respective sorting criterion, and then being fed into orderly manner back into the input (I) of the sorting machine (1) for a following sorting cycle; each output of said sorting machine (1) being assigned at least one respective delivery location according to an assignment criterion related to the delivery order of the mail items in the delivery location and said optimization method comprising the steps of:assigning to a first group of delivery locations a first sorting identifier indicating to which sorting cycles the mail items in said first group of delivery locations are to be subjected, and to at least a second group of delivery locations at least a second sorting identifier indicating to which sorting cycles the mail items in said second group of delivery location are to be subjected, said first and second sorting identifiers being different from each other; and subjecting each of the said mail items to the sorting cycles indicated by the respective sorting identifiers, wherein, both the number of sorting cycles indicated by said first sorting identifier and the number of sorting cycles indicated by said second sorting identifier are less than the number of sorting cycles in said sorting process.