Advance Notification Streamlined Acceptance and Visibility for FirstClass Mail

1
Advance Notification Streamlined Acceptance and
Visibility for First-Class Mail

• MTAC Workgroup 102

2
Issue Statement and Desired Results

• Issue Statement - Define capabilities of advance
  notification, streamlined acceptance and
  visibility for First-Class Mail
• Develop an approach for First-Class Mail
  notification and visibility.
• Develop an approach for First-Class Mail mailers
  to provide mailing information electronically
  using standardized platforms such as mail.dat,
  web services or postage statement wizard
• Develop an approach to communicate this advance
  notification downstream through postal supply
  chain
• Develop an approach to leverage barcodes to
  identify assets and mailpieces to streamline
  acceptance and for additional visibility
• Develop an approach to provide visibility at
  asset level, such as tray scans from air
  carriers, in conjunction with the piece level
  information that is available through Confirm
  today

3
First-Class Advance Notification Pilot Goals

• Develop an approach for First-Class Mail
  notification and visibility by
• Understanding First-Class Mail processing and
  operations
• Determining forecast methods for First-Class
  Mailings
• Determining how advance notification data will
  optimize the normal day to day activities of USPS
  systems
• Transportation optimization, better planning for
  air lift and surface transportation
• Processing capacity optimization, better forecast
  of mail volumes and machine utilization
• Staffing, enable USPS to forecast resource
  staffing based on expected mail volume
• Mail Transport Equipment, procure and supply MTE
  based on actual data

4
Pilot Findings

• Forecasting
• Mailers were able to provide SPLY (Same Period
  Last Year) information in various formats
  including mail.dat, MS Excel, and/or text files
• Information included Piece counts by Origin
  Destination Pair
• SPLY information proved to be the most accurate
  basis to forecast volume
• Variations in piece count volumes from day to day
  between SPLY and current year volumes averaged
  about 3
• JIT (Just in Time) Information
• USPS would like to receive JIT information as far
  in advance as possible
• Mailers were able to forecast the following
  information in advance

• 2 - 4 Weeks in Advance
• Induction Date/Time
• Plant Load vs. Mailer Drop-off
• MTE (Mail Transport Equipment) Type and average
  number
• Type of Handling Unit

• 2 Days 24 Hours Prior to Induction
• Total Piece Count
• Total Weight of Mailing
• Number of Handling Units
• Number of Pieces per Handling Unit
• Presort

5
Next Steps

• Develop the requirements and designs for FAST for
  First-Class
• We have begun meetings with Operations to discuss
  integration with other USPS systems
• FAST will allow mailers to provide forecasting
  and JIT information
• Forecasting
• New Forecasting module to better plan USPS
  transportation and routing
• Forecast Date
• Origin/Destination
• of Pieces
• Provide forecast information to other USPS
  transportation scheduling and planning systems so
  that they may optimize performance.
• Allow USPS to better allocate air transportation
  space
• Allow USPS to determine if more transportation
  capacity is needed between USPS facilities and
  mailer plants
• Allow USPS to determine if more transportation
  capacity is needed between USPS facilities
• Better manage MTE (Mail transport equipment)
  procurement in order to have adequate quantities
  available for mailers at all times

6
Next Steps (cont.)

• JIT Information
• Surface Transportation Scheduling
• Demand Based Transportation Scheduling in the
  FAST system for plant-load pickups
• FAST will integrate with systems used by USPS
  Postal Vehicle Management (PVS) to schedule and
  optimize transportation between mailer plants and
  USPS facilities
• Air Transportation scheduling
• Use JIT information to determine air space
  availability and if additional air lift is needed
• Purpose
• Refine forecast information based on JIT
  information provided
• Enable mailers to know transportation schedules
  for plant load pickups
• Enable USPS to optimize transportation planning
  and volumes

7
Visibility

• Seamless Acceptance Pilot participant has
  included Container and Tray Barcodes
• We have shared Container Scan and Tray scan Data
• Container/Pallet Scan Data from Surface
  Visibility
• Tray Scan Data from PostalOne! Transportation
  Management
• Air Transport Tray Data from SASS

8
Next Steps

• Finalize Visibility Data Elements
• Include additional pilot participants
• Sunset

9
Intelligent Barcodes Decoded

• Intelligent Mail Container Barcode
• Intelligent Mail Tray Barcode
• Intelligent Mail Barcode

Container Barcode
21 Digits
24 Digits
Intelligent Mail Barcode
31 Digits