MONDAY, MAY 2, 1988
$109 M CONTRACT FOR MECHANISED LETTER SORTING SYSTEM AWARDED
THE POST OFFICE HAS AWARDED A CONTRACT FOR THE PROVISION AND INSTALLATION OF A MECHANISED LETTER SORTING SYSTEM (MLSS) TO SUMITOMO CORPORATION OF JAPAN AT A COST OF $109 MILLION, IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY (MONDAY).
THE NEW SYSTEM WILL BE SPECIALLY DESIGNED то SPEED UP THE PROCESSING OF LETTER MAIL ITEMS WHICH ARE AT PRESENT HANDLED MANUALLY.
THE MLSS EQUIPMENT COMPRISING OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR) MACHINES, VIDEO CODING MACHINES (VCM) AND LETTER SORTING MACHINES (LSM) WILL BE SUPPLIED BY NEC CORPORATION OF JAPAN WHO HAVE CONSIDERABLE EXPERIENCE IN THIS FIELD OF LETTER MECHANISATION.
THE EQUIPMENT WILL BE INSTALLED IN THE MAIL PROCESSING CENTRES OF THE GENERAL POST OFFICE AND THE INTERNATIONAL MAIL CENTRE AS WELL AS EIGHT OTHER LARGE DISTRICT MAIL DELIVERY OFFICES IN THE TERRITORY.
"UNDER THE NEW SYSTEM, LETTERS WILL RE FED INTO THE OCR EQUIPMENT WHICH WILL ELECTRONICALLY SCAN THE LAST FOUR LINES OF THE ADDRESS," A POST OFFICE SPOKESMAN SAID.
"THE APPROPRIATE BAR CODE OF THE ADDRESS WILL BE PRINTED ON THE ENVELOPE IN LUMINESCENT INK SO THAT ALL SUBSEQUENT SORTING PROCESSES CAN BE DONE AUTOMATICALLY BY LETTER SORTING MACHINES.
"THESE MACHINES WILL SORT LETTERS TO DELIVERY OFFICES, ΤΟ THE INDIVIDUAL POSTMAN'S DELIVERY BEAT OR POST OFFICE BOX UNIT, AND ΤΟ OVERSEAS DESTINATIONS."
ΤΟ THE OCR SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED
READ ADDRESSES TYPED OR MACHINE PRINTED IN ROMAN TYPE THUS AVOIDING THE NEED FOR A POST CODE SYSTEM IN HONG KONG.
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OR
LETTERS REJECTED BY THE QUR EQUIPMENT BECAUSE OF UNREADABLE ADDRESSES, FOR FXAMPLE HANDWRITTEN, ADDRESS NOT IN REGULAR FORMAT CHINESE CHARACTERS, WILL BE DIVERTED ΤΟ VIDEO CODING DESKS WHERE OPERATORS WILL READ THE ADDRESS AND TYPE THI RELEVANT ABBREVIATED ADDRESS CODES ON THE ENVELOPES, THE SPOKESMAN SAID.
"THEREAFTER THE ITEMS WILL BE SORTED ON THE AUTOMAT LO LETTER SORTING EQUIPMENT IN THE SAME MANNER AS THE OCR CODED MA1L.
IT IS ESIMATED THAT ABOUT 80 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL LETTER TRAFFIC WILL BE 'PROCESSED BY THE OUR AND VIDEO CODING EQUIPMENT.
THE THROUGHPUT OF THE LETTER SORTING MACHINES WIE.. REGION OF 28,000 ITEMS PER HOUR.
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