Siemens Dematic awarded USPS contract for OCR enhancements

The United States Postal Service has awarded a $370 million contract to Siemens Dematic Postal Automation L.P. to provide systems and upgrades to replace its existing fleet of Multiline Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) systems. This is the single largest contract the USPS has ever awarded the company.

The program scope includes delivery of 395 new Delivery Bar Code Sorter Input/Output Subsystems with Expanded Capability (DIOSS-EC), 217 Input/Output Subsystem (IOSS) modules to retrofit fielded Delivery Bar Code Systems (DBCS), and upgrades to 213 existing DIOSS and 53 Combined Input/Output Subsystems (CIOSS). These systems will replace most of the MLOCR’s currently in use at approximately 300 processing locations across the United States. Siemens Dematic has also been contracted to install the systems, and supply integrated logistics services and spare parts.

After the design and evaluation phase, deployment of the production units is scheduled to begin in January 2006 and extend through March 2007.

“With the OCR Enhancements program, the USPS is taking important steps to update their existing mail processing technology to provide higher productivity with fewer systems in less space, while maintaining their high service quality. Siemens Dematic is very proud to be given the opportunity to continue working with the Postal Service as they progress to the latest generation of automation technology,” said Heribert Stumpf, President and CEO of Siemens Dematic Postal Automation L.P.

According to Tom Day, Vice President of Engineering, USPS, “This program will eliminate some outdated technology that was getting difficult to maintain. In addition, we will be able to not only bring a better quality of sort technology, but more depth of sorts within the same footprint of space. Equally important, however, is that the new systems will support the faster, simpler mail processing needed to increase USPS operations productivity.”

The new DIOSS-EC systems expand mail-processing capability by allowing a wider spectrum of mail to be machine-processed, further reducing the need for manual mail processing.

In addition to processing more mail, the new mail processing procedures, by using the existing DBCS design, will sort 3 to 4 times the number of destinations than the existing systems thus saving a sorting pass in the overall process. The new OCR Enhancements will support a higher system throughput, and the program will result in higher standardization of equipment, procedures and layouts. By achieving this, the OCR Enhancements program will support the USPS Transformation Plan goals.