Keeping the Mail Moving

COPYRIGHT 2001 Information Access Company When the United States Postal
Service found itself faced with keeping track
of and maintaining its nationwide inventory of mail bags, trays, pallets
and
containers, postal officials put out a call for competitive bids. Managing
these items, which number in the hundreds of millions, was interfering
with
the Postal Service’s primary mission of delivering the mail. New Breed, a
third-party logistics company, won the contract. The company
took the Postal Service’s logistical nightmare and turned it into a
precise,
measurable and robust system that should save the Postal Service an
estimated
$450 million over the next 10 years. New Breed designed the facilities,
supply chain operations and information
systems for keeping track of the mail transport equipment — the bags,
trays
and containers used to move mail within the Postal Service. In an effort
to control costs and improve customer service, the Postal
Service decided it had to do a better job of managing this equipment.
Postal
officials wanted to be sure that they had enough equipment to do the job
and
that the equipment was available where and when it was needed.
“Processing orders, tracking, sorting, repairing and delivering millions of
bags, trays and mail containers kept us from processing the mail,” says
Paul
Seehaver, executive director of the Postal Service’s mail transport
equipment
service center program. “Before New Breed helped us organize and track
our mail transport equipment,
we didn’t know how many pieces of equipment we had or where they were
located,” Seehaver says. “We would have too many bags in Newark, but not
enough in Los Angeles, where we would have an overflow of cardboard trays.
The
facilities and material handling systems that New Breed designed and
implemented for the Postal Service have changed all that.” Workers in
these facilities determine which mail transport equipment items
need repair and which are too worn to save. New Breed keeps track of
inventory
with a sophisticated complement of computer software, based on strict
postal
criteria. New Breed fully operates four of the Postal Service’s mail
transport
equipment service centers, which are located all across the country. The
company oversees the supply chain functions for the remaining 18
facilities,
including training staff, managing inventory, managing distribution and
controlling 2,500 trailer loads of product each day with a custom-designed
information system. New Breed also helped the Postal Service identify
opportunities to recycle
some material. For equipment that cannot be repaired, the company
coordinates
its removal and disposal, generating an estimated $29 million in recycling
revenue. Page 86;Volume 56;Issue 3 THIS IS THE FULL TEXT: COPYRIGHT
2001 Penton Media, Inc. Subscription COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale GroupMATERIAL
HANDLING MANAGEMENT, 01st March 2001