DHL invests $12.5m to upgrade US hub sorting systems
DHL is investing $12.5m to upgrade sorting and processing facilities at its Express US hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The company said the project should improve speed and reliability of shipment scanning and sorting, as volumes grow at the Express hub.
DHL’s fully-automated sorting system comprises four miles of conveyor belts, processing about 90,000 pieces each hour. It links up more than 100 service centres in the United States with more than 220 countries and territories around the world.
Improvements to control modules, bar code scanning systems and software are set to be completed by April 2011.
DHL is working with locally-based companies to install new hardware and software for its scan tunnels, and to upgrade the control systems the run much of the facility’s sorting equipment.
Jack O’Neill, vice president of operations for DHL Express US, said: “As US importers and exporters increase their reliance on DHL to grow their operations on a global scale, we need to ensure the latest technologies are in place to continue providing the highest levels of service and reliability for our customers.”
Material Handling Systems, which has its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, is outfitting the facility’s new sorting control systems. It is converting some of the computer-based units to programmable logic controllers and some of the facility’s older PLCs to the latest technology.
Mettler-Toledo, of Columbus, Ohio, is working to upgrade bar code systems for DHL’s auto-sort scan tunnels, alongside Datalogic Automation of Hebron, Kentucky.
Upgrades are being made to optical systems that read shipment information from packages ahead of their automated sorting and internal routing.
DHL spokesman Robert Mintz explained that having switched from laser scanners to camera-based systems, newer technology is being installed to improve the process of photographing and decoding shipment package barcodes.
While DHL said its investment in its US hub was responding to growing shipment volumes, Mintz told Post&Parcel that the investments had not been made with a specific target in mind to increase sorting volumes.
He said the main priority was to bring the company’s current technology and systems up to date.
DHL’s Express division has seen rising volumes worldwide this year, propelled by the economic recovery, including a 19.2% growth in revenue in the second quarter of the year.
In the US, the company has restructured its Express operations and reported back in August that the economy was now “growing considerably”.
