To the uninitiated, gazing through the window of an in-plant, corporate, or university mail center operating in full manual mode looks like a hot mess of letters, flats, and parcels traveling up, down, and across seemingly disconnected workflows. Chances are, there was once a systematic approach to mail processing in place. In many mail centers, however, processes and layouts don’t get updated to accommodate increases in volume, technological improvements, and an increasingly varied mail stream. The operational obstacles to processing a mixed bag of media include duplicate touches, misplaced mail, and inconsistent tracking.   It may look like chaos, but a combination of best practices and technology can calm the mail center maelstrom. The Mixed Mail Challenge The biggest challenge mixed mail presents is variability. Think about processing 1,000 standard #10 envelopes. They are the same size, thickness, and orientation. Workers develop a rhythm, and equipment runs at maximum speed with few adjustments. In contrast, a mailstream of letters, flats, parcels, and cards requires a different handling decision for every item. Rather than performing repetitive tasks, operators make hundreds or thousands of micro-decisions throughout the day, dramatically affecting throughput. Mixed mail causes delays because workers must handle each item differently, read labels in different positions, and handle oversized pieces. Enter Contemporary Sortation and Vision Technology The USPS spends the majority of its time sorting mail and packages, often by size or type. An in-plant mail center is no different. Manually handling inbound and outbound items is time-consuming and can be a lush environment for accidental errors. Tritek equips our custom modular sorters with scanning technology that reads common barcodes and non-barcoded addresses. They even process handwritten ones! Once scanned, the Tritek sorter directs each mail piece or parcel to the appropriate bin for collection and distribution. Throughput skyrockets, and manual presorting is all but eliminated. A Typical Day in a Mixed-Mail Environment In a mixed mail center, throughput is slower. Each piece is an exception, and every manual touchpoint creates an opportunity for error, such as directing mail to the wrong department or misplacing it entirely. Worker fatigue and lower productivity are prevalent in mixed-mail environments because each piece requires a dedicated single motion to process. This happens repeatedly throughout the day. Compare that to sorting consistent #10 envelopes. An operator can easily scoop up 100 envelopes with one hand in one motion. Mixed mail does not stack well. If mail is placed in a mail tub as it is presented, meaning that a single tub contains letters, flats, parcels, and cards, there is no good way to optimize tub space. That means more tubs and increased clutter in the mail center. An automated sorter places each piece of media into its own bin, making it simple to put all envelopes into one tub, all flats into another, and so forth. Automation optimizes space, and the mail center is less claustrophobic and less chaotic. Throughput, Accuracy, and Staff Efficiency Tritek’s scanning and sorting technology plays an essential role in optimizing mixed-mail workflow. But the importance of well-trained and engaged employees cannot be minimized. Training programs ensure workers understand postal requirements for outbound mail and the organization’s internal cadence for inbound mail. Initial and ongoing training equips team members with the knowledge to handle regular operations, unexpected situations, and possible risks and security threats. Clear lines of communication between staff and recipients ensure the timely and correct processing of mail and packages, facilitating an organized and effective mail management system. Tracking performance metrics and implementing quality assurance benchmarks are also essential. Best Practices and Benchmarking Regularly tracking productivity helps to maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) and enables management to recognize areas for improvement. By monitoring these metrics, the mail center manager develops informed plans to optimize processes and improve overall performance. Additionally, this information is the basis for deploying technology. If the maximum pieces processed per hour is consistently at its limit, it’s time for a faster machine or additional equipment. A Typical Situation Consider a regional insurance company that receives 800–2,000 pieces of incoming mail daily. In most mail centers of this size, getting all that material delivered to the right departments and individuals probably relies on manual sorting and routing. The staff spends their day handling incoming mail such as claims, policy documents, payments, and customer correspondence. If the organization implemented an automated mail-processing system that scanned incoming mail, recognized document types, extracted key information, and automatically routed items to the appropriate department, the system could process the vast majority of the mail at a much quicker rate. With the right hardware and software in place, the insurer could identify, classify, and route 90% of their incoming mail. Automation such as this reduces manual handling, shortens processing times, and allows employees to focus on exceptions rather than routine sorting tasks. The result is higher throughput, improved accuracy, and reduced employee fatigue from repetitive mail-sorting activities. Business Impact The more varied an organization’s mail stream, the greater the value of automated scanning, sorting, and tracking methods. Automation eliminates thousands of manual decisions, reduces labor costs, improves accuracy, and accelerates internal and external distribution. For many large enterprises, universities, hospitals, and government agencies, the business case for automation is driven less by mail volume and more by the complexity of handling mixed mail and parcel streams. Let Tritek Tackle the Chaos Tritek engineers, patents, and deploys field-proven production mail automation solutions to advance productivity and efficiency for mail service providers and in-plant mail centers nationwide. We’ve been doing it since 1988. All our scan-and-sort technology is custom-configured to satisfy specific client requirements. Tritek’s client list includes mail service providers, print providers, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, educational institutions, financial services companies, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and fulfillment services.