What Does The Future Hold for FSS Equipment?
There has been considerable discussion about the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) that was set to revolutionize the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service. Massive mail volume declines have contributed to the quite unspectacular performance so far in the brief FSS history.
During last month’s National Catalog Forum presented by the American Catalog Mailers Association, some ACMA members toured the Dulles (Va.) Processing and Distribution Center for an up close view of the FSS network. They reported back to membership their uninspiring findings.
Ashton Harrison, president of Shades of Light, said the visit to the Dulles FSS facility was eye-opening. “We saw our bundles of catalogs being dropped and torn and we saw flyers — not catalogs – which did not conform to the stringent standards going through and messing up the system causing many man hours of special handling and system blocks. These costs are being attributed to catalogs at the present time instead of rejecting the mail pieces up front.”
FSS equipment was supposed to be a boon for catalogers’ costs as well. The USPS has long touted the implementation of FSS machines — a $1.5 billion investment designed to improve efficiencies and control costs by automating the sorting of flat mail. The Postal Service believes FSS will eventually enable it to sort flat mail in carrier walk sequence at speeds of 16,500 pieces per hour.
The first FSS arrived at the Dulles facility on Nov. 30, 2007. Today, the Dulles facility has four FSS machines, processing mail for 95 ZIP codes assigned to 51 delivery units.
Ed Schulz, vice president of Western Sales for Brown Printing Co., told ACMA members he was “overwhelmed” by the complexity of the FSS machine, viewing it as a “pretty daunting task to run efficiently. It looked very futuristic. The USPS needs to look at this and find out which machines are running optimally and why? It’s a huge challenge for the USPS to manage this complex system.”
Beth Diekman, director of marketing media services at Oriental Trading Co., said she saw fewer people working on the FSS machines than two years ago, but the trays and bins were half full. The pieces being accepted, she added, wouldn’t pass the deflection or “droop” test. Bad mailpieces, she added, affect the efficiency of the FSS equipment.
The basic problem with FSS is volume. Since 2005, flats volume has declined 32%, from 53 billion pieces to 36 billion. The FSS machine is delivery point dependent, so the USPS needs to increase the number of delivery points by adding zip codes due to volume decline.
This is not as efficient and makes the ROI difficult to meet. ACMA members said the catalog industry is pushing the Postal Service to consider a single flow machine being run in Europe that processes letters and flats together.
With mail volume continuing its downward spiral, what does the future hold for FSS equipment?
