Simulating the impact of parcel size and bar code quality on the productivity of parcel sorting machines

摘要

The United States Postal Service (USPS) often has to upgrade legacy parcel sorting machines that have not yet outlived their economic lives. At the time of this study, the USPS was considering equipping small parcel and bundles sorting machines with bar code scanners. We used a simulation approach to estimate the potential impact of diverse parcel sizes and of uneven barcode quality on the productivity of bar code enabled sorting machines. We found that the level of bar code quality of mailing labels and the sizes of parcels would significantly impact the productivity of bar code enabled sorting systems.