Pitney Bowes Facility High Throughput Sortation

Project Overview

Pitney Bowes, a major player in shipping, mailing, and e-commerce technology, sought to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of its parcel sortation operations at one of its facilities. The goal was to modernize the sorting process to handle high volumes more effectively.

The primary business need was to implement an automated sortation solution that could maximize sorting capacity—specifically, the number of destination chutes—within the constraints of the existing or planned facility space. This would directly address issues related to manual handling, error rates, and the inefficient use of valuable floor space.

Technical Solution

EuroSort Single Split Tray Sorter (Bomb Bay)

The selected solution is the EuroSort Single Split Tray Sorter, also known as a Bomb-Bay sorter. This type of sorter features trays that split open at the bottom to drop items directly down into the designated destination chute or container below. This design is key to its space efficiency.

Key Features

The defining feature of this sorter is its space-optimized design. The split-tray/bomb-bay mechanism allows for an exceptionally dense array of sort destinations directly beneath the sorter loop, enabling Pitney Bowes to achieve a high sortation capacity without requiring a large building footprint.

The system is engineered for high-speed operation, capable of processing a large volume of parcels per hour, which is essential for the throughput demands of a major logistics provider like Pitney Bowes.

Results & Benefits

By automating the sortation process, the system eliminated numerous manual handlings (touches) previously required to move items to their correct destinations, reducing labor requirements and physical strain.

Automated sorting based on barcode scanning significantly increased accuracy compared to manual methods, leading to fewer mis-sorted parcels and associated costs or delays.

The efficient design of the EuroSort sorter allowed Pitney Bowes to achieve its required sorting capacity in less floor space than alternative systems might have required, leading to potential savings on facility costs.

Challenges & Solutions

The operational challenge was achieving a high sortation capacity with many destination lanes within a limited or optimally used facility area. Pitney Bowes addressed this by selecting the EuroSort Single Split Tray Sorter. This technology's bomb-bay design was the ideal solution because it allows for the densest possible packing of destination chutes directly beneath the sorter, maximizing the number of destinations per square foot of floor space and enabling efficient automation within the spatial constraints.

System Integrator

EuroSort was the system integrator for this project. They supplied and installed the Single Split Tray (Bomb Bay) Sorter at the Pitney Bowes facility. EuroSort's technology was chosen specifically for its ability to meet Pitney Bowes' key requirement of fitting the maximum number of sort destinations into the available area.