Running Head: OFFICE AUTOMATION AND GROUP COLLABORATION
Office Automation and Group Collaboration
Office Automation and Group Collaboration
In today’s global economy it has never been more important to have office automation and group collaboration software for smoother operations. As businesses continue to look for cost reduction and ways to optimize worker productivity these types of processes are becoming more in demand. At UPS Mail Innovations several examples of automation and group collaboration that allows for higher productivity and a reduction of operating cost.
The division of UPS that I work for expedites or zones skips standard mail. According to UPS Mail Innovations (2008), “UPS Mail Innovations is a high-volume mailing service provider offering an efficient and effective way of delivering your mail” (para. 1). With the high-volume of mail that is run through the network each day in order to achieve the productivity and service levels some automation is required. A total of 15 Regional Processing Facilities (RPF) are stretched out over the country. All but two are equipped with at least one Automated Processing System (APS). This machine allows a single operator to process and sort a range of 1,500 to 3,500 pieces of flat mail and hour. If these same pieces were processed manually it would take approximately six man hours to process and sort the same amount of mail. This automation is at its best in the Long Island facility where they have five APS machines and on any given night they could process and sort up to 500,000 pieces of flat mail.
In a similar automation our largest sorting facility in Groveport, Ohio just acquired a Parcel Sorting Machine (PSM). Very similar to the APS machines the PSM reduces the amount of manual labor needed to sort parcels. This is the first one in our company and the maximum productivity has not been reached, but the designer of the machine claims it can reduce the parcel labor cost by more than half...