MTAC Workgroup 100 Seamless Acceptance for MLOCR Environment Co-chairs Industry – Jay Gillotte USPS – Pritha Mehra

2 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction  Definition  Seamless Acceptance & Verification Process Proof of Concept will determine the feasibility of automating aspects of the Business Mail Entry (BME) acceptance and verification process.  Scope  Establish process to communicate electronic documentation from mailers processing equipment directly to USPS  Establish a process to generate electronic postage statements from the electronic documentation  Establish a process to verify mail from electronic documentation and postage  Determine which verification activities can be automated (such as piece count verification) based on technological capabilities  Define an approach to simplified acceptance/verification Seamless Acceptance Pilot Scope Seamless Acceptance Pilot Scope

3 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction  Phase One: Complete  Loaded pilot files into PostalOne! test site  Defined requirements for PostalOne! and Mail.dat enhancements  PostalOne! will support mailers in MLOCR environment with release 11.0 scheduled for Nov 2006  Phase Two: In-progress  Using data sources to validate:  Presort  Mailpiece Count  Short Trays Phased Approach Phased Approach

4 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction  Data collected from 2 mailings per week from each pilot participant since May 2006  Prudential applying 4CB/POSTNET (21 FCM jobs, 574,390 pieces)  PSI applying PLANET/POSTNET (24 FCM jobs, 31,672 pieces)  Pilot process  Mailer submits electronic documentation  Sample trays are run on MERLIN  USPS machines scans gathered and analyzed for mailing  Documentation compared to MERLIN and machine scan to determine accuracy Pilot Details Pilot Details

5 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Pilot Results Pilot Results  Presort: Piece scan patterns have been used to verify presort of ZIP groups  Mailpiece Count: Number of inducted pieces has been determined from piece scans  Short Tray Analysis: Actual piece counts by ZIP group from scan data have been used to verify mail makeup  Evaluating the use of the following:  Accurate Barcode Verification: Read rate for mailing can be compared to End Of Run (EOR) read rate for all mailings and eMIR reports for problem pieces  Valid Barcode: POSTNET of piece manifest can be compared to the Delivery Point File (DPF Now) file to determine if valid POSTNET applied Data collected through last ten weeks of the pilot indicates that Seamless Acceptance is possible.

6 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Presort Validation Presort Validation Piece scan patterns can be used to verify presort of a ZIP group (logical tray). Machine scan data is compared to the manifest to evaluate presort quality of the logical tray  Evaluate presort using POSTNETs of first MPE scan  Identify unexpected pieces in the tray using scans by machines  Identify trays/pieces that reverse operations (i.e. Incoming Secondary then goes to Outgoing Primary) Pilot results compared with pilot trays run on MERLIN show this process matches MERLIN results with an accuracy of 99.71% Average presort accuracy over 99% for both mailers.

7 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Mailpiece Count Validation Mailpiece Count Validation  Current scan rate  91.8% - PLANET (location on mailpiece)  89.8% - 4CB (machine upgrades and location on mailpiece)  Able to identify un-documented pieces  Multiple pieces with the same 4CB/PLANET and POSTNET cannot be differentiated  Have been excluded from manifest and scan data  Unique piece identifier will eliminate this issue Piece scans can be compared to the manifest to verify an accurate manifested piece count.

8 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Short Tray Validation Short Tray Validation Piece documentation and scan data by ZIP group can be used to verify mail makeup. Documented piece counts by POSTNET are used to identify ZIP groups that do not have the minimum 150 pieces to a facility Able to identify short trays First scans were compared to ZIP group documentation to ensure actual trays matched documented ZIP group makeup

9 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Workgroup Next Steps Workgroup Next Steps The pilot will be expanded and continued through the end of FY06 to verify initial results.  Continue to expand pilot participation  Include tray scans  Surface Visibility  PostalOne! Transportation Management System  Air Visibility  Include additional piece scan data  2D Meter Barcode Scans  Permit – Revenue Protection (Permit-RP)  Include additional data sources  Delivery Point File (DPF Now)  Mail Processing Operating Plan System (MPOPS) data  Explore postage assessment approach

10 Seamless Acceptance & Induction Seamless Acceptance & Induction Questions? Questions?