What problem have we dealt with?
PNS is the largest private postal operator and the largest print distributor in our market, with nearly 17,000 sales outlets nationwide and the densest network of sales outlets in Europe.
In addition to its core business, which is print distribution, in which PNS covers 80% of the Czech market, the acquisition of Mediaservis in 2018 also added the area of delivery of printed materials and mail to mailboxes. This is handled by a team of nearly four thousand delivery drivers.
With the increase in the number of distributed items, the requirements for speeding up and automating processes have also increased. This also applied to remittance, the main process of reverse logistics. The existing processing was handled with a very high level of personnel and time.
PNS, therefore, started to look for a solution that would cover all needs, in addition to speeding up the entire process and minimizing human error through automation.
Business description of the solution provided by aeqoom
The above requirements from PNS were best met by aeqoom's concept. Within six months, aeqoom consultants together with the development and project team Bowe Systec, our partner for this project, and the PNS project team implemented and fully integrated the software solution and two Simex Flexi sorting lines.
For the entire delivery, aeqoom is also providing follow-up operational service. As part of the solution implementation, we focused on:
- Automation of processes - to achieve faster processing and at the same time reduce personnel requirements
- Increasing control - automating audit retrieval
How did the project turn out?
With the implementation of this project, PNS has become one of the European technological leaders in this field. By deploying sorting lines and implementing a software solution, PNS has acquired a tool that can efficiently process all commonly used address formats in a single stream.
PNS is now capable of automated processing of up to 60,000 mail pieces and 28,000 magazines per hour.
What has the change brought?
- Sorting of addressed shipments has been made faster and easier
- Reduced staffing requirements for handling the forward logistics process and remittance
- Automated data extraction has reduced errors and increased the speed of remittance retrieval
- Control of the entire process has been streamlined
- PNS expects to reduce operating costs and increase overall efficiency
- PNS has gained a major competitive advantage thanks to the project and, last but not least, has opened the way for further development of the services provided
The client's evaluation
"This is a major technological leap that puts us among the European leaders in the distribution of printed and addressed mail. We will improve the control mechanisms throughout the sorting process of addressed mail. Digital sorting without the need for human intervention will further reduce the already minimal error rate in sorting mail into delivery districts and improve tracking of mail movements."
- Vít Rozsypal, Chairman of the Board of PNS
"This sorting system allows us to handle all distribution requests much faster. The activities of both lines are coordinated by special customized software. This allows us to flexibly adjust their operation if such an urgent need arises."
- Ondřej Vaňha, Deputy Chairman of the Board of PNS
