10.00 - 12.00
Sorting and moving of parcels
Day 1 Tuesday 30 September

The realization of a successful air hub material handling system
Vanderlande Industries, Henny van Boxtel, manager engineering express parcel, Hub Leipzig GmbH, Stefan Breidung, technical manager
Vanderlande Industries has a solid reputation for the integration of large express parcel hubs. Examples are the TNT air hub in Liege, Belgium; UPS air hub in Louisville, USA; and DHL’s new air hub in Leipzig, Germany. In a combined presentation, Stefan Breidung (manager DHL air hub, Leipzig) and Henny van Boxtel (manager engineering Vanderlande Industries) will explain how to create a successful air hub.

Case study: implementation of parcel vision
Prime Vision BV, Eddy Thans, CEO
We present, from the customer’s perspective, the extensive project to automate three TNT parcel sorting centres. This turnkey project included high-speed auto-focus camera technology, advanced OCR technology, video coding, image archiving, label identification, process monitoring and management information systems. This presentation documents the customer’s experience: what the project brought TNT in terms of efficiency, ROI, open platform, management information, the pros and cons for implementation and tips and tricks for future implementation.

Simplifying the logistics process and reducing the amount of hardware
Vitronic GmbH, Klaus Michael Bucher, sales and marketing director, BEUMER Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co KG, Thorsten Brockhues, senior sales manager
Volumetric measurements of packages for invoicing and revenue recovery purposes have so far been limited to the infeed area. Our customers, however, were asking for certified systems over sorters as well, in order to simplify these processes and reduce the amount of hardware required. Vitronic has modified its well-established Volumec HS2 volume measurement system for installations over sorters. This system is certified for installations over sorters right now. It allows our customers to reduce the amount of hardware and tracking procedures significantly. The presentation will explain the new technology based on an application including multi-sided camera-based barcode reading technologies at the new Hermes hub in Hückelhoven in Germany.

14.00 - 16.00
Planning and performance
Day 1 Tuesday 30 September

Focus on networks
TNT Express, Nigel Barton, strategic operations director
TNT focuses on running delivery networks. The company constantly considers the state of networks and applies state-of-the-art optimisation techniques to ensure it operates them efficiently and at the lowest cost base. This presentation considers some of the variety of networks TNT operates worldwide and the techniques it used to add value, improve service offering and gain economies of scale.

Process attending quality assurance system for Hermes Logistics Group: a six sigma-based approach towards controlling quality of service
Spectos GmbH, Niels Delater, CEO, Hermes Logistik Group, Joerg Sziegoleit, department manager, quality management mail division
Based on six sigma, Spectos has developed an all-embracing, process-attending controlling system for quality of service for heavy mail distribution through the Hermes logistics network. Spectos investigated relevant quality KPIs for Hermes and implemented a measurement system for the whole distribution network across Germany. The objective was to pinpoint weaknesses in the network and to analyse and improve the distribution process regarding the Hermes service levels. The system was implemented by involving Hermes customers, and it created an overall transparency for the quality of service. The presentation will describe the chosen approach and the experience of implementing it.

Improvement of quality and customer satisfaction through implementation of an intelligent materials handling system
La Poste, Dominique Barret, responsible traitement des flux, Rémi Coste, traitement des flux, Georg Utz, Carsten Diekmann, general manager, UK
How La Poste has changed and optimised its organisation to improve quality and services to its customers. The presentation will cover La Poste’s purchase of 150,000 of the specifically designed KLAPA (800mm x 600mm x 770mm) foldable pallet box; how the KLAPA has contributed to La Poste’s new organisation and improvements; how it was successfully designed for La Poste’s requirements.

Real-time optimising of PUD operations
Ecomond Ltd and Itella, Matti Tuukkanen, VP sales
Ecomond Ltd has develoloped a state-of-the-art tool for optimising the pick-up and delivery operations that allow companies to optimise their operations on a real-time level. This allows a great improvement in efficiency and customer satisfaction, and also reduces costs and carbon footprint. Ecomond Ltd is a Finnish software house concentrating on complicated logistical solutions. It has tools for map-based electronic order management including interfaces to ERP, tracking and all other features needed. This is a unique tool for complicated logistics.

10.00 - 12.00
Retail and customer solutions
Day 2 Wednesday 1 October

Achieving a competitive advantage through a customer-focused eCommerce solution
Seabourne Express Courier Group, Colette Roeder, group IT manager
Seabourne is currently implementing a completely new booking system from NetDespatch. The presentation will describe the story of this implementation: why a new system, why this new system? Problems and difficulties during the development and implementation phase. Evaluation of the benefits and challenges.

Revolutionising the retail network
Post Office Agents Association (POAAL), Ian Kerr, CEO
In the early 1990s, Australia Post entered into an extended period of consultation with the post office owners’ group, POAAL, with the aim of modernising its privately owned post offices and streamling its network. The end result was the landmark Licensed Post Office Agreement. Australia Post’s retail network was transformed: services to customers have been maintained or improved, the owners/operators of Licensed Post Offices have opportunities to grow their business, and Australia Post now makes a healthy profit while meeting its community service obligations. National postal operators are now asking themselves: is this the best model for our retail network?

Next-generation retail system for Guernsey Post
Guernsey Post, Gordon Steele, CEO
Guernsey Post has rolled out a low-cost, simple-to-use counter retail system across the three major islands in the Bailiwick. Costing less than a third of other comparable systems, the introduction of Swift Retail coincided with the Christmas peak. The acquisition of the largest foreign exchange business on the island and the roll-out of foreign exchange services across its network have provided further challenges. The project has not been without its problems, particularly in integrating it with government clients. However, the intuitive feel to the system, touch screens and graphical presentation, stock management functions, as well as reporting capabilities greatly outweigh any difficulties.

Let your customers do your work before the mail gets into the mail pipeline
EasyWeigh, Jelmer Jarig Huizinga, president
Privatisation, liberalisation and increased email traffic make postal operators focus on the process of the postal pipeline and how they can cut costs and find ways to increase profit and improve service. Traditionally this focus is on areas within the mail pipeline. But we pledge to focus outside the mail process; before the mail gets into the process; at home and at the office. Let your customers do some of your work: preparing mail, accurately and simply linking size and weight of letters, packets and parcels to postage prices. EasyWeigh presents four simple, cost-effective tools to weigh and determine sizes of letters and packages to help customers with their mail. The tools benefit the postal operator and customers alike: reduced workload at post offices, a decreased level of underpayment and improved convenience for customers (skip the trip). What’s more, the tools have great long-lasting communication value, and all for very little investment with an immediate and ongoing payback.

Differentiating the postal customer experience
Accenture, Andy Morris, global postal industry asset development director
Accenture's ongoing high-performance business research demonstates that a consistent, differentiated customer experience has a greater impact on customer loyalty – and, by extension, on growth, profitability and shareholder value – than any other factor related to managing customer relationships. To achieve a differentiated customer experience, postal operators must become truly customer-centric, incorporating the customer's perspective, value and actions into every channel of their retail business and operations strategy.

14.00 - 16.00
Automation and handling of mail
Day 2 Wednesday 1 October

Effectively transforming postal operations
Elsag Datamat spa, Massimo Mortola, marketing manager, postal automation
The last frontier of the letter integration systems is the connection of a multiplicity of image acquisition and pre-sorting letter systems (including culler-facer-cancellers) with a multiplicity of letters sorting systems in all the process phases, including sequencing. Three cases of application are presented, from the simple one-to-one connection to the many-to-many connection. In all the cases the integration system allows both to realize the automatic transport of the mail between production cells and enlarge the addressability and the throughput of the sorters in sequencing.

Vision for intelligent mail
USPS, Thomas G. Day, senior vice-president
The USPS is committed to utilising intelligent mail as a means to provide unique identity to each letter, postcard, flat and package that is sorted and delivered in its network. This wealth of data offers the opportunity to provide complete visibility to mail throughout the entire supply chain. As a result, opportunities will be created to improve efficiency and service, provide definitive service measurement, granular cost accounting information, customer-specific pricing, dynamic pricing and, most importantly, enhance the value of mail. This all-encompassing vision for intelligent mail is critical to a strategy of retaining and growing business for the US Postal Service.

Analytics at scale for posts
Accenture, Ajay Easo, senior manager
High-performance businesses are now building their competitive strategies around data-driven insights that are, in turn, generating impressive business results.  Global Posts will be able to dramatically improve business decision-making by using advanced analytics to predict business events and enact the optimal organisational response.  New technology developments are accelerating this shift with impressive scale, scope and economics throughout postal operations.

Flat mail processing in the UK: a new way ahead
Royal Mail, Jane Hooper, programme manager – letter sortation and delivery optimisation, Solystic, Katty Pascal, programme manager, Frédéric Badier, programme management director
The presentation will explain how FAP machines are going to change flat mail processing in the UK, and will highlight the real advantages that the machines provide. It will also describe some new functionalities that could be implemented in the forthcoming months.

14.00 - 16.00
Parcel and express delivery
Day 2 Wednesday 1 October

Integrated online solutions
Neopost, Simon Gourlay, director logistics systems UK
In partnership with a major UK-based express parcels carrier, Neopost Logistics applied its range of IT services to build a unique end-to-end parcels management solution. The service allows customers, operations, customer services and retail outlets to benefit from an integrated online system and manage the transactions of all consignments. It also provides shippers with ‘first click to last mile’ information on the web. These new services have cut costs and driven sales to record levels.

Smart logistics for B2C
Smartpost LLC, Indrek Oolup, CEO
The presentation will give an overview of the Smartpost experience of developing fine-tuned logistics services for B2C customers. Based on the needs of its founding company ON24, which sells furniture on the internet in Estonia and Finland, Smartpost has created an effective logistics chain starting from 200 different suppliers in Estonia, Germany and Finland and delivering goods to home addresses in Estonia and Finland. The key factors for developing services have been high servicing quality, integration of modern technologies and transparency of the process for everyone involved. The presentation will explain how to deliver cumbersome goods to home addresses with a successful first delivery attempt of 99%, which is crucial in this transport segment. Based on this service courier network, Smartpost has also developed its own technology for self-service parcel terminals, and launched a network of parcel terminals all over Estonia. The presentation will also explain how to reduce overall costs in the B2C value chain with self-service parcel terminals, and how all the stakeholders (distance seller, transporter, shopping centre and consumer) can benefit from such a new format of consumer-targeted logistics.

Home Delivery Network, Andy Minton, head of operations development

10.00 - 12.00
Transport and logistics
Day 3 Thursday 2 October

Developing environmental transport strategies
PostEurop, Ingemar Persson, secretary general
With so many different environmental challenges affecting postal operators, as large users of transport, it is essential to develop new ways of being more environmentally smart. This presentation will explore some of the innovative projects being adopted across Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, develop the use of electric cars and make more use of trains – as well as to optimise and minimise the use of transport.

Optimisation of the entire transportation network from pick-up, over trunking to delivery – with cases from the Swedish Post
Transvision A/S, Thorbjørn Schmidt-Jacobsen, market director, Peder Haahr, project leader
The presentation will explain how it is possible to optimise the entire transportation flow in post and express companies via an automatic planning system: structure analysis; optimal master routes; adjusting and managing the daily collection, trunking and distribution (in low- and high-density areas). The benefits in terms of transport and collection/distribution efficiency include plan overview, less time spent on planning, reduction in operational costs, etc. The presentation will also cover implementation of the system at Swedish Post as well as the use of/benefits from an automatic planning system.

Cost-efficient measures for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at DHL Parcel Germany
Deutsche Post AG - DHL Paket Deutschland, Andreas Marschner, director operations performance and planning, Őko-Institut, Martin Schmied, deputy coordinator
DHL Parcel Germany has worked with Őko-Institut and Dortmund University on a project entitled Measures for the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Stationary and Mobile Processes in Logistics Companies (StaMoLo), which is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The aim of the project is the identification of ecologically and economically efficient measures for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions within the DHL Paket Deutschland network, as well as the implementation of such measures in pilot projects. The results of the project will be presented here.

Customer case study: electric vehicles
Modec, Roger Atkins, sales director
Focus on new solutions for fleet operators looking to run zero-emission vehicles without compromising service. This presentation will show how and why forward-thinking companies have adopted Modec zero-emission vehicles. Case study examples will highlight the benefits of implementing cutting-edge technology and show how Modec vehicles could keep your company ahead of the rest.

Light electric vehicles: the Postscooter case
Oxygen S.p.A., Tommaso Stefani, vice-president
Postal operators and couriers are facing specific challenges from environmental impact to cost reduction, from operational efficiency to fleet optimisation. This presentation shows how light electric vehicles such as the Oxygen Postscooters increase fleet operators' profitability providing benefits in terms of flexible deliveries and access to areas restricted to traffic, energy costs and maintenance expenses reduction, customer service and corporate Image improvement.

13.00 - 15.00
Mail delivery - the last mile
Day 3 Thursday 2 October

Continuous improvement on the last mile through beat revision
Hong Kong Post, Samuel Cheung, general manager (productivity services)
The presentation will cover Hong Kong Post’s performance pledge on mail delivery service; pressure of the last mile in the mail process chain to meet customers’ demands; regular review through a beat revision exercise. The objectives of the beat revision exercise are to create a beat revision team and review workload and customers’ needs. The beat revision mechanism includes adopting industrial engineering (IE) techniques; developing a beat revision analysis system (BRAS); gathering information to grasp an overall picture of the delivery round; indoor preparation, outdoor work; demarcation of new beats; staff buy-in through effective communication.

Posties are our most important assets – the legs, eyes and ears of the organisation. How do we empower them to a new level?
Blackbay, Larry Klimczyk, managing director, Royal Mail, Shiona Rolfe, head of fulfilment
How Royal Mail is enhancing the last mile with new technologies: Proof of location (particularly important for home deliveries and new Corporate Manslaughter Act); proof of conditioning; training for new services; removal of paper and processes; and, new information-gathering services.