Automated Bag Management System (ABMS)

Small parcel processing is one of the costliest and fastest growing segments in the parcel processing industry. After entering a processing hub, small packages are sorted and routed to specific sort destinations based on a predetermined sort scheme. Parcels destined for the same place are consolidated into bags to reduce the number of touches to each box. These bags are at each one of the sort destinations along the length of the parcel sorter. When full, these bags are manually cleared, closed, labeled, and placed onto a transport conveyor for outbound sorting and loading to destination trailers. All these operations currently employ significant manual labor to perform these repetitive tasks and are potential targets for systems automation. Siemens has built an innovative Automated Bag Management System (ABMS) that significantly reduces the manual labor required to fill and process these bags. The process to tend, fill, seal, label, and takeaway bagged groups of smalls parcels is fully automated. ABMS offers a reduction in bagging and labeling errors and a reduced cost per bag when compared to manual processing.