SORTING OPTIMIZATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR MAILING

• US 20090216585A1
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Doyle, Brian P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202

Abstract

A method of optimizing mail sorting on a envelope sorting machine by eliminating the necessity to pass some of the documents through the machine twice is provided in which a postal code table is created having an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges. An unsorted document print stream is received and a document parameter table created to store boundaries of each of a plurality of documents and a location of a postal code in each document. An index table is constructed incorporating information from the postal code table indicating the location and order of each document in the unsorted document print stream. The index table is reordered according to the order of each document and a sorted document print stream is generated, whereby the documents are arranged in order of their respective priorities. The documents are then printed from the sorted document print stream, separated into groups in accordance with their respective priorities and sorted in order of each group'"'"'s respective order.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing mail sorting, comprising:

creating a postal code table comprising an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges;

receiving an unsorted document print stream;

creating a document parameter table comprising information for determining boundaries of each of a plurality of documents in the unsorted print stream to be printed and for determining a location of a postal code in each document;

in response to the unsorted document print stream and the document parameter table, constructing an index table incorporating information from the postal code table, the index table indicating the location of each document in the unsorted document print stream and its order;

reordering the index table according to the order of each document in the unsorted document print stream;

generating a sorted document print stream in accordance with the reordered index table, whereby the documents are arranged in the sorted document print stream in order of their respective priorities;

printing the documents from the sorted document print stream;

separating the printed documents into groups in accordance with the respective priorities of the printed documents; and

sorting each group of documents in order of its respective order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a postal code table comprises a sorter number and a scheme number for each of the plurality of postal code ranges.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein constructing the index table comprises:

extracting a postal code from each document;

in response to the extracted postal code, obtaining the corresponding sorter number and scheme number from the postal code table; and

storing in the index table the location of the document and the corresponding sorter number and scheme number for the document.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the scheme number comprises a pass number and a group number.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a separator to at least each a first document in each group before printing the documents from the sorted document stream.

6. A mail sorting system, comprising:

a postal code table indicating an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges;

a document parameter table comprising information for determining boundaries of each of a plurality of documents to be printed and for determining a location of a postal code in each document;

a data source generating an unsorted document print stream;

an index table incorporating information from the postal code table, the index table indicating the location of each document in the unsorted document print stream and its order;

a reordered index table wherein the contents are arranged according to the order of each document in the unsorted document print stream; and

a print stream module to generate a sorted document print stream in accordance with the reordered index table, whereby the documents are arranged in the sorted document print stream in order of their respective priorities, after which the documents are printed and separated into groups in accordance with their respective priorities with the documents in each group subsequently sorted in order of the respective order of each document in the group.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the postal code table comprises a sorter number and a scheme number for each of the plurality of postal code ranges.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the index table comprises the location of each document and a corresponding sorter number and scheme number for the document.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the scheme number comprises a pass number and a group number.

10. A computer program product of a computer readable medium usable with a programmable computer, the computer program product having computer-readable code embodied therein for optimizing mail sorting, the computer-readable code comprising instructions for:

creating a postal code table comprising an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges;

receiving an unsorted document print stream;

creating a document parameter table comprising information for determining boundaries of each of a plurality of documents in the unsorted document print stream to be printed and for determining a location of a postal code in each document;

in response to the unsorted document print stream and the document parameter table, constructing an index table incorporating information from the postal code table, the index table indicating the location of each document in the unsorted document print stream and its order;

reordering the index table according to the order of each document in the unsorted document print stream;

generating a sorted document print stream in accordance with the reordered index table, whereby the documents are arranged in the sorted document print stream in order of their respective priorities;

printing the documents from the sorted document print stream;

separating the printed documents into groups in accordance with the respective priorities of the printed documents; and

sorting each group of documents in order of its respective order.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the instructions for creating a postal code table comprise instructions for generating a sorter number and a scheme number for each of the plurality of postal code ranges.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions for constructing the index table comprise instructions for:

extracting a postal code from each document;

in response to the extracted postal code, obtaining the corresponding sorter number and scheme number from the postal code table; and

storing in the index table the location of the document and the corresponding sorter number and scheme number for the document.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the scheme number comprises a pass number and a group number.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions for adding a separator to at least each a first document in each group before printing the documents from the sorted document stream.

15. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer readable code into a computing system, wherein the code, in combination with the computing system, is capable of performing the following:

creating a postal code table comprising an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges;

receiving an unsorted document print stream;

creating a document parameter table comprising information for determining boundaries of each of a plurality of documents in the unsorted document print stream to be printed and for determining a location of a postal code in each document;

in response to the unsorted document print stream and the document parameter table, constructing an index table incorporating information from the postal code table, the index table indicating the location of each document in the unsorted document print stream and its order;

reordering the index table according to the order of each document in the unsorted document print stream;

generating a sorted document print stream in accordance with the reordered index table, whereby the documents are arranged in the sorted document print stream in order of their respective priorities;

printing the documents from the sorted document print stream;

separating the printed documents into groups in accordance with the respective priorities of the printed documents; and

sorting each group of documents in order of its respective order.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein creating a postal code table comprises a sorter number and a scheme number for each of the plurality of postal code ranges.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein constructing the index table comprises:

extracting a postal code from each document;

in response to the extracted postal code, obtaining the corresponding sorter number and scheme number from the postal code table; and

storing in the index table the location of the document and the corresponding sorter number and scheme number for the document.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the scheme number comprises a pass number and a group number.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising adding a separator to at least each a first document in each group before printing the documents from the sorted document stream.