Fives AMR sorter improves Swiss Post parcel flows

Sorting system specialist Fives has successfully installed an AMR parcel sorter to help Swiss Post increase capacity and speed up flows.

The postal operator is testing the French company’s GENI-Ant system at its Basel depot with the intention to roll it out more widely through its network in future.

Johannes Cramer, CEO of Logistics Services at Swiss Post, explained: “Today more than ever, Swiss Post needs to react quickly to current and future logistics trends. We expect further parcel growth and will double sorting capacity by 2030.

“To this end, we decided to invest in innovation. Among other things, we have chosen to test Fives’ GENI-Ant sorter for our site in Basel. Together, we will eliminate weak points and ultimately find out how we can use this innovative technology in the long-term to best enhance our workflows.”

Simone D’Archino, Project Manager at Swiss Post, added: “We were able to connect Fives to our informatics in a very short time. We are now already able to sort more than 40,000 parcels per day – thanks to the automation even with a higher sorting depth, which benefits the entire network. Based on this experience, we can now evaluate how Fives’ technology can be integrated in Swiss Post’s network to boost speed and capacity of our deliveries."

Mobile robots

Fives explained that as Swiss Post needed to move the sorting system in the Basel depot to a new site after one and a half years, its AMR technology “was the perfect answer to this requirement, as it is compact when space is limited, easy to transport, easy to handle and quick to install”. 

Swiss Post awarded the contract to Fives in December 2020. Supplied in only four months since the site opened, a truly short time, the GENI-Ant sorters are already up and running. The sorting solution is equipped with GENI-Ant Autonomous Mobile Robots, two automated induction lines with dimensioning weighing system and 30 destinations to handle 2,500 items per hour in only 700 m2.

For this project, Fives delivered the “large” GENI-Ant model that can handle items up to 1,200 x 600 mm and operate at up to 2.5 m/s. This new model is in addition to the one dedicated to small items, thus increasing the range of items that can be processed by the GENI-Ant sorters.

“This project is fully in line with Fives' development strategy and its purpose to always meet its customers' needs. With this new innovative handling system from Fives, Swiss Post is now ready to improve its logistics services and expand its range of value-added services,” the supplier concluded.