Article – 1st place winner in the 4th edition of the “Piórem logistyka” competition.
Streams of shipments from almost all directions in the country converge at the CER (Expedition and Distribution Center) (there are relations where shipments are sent without the involvement of the CER, due to the distance between the point of dispatch and receipt of the shipment).
When loads arrive at the CER, they are registered in the IT system. This is done at reception stations using barcode scanners, which are placed on collective packaging as well as on certain types of shipments. Thanks to this, once information about a given load item, as well as the (in)completeness of its contents, is entered, it flows to the appropriate workstation in the CER, where further logistical operations are performed. Re-scanning of shipments and entire loads takes place at the moment they leave the CER. Thanks to this, the physical stream of loads flowing through the logistics network is accompanied by a stream of information about these loads, as well as their contents.
The multitude and importance of the logistical operations taking place in the CER for the entire postal process prompt one to consider what role the CER plays in creating value for the PP (Poczta Polska) logistics network.
It can be stated that if it were not for the specific spatio-temporal phenomena occurring in this network, consisting of the organized flow of postal load streams, the functioning of the individual subsystems included in it would not bring as much value as in the case of the cooperation of all these elements. For example, the operator’s transport subsystem alone is able to create a certain value that would arise as a result of direct transport. But considering transport from the perspective of the entire network, this value can be multiplied precisely thanks to the synergy achieved from the operation of the entire network (loads can not only be transported, but also disassembled, their contents can be mixed, loads can be consolidated with others, etc.).
Therefore, the value of the PP logistics network is the maximum cooperation based on the synergy of all its elements, which, on the one hand, allows for the optimal and effective use of logistics resources remaining at the disposal of the operator and its partners, and on the other hand, contributes to the maximum realization of the fundamental task set before the postal process.
It should be emphasized that the logistical processes taking place in the CER occur both in specific time windows and in space. The consequence of the temporal determinant of these processes is that it imposes on the CER the obligation to adhere to specific time windows: arrival, passage through individual processing stages in the CER, and departure. This simultaneously creates the need for appropriate synchronization of the individual phases of the postal process in which the CER is directly involved: collection (concentration) of shipments from its own area of operation, their reception and distribution, expedition to other hubs, delivery (deconcentration) to its own area of operation, and their delivery.
Looking systemically at the entire operator’s network, which may consist of even a dozen or so CERs, thanks to maintaining these frameworks, the flow of load streams between CERs (constituting the actual phase of load transport in the postal process) should take place smoothly. This fluidity consequently guarantees the arrival and departure to/from each CER of these streams while maintaining the aforementioned temporal determinants.