Applications of Statistics in Post office Automation

The National Bureau of Standards is involved in designing and developing equipments and systems for the improved sorting of mail. As part of this project numerous statistical studies-mostly of a sampling typehave been conducted. These studies were designed to obtain research and development information which is not collected by the Post Office as part of its routine data collecting activities. The data from these studies have proved useful as a basis for making administrative decisions, (7) for developing efficient mechanized schemes of sorting mail (4) and for costing these schemes. (1) In this paper we present a thumbnail sketch of the letter sorting mechanization problem, a description of the statistical problems encountered with some results of corresponding studies, and some of the uses to which the data have been put.