Northrop taps Siemens division to compete for Postal contracts

Northrop Grumman Corp. has teamed with Siemens Dematic Postal Automation LP, Arlington, Texas, to compete in the Postal Service's Flats Sequencing System/Delivery Point Packaging program, the company said.

The program is a continuation of the Postal Service's letter and flat-mail automation program, which aims to introduce next-generation postal automation for sorting and merging letter and flat mail.

The program includes several phases: design and simulation, prototype development and in-plant test, field test, and system production. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and Siemens Dematic are teamed for all phases of the program.

Contracts will be awarded over the next four years.

Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector, headquartered in Baltimore, will serve as the prime contractor for the FSS portion of the program, while Siemens will serve as prime contractor for the DPP portion of the program. Northrop Grumman will provide systems engineering, as well as flats processing technology. Siemens will also provide systems engineering and letter processing and optical character recognition technology.

"Northrop Grumman has been working with the Postal Service for more than 12 years to help build the Postal Service's automation infrastructure for flats sorting," said Gabe DiFurio, Northrop Grumman's director of Postal Automation.

Siemens Dematic Postal Automation is a subsidiary of New York-based Siemens Corp. The company designs and manufactures mail sorting, image recognition, and integrated material handling systems for the postal industry.