Northrop wins $874M USPS automation deal

Northrop Grumman Corp. won an $874.6 million contract from the U.S. Postal Service to provide technology that will further automate mail processing.

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide 100 flats sequencing systems that further automate the flats mail stream. The flats mail stream includes large envelopes, catalogs and magazines.

Installation of the first flats sequencing systems is scheduled to begin in 2008. The company will complete the remaining installations by 2010.

The Los Angeles-based contractor's first generation of flats sorting technologies is in operation at Postal Services processing center nationwide. The flats sequencing systems represents the next generation of flats automation by sorting mail to the delivery sequence of each carrier, thus reducing manual sorting. Flat mail is a labor intensive category of mail to process and deliver due to variations in size and thickness.

Northrop Grumman developed the technology in conjunction with Solystic of Gentilly, France, and Siemens Energy and Automation of Arlington, Texas.

Northrop Grumman has 120,000 employees and had annual sales of $30 billion in 2006. The company ranks No. 2 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.