Singpost should do a BPR exercise

I was at Singpost on saturday to send a registered article and the familiar snaking queue was there again. While queuing, I could see several problems with the process that caused this queue.

The main problem is with the collection of registered articles or parcels. As these are only delivered during office hours, it is next to impossible to successfully deliver it to anyone as most homes are empty during that period of time.

There are 2 ways to cut down this queue. First is to extend delivery time of such articles or parcels to 8pm everyday. I believe this will allow majority of the people to make arrangements to be at home for the collection. At the same time, they can also extend the operating hours of the post office to 8pm to facilitate working adults to collect their items after work. Singpost could follow up with a call to check with the recipient if they are in at that time. This will optimise the delivery for the postmen.

Next is a separate queue for this collection at the post office. For the post office that I went to, the person will need to walk back to the delivery room to find the article or parcel, wasting valuable time. To shorten this process, they can emulate the medicine dispensary / laundry shops where the queue is situated at / near the delivery room.

I was also analyzing the process of sending a registered article and find that it can be greatly improved. Very often, the people who are sending these items are not aware of the procedures to follow so to make it seamless, one should model the process on these procedures. There should also be minimal duplication of information filled in.

For example, there is a form that needs to be filled in for sending of registered article and for some weird reason, they only give it to you at the counter. They should emulate the bank where such forms can be filled at a dedicated form counter before you even join the queue.

At the counter, all that needs to be done is to verify the information and key it in a system. The reason behind this is because I noticed that you will need to write the recipient address several times, wasting time. By keying it into a system, you can print out the information as many times as you want.

During the period where the person is keying in the information, you can also take the opportunity to find the box or letter to contain your registered item if needed. I noticed that the setting up of the box to contain your parcel takes some time too, and you may also need to secure it with scotch tape.

I guess Singpost should do a business process re-engineering (BPR) exercise to optimise their processes and improve the efficiency. I've seen some unnecessary repetitive work done while I was in the queue for half an hour.

Shorter wait = Happier customers and employees.