OWEGO, NY, 11-SEP-00 -- Lockheed Martin Distribution Technologies has successfully completed Acceptance Testing for its new automated Tray Management System (TMS) at 11 United States Postal Service sites across the country. Successful completion of the testing phase indicates that performance met or exceeded identified performance standards for 30 consecutive days, and that operational responsibilities for these systems have been transferred to the Postal Service. The 11 sites that have completed Acceptance Testing are in major population growth areas in the United States, where the volume of mail has steadily increased. A Lockheed Martin Distribution Technologies TMS is custom configured to match the size, layout, mail volume, number and types of mail processing machines at each postal facility. TMS is now fully operational at sites in Fort Lauderdale, Manasota, Orlando and West Palm Beach, Fla.; Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas; Baton Rouge, La.; Little Rock, Ark.; Las Vegas; and Atlanta. As one of three TMS prime contractors to the Postal Service, Lockheed Martin Distribution Technologies is in the process of installing and activating TMS at five other facilities during the next three months.

This is an exciting milestone for us, commented Michael B. Schoultz, president, Lockheed Martin Distribution Technologies. It represents the successful performance and operation of a system that will help the U.S. Postal Service improve its already superior service to their customers.

Lockheed Martin has been able to use technology initiatives such as the TMS to help the Postal Service, with the most highly automated postal system, constantly improve service while maintaining the lowest postage rates in the industrialized world. The Postal Service uses more than 16,000 pieces of processing equipment in nearly 60,000 locations throughout the United States. It's estimated that 85 percent of U.S. Postal Service's annual mail volume is touched by recognition and sortation equipment from Lockheed Martin.

Distribution Technologies is a leader in design, production and systems integration of a broad product portfolio of recognition, sortation, facilities operations automation and information management systems technology. It serves national postal services, mail centers, mail service providers, retail companies and package delivery services worldwide. Distribution Technologies is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Systems Integration - Owego, a leader in providing advanced-technology products, services and systems integration solutions for defense, civil and commercial customers worldwide. Systems Integration - Owego employs more than 4,300 people at facilities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation with headquarters in Bethesda, Md.