"Down under" digitally scanned
Processing over 64 million pages rapidly and reliably in the shortest time possible - this technical challenge has been mastered by high-performance scanners produced by InoTec GmbH in Wölfersheim in Hesse. Not only was information about 20 million Australian residents digitally recorded, but 1.2 million Euros in cost-savings were also effected.
Australia, 8 August 2006 - The stress levels among employees of Australia's highest statistics office, the "Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)" were rising by the hour. The country's most comprehensive data collection process had reached its decisive phase. "Tonight is census night" the press release of the ABS announced. It requested all residents of and visitors to Australia to submit comprehensive information about their personal living circumstances to the government authorities. This information was to be used by the government as a basis for efficient infrastructural, family and traffic policies.
Thanks to the excellent logistics of the Australians, it was possible to supply even the most unusual and remote locations of the fifth continent with population census forms. A man listening to the public radio station ABC even reported that he had found a form on his yacht. A German eyewitness reported that park rangers at the national parks had been distributing the documents to tourists. Small aircraft delivered the forms to the often barely accessible aboriginal areas in the Northern Territory.
Field collectors started the process of gathering the completed forms again as early as the next day, 9 August. These mountains of documentation were brought to the central recording office in Melbourne by truck. After approximately one month, adequate data volumes were on hand to proceed with the next step:
"The subsequent registration process constituted a major challenge for the ABS officials", emphasised Michael Kosewähr, who was closely involved in the scanning project in his capacity as the head of the Australian branch of InoTec. High speed and image quality
ABS tried to collect some of the information digitally straight away, using an "eCensus" form. Approximately 8.4% (some 756,000) of the 9 million Australian households made use of the option of completing the form online. This means that most of the data was only available in a paper-based form.
"The main question was: How does one manage to digitalise the forms reliably within a short time, while keeping costs down?" added Michael Kosewähr.
This was sufficient to provide a definition of the requirements for the desired scanning systems to a large extent. "Speed was important to make the project a success, but the quality of the images, which were evaluated by ICR and OCR software (Intelligent Character Recognition/Optical Character Recognition) software after digitalisation, played an even more decisive role", explains Michael Kosewähr. In addition, faulty scans were to be avoided as far as possible. "Each rescan means an unnecessary loss of time".
The IFP (Intelligent Form Processing) software sold by IBM was used to recognise the digitalised data. The documents were scanned using high-performance scanners made by InoTec GmbH. This medium-sized German company managed to assert itself in the face of competition from renowned companies in this industry. High-performance scanners "Made in Germany"
"InoTec's core skills in the field of high-performance scanning and the high quality standard of our products and services were decisive", says Michael Kosewähr with visible pride.
The Australian statistics bureau ABS decided to use 13 InoTec SCAMAX 510 high-performance scanners designed for processing large document volumes. These black and white scanners can reach a scanning speed of up to 460 pages per minute.
Reliability of document scanning is the top priority when it comes to InoTec scanners. Reliable feeding, even where paper surfaces differ, is ensured by using Paper Surface Control (PSC). This technology is used to check the paper throughput, from feeding to ejection, and provides graphic information in the event of a fault. Ultrasound sensors are used to detect double-page feeding.
Another aspect in InoTec's favour was its professional, all-inclusive service. The ABS project managers were particularly impressed by the rapid response of the service technicians in the event of questions and by their technical skills. Michael Kosewähr: "As a medium-sized company, we are able to provide a high level of flexibility when it comes to service. As a result, if questions arise, our standard procedure is to let the customer communicate directly with technical management in Wölfersheim".
The bulk of the documents was scanned in after 18 September 2006. ABS employees were racing against the clock in the truest sense of the word. "The time frame for scanning the documents was extremely ambitious", Michael Kosewähr reports. A legal provision stipulated that the first preliminary results of the population census should be presented during the last parliamentary session before Christmas. This left the ABS only three months to scan more than 7 million forms, i.e. more than 64 million pages digitally.
"The better prepared the documents are, the more efficiently and accurately they can be scanned", Michael Kosewähr explains. A patch code on the last page of the documents marked the beginning of a new form, while a bar code indicated the type of form. Thanks to built-in threshold value optimisation, the InoTec scanners were able to scan the forms perfectly, even without any colour adjustments for the codes, thereby saving a work step.
The combination of careful planning and high-performance hardware paid off. The population census forms were digitalised at an impressive speed within 71 days, significantly earlier than provided for by the already ambitious time schedule. An average of more than 8000 pages per scanner were processed per hour, with the project record for a day's scanning between 07h30 and 22h00 being 1.4 million pages.
However, the InoTec scanners did not only achieve an A-plus for speed, but also for the quality of the scanned images, which was far more decisive. Only 0.3% of the forms had to be scanned a second time. "The reason for the rescans was not the fact that double pages were drawn in, but the presence of damaged or illegible documents", emphasises Michael Kosewähr. At the last population census, which was carried out without InoTec scanners, 7% of documents needed to be rescanned. The main reason was undetected double-page feeding.
"Fewer rescans have an extremely positive effect on the costs borne by the ABS", Michael Kosewähr calculates in a straightforward way. "Certain staff costs were budgeted for each scanning station. Every hour of scanning less meant cash savings for the ABS".
The InoTec scanners were used for an average of 10 hours per day, in comparison to the average of 16 hours of operation per day during the last population census, when the same number of scanners were used. In addition, the number of scanning days required for the 2006 population census was clearly lower. In total, this resulted in cost savings of 1.2 million Euros, which more than compensated for the acquisition costs of the scanners.
Michael Kosewähr's summary is correspondingly positive: "The Australian population census project was the ultimate test for the performance capacity of our scanning systems. They passed this test with flying colours".
