Physical Sorting of Coded Documents
Hamilton Emmons, Juan M. Rivaud · Journal of the Operational Research Society · 1979
A large number of coded items such as bank checks are initially mixed randomly. It is desired to sort them into k categories using a sorting device with m pockets (m < k). Several possible objectives are noted, and a new criterion oriented to the average time until categories are sorted out is analyzed. A simple strategy is shown to minimize the average number of sorting passes that elapse until an item is sorted out.