the second sorting pass the minimum requirements for sorting this distribution order can be derived from these characteristic values the larger of the values nstitem and nstdpn is defined as the number of sorting compartments in the second sorting pass the minimum number of sorting compartments needed for the first sorting pass can then be determined since because of its size the machine can process more than one distribution order and the distribution order separation is carried out automatically at the change from the first to the second sorting pass each distribution order has its own sorting compartment group in the second sorting pass a dedicated virtual machine can be described for each distribution order the following table 1 shows some calculation examples of the distribution orders and calculated virtual machines fig4 and table 1 show that the distribution order examples occupy the machine very differently in the first sorting pass if only the minimum conditions are satisfied in actual fact it can likewise be seen that that this type of distribution reacts very sensitively to changes in the quantities of items of mail as based on the loading of the sorting compartments in particular if the actual quantities of items of mail differ greatly from the expected quantities of items of mail fig5 illustrates the distribution of the quantities of items of mail if the actual distribution order points of the distribution order 1 are mapped to the virtual distribution order points the order is not disrupted by this procedure but the result is a.