Interactive Session

Interactive Session 1 INTERACTIVE SESSION TECHNOLOGY UPS COMPETES GLOBALLY WITH education TECHNOLOGY United Parcel Service (UPS), is the worlds largest air and ground bundle-distribution company. It started out in 1907 in a closet-sized basement office. Jim Casey and Claude Ryantwo teenagers from Seattle with two bicycles and one phonepromised the best service and lowest rates. UPS has used this grammatical construction successfully for more than 90 years. Today UPS delivers more than 14. 1 million parcels and documents each day in the United States and more than 200 other countries and territories.The firm has been able to maintain leadership in small- big money sales pitch services despite stiff competition from FedEx and Airborne Express by investing heavily in advanced information technology. During the past decade, UPS has poured billions of dollars into technology and systems to boost node service while keeping cost low and streamlining its overall operations. Using a han dheld figurer called a Delivery Information acquisition Device (DIAD), a UPS driver can automatically capture customers signatures along with pickup, pitch shot, and timecard information.The driver then places the DIAD into the UPS trucks vehicle adapter, an information-transmitting device that is connected to the cellular telephone network. Package tracking information is then transmitted to UPSs computer network for storage and processing by UPSs main computers in Mahwah, New Jersey, and Alph atomic number 18tta, Georgia. From there, the information can be accessed worldwide to provide proof of delivery to customers or to respond to customer queries. Through its automated package tracking system, UPS can monitor packages throughout the delivery process.At various points along the route from sender to receiver, ban code devices scan exile information on the package label the information is then federal official into the central computer. Customer service representatives can ch eck the status of any package from desktop computers connect to the central computers and are able to respond immediately to inquiries from customers. UPS customers can to a fault access this information from the companys network site using their give computers or wireless devices, such as pagers and cell phones. Anyone with a package to hip can access the UPS wind vane site to track packages, check delivery routes, calculate shipping rates, determine time in transit, and schedule a pickup. Businesses can use the meshwork site to format UPS shipments and bill the shipments to the companys UPS account number or to a credit card. The data collected at the UPS Web site are transmitted to the UPS central computer and then back to the customer after processing. UPS also provides tools that enable customers, such Cisco Systems, to embed UPS functions, such as tracking and cost calculations, into their own Web sites so that they can track shipments without visiting the UPS site.Inform ation technology has helped UPS reinvent itself and keep growing. UPS implemented a cortege of custom-built software that uses operations research and mapping technology to optimize the way packages are compressed and delivered. Because UPS delivers 14 million small packages each day, the resulting information is cutting the distance that delivery trucks travel by more than 100 million miles each year. UPS is now leveraging its decades of expertise managing its own global delivery network to manage logistics and supply-chain management for other companies.It created a UPS Supply Chain Solutions division that provides a ace bundle of standardized services to 1 subscribing companies at a fraction of what it would cost to build their own systems and infrastructure. These services include supply-chain design and management, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, mail services, multimodal transportation, and financial services, in addition to logistics services. Adidas America, found in Portland, Oregon, is one of many companies benefiting from these services. Every three months the company introduces as many as 10,000 reinvigorated apparel items and 4,000 new footwear items.It must handle targets for many thousands of retailers for these orders, and many of these orders are priority requests that must be fulfilled within one or two days. UPS Supply Chain Solutions Consolidated what was antecedently handled by multiple third-party logistics providers into a single streamlined network outfitted with automated inventory and order fulfillment systems. By having UPS coordinate and manage distribution, Adidas America increased its order accuracy rate, boosted on-time deliveries, and improved customer service,Sources Adidas Goes for the Gold in Customer Service, www. ups. com, accessed June 14, 2006 United Parcel Service, Round UPS, Winter 2006 and Dave Barnes, Delivering Corporate Citizenship, Optimize, September 2005. topic STUDY QUESTIONS 1. 2. 3. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPSs package tracking system? What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies related to UPSs business strategy? What problems do UPSs information systems solve. What would happen if these systems were not available? 2