UPS has a culture that sizes intelligence and attempts to transform it into a service, which is one of the primary factors in their profitable performance despite a global economic recession. More and more manufacturers are turning to outsourcing to alleviate the higher costs of running supply chains, and UPS has been able to quickly benefit from this trend.
Lessons learned in air freight optimization at UPS have also made a significant impact on revenue management and supply chain optimization in their Supplier and Vendor Management service as well (Armacost, Barnhart, Ware, Wilson, 2004). Using the analytics, business intelligence and data mining to better understand how supply chains can be improved is ample evidence of how successful UPS is in using technologies to translate their expertise into value for clients (Garrow, Ferguson, 2008). All of these aspects of UPS and its expertise with it have also made it possible for the Supplier and Vendor Management initiatives to contribute to other service areas of the business.
The Implications of the Website on UPS
The fact that all the services UPS offers actively benefit from each other's learned...
For UPS, their website is essential for their operations to succeed because it gives customers the opportunity to interact and get work done on a 24/7 basis. The website's role as a portal to services for the smallest to the largest and most complex customers cannot be overstated. In changing customers' behavior to focus on how UPS can assist them, the website has become the starting point.
Appendix a
Source: http://www.ups.com/bussol/?loc=en_US&viewID=browseView&WT.svl=PriNav&WT.svl=PNRO_L1
References
Nabil Alghalith. (2005). Competing with it: The UPS Case. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 7(2), 7-15.
Andrew P. Armacost, Cynthia Barnhart, Keith a Ware, & Alysia M. Wilson. (2004). UPS Optimizes Its Air Network. Interfaces, 34(1), 15-25.
Garrow, L., & Ferguson, M.. (2008). Revenue management and the analytics explosion: Perspectives from industry experts. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 7(2), 219-229.
