Ups Competitive Advantage

The key success to UPS was efficiency. Every route is time down to the traffic light. Each vehicle was engineered to exacting specifications. The drivers endured a daily routine calibrated down to the minute. This demand for machinelike precision met with resistance by UPS heavily unionized labor force.

United Parcel Service, a logistics company has established itself through its strong corporate culture, continuous ability to innovate, and its far-reaching global network. The company has maintained a competitive advantage over the years by implementing continuous growth strategies—the first was geographic expansion, next the early adaptation of electronic tracking technologies, and then came a series of acquisitions. Although UPS is financially strong and is able to maintain its role in the courier and delivery industry—it is vital that UPS continue to act strategically as to strive for long-term success. UPS is heavily dependent on the U.S. economy and it is important that it find greater and more profitable ventures

The United Parcel Services share of the marketplace commands attention: -400,000 (+) employees -$51.5 billion earned 2008 -14% profit margin -90,000 vehicles and 268 jets -Operations in over 200 countries (Thomas, Linder, & Dutra, 2006). Organization has allowed UPS to operate in financial, retail, technology and nonprofit markets as well as logistics. Management Leads with the philosophy of talent cultivation through long-term employment relationships, developing committed, aligned and experienced partners. 54% of full-time drivers started as part-time. 68% of management was promoted from within. 78% of Vice-presidents once held non-management positions with UPS (Thomas et al., 2006). Controlling within UPS develops around the standard of constructive dissatisfaction, the belief that all process can be improved on and all parameters may be extended. Constructive dissatisfaction, a culture of ownership along with continual training and market awareness keep UPS a pioneer. External Factors Globalization has empowered UPS to update their strategy to synchronizing global commerce: of goods, information and funds (Thomas et al., 2006). Once a local delivery service, now UPS is recognized globally, embracing diversity with owners and customers in from every nation. Concerned with environmental impact of big business, UPS has cut carbon emissions, from airliners, 22% since 1990, and plans to cut

As the world’s largest package delivery company and a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services, UPS, continues to develop the frontiers of logistics, supply chain management and e-commerce combing the flow of goods, information and funds. This past October UPS Logistics Solutions was voted #1 logistics provider by Logistics Solutions. When conducting an industry analysis, it is important to explain the competitive forces model (CFM) of UPS. The first component of competitive forces model are the customers. Their customers consist of business organizations, and the general public. The second CFM component is competition. UPS have a lot of competition in its field, but the most competitive company is FedEx. Since FedEx provides the same services as UPS; both are neck to neck in competition, but UPS has an established history, and because of that, they have more loyal customers, and they are worldly known. They have established them-selves as the elite, with their commercial on television. Showing how they can deliver from one place to another with same day delivery and

Studying FedEx, UPS and their competitive relationship in the decade from mid - 80's to mid - 90's gives a good insight for the companies' and industry's future. The two companies have different strategic goals and are operating in the same industry but in different main markets: FedEx is working on "producing outstanding financial returns" and focuses on the overnight air market while UPS is looking for "earning reasonable profit" and its core business is the two-day ground delivery. However, by 1981, the two companies started to have a strong sense

United Parcel Service (UPS) and Hewlett Packard (HP), both global leaders in their industries, strategically aligned themselves to capitalize on their ability to competitively provide superior services to their customers. UPS, a global distribution company and HP an information technology firm signed a contract solidifying a three year partnership in the early 2000s enabling them to capitalize on both company’s core competitive competencies already in place. UPS and HP recognized their competitive strengths and abilities in domestic and international territories as they continued to seek

The evolution of the express mail industry had become a quick on-time shipping and delivery of packages. The service had become effective, reliable, and prompt, which most of the top companies could deliver on these guaranteed promises 96-99% of the time. But, delivery services were only a portion of the services being offered to their customers. Carriers had mastered information management that they shared with their customers. Customers were now able to fill out labels, track the route of their package, and assisted in billing using both via carrier provided software or the Internet.

UPS system is based on traditional ABC in that it takes detailed functional cost and maps it to the products based on the activities that the products drive (ups.com). UPS is a cross functional discipline, in that it identifies activities within a function or process, measures the cost associated with the activity and then assigns the cost to a product. UPS responded to technology, the market and changing times by developing new business strategies to focus on customer needs. The new change in the business environment demands the organizations to gather the relevant data and information about the customers, costs, procedures, services, products and activities (Danish, Hasan & Abid, 2013). They needed a better understanding of specific segments of their business. UPS operations are extremely complex with a wide variety of service options, operating conditions and support activities (ups.com). UPS’s ABC system is unique in that it leverages our database of work measurement and package movement detail

UPS is a global package delivery business that specializes in not only managing the movement of goods, but the information and funds that moves with those goods in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. UPS’s target market is primarily U.S. companies that ship business to business via ground delivery and whose delivery time is not

United Parcel Service (UPS), is the world’s largest express package delivery firm that handled more than 4.7 billion packages and documents in 2015. This global transportation and logistics service provider operates in more than 220 countries, and offers an array of supply chain management solutions (UPS Fact Sheet, n.d.). The firm has diversified its products and/or services to include freight forwarding and logistics services via air, ground, rail, and sea. U.S. Domestic Package operations, International Package operations, and Supply Chain and Freight operations are the three operating segments UPS. Through technology advancements UPS delivers online package tracking, e-commerce services, and specialized

Trends and opportunities of the parcel service industry include globalization, e-commerce, and supply-chain management. Internet logistics was FedEx and UPS’s fastest growing business. The internet enabled customers to link directly to retailers and their manufacturers. In 2001, parcel carriers served almost all of the online market. They were able to provide information on packages to customers through tracking systems on the web. This allowed customers to plan ahead and decrease delays in deliveries. It also allowed for faster transactions and lower communication costs. Parcel companies created partnerships with large Internet retailers. These partnerships allowed parcel service companies to expand its overall delivery volume. Parcel companies improved tracking by implementing several technological innovations. These included “laser scanners and bar codes, state of the art software programs, satellite and cell phone communication equipment, electronic information interchanges, and the Internet.”

UPS has been in the package delivery business for 95 years, providing services to businesses and consumers worldwide in more than 200 countries. In 1994, UPS began to investigate the potential of e-commerce and started an internal group focused on enabling e-commerce. UPS redefined its core business and found ways to change its structure and processes, forming new businesses to take advantage of new opportunities. UPS was interested in finding ways to leverage their extensive infrastructure and expertise in basic transportation of goods, services, and

Timely, accurate and competitively priced services are the key success factors for UPS. Moreover, the ability to provide low cost

 *New Products,ServicesandBusiness Models- The information systems of UPS created new way on how to offer delivery service. It has transformed the way the company gathers information, creating routes etc.

United Parcel Service (UPS) founded in 1907 is the largest transportation company and the largest air freight carrier in the world. In 1987 due to rapidly changing external environment UPS faced serious challenges to its long-established policies of on-the-job training and promotion from within. With the increase in competition UPS realized that it is lagging in computerization and it thought of seeking technical expertise which it could not get from within. The concerns they had are how to hire new talent, how to assimilate, and to what extent new people would conform to UPS culture.