INF 220

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UPS and the Utility of Information Systems

After reading chapter one, watch the video: (Real Media Player can be downloaded for free at www.real.com) and read the additional write-up on page 16 of your text. Answer the questions listed below using APA format. Be sure to integrate vocabulary from the text to demonstrate your understanding of concepts. The paper should not exceed 2 double-spaced pages (excluding title page).

United Parcel Service's operations are driven by its information systems technology. Beginning as a local delivery service in 1907, UPS expanded on the West coast initially, reached New York in the 1930s, and went international in the 1970s. Today, UPS delivers over 14 million packages daily to 200 countries and territories. A $1.5 billion technology investment in the 1980s buoyed the growth of UPS. The investment enabled the development of the International Shipments Processing System (ISPS), which is the key to the company's overseas operations. The technology infrastructure enables UPS to offer its customers services in addition to the basic shipment of packages. UPS drivers play an important role in the company's services by capturing information at the endpoints of each delivery segment. Volume, cultural differences, and hardware readiness all impact the development and continued growth of UPS.

  1. What external factors affect international operations at UPS?
  2. How do these factors cause UPS to adjust its operations?
  3. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’ tracking system.
  4. What technologies are used by UPS?
  5. How are these technologies related to UPS’ business model and business objectives?
  6. What problems do UPS’s information systems solve?  

Video Link:  UPS Video  UPS International Distribution

http://careertv.com/video.php?mediaid=5Kb0tr9e-mNWk3iIvp3GZQ

I believe the video should be loaded, just click the play button.  

Text:  A copy of the UPS section of the text is included after the grading criteria.

Grading Criteria

UPS and the Utility of Information Systems

10    Percent

CONTENT CRITERIA

Weight

a.      What external factors affect international operations at UPS?

1

b.     How do these factors cause UPS to adjust its operations?

1

c.      What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’ tracking system?

1

d.     What technologies are used by UPS?

1

e.      How are these technologies related to UPS’ business model and business objectives?

1

f.      What problems do UPS’s information systems solve?

1

WRITING SKILLS

 

Sentences are complete, clear and concise.

1

Paragraph and sentence transitions are present, logical and maintain the flow throughout the paper.

1

RESEARCH CRITERIA

 

The paper includes a minimum of one to two sources including the textbook.

.5

The organization’s website is used to support your position

.5

STYLE CRITERIA

 

Must be 2 pages double spaced in length and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the approved style guide.

1

 

 

 TEXT                                                                               

The Interactive Session on Technology describes some of the typical technologies used in computer-based information systems today. UPS invests heavily in information systems technology to make its business more efficient and customer oriented. It uses an array of information technologies including bar code scanning systems, wireless networks, large mainframe computers, handheld computers, the Internet, and many different pieces of software for tracking packages, calculating fees, maintaining customer accounts, and managing logistics. As you read this case, try to identify the problem this company was facing, what alternative solutions were available to management, and how well the chosen solution worked.

 

INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology

United Parcel Service (UPS) started out in 1907 in a closet-sized basement office. Jim Casey and Claude Ryan—two teenagers from Seattle with two bicycles and one phone—promised the “best service and lowest rates.” UPS has used this formula successfully for more than a century to become the world’s largest ground and air package-distribution company. It is a global enterprise with more than 400,000 employees, 92,000 vehicles, and the world’s eighth largest airline.

Today, UPS delivers more than 15 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-package delivery services despite stiff competition from FedEx and Airborne Express by investing heavily in advanced information technology. UPS spends more than $1 billion each year to maintain a high level of customer service while keeping costs low and streamlining its overall operations.

It all starts with the scannable bar-coded label attached to a package, which contains detailed information about the sender, the destination, and when the package should arrive. Customers can download and print their own labels using special software provided by UPS or by accessing the UPS Web site. Before the package is even picked up, information from the “smart” label is transmitted to one of UPS’s computer centers in Mahwah, New Jersey, or Alpharetta, Georgia and sent to the distribution center nearest its final destination. Dispatchers at this center download the label data and use special software to create the most efficient delivery route for each driver that considers traffic, weather conditions, and the location of each stop. UPS estimates its delivery trucks saved 28 million miles and 3 million gallons of fuel in 2006 compared to the year before as a result of using this technology.

The first thing a UPS driver picks up each day is a handheld computer called a Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), which can access one of the wireless networks cell phones rely on. As soon as the driver logs on, his or her day’s route is downloaded onto the handheld. The DIAD also automatically captures customers’ signatures along with pickup and delivery information. Package tracking information is then transmitted to UPS’s computer network for storage and processing. From there, the information can be accessed worldwide to provide proof of delivery to customers or to respond to customer queries. It usually takes less than 60 seconds from the time a driver presses “complete” on the DIAD for the new information to be available on the Web.

Through its automated package tracking system, UPS can monitor and even re-route packages throughout the delivery process. At various points along the route from sender to receiver, bar code devices scan shipping information on the package label and feed data about the progress of the package into the central computer. Customer service representatives are able to check the status of any package from desktop computers linked to the central computers and respond immediately to inquiries from customers. UPS customers can also access this information from the company’s Web site using their own computers or wireless devices.

Anyone with a package to ship can access the UPS Web site to track packages, check delivery routes, calculate shipping rates, determine time in transit, print labels, and schedule a pickup. 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.

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 complete bundle of standardized services to 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.

Hired Hand Technologies, a Bremen, Alabama-based manufacturer of agricultural and horticultural equipment, uses UPS Freight services not only to track shipments but also to build its weekly manufacturing plans. UPS provides up-to-the-minute information about exactly when parts are arriving within 20 seconds.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

MIS IN ACTION

1.   What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system?

2.   What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies related to UPS’s business model and business objectives?

3.   What problems do UPS’s information systems solve? What would happen if these systems were not available?

Explore the UPS Web site (www.ups.com) and answer the following questions:

1.   What kind of information and services does the Web site provide for individuals, small businesses, and large businesses? List these services and write several paragraphs describing one of them, such as UPS Trade Direct or Automated Shipment Processing. Explain how you or your business would benefit from the service.

2.   Explain how the Web site helps UPS achieve some or all of the strategic business objectives we described earlier in this chapter. What would be the impact on UPS’s business if this Web site were not available?

         Sources: Claudia Deutsch, “Still Brown, but Going High Tech,” The New York Times, July 12, 2007; United Parcel Service, “LTL’s High-Tech Infusion,” Compass, Spring 2007; UPS Public Relations, “UPS Changes the Delivery Game with New Intercept Service,” March 26, 2007; and www.ups.com, accessed May 11, 2007.

Let’s identify the organization, people, and technology elements in the UPS package tracking system we have just described. The organization element anchors the package tracking system in UPS’s sales and production functions (the main product of UPS is a service—package delivery). It specifies the required procedures for identifying packages with both sender and recipient information, taking inventory, tracking the packages en route, and providing package status reports for UPS customers and customer service representatives.

Using a handheld computer called a Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), UPS drivers automatically capture customers’ signatures along with pickup, delivery, and time card information. UPS information systems use these data to track packages while they are being transported.

The system must also provide information to satisfy the needs of managers and workers. UPS drivers need to be trained in both package pickup and delivery procedures and in how to use the package tracking system so that they can work efficiently and effectively. UPS customers may need some training to use UPS in-house package tracking software or the UPS Web site.

UPS’s management is responsible for monitoring service levels and costs and for promoting the company’s strategy of combining low cost and superior service. Management decided to use automation to increase the ease of sending a package using UPS and of checking its delivery status, thereby reducing delivery costs and increasing sales revenues.

The technology supporting this system consists of handheld computers, bar code scanners, wired and wireless communications networks, desktop computers, UPS’s central computer, storage technology for the package delivery data, UPS in-house package tracking software, and software to access the World Wide Web. The result is an information system solution to the business challenge of providing a high level of service with low prices in the face of mounting competition.

 (Laudon 15-18)

 

Reference:

 

Laudon, Laudon &. Essentials of Management Information Systems, 8th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions

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