How UPS adopts New Cloud-Based Technology Platform to Improve International Supply Chain Management

Introduction

UPS has adopted cloud-based technology platform to improve the quality of international supply chain management. The UPS Order Watch, a cloud-based technology platform has allows UPS customers to more efficiently collaborate with international suppliers and better manage their supply chain and inventory.

Functionality

The Order Watch platform includes various services that adding value to supplain:

1. Adding capabilities to enable greater accuracy and timeliness of overseas vendor bookings.
2. Improving processing and management of suppliers.
3. Automated exception management.
4. Near real-time shipment status and detailed line-level visibility of in-transit inventory
5. Improving internal operational process.
6. Facilitation of purchase order consolidation.
7. Optimizing shipping plans.

Benefits

The improved UPS order watch vendor booking system will dispatch system-generated exception alerts to ensure vendor meeting customer’s requirements and providing an online system for approvals. It also eases the PO-specific communication between vendor and customers. The improvements to the supplier management service will eliminate time-consuming email communications and enhance monitoring of vendor bookings against purchase order details. 

Once the order is placed, PO-level shipment planning capabilities enable visibility and control from order creation all the way through shipment delivery, providing customers with a virtual on-hand inventory view of incoming orders.

Conclusion

“This can provide opportunities to consolidate ocean freight shipments and improve container usage to realize cost savings, which is increasingly important as COOs are looking for ways to mitigate ocean transportation costs following the ocean carrier rate increases in 2014” said Tom Boike, The vice president of supplier management at UPS. Now UPS Order Watch has enables 50,000 companies to streamline management of vendors and manage all of their inbound shipments in a single ease-to-use platform.

Reference:

1. UPS supply management : http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/bussol/browse/supplier_mgmt.html

2. UPS order watch blog : http://blog.ups.com/tag/ups-order-watch/