International Science Group honors UPS for tying research to management
A prominent international scientific society has awarded UPS the 2003 INFORMS Prize for integrating operations research and managerial decision-making.
The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) said it was honoring UPS because the company had so embraced the application of operational research and managerial science as to affect the overall success of the entire organization.
“While providing myriad cost savings, operations research is indeed a strategic lynchpin and a significant source of competitive advantage for UPS,” said Prof. James R. Bradley of Cornell University, the selection committee chairperson for the INFORMS award. “Managerial decision-making at UPS is inextricably linked with operations research methodologies, which are used not just by technical operations research staff but by every manager. We salute UPS for its success and its innovative use and development of operations research.”
INFORMS awards the Prize annually to an organization that best exemplifies the application of what are known as operations research/management science (OR/MS) principles. Recent previous winners have included Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Lucent Technologies.
Since the mid-l980s, UPS has invested US$1 billion annually in information technology to synchronize the movement of goods, information and funds around the world. From wireless scanning to new package flow systems, UPS is harnessing or developing the right technology to improve productivity, increase efficiency and consistently enhance customer service.
“Business drives technology at UPS,” said Tom Weidemeyer, UPS’s chief operating officer. “This award recognizes the effectiveness of this fundamental strategy. We use what our customers tell us and what we learn through operations research to develop technological systems and processes that optimize our ability to best serve our customers. The result is the most successful business model in the industry.”
UPS is the only package delivery company with a single integrated network to handle multiple products and services. Whether overnight, deferred air delivery, commercial, residential, ground, domestic or international, all packages go through the same network from pick-up to delivery.
UPS also has embarked on a significant re-engineering of its domestic package network. Using data and technology, it is streamlining the flow of packages throughout its network, from pickup to delivery. Once fully deployed in 2007, UPS believes it will save at least US$600 million a year.
UPS’s innovative approach to implementing technology was validated earlier this month by InfoWorld Magazine, which named UPS to its InfoWorld 100 list honoring UPS for its visionary application of wireless technology throughout the company’s global network.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, headquartered in Maryland, is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, the stock market, manufacturing and telecommunications.
