UPS CIO: Use tech disruption to better serve customers

Logistics professionals heard about supply chain priorities and technology from one of their peers at Monday’s keynote at MODEX in Atlanta, when Juan Perez, CIO and chief engineering officer for UPS, took the stage.

In a talk titled, “Anticipating Tomorrow’s Supply Chain Challenges—Today,” Perez advised “we need to disrupt ourselves” with technology that improves the customer experience.

Perez explained how UPS’s customers are interested in “convenience, choice and control,” and detailed how these three Cs are advanced by technology like UPS’s My Choice online delivery management application, while being aided by ongoing improvement in the mobile devices UPS drivers use.

Technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), smart cites and dynamic routing optimization will help UPS improve on efficient meeting of customer requirements, Perez said. UPS will soon deploy the third generation of its “ORION” delivery optimization system.

The current generation of ORION saves UPS about $300 to $400 million a year in delivery costs, and the next generation could save another $150 to $200 million a year by enabling dynamic route optimization versus routes set at the beginning of the day, Perez said.

UPS also is looking use more IoT and smart city technologies to “bridge” what customer service systems tell people digitally with what is unfolding in the physical supply chain. In effect, said Perez, “we need to bridge the digital experience with what happens in the physical world.”

Perez said that for operations looking to use technology to improve customer convenience, choice and control are applicable. But he advised that innovation needs to happen rapidly. “We need to make improvements 10 times faster,” said Perez.