Integrator UPS has extended its Worldwide Express Freight service to a further nine countries across North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Indian sub-continent.
New to the network for UPS’s dedicated service for urgent, time-sensitive and high-value international heavy shipments of over 70kg are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Malta, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
Taking in the eight other countries that have been added to the Worldwide Express Freight network over the past year, the service is now available in 66 origin and 64 destination countries and territories.
UPS also expanded Worldwide Express Freight to some 2,110 zip (post) codes across Mexico in June this year.
UPS considers its Worldwide Express Freight product ideal for customer requirements involving such things as product launches, remedying inventory shortages and the rapid delivery of equipment failure replacement parts.
It makes good use of the integrator’s wide-ranging air network and expertise in customs clearance. Service is door-to-door and day-definite, with customs brokerage service included.
Since its launch in 2013, the number of businesses using Worldwide Express Freight service has increased by more than 250%.
Bill Seward, president of US international exports for UPS, noted: “Companies in the healthcare, retail and automotive industries have grown their international volume, 18, 11 and five times more, respectively, using UPS Worldwide Express Freight service than their peers over the last three years.”
“The growth of the UPS Worldwide Express Freight service in a relatively short time period shows it is fulfilling a critical market need for a reliable, urgent heavy freight international shipping service.
“We will continue to invest in service expansions as customer and industry needs evolve,” Seward added.
Technology leads the way in ‘smart operations’
In other news from UPS, the express services provider has collaborated on a report looking into how ‘smart operations’ are becoming ever more prevalent as companies respond to the complexities of modern industrial manufacturing.
Traditional lean manufacturing practices are insufficient to meet the needs of modern manufacturers, it claims, which have taken to using “pervasive data collection, advanced analytics, technology investments and deeper collaboration with partners to prepare their value streams for the next industrial revolution”, the paper insists.
Over the next three years, a growing number of successful manufacturers will enhance their manufacturing processes with smart operations, a broader supply chain strategy that extends beyond the factory walls, reveals The Rise of Smart Operations: Reaching New Levels of Operational Excellence.
Lean manufacturing methods remain important, the paper considers, but continuous improvement has downsides. “Overly optimised processes can become inflexible, leaving the business unable to adjust rapidly to disruptions in the supply chain and changing customer demand,” it says.
“Manufacturers that use smart operations are better positioned than others to compete and thrive in today’s fluctuating markets.
“That’s because increased visibility of inventory location and transportation allow companies to better analyse and quickly manage changes to their supply chain both upstream and downstream of the factory.”
Derrick Johnson, vice president of marketing at UPS, considers: “Smart operations are crucial to the long-term success of manufacturing companies. The strategy enables manufacturers with limited resources to serve their increasingly demanding customers more flexibly.”
UPS and market research firm IDC conducted a survey of more than 100 manufacturing operations executives and hosted focus group discussions in order to compile the paper.
