UPS Adds New Business UnitUPS Adds New Business Unit

United Parcel Service Inc., which has spent more than $11 billion in the past decade on technology required to manage package shipping in real time, is creating a business unit that relies heavily on that technology to let the company manage its customers' supply chains end-to-end.

The new business unit, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, was unveiled Wednesday in Atlanta. Joe Pyne, UPS senior VP and head of supply-chain solutions, says the new organization combines the services of UPS Logistics Group, UPS Freight Services, UPS Capital, UPS Consulting, and UPS Mail Innovations. It will provide supply-chain design and management, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, transportation, consulting, financial services, and mail services.

For more than 10 years, UPS has been working to expand its reach beyond the brown trucks that symbolize the company and has spent more than $1 billion a year on IT infrastructure that lets customers choose fast flights and cheap ground delivery. The company now wins customers like Ford Motor Co., which uses UPS' computerized logistics-management services to more efficiently move new cars to its dealerships

The new business unit is designed to accelerate UPS' leadership in a new category of transportation management, serving not only as a transportation provider, but as a transportation manager that can provide specialty manufacturing services, warehousing and warehouse management, logistics, and other supply-chain services.