UPS Expands International Supply-Chain Management

United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS), continuing its growing reach into supply-chain management, announced a new service recently called Supplier Management, which coordinates the logistics activities of international vendors and suppliers for its customers. Bob Garrison, a spokesman for UPS Supply Chain Solutions, says the service "manages multiple vendors and suppliers despite varying languages, cultures, time zones and distances. "With our Supplier Management service, we are the eyes and ears for our customers around the world." Standard features include: vendor compliance and order management, global information management, global distribution management, regulatory compliance management, and transportation management. UPS and other traditional freight handlers have in recent years created separate supply-chain services units as manufacturers turn to supplier-management to increase margins under intense pricing pressure.