...USPS Case Analysis Problem Statement USPS was meeting to review the results of a tracking study that traced the effects of the “Products and Services” campaign on consumer attitudes toward USPS. The key issue is if the “Products and Services” theme and music would contribute to the 1989 Express Mail advertising campaign’s success. USPS also needs to address the general public’s perception of their reliability. Situational Analysis Company: USPS Strengths – access to entire network of mail distribution Weaknesses – consumers thought that USPS was unreliable, no volume discounts Product – Overnight Delivery Service (ONDS), guaranteed morning delivery, drop ship and reship service, weekend/holiday delivery at no extra charge, delivery to post office boxes Price - 8 oz letter costs $8.75, on call pick up for incremental charge of $4 per stop Promotion – 1988 advertising cost $5.5million Competition | Fed Ex | UPS | Emery-Purolator | Airborne | Product | Overnight Delivery Service (ONDS), warehousing and inventory management in conjunction with expedited delivery | Overnight Delivery Service (ONDS), package tracking, guaranteed deliver, morning deliver | Air and ground delivery service | Overnight Delivery Service (ONDS), | Price | 8oz letter cost $10.50, Volume discounts to secure large share of business accounts, $3 drop off discount | 8 oz letter costs $8.50, No discount for volume shippers | unknown | ODNS rate for the government: $5 for the first pound...
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...Profit a bilit y 5 Y e a r Busine ss Pla n February 16, 2012 Introduction The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) continues to endure the negative effects of electronic diversion combined with a weak economy and increased funding obligations This confluence of events has had financial impacts on the organization which have become untenable While the USPS has continuously sought to make operational improvements and improve efficiency, the organization’s current financial position requires additional action to ensure viability and self sufficiency The following presentation has been prepared by the USPS in order to communicate its business plan (“Business Plan”) to key stakeholders Specifically, the document covers ● Challenges facing the organization today, notably electronic diversion and the importance of First-Class Mail ● Financial impacts of both the difficult operating environment and regulatory framework under which the USPS operates ● Actions USPS is planning to take to address its financial position and outlook ● Financial benefits of the identified initiatives and impact on USPS stakeholders ● Overview of continuing actions to confront revenue declines through innovation 1 February 16, 2012 ● Business Plan risks and sensitivities Continuous Efficiency Improvements at USPS Annualized Savings vs. Workhours 1,500 1,459 1,423 1,373 1,258 $9.3 1,200 1,100 $0.0 1,000 2006 $1.2 2007 2008 2009 2010 Annualized...
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...U.S. Post Service (USPS), the second-largest civilian employer in America, used to have a proud history. However, it has been hit hard by the coming of digital area where emails, the emerging online communication takes place of mails. The sharp decline of the mails volume and fierce competition from private delivery companies like FedEx and UPS have forced USPS into a dead corner. The business models of this giant origination seemed not viable enough to cope with the ongoing crisis. Inveitbly, USPS is on the cusp of collapse. From the fiscal year of 2007-2010 alone, USPS has accumulated the loss of $20 billion, and its debt climbed up from $2.1 billion to $12 billion. The financial situation of USPS has deteriorated since then. The fiscal...
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...Discussion Question 1 All these areas linked and supported each other. For USPS, most important performance goals of “Voice of the Employee” were develop employee proficiencies for their assigned tasks in the workplace that did not exist, and develop capabilities to do sophisticated complement planning. (USPS, 1997, p. 21) USPS acknowledged employees were driving force for continuous improvement and anticipated the needs for employee proficiency measurement and complement planning to be bottom-line business-oriented, and in order to achieve them, the organization had a responsibility to create a workplace environment that was characterized by respect for employees, which was illustrated most clearly by the concern for safety. (USPS, 1997, p. 21) In addition, USPS wanted to improve relationships between the management and employees, and created a dialogue between them. The dialogue was characterized by encouraging both the management and employees to work together to face common challenges of growing competition and increasing customer demands, and better appreciate their mutual interests. USPS believed that throughout these efforts, there will be a cultural change and improvement in productivity, which in turn support “Voice of the Business” in the organization. Major performance goals of USPS’s “Voice of the Business” included control costs through reengineering, decreasing rework and cycle time, process management, and substituting capital for labor, achieve productivity...
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...Executive Compensation | BLAW 5175 Simulation Exercise #1 | Group Aerospace | Part 1: The objectives of executive compensation: The issue of executive compensation is a topic of much debate. Executives are often ridiculed as their compensation packages may not coincide with the performance of their organization or be deemed too lavish by shareholders or advocacy groups. However, compensation is not decided arbitrarily. Organizations enlist boards and outside consultants, and with the aid of industry benchmarks establish packages that fairly represent the duties of high ranking company employees. Executives inherently shoulder more responsibility as spokespeople for companies and being tasked with difficult endeavors such as company-wide change, company direction, and company morals and values. As such, the compensation packages need to accurately reflect the responsibilities of an executive. The objectives of objectives of an executive compensation program can be summarized in three main points: * Align the interests of executives and shareholders. Companies seek to align the interests of executives with shareholders through equity-based compensation and share ownership requirements1. * Link rewards to performance. Companies seek to implement a pay-for-performance philosophy by tying a significant portion of executives’ compensation to their achievements of financial and discretionary goals that are linked to a Company’s business strategy and each executive’s...
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... * Introductory Stage-characterized by the launching of a new product. * Growth Stage-highlighted by strong growth and profits. * Maturity Stage-the product is well established and the organization seeks to maintain market share. * Decline Stage-the market for the product shrinks. The United State Postal Service (USPS) is service organization as opposed to being a manufacturing entity. As such it does not produce a tangible product. While it uses products such as postage stamps, boxes, and envelopes in the course of providing the service, postal delivery is its product. Therefore, to consider its product life cycle one must consider the life cycle of the organization itself. The organization current finds itself in a state of decline. One factor that contributes to a product going into decline is shrinkage due to market saturation or “because the consumers are switching to a different type of product” (http://productlifecyclestages.com/). Both factors have had a marked impact on the decline. The rise of the internet and its ability instantly deliver correspondence that at one time would have been delivered by USPS. In 2004 the total mail volume handled was 201.6 billion pieces. By 2013 the volume had fallen to 158.4 billion pieces of mail. If the focus is narrowed to first class delivery, and retail customer visits, the same trend is evident (https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/postalfacts2014.pdf)....
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...p. 72 (1-7) USPS Operations tour MGT 364 1.) The volume of mail the USPS receives is proportional to the revenue that they earn. Simply put the larger the volume more revenue they make which is important to any business. 2,) The two key factors to improving productivity at the USPS is the use of automation and the introduction of zip codes. This high productivity is what allows the USPS to be the largest postal service in the world. 3.) Competitive pressure caused the USPS to reorganize itself in a more efficient and lower cost way. They had to slim down and get rid of a lot of positions in order to consolidate and simplify the chain of authority. 4.) The USPS got rid of a large amount of middle management and consolidated larger areas to make things easier logistical wise. The USPS also focused a lot more on customer service when they faced tough competition from their rivals in the industry. They also focused on making the mailing experience easier and more convenient for customers. 5.) The USPS achieved lower operating costs and was able to simplify the mailing experience for the customer tremendously putting it at least on par with its competitors. They did receive more business after the largest of the changes and helped it reach status of “largest postal service in the world”. 6.) Increased use of e-mail helps the company be a lot more productive in providing customer services. Customers can receive emails when their packages ship and also allow them to get in contact...
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...questions that may influence a customer’s perception. • Business Process: How well does your business manage its operational processes? What key processes do you use to meet your customer and stakeholder requirements? • Learning and Growth: How does your business embrace ongoing change and continuous improvement? Can your business continue to improve and create value? For each of these perspectives, the balanced scorecard prompts you to develop metrics, set performance targets and collect and analyze data. Your scorecard thus offers an efficient mechanism for reviewing strategy implementation based on measurement. There are many areas of discussion on the topic of the balanced scorecard. Let’s analyze the United States Postal Service (USPS) and how they used this approach to improve the way they do business. I would like to discuss the different metrics used to measure their progress. The “Voice of the Employee (VOE)” was extremely important and the first strategic areas of focus. This was due in large part to the history of workplace violence at the post office. Safety was the number one...
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...The UPS strike of 1997 will go down in history as the largest and most successful strike of the 90’s. During this strike the two types of negotiations used were the avoidance and compromise methods, both parties used these tactics at different times of the strike. The avoidance strategy is used as a response when it is clear that the negotiations have failed and ether party would reject any possible outcome. Normally, lack of cooperation will characterize this strategy immediately. No resolution will be the outcome of this particular strategy. The compromising strategy was used at the very end of the strike when UPS had no other choice. A compromising approach to negotiation is the most appropriate way to settle with all parties, this strategy only works when all parties have some power to sway the outcome. This method can be used for both for temporary and permanent solutions, granted the approval of both parties. The reason these negotiations worked so well for the employees of UPS was because of how they played offense against the governing agency. By making the part-time situation public and pointing out how UPS was mistreating workers in that respect, this publicly justified a strike and in turn forced UPS to compromise with demands from employees. Even after UPS tried to threaten workers with termination and replacement, in the end they were forced to meet demands or risk losing everything. Initially UPS tried the avoidance method in hopes the workers would...
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...USPS Deficit: Problems Plaguing America’s Postal Service By Deborah Alicea Lauryn Famiano Enrique Gonzalez Minyi Huang MGT 231 Organizational Behavior Professor Linval Frazer September 2, 2014 Table of Contents Problems of USPS 1 Related Concepts 2 Recommendations 4 1. Innovating Technology System 4 2. Cutting Costs 4 3. Changing Business Model 6 4. Improving communication 7 Conclusion 8 Work Cites 9 Deborah Alicea, Lauryn Famiano, Enrique Gonzalez, Minyi Huang MGT 231 Professor Linval Frazer September 2, 2014 USPS Deficit: Problems Plaguing America’s Postal Service Problems of USPS The first problem is based on technology. In today’s society the technology of smartphones, tablets, and the easy access to social media...
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...U.S. Postal Service Case 1 1. Why is it important for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to have a high volume of mail to process? The United States Postal Service (USPS) has grown to become the largest provider of mail service in the world during one of the peaks of its economic lifetime. As the company grew bigger and bigger to accommodate the increased demand for its services, the USPS increased its productive capacity through expansion by acquiring the necessary equipment and other technological tools. These different types of machinery are designed to handle high volumes of workload and fast-paced processes. Unfortunately, the equipment that USPS uses require that they process a high volume of mail in order for them to be cost-effective. The concept at hand in this scenario is the economies of scale whereby there is a certain minimum productivity level that must be met to be able to save on the cost of operations. In the situation of USPS, processing high volumes of mail is a necessity for financial reasons to distribute the cost of electricity and other overhead costs per mail processed. 2. What caused productivity to increase? Productivity became one of the most important factors in the operations of the USPS. Increasing the use of automation and introducing zip codes were the major causes of increased productivity.Automation started in the mechanization of mail processing in the 1950s and 1960s that allowed better and faster operations. Most mail had word-processed...
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...thought of, and made a reality. Old things are changed and manipulated to remain useful and important. The United States Postal Service should be no different. If the USPS wants to succeed in the coming years, they will have to change the company to make it more efficient and prosperous. A long time ago someone coined the USPS with the slogan “fly like an eagle,” but these words hold no real value in the twenty first century. According to Daniel Stone, the USPS needs new branding (Source A). A company’s branding is its identification. Without proper branding, or a good slogan the public doesn’t have a good way to identify the company....
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...USPS Blue Ocean Strategy Business Plan Final MGT 670 Spring Semester Blue Ocean Strategy The Postal Service should pursue the Blue Ocean Strategy of becoming a nationwide data collection network. According to the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) website they have 211,264 total vehicles as of 2014. The U.S. Government Accountability Office states that the USPS has the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the world. The USPS also has delivers to every address in the United States- this requires an extensive delivery network. The USPS should exploit their vehicle fleet and extensive delivery routes to outfit their vehicles with sensors to become a data collection network. According to an article in Popular Science, the Postal Service’s fleet of vehicles could be equipped “with an array of cheap sensors, mail trucks could wireless deliver real time information on weather, pollutants, traffic, road conditions, and even locate gaps in cell phone coverage and television signals” (Dillow, 2010). The data collected could have homeland security implications as well, as noted in Popular Science, by sensors being able to identify chemical-biological threats as well as radiological threats. Threats are always prevalent to an organization, especially one that is trying to implement a new business opportunity to their existing business. The USPS is unique because they have threats that come from the private sector and threats that come from Congress in the public sector. The...
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...Keeping the USPS Alive In 1981, legislation was passed to require the United States Post Office to deliver mail six days a week. But because Congress provides less than 0.1% of the total postal budget, the postal service is almost completely dependent on postage sales, which have decreased drastically in the past decade. Now, Congress refuses to make significant legislation reforms. After seeing continuous patterns of decline in the postal service, Postmaster Patrick Donahoe proposes a better solution to this debt- cutting back operating hours- that will not affect package delivery, will not damage large businesses, and will save approximately two billion dollars a year. Since 2006, the post office’s losses have been estimated at twenty-five million dollars a day due to the breakthrough of e-mail and e-billing systems (Vann). This new method of communication decreased mail volume by twenty-six percent of its peak just a few years before. Because of these growing debts, the first proposal to cut down business days was in 2009, when the Postal Service had lost 2.8 billion dollars in the previous year. After waiting three years, Congress was unable to draft reforms to reduce these losses (Stephansen). At the end of 2012, the Postal Service had lost nearly 15.9 billion dollars. Postmaster Patrick Donahoe took matters into his own hands by proposing that the service discontinue mail delivery on Saturdays. Eliminating weekend deliveries while continuing six-day package delivery...
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...The United States Postal Service Labor Laws and Unions The United States Postage Service (USPS) is one of the country’s most striving organizations. A discussion of this document will explain the effects of the union and labor laws within the USPS. This article will also review the benefits of joining the union and what is the unionization process. In addition, it will examine the union bargain and discuss the effects it has on the USPS. The United States Postal Service Background The USPS employees over 600,000 workers and operates more than 220,000 fleets of vehicles in the world (USPS, 2012). The USPS is a branch of the federal government led by the postmaster general and a Board of Governors with oversight by the postal Regulatory Commission (USPS, 2012). However, Congress ultimately governs all authority. Congress imposes regulations on the organization and provides protection from opposition. The formation of the postal service allows revenues from the postage sales and services to cover cost of operations with $100 million annual appropriation from Congress for providing no cost mailing to the blind and overseas absentee-ballot mailing (USPS, 2012). Benefits of Joining Unions The postal service union’s purpose is to propose a fair contract to its members while meeting its financial and operational needs. The union prevents members from mistreatment, provides continual employment, and offers peace of mind while guaranteeing benefits...
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