1. What are UPS “Smart Labels?” What role do they play in UPS operations? a. “Smart Labels” are simply bar code labels that have been generated by a computer. They have been designed to give the customer more flexibility when it comes to shipping i.e. increased reliability and better transit time due to its direct access to both the customer’s and UPS’s systems. 2. Write out the steps a package takes from pick-up by a UPS driver to delivery including the role of DIAD, the UPS Data Center, and the UPS Package Center. b. Step 1: The package is picked up by the driver. c. Step 2: The UPS associate creates a “Smart Label” containing information regarding shipping and tracking. This information is sent to the company’s warehouse. d. Step 3: The UPS driver scans the customer’s package with the “DIAD” (a handheld computer tracking device containing the driver’s (GPS) routes and communication abilities) making its information available to both the customer and to the UPS data center. e. Step 4: The package arrives at the UPS Package Center where it is processed and prepared for shipping. 3. What role does wireless communication play in the UPS systems? f. Using the tool called the “DIAD” UPS drivers can keep in constant contact with the UPS warehouse which in turn allows the driver to be alerted on certain delivery and pickup information such as cancelled pickups, new routes, new delivery points, new pickups, etc.

4. How has information technology transformed the package delivery business? g. Information technology has had a substantial impact on the UPS’s delivery business. As an electronic system, technology has allowed companies to complete their jobs more efficiently. In the case for the UPS, the delivery or pickup of an item can be tracked via the internet. While the processing of an item can be completed in seconds electronically vice many years earlier it would have taken days, weeks or even months. h. Using the tool called “DIAD”, UPS drivers have the ability to stay in constant contact with the UPS system which then allows them to receive new routes, pickup/delivery jobs, and the ability to scan and process an item for the UPS package center. 5. How does UPS’s investment in IT help it achieve the strategic business objectives described in Chapter 1? i. The business objective for the UPS is simply to get the customer’s package from point A to point B faster and more efficiently than other companies in the field. In that regard, we are made aware in chapter one of how much faster and more efficient such a process would be when invested in the uses of materials engineered by information systems technology. j. In IT, everything is done electronically therefore customer/warehouse tracking, package processing, UPS driver routes/pickup and delivery times are done instantaneously consequently saving time and money for both the UPS business and its customers.