Philippe Gilbert , President at UPS Supply Chain Solutions , on delivering what matters most in the pandemic and beyond
UPS INTERVIEW
UPS
Supply Chain Solutions :
Delivering
What Matters
Philippe Gilbert , President at UPS Supply Chain Solutions , on delivering what matters most in the pandemic and beyond
WRITTEN BY : SCOTT BIRCH
Philippe Gilbert is in a sunny mood . We chat freely about looking forward to the time when we can once again sit outside a café in Paris in his beloved France . For now , those plans are on hold as the world copes with the COVID-19 crisis , and UPS is doing its part in delivering precious vaccines and saving lives and livelihoods .
Gilbert openly discusses the trials and tribulations of the last year , and how UPSers ( as the company likes to call its 540,000 employees ) have gone above and beyond to deliver what matters most against the backdrop of the pandemic .
UPS is one of the world ’ s largest package delivery companies with 2020 revenue of $ 84.6 billion , providing integrated logistics solutions for customers in more than 220 countries and territories . It delivers 24.7 million packages every day .
The company is flourishing in challenging times – buoyed by its best ever quarterly results , fuelled by increased business with Amazon , small and medium sized businesses , and the busy holiday season . But there is much more to UPS ’ s success than simply increased demand for its services – UPS has embraced the digital opportunity and tailored its solutions to deliver for its customers .
“ Visibility in the supply chain is an element where technology has a key role to play ,” says Gilbert .
“ When you are a customer , you are dealing with primary suppliers . But it ' s also interesting to understand how they source from their vendors and the supply chain risks associated with their secondary , and tertiary vendors . “ We can strategically incorporate predictive modelling , which enables us to leverage artificial intelligence machine learning to shorten delivery time and increase resiliency .”
When the pandemic really forced the entire world into lockdown in March 2020 , this impacted UPS ’ s capacity to use passenger flights for package deliveries . Add to that the essential movement of personal protective equipment ( PPE ) and prices for shipping soared .
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