Three megatrends are very much top of mind for Bill Seward, president of UPS Supply Chain Solutions: trade lane shifts, the promise of technology to improve customer outcomes, and health care as a growth market for the parcel shipping and supply chain company. Seward addressed all of these and his viewpoints on leadership when he sat down to talk to Katie Kirkpartick, president and CEO of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, for the opening keynote session at MHI’s Modex tradeshow.
Seward says there has been a definite shift in where companies are sourcing and manufacturing from, as evidenced by the fact that Mexico surpassed China to become the U.S.’s largest trading partner last year. But Seward is not just seeing an increase in nearshoring to Mexico, he is also seeing a rise in companies adopting what UPS calls a “China Plus” strategy. China continues to play “an absolutely paramount role in the global supply chain,” Seward says, but companies are also moving into countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India.
“If the last time you looked at your supply chain approach was three years ago, you need to look again because things have changed so dramatically,” he advised Modex attendees.
Seward is also bullish on the benefits of automation in logistics and distribution.
“I’ve been around a long time, and I have seen countless videos and countless testimonials for automaton,” said Seward. “For everything from driverless vehicles to drones to you name it. What I haven’t seen until most recent times is real material impact on outcomes for our customers and for our business.”
Seward says that UPS has found that in their most automated facilities, lifting injuries have decreased by 30% to 40% and employee retention has increased 25% to 30%. Similarly, those areas of their business where they have invested the most in technology—their Global Logistics and Distribution and Mail Innovations divisions—saw record, double-digit growth last year.
Another potentially high growth area for UPS is health care. Health care was a $10 billion business for UPS last year, and the company expects to grow even larger.
“You can’t do health care without doing supply chain,” Seward said.
According to Seward, CEO Carol Tomé has set a very “audacious” growth goal in the health care space. “I think our board and Carol [Tomé] view us as a health care supply chain company over the next 50 years,” he said.
