UPSNav: Save a minute, save $14 million

UPSNav: Save a minute, save $14 million

January 14, 2019
Lisa M. Spencer

Known for its focus on efficiency, UPS is always on the lookout for ways to save time and offer better service to its customers.

UPSNav, due to be in place by 2020, updates United Parcel Service’s previous route optimization system for its 60,000 drivers.  The new system will recalculate routes all day long, taking traffic, remaining deliveries, and pick-up requests into account.

UPS drivers make about 125 stops per day, so shaving even seconds off each stop can result in huge savings.  For example, saving drivers one minute per day multiplies to $14.5 million in labor cost savings per year.

UPS competes in a tough market with FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service, and Amazon.  Figuring out how to make the “last mile delivery” as cost-effective as possible is a constant challenge, especially in suburban and rural areas where the stops are further apart.

Video Spotlight: A look at UPS Orion, the current UPS navigation system

This post is based on the Reuters article, New UPS navigation tool aims to save time and money with each turn, by Lisa Baertlein, December 4, 2018; and the YouTube video, UPS Orion, by lolrus15, September 6, 2017. Image source: Continue reading →

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Is Less Care the Key to Value Health Care?

Is Less Care the Key to Value Health Care?

November 26, 2018
Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.

The search for value healthcare is taking a new turn as Blue Cross Blue Shields of Massachusetts forces hospitals to realign their strategies from a focus on efficiency to one on patient outcomes.

As the largest payer in the state, BCBS is incentivizing hospitals to keep patients out of hospital beds. The future of this pilot program at South Shore Hospital is still uncertain, but it looks promising.

Video Spotlight: Value-Driven Outcomes: A program to reduce hospital costs

This post is based on the Boston Globe article, Blue Cross Wants To Reward Hospitals – For Keeping Patients Out of Hospitals, by P. Dayal McClusky, October 29, 2018, and the KSAT video, Value-Driven Outcomes: A program to reduce hospital costs, by Ivanhoe Newswire, January 27. 2017. Image source: Comstock/Getty Images.

Discussion Questions:

1. How is the new program supposed to bring more value to the patient?

Guidance: According to Michael Porter (2013, p. 52), value is “health outcomes achieved that matter to patients relative to the cost of achieving those outcomes.” To insured patients, the monetary costs include premiums, deductibles, and co-payments. Hospital cost increases are transferred to patients through higher premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses. As Continue reading →

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