BrownCafe

Since May 2015, in a section of its WorldPort distribution center in Louisville, Kentucky, United Parcel Service (UPS) has been operating a spare parts warehouse with no spare parts. Instead, the facility is stocked with ultrafast 3D printers that can build up almost any plastic part that’s required, layer by layer by layer—and have it ready for UPS to deliver anywhere in the United States by morning.

“It was a no-brainer,” says Alan Amling, UPS’s vice president for corporate strategy. Storing spare parts for quick delivery was already a big moneymaker for the company, he says. UPS operates more than a thousand field-stocking locations worldwide—all full of items that somebody might need someday, maybe. The industrial customers who pay for that service have to keep the parts available because of warranty contracts, says Amling. But they hate it. “Inventory storage costs are massive,” he says. “So we started to see 3D printing as a solution.”

When David Abney was in high school, he took two years of Latin. Now, the United Parcel Service Inc. CEO and chairman is advising all six of his grandchildren to study Mandarin Chinese.

“There is so much that is going to happen in the next 50 years in China and between China and the U.S., I just believe that’s the language of choice at this particular time.”

United Parcel Service workers and their union have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract. If approved, the pact averts what threatened to be the first walkout in decades at the shipping giant.

The deal negotiated with the Teamsters covers 250,000 workers — mostly drivers and package handlers — and includes pay increases. It also lays the groundwork for Sunday deliveries by UPS.

Denis Taylor, co-chairman of the Teamsters’ UPS national negotiating committee, in a statement called the agreement “among the very best ever negotiated for UPS members.”

Months of collective bargaining have culminated in a tentative agreement for UPS (NYSE: UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The five-year agreement, which is subject to ratification, covers Teamsters-represented UPS employees in small package roles.

UPS’s goal has been to reward the company’s employees for their contributions to its success while enabling the business to remain flexible to meet its customers’ needs – each of these goals have been met in the new agreement. UPS is well-positioned to grow and meet the needs of its customers.