What is the reason why ups can become a giant in the world logistics industry?

1. Why does UPS become the largest express parcel company in the world?

UPS handles nearly 4 billion pieces of goods every year, with 65,438+0,800 transshipment centers around the world, a fleet of large railways and more than 270 cargo planes, and 95,000 land trucks. Relying on a huge transportation team, UPS can conduct business in more than 200 countries and regions around the world. But the core of this giant logistics enterprise is Louisville transshipment center in Kentucky, also known as UPS World Port. UPS World Port is the largest logistics transshipment center in the world at present, with an operating area of 370,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of 80 American football fields and 44 dock seats. There are 19000 conveyor belts in the business premises alone, with a total length of 150 km, and the goods move more than 5 meters per second. UPS World Port * * * has 9,000 employees, and the core construction of the transit center is an information expressway, which handles more than 50 million transactions every hour. UPS World Port centrally handles all goods from the local transshipment center, and it is also the most advanced goods sorting facility in the world.

2. What's in 2.UPS World Harbor?

UPS World Port covers an area of 240 hectares (2.4 square kilometers), and the huge transshipment center is directly connected with the airport. The core building of UPS World Port is a four-story processing center with several conveyor belts several kilometers long. The processing center is connected with three freighters in 44 freight stations, rotating every four hours, and can provide loading and unloading work for 100 freighters at most. The workload of the factory is amazing. The ports in the world handle more than 1 10,000 cargoes every day, with a record of 2.5 million cargoes in 24 hours.

3. How to store and sort express parcels?

This huge sorting system originated from various local operation centers. Take the target goods as an example, we started working at 6 pm. The UPS courier in a city in the eastern United States completed the final receiving work, sent the goods to the local operation center, sorted and scanned them and entered them into the UPS computer system. In the local UPS operation center, the sorter sorts thousands of express mails according to the delivery location and the urgency of the goods. According to the different service items, mixing overnight express (note: overnight express is sent today and arrives the next day) with three-day express will cause serious problems. Entering the wrong postal code will also make it impossible to send the express mail accurately. UPS employees know that the classification work can't go wrong, and the engineers of this system are faced with the challenge of eliminating potential human errors. Their solution is called a computer classifier for smart tags. UPS smart bar code used to identify goods information is also used as detailed information to enter the core distribution area. This label contains important information, including weight, urgency and postal code. This bar code also contains confidential hidden information. First of all, it represents the identification code of a single commodity. The second barcode shows the postal code of the delivery area. More importantly, it shows the QR code of all the information. In an area of one square inch, there are 93 character codes of information, including standard delivery information and detailed delivery route.

4. How to complete the first step of receiving goods?

In all local UPS transshipment centers, the size of goods is the primary condition, and the first step of classification is to distinguish by size. Each piece of goods transported by UPS is divided into the following three categories: small pieces of goods are envelopes or cartons with a weight of less than 4.5 kg and a size of 23×30cm; Packaging is a three-dimensional carton within 45 pounds (20 kilograms); Special parts include goods with large volume or irregular shape. The best way to understand the advanced express delivery system is that even if the goods are tracked, one of the major tasks of the local transshipment center is to classify all the goods sent to the world ports, and the transshipment center must quickly read the information of all the goods in order to deliver them on the right route. After the goods are sorted in the local transshipment center, they are delivered through two routes of UPS delivery system, and the local express delivery is delivered by road or short-haul air. However, a considerable amount of foreign or international mail will be delivered by air to UPS World Port for processing.

It's 8 o'clock in the evening, and the received express mail has been loaded into the super-large air container called the big box. The capacity of these air containers is close to 15 cubic meter, which is almost equivalent to the compartment of a large office. Finished containers are loaded onto UPS cargo planes, and workers in UPS freight station drive large container tractors to load full containers onto standby cargo planes, and scissors aerial loaders load containers into the engine room. The loading capacity of UPS cargo plane is amazing, which can reach more than 60 containers. These goods were finally sent to the transshipment center of UPS World Port.

5. How to make the huge cargo fleet land efficiently and safely?

At night 10, this cargo plane is on its way to UPS world port, but the take-off and landing of other cargo planes has already made the world port lively. Cargo planes that take off and land here must navigate accurately. Frequent flights make safety a huge challenge, and once there is negligence, it will lead to a big mistake. Any cargo plane must enter the site by navigation before landing. When cargo planes queue up to enter the site, they may form a fleet of up to 20 miles and then land continuously. Due to the extremely tight flight schedule, it is necessary to race against time. In recent years, UPS has found that its navigation needs new technology to provide more accurate guidance and control for cargo fleet. Ordinary radar is not accurate enough and its response is not fast enough. UPS decided to introduce a new type of aircraft positioning technology to solve the problems it faced. They adopted the most advanced monitoring system technology in the world, or ADSB for short. The innovation of ADSB technology lies in its working principle. The radar station sends signals from the ground, while ADSB actively sends data signals, including the position, altitude and speed of the aircraft. Air traffic controllers can get the information of all cargo planes here from the radar screen, which greatly ensures flight safety, and other cargo planes can also get signals to avoid plane collision.

6. How does the express mail enter the UPS World Port Processing Center?

At night 1 1: 30, the UPS cargo plane began to land at UPS World Port Airport. There are dozens of cargo planes waiting to load and unload goods on the ground, and the ground support personnel must complete these tasks extremely efficiently. The pilot only has a few minutes to control the plane to slide into the wing of the air show, and the ground guide and the pilot can work together to ensure the efficient and safe completion of the task. The airport guide guided the cargo plane into the unloading area, and all the other team members immediately unloaded the container into the huge conveyor belt of the world port. From high altitude, UPS World Harbor looks like a huge airport terminal. There are three wings A, B and C behind the runway, which can load and unload 44 cargo planes at the same time. On a busy working night, 9,000 workers have to write down more than 800,000 items in four hours. Due to the huge demand for overnight express delivery, the hoisting operation is basically carried out at the busiest time in the evening, and now the focus of work falls on the freight ground crew.

7. How to unload a container weighing several tons?

They will unload the big container from the cargo plane in a few minutes. This arduous task needs the assistance of powerful tools. The ground crew has to unload the container of about 115000 kg in1hour, which can only be done by heavy machinery-K loader, a 5-meter-high steel-reinforced scissors aerial work loader, can lift the container of 5.5 tons, but it is not easy to operate this big guy. The ground crew must accurately and efficiently transport the container to the flank of UPS World Port.

8. How can a person pull a container weighing 1 ton?

UPS found a solution through trial and error, and introduced an innovative ball bearing floor. This special ball floor is equipped with rows of steel ball bearings and plastic leather rollers on the surface. The bearing is installed on the ground with two bolts. It can rotate and roll at will, and even heavy containers can move freely. This unique design has become the only way for the ground crew to complete the task. One person can move a container that weighs one meal.

9. What are the tips for quick delivery of small items?

With the help of the bottom plate of the ball bearing, the container entered the inside of the airport wing, and the employees locked the container in one of the 200 unloading stations in the wing. In order to unload all the goods in the container, employees usually work in pairs. The unloader is responsible for letting all newly arrived goods enter the delivery system of the world port, and the employees must classify each goods. Three kinds of goods with different sizes should be pushed into belt systems with different speeds, and each system can only handle the size and weight of special goods. Small pieces are the easiest to handle, just put them on the side conveyor belt. The parcel is a little troublesome. In order to track the progress of each package, engineers must try to read the complete package information. They built a machine called DWS, which integrates measurement, weighing and scanning. The package is sent to the conveyor belt. When it passes through DWS equipment, the built-in scale will accurately weigh it in a few seconds, and then the height and width of the package will be measured by camera and laser instrument. Finally, the DWS scanner will read the postal code of the package. This set of data is sent to the central processor, and the server performs quick calculation. The server is also the core area of the whole UPS data port. It calculates according to the total amount of goods passing through it at any time and determines the delivery route that each package should take. In this way, the blockage caused by the conveyor belt, the overweight of the system and the collision between packages are also avoided. This super transshipment center tests all kinds of special items. First of all, employees need more manual intervention to transport these items on different routes.

Parcel handling center is the core competitiveness of UPS World Port. Its main building is 1 km wide and 25 m high. All the goods are processed centrally here and then sent to the right freighter to fly to the destination. The target goods to be transported this time are about to enter the handling center. UPS world port needs to handle about 500 thousand small commodities every night. Conveyor belts send small commodities directly to the 4th floor of the processing center. Employees take small commodities out of their bags and put them in chutes, and then sort them quickly. These small goods will be transported by conveyor belt to the workstation in the guidance area. Employees in the guide area will put the labels of small items on them and reach the position of the inclined tray sorter through a special serpentine conveyor belt. There are 6700 loading ports here, and each port has a special design to ensure that only one batch of goods can be loaded at a time. But the goods with the label down are equivalent to no label, so the staff here must ensure that every package is placed up. The special design of the swash plate sorter is to automatically deliver the goods to the correct destination as soon as possible. The sorter is controlled by a computer with camera function. Every piece of goods placed on the inclined disk must pass through a special camera tunnel, which is equipped with an advanced laser code reader, which can scan the smart tag in a few nanoseconds and identify the postal code of the goods. The camera also quickly sends the information to the processor of UPS World Port conveyor belt control system, and the processor controls the conveyor belt to send the goods into the correct bags respectively, and the bags are distinguished by the destination postal code.

10, what if the high-tech drive belt stops?

However, even the most advanced technology and equipment need to consider the backup plan. If the camera tunnel system can't read the label information, then the goods will disappear. UPS designed an intervention called remote coding to solve this problem. If the smart tag is damaged, the tag is handwritten or the barcode is unclear, the camera identification system will send the tag photo to the remote coding department, where the engineer will manually identify the tag and manually add the correct postal code for the express mail.

1 1. How to deal with marked packages as soon as possible?

Packages weighing 45 kilograms are classified in other ways. These medium-sized packages with different shapes occupy the largest distribution volume of UPS Parcel Company, and their processing department puts them on the lower floor for automatic processing. Similarly, there are dozens of cameras and bar code readers on the conveyor belt several kilometers long here, but the difference is that slider sorters are installed on the conveyor belt here, which assist the goods to pass through the processing center. The sliding sorter keeps the goods at a safe distance and advances in rows through the sliders on the conveyor belt. If the goods on the conveyor belt move, it may have a destructive impact on the system. In order to avoid dangerous movement, there is a special camera to deal with the space distance occupied by the conveyor belt, so as to determine how many sliders should be used to push the goods away. When the conveyor belt reaches the joint, the slider will begin to slide to return the goods to the correct direction. This ingenious design saves a lot of labor costs and can effectively avoid human errors.

12. What is "courtesy delivery" of UPS?

UPS has also introduced a traffic priority method to avoid the collision of goods and the blockage caused by transportation belts. This program is implemented through a computer monitoring system called "courtesy transportation". "Free shipping" includes a camera, a scale and a scanner. Collect the information of each batch of goods during transportation and send it back to the main control computer. The master computer can always know the conveying situation of the conveyor belt every minute. If there is a potential danger, the master computer will instruct the conveyor belt to stop running until the danger is eliminated.

13. How to handle special express mail that is difficult to handle?

Finally, the special part is left for processing. Goods with special and irregular sizes are collectively referred to as special parts, which are easily blocked by obstacles, resulting in the blockage of transportation channels. Even the most advanced processing system is powerless and can only be handled by manual intervention. The machining center has a special machining system for special parts, which is operated by experienced technicians. They first scan the labels manually, and then put the goods into large plastic boxes on the conveyor belt. These plastic boxes are designed according to the air baggage sorting machine, which can fix goods with special shapes. The speed of these special containers is as high as 300 meters per minute, and the transportation track is similar to a roller coaster. The computer system set in advance can predict when the container will arrive at the intersection, so the command track changes the transportation direction like a railway fork, and sends the container to the correct direction on the flank of UPS World Port.

It's already 1: 45 in the morning. After 45 minutes of running, the express mail has entered the container to be sent out and sent to the destination operation center. The employees of UPS World Port must arrange these containers as soon as possible, and the operators also send the containers into the cargo hold of the aircraft through K-loader. If the location of the container is unreasonable, the cargo plane will be in danger of losing its center of gravity, which will make it impossible for the cargo plane to take off. The ground crew must accurately calculate the weight of the container so that the cargo plane can carry enough goods in the most reasonable way.

14. How does UPS train pilots?

Next, the pilot of the cargo plane made a grand appearance. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) trains qualified airline pilots every year, while UPS has its own flight simulator, where pilots can perform perfect flight simulation procedures. This simulator is trained by computerized 3D programs, and the trained pilots must undergo the most rigorous testing and training. Here, trial and error can reduce the danger in real situations.

15. How does UPS challenge the weather?

The world's largest parcel delivery company has only one uncontrollable challenge-the weather factor. UPS knows that how to reduce the influence of weather factors has become the biggest problem they face in order to complete all express delivery tasks with high standards. UPS has specially set up the world port weather command center for this purpose, with up to 600 employees and providing 7×24-hour service. This is a research center that monitors weather conditions around the clock, and ensures the accuracy of data through first-class satellite services and weather forecasting programs. . With these supports, UPS meteorologists can track and predict any weather conditions around the world. Skilled engineers can provide more reasonable route planning for aircraft by quickly analyzing satellite data, and provide preventive guarantee for ensuring the safety of employees and goods.

16, how does UPS cargo plane land efficiently?

Pilots of all cargo planes taking off and landing at UPS World Port have three set goals: safety, energy saving and punctuality. For this reason, UPS specially optimized the landing procedure of aircraft, which is called "continuous landing". When the pilot is ready to land, the engine turns to idle mode. "Continuous landing" is a method using gravity, which allows pilots to minimize fuel consumption and landing speed, turn large jet planes into giant gliders, and allow UPS cargo planes to complete landing procedures with minimum power. Scientific landing procedures can not only improve the approach speed, but also reduce the operating cost.

17. How to start the cargo plane safely?

It's 2: 00 am 15, and it's been 8 hours since we sent the express and left the local transshipment center. At this time, the employees of UPS World Port have also filled the cargo plane that is about to leave. The plane is about to start flying to its next destination. After the jet engine is started, it can generate strong winds exceeding 100 knots (180 km). In order to avoid all potential failures, UPS cargo planes don't fly upside down, but pilots spin the idling plane and push it onto the runway. UPS World Port's huge apron and numerous taxiways have also turned this airport into an obstacle runway. When a cargo plane is launched, it will accidentally hit a building or other cargo plane. Friction is common at airports. 2065438+04 1 0124 October, on the tarmac outside the Capital Airport1Terminal, a passenger plane of Hainan Airlines collided with a passenger plane of China Eastern Airlines when it slipped out, causing the passenger plane of China Eastern Airlines to be vertical. The cargo plane that entered the runway safely can finally take off.

After the cargo plane boycotted the destination transshipment center, the local UPS staff unloaded the whole container for distribution. Each local transshipment center is also known as the "mini" version of the world port, but this time it is not only allocated by postal code, but also has an accurate address. Next, more than 200 trucks have been on standby, and they have been sent to various communities and office buildings through the final delivery procedure.

18, how does UPS finish the last mile efficiently and energy-efficiently?

The route of each UPS truck has been planned before departure. UPS engineers will check the wireless communication between the satellite and the bus and design the best delivery route. This function is integrated into a device called DIAD (Delivery Information Collection Device). The early DIAD was just a simple little device, and now it has evolved into a UPS artifact. DIAD accesses the line and central positioning database through wireless link. This handheld device can provide important information for the delivery driver, and can remind the delivery priority of the goods and the route change that the driver needs most in time. The built-in GPS satellite positioning system can help drivers drive on the right road and deliver goods to the right address in time. Before the truck driver leaves, DIAD equipment will store the delivery route in advance, DIAD can be connected with the map software system, and drivers can get timely solutions to any route problems. The big data system behind it also provides a time-saving and fuel-saving solution for this system-no left turn! Under normal circumstances, UPS cargo plane basically does not turn left, which can ensure UPS to deliver goods in the most efficient way.