Managing Innovation Cases from the Services Industries (1988) / Chapter Skim
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Custodial Package Tracking at Federal Express
Custodial Package Tracking at Federal Express
Pages 57-81
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From page 57... ...
" COSMOS IIB is the latest in a series of information system developments that Federal Express has undertaken to add value to its product while simultaneously improving its operations.
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From page 58... ...
Keeping these multiple systems synchronized was a constant problem and would later pose a systems integration problem for COSMOS JIB. Providing information to customers about their packages was becoming a significant challenge as the package volume grew.
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From page 59... ...
More durable equipment had to be found before the on-road scans of COSMOS IIB could be implemented. This type of compromise not allowing
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. In early 1981 COSMOS IIA implementation was begun.
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From page 61... ...
Federal Express engineers, particularly David Dietzel and Jim Turpin, continued to watch for and test new scanning equipment as it hit the market, searching for the device that could support COSMOS JIB. The reaction of station management to the implementation of COSMOS IIA was often less than favorable.
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From page 62... ...
Despite these problems and frustrations, COSMOS IIA scanning became a natural part of station operations and the core of Federal Express's package tracking and tracing operations. The lessons learned in COSMOS IIA would play a major role in the development of COSMOS JIB.
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From page 63... ...
One exception to this was a capable start-up company in North Carolina named Hand Held Products (HHP)
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HHP had been a dark horse, but suddenly the company had made itself a front runner. COSMOS IIB 1974-1983 Summary Harry Dalton and his engineers had finally found a vendor that could and would provide a scanning device the courier could carry in his or her pocket and use to scan packages on the road.
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From page 65... ...
processor for generating COSMOS IIB reports was centered in Colorado Springs. Dealing with a start-up company such as Hand Held Products brought with it a unique set of circumstances.
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The COSMOS IIB project required some of the first batch of these chips to meet its development schedule. Special arrangements had to be made with the manufacturer to secure the order to ensure that the development schedule could be maintained.
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Project Management Through the end of 1984 all project work for COSMOS IIB had resided entirely within the departments of Harry Dalton and Jim Tollefson, a director in Colorado Springs. As the dates for field testing and, hopefully, implementation grew near, it was apparent that COSMOS IIB would require the involvement of nearly every area of Federal Express to make it a successful project.
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From page 68... ...
Special attention was given to communications with the field, because the company believes that it is the commitment of the people actually performing the scanning that determines whether or not the project will be a success. The couriers' attitude and willingness to make a project such as COSMOS IIB succeed is often based on their understanding of the value of the project and how they perceive that their local management views the project.
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From page 69... ...
The result was fewer package traces for the station and fewer telephone calls from the couriers reporting on exception packages. Not all of these benefits of COSMOS IIB were free.
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This more powerful scanning device soon become known as the SuperTracker and was marketed by Hand Held Products as its Micro-Wand II. Computing Environment COSMOS IIB required significant amounts of computing power and network capabilities.
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From page 71... ...
Competitive Environment Another element weighing in the COSMOS IIB decision was the changing competitive environment. By 1985 all of Federal Express's competitors had adopted the hub-and-spoke distribution scheme, service levels were improving, prices were being pushed down, and at least one competitor was doing selective scanning similar to the COSMOS IIA scans.
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From page 72... ...
Hand Held Products had taken all the suggestions and findings from the field studies and built them into a finalized production device it was marketing as a Micro-Wand II with the only difference from the Tracker being the keyboard. Federal Express had already developed a method of collecting the scan data and posting it to COSMOS, and the project management felt a great deal could be learned from having 10 to 20 stations doing COSMOS IIB scans while they waited for the new large-memory SuperTrackers.
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From page 73... ...
Not being able to provide top quality service defeated the purpose of the product, and the Challenger disaster put the ultimate solution of flying a Federal Express satellite on indefinite hold. Top management decided that it was not in the best interest of the corporation to further burden the network with COSMOS IIB data.
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From page 74... ...
Probably the largest impact of the move to the IBM solution was the requirement to again rewrite the software for the COSMOS IIB reports. The software development for the Tandem computers was nearly complete.
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From page 75... ...
A variety of problems were hardware related. For instance, the SuperTracker hardware design was often ahead of the chip manufacturers' development schedules.
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From page 76... ...
Training for the couriers and ground operations managers became a major task. The couriers had been hearing for 2 years that COSMOS IIB was coming, what it looked like, and how it would work.
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From page 77... ...
Future Table 1 presents a summary of the development of COSMOS IIB from 1977 through 1987. In early 1988 COSMOS IIB is still rolling out, is still evolving, and is still being developed.
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From page 78... ...
1983 Proposals for COSMOS IIB scanner are solicited. 1984 Funds are approved to develop and test COSMOS JIB.
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From page 79... ...
As the field personnel become experienced with COSMOS JIB, they are quick to identify new applications to help them in their day-to-day operations. Ideas never conceived when COSMOS IIB was designed will continue to enhance the value of the project for many years.
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From page 80... ...
The ability to react, adapt, and keep on moving became the hallmark of the project team. COSMOS IIA experience provided important guidelines in the confusing maze of a constantly changing COSMOS IIB program.
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From page 81... ...
CUSTODIAL PACKAGE TRACKING AT FEDERAL EXPRESS 81 Harry Dalton sums up this general approach in his oft-heard comment"The only thing we know for sure is that we won't get it quite right the first time, but we'll come back and fix it." ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to David Dietzel, Jim Turpin, Pat Mulvey, Chris Demos, Arun Kumtha, and Chuck Theobald for their direction, input, and support in the preparation of this chapter. My special thanks to Harry Dalton for sharing his project management insights, his unwavering intent to provide a factual, instructional case history, and his overall participation in making this endeavor a success.
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