Case Application #1: Big Brown Numbers
MAN2021 Principles of Management
1. Why is efficiency and safety so important to UPS?
UPS is a large company that offers delivery services around the globe in the fastest time
possible, whilst maintaining proper safety measures. According to the Case Application: Big
Brown Numbers in our textbook “Fundamentals of Managements”, “UPS transports more than
18 million packages and documents throughout the United States and to more than 220 countries
and territories” (114). With such a large multitude of shipments as great as UPS’, drivers have to
ensure that their loading procedures, unloading procedures and the transportation is done in a
safe and timely manner in order to give their customers their items as fast as possible.
Not only is customer satisfaction the reason for such efficiency and safety, but there is
also the notion of saved costs UPS maintains that make said things so important. Saving costs is
a huge component for larger companies such as UPS. So much so that UPS created and invested
into the algorithm ORION to eliminate almost all their left turns to reduce the mileage and save
on fuel costs. As stated in the “How UPS Trucks Saved Millions of Dollars by Eliminating Left
Turns” article by Gadgets 360 Staff, “In 2005 […] the total distance covered by its 96,000 trucks
was reduced by 747,000 km, and 90,000 liters of fuel had been saved” and that “in 2011,[…] the
company had reduced distance travelled by trucks by 20.4 million miles.” Because of the
