The concepts of fast product development, continuous improvement, continuous learning, and customer centricity are the things that are most relevant in today's world to stay competitive and innovative.
-Archita Prasad
Episode Summary
As we head into the holiday season and peak season for retailers, issues like shipping loss, increased risk, and even porch piracy are on the minds of merchants and consumers alike. Considering new shipping innovations, keeping shipping challenges front of mind, and utilizing tools for continuous improvement and customer-centricity will allow retailers to stay competitive and innovative in today’s world.
In today’s episode of Supply Chain Now, hosts Scott Luton and Greg White welcome Archita Prasad, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at UPS Capital to the show, to discuss the importance of adopting a lean, agile mindset and taking advantage of advanced technologies and data-driven solutions to improve the shipping experience for both businesses and consumers.
Join us today and learn about:
- A new UPS product called “Delivery Defense,” an advanced analytical tool that uses machine learning and historical shipping data to provide predictive insights to businesses
- How to make better shipping decisions and reduce shipping-related risks
- What all retailers and merchants can do to create a more positive and customer-centric customer experience
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:03):
Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges, and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.
Scott Luton (00:32):
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s show. Greg, how you doing today?
Greg White (00:42):
How many times are we going to have this discussion today?
Scott Luton (00:44):
It feels like about 18 thus far.
Greg White (00:47):
So, I’m doing very well. But it does seem like we’ve had this same question three or four times today, haven’t we? It’s been a big day, but I like how we’re wrapping it up.
Scott Luton (00:56):
Well, you know what, a big day for a lot of big things taking place in a big global industry. And, hey, we’re going to continue – I’ll try. We’re going to continue that theme here today as we’re going to be talking about shipping challenges and innovations, especially for merchants and consumers. And, Greg, we’re going to be trying to answer that age old question that has risen to the top in recent years. Hey, where’s my stuff? Right?
Greg White (01:20):
Right.
Scott Luton (01:21):
So, it should be a good show.
Greg White (01:22):
All that matters.
Scott Luton (01:24):
That’s right. That is right. So we got a great business leader joining us just momentarily. And, Greg, looking forward to working through a great conversation in the minutes ahead. So, with that said, I want to introduce our featured guests here today, Archita Prasad, vice president of Strategy and Innovation with Insureshield Shipping Insurance by UPS Capital. Archita, how you doing?
Archita Prasad (01:49):
Hey, thank you. I’m doing really good. How are you guys?
Scott Luton (01:53):
Wonderful. Yeah, we’re better now, Greg, right?
Greg White (01:56):
Yeah. Welcome aboard.
Archita Prasad (01:57):
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
Scott Luton (02:00):
Well, Archita, you know, you’ve already proven – Greg, she’s already proven to her and her team their problem solvers already, right? We’ve already uncovered that in the pre-show.
Greg White (02:07):
Yeah, no doubt.
Archita Prasad (02:08):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Scott Luton (02:09):
All right. Well, let’s get to know you a little better, Archita, and I want to start with spent, and we got our two-decade rule around here, but you spent more than 20 years as a senior leader in strategy and transformation and change management amongst other things as some of the most well-known businesses in the world, IBM, NCR, and now, of course, UPS. You’re also a certified lean coach, amongst other things. So, question for you, what is one lean tool that you believe more business leaders should utilize today?
Archita Prasad (02:40):
Wow. Lean, that takes me back to my previous life. Lean is something that I did long, long back when I was with the auto industry, but nonetheless, the concepts of lean are easily transferable to what we do today. Agile, that’s a concept that we use that’s very, very important for how we run our business today. So, the lean principles or agile principles rather, they borrow a lot of the concepts from lean, right, to achieve flexibility, adaptability, responsiveness, speed. The concepts like customer feedback, fail early, learn fast, iterative development, all these are concepts which are very closely aligned to lean concepts of delivering value to the customer most efficiently by eliminating waste across the process. But returning to your question on a tool, it’s difficult for me to call out a single tool. I would say it’s the mindset. It’s a lean, agile mindset. The concept of fast product development, continuous improvement, continuous learning, customer centricity, these are the things which I would say is what’s most relevant in today’s world to stay competitive and innovative.
Scott Luton (04:04):
Archita, well said. I love that customer centricity, that mindset, so powerful. Greg, we’ve been talking a lot for years now, even a lot this week, even about removing waste out of the equation in all of its forms. Greg, your quick response.
Greg White (04:20):
Yeah. What a cool evolution from lean into agile, which I hadn’t really thought about the relationship there, but both trying to accomplish the same thing, right? Be efficient, grow rapidly, evolve rapidly. Yeah, it’s fantastic.
Scott Luton (04:36):
And one quick follow up on a personal note. Archita, you shared with us pre-show, I just laid out that you’re a certified lean coach, but you also have other coaches like we all do, meaning our kids, our smart coaches that help us do everything else in life. Is that right, Archita?
Archita Prasad (04:50):
Yes, I have three of them.
Scott Luton (04:53):
Are their consulting fees as expensive as all the others out there?
Archita Prasad (04:58):
Oh, that’s a lifetime consulting fee.
Scott Luton (05:01):
Yes. I love that. All right.
Greg White (05:05):
Approximately $600,000 until they go to college. So –
Scott Luton (05:01):
Goodness gracious.
Greg White (05:08):
Just so you know, for your budget.
Scott Luton (05:11):
That’s right. That’s right. All right, moving right along. I want to get to the topic at hand today. We’re going to be focusing on effective and innovative ways to improve shipping, which, you know, it’s going to help our listeners have on a variety of levels, but including help them have more successful peak season, right? So, first I want to level set a bit here, Archita. What do you see as the primary challenges and opportunities for merchants in the latter half of this year?
Archita Prasad (05:37):
Yeah. So, the latter of half of the year is an exciting time for the retailers. As we approach the peak season, the retailers, they are securing their supply chain to get ready to serve the increase in demand that comes with the holiday season. But at the same time, they are anticipating, they are expecting a significant increase in the shipping loss and risks and also increase in porch piracy threat. Now, if I substantiate that with some recent stats or historical stats during the pandemic, e-commerce grew by about 20%. And during the same period, we saw an alarming increase in the e-commerce fraud, about 40%, and porch piracy that grew by about 20-25%. So these are the issues which really impact the merchants directly. They impact their top line, their profit margin, and most importantly their customer’s experience.
Scott Luton (06:44):
Greg, so bad actors aren’t just stealing trailers of stuff, they’re stealing smaller parcels off folks’ porch, huh?
Greg White (06:54):
Yeah, you know, anytime anything grows, the theft of it grows. This is one of the things that we’ve dealt with in retail forever. There is – you have this notion of shrink, right, which is just expected to be in the 2% range for most retailers. If they can keep it at 2%, they’re pretty happy. So you’ve got it built into the profit margins. We all pay for it. All of us consumers pay for it. So, yeah, the ability to limit that is, is critical, especially as the goods get out of the retailer’s hands much earlier in the transaction than they do when you go into a store.
Scott Luton (07:35):
Well said, Greg. And just to recapture those numbers Archita shared with us or heard, and correct me if I got anything wrong, Archita, that happens all the time, but e-commerce grew about 20% during the pandemic. Porch piracy grew about 25% and fraud grew about 40%, man. Okay, so shifting gears. From that consumer standpoint, let’s talk about – let’s get some of the good news. Two or three of your best tips for consumers out there that might be in the higher risk areas affected by porch piracy – I keep want to say privacy – porch piracy and other, any other negative shipping outcomes. What are some of your tips there, Archita?
Archita Prasad (08:12):
Yeah, sure. So they have a few options. You know, I’ll talk about three options here. The first one is access points, which is a much safer alternate delivery option. So, they can choose to get their packages delivered to UPS Access Points. And we have a huge network of UPS Access Points. We have about 24,000 of those spread across the nation with which about 92% of the US population living within 5 miles of any access point. Then, the second one is, of course, insurance. So, you know, nowadays the retailers, most of the retailers, they offer the option to ensure their package at the checkout, you know, point. So that’s also a good way to safeguard your shipment. And then, the third thing is My Choice, so My Choice membership, UPS My Choice membership, that allows you to ask for flexibility. So you can ask for your packages to be delivered at a different time or a different day depending upon your schedule. And it also gives you real-time tracking, real-time visibility, so you are informed about your package status all the time.
Scott Luton (09:29):
Love that, Archita. All right. So, Greg, out of those three options, the UPS access points, you and I have used something similar. I think we’ve may have used UPS in the last year or so. What are your thoughts, Greg? Out of those three options, anything you’ve used and seen successful?
Greg White (09:46):
Well, I am fortunate, I guess, to have kind of a covered porch where it’s easy to put the stuff out of you from the street. So, I haven’t had had to do that. By access points, Archita, are you talking about, I assume, UPS stores.
Archita Prasad (10:02):
Yeah.
Greg White (10:03):
And are there other types of things as well?
Archita Prasad (10:05):
Yeah, there are other types, other access points as well. UPS –
Greg White (10:09):
Yeah. Well, I would think – first of all, I love the guy that runs our UPS store near our house. Seriously. We send him Christmas cards. So, it’s great to get in and see Richard, 1720 Mars Hill Road, Acworth, Georgia, [Inaudible] 101. But, yeah, I mean, I think that’s a great option. You know, there are lots of those stores around 24,000. I had no idea. I think that’s more than there are McDonald’s, if I’m not mistaken, so they’re pretty close to you.
Archita Prasad (10:38):
We’ll have to check that.
Greg White (10:39):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (10:39):
Yeah. We got to check that, or you know what, you could pick up your package, you get some McNuggets as my daughters call them all in one same trip, 92%.
Greg White (10:48):
Well, you know, as often as a UPS store is in a strip mall, I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but in Georgia there’s always a subway at cleaners and a grocery store, so, right?
Scott Luton (10:58):
Okay. One trip.
Archita Prasad (11:00):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (11:00):
Archita, you’re about to add something there.
Archita Prasad (11:02):
No, I was just agreeing to what Greg was saying.
Scott Luton (11:05):
Okay. So, 92%. That’s what we all do, Archita. I’ve spent five years now agreeing with what Greg has said.
Archita Prasad (11:13):
I’m just following suit.
Scott Luton (11:16):
But I want to get back to this 92 – talk about coverage, 92% when you look at these UPS access points are within 5 miles, 92% of the American population. That is –
Archita Prasad (11:27):
Yeah. It’s pretty convenient and accessible.
Greg White (11:30):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (11:30):
Yeah. And I would just echo, and it’s funny that Greg had the address memorized. I do not. But over the years, and I think I’ll shared with other, some of our other interviews with UPS executives, the UPS stores are just – they have really been impactful in my entrepreneurial journey. All right. So, I want to shift gears. Speaking of UPS, we’re going to shift over, I want to level set first, Archita, before we talk about some of the new innovative things that you’re going to share with our audience. For some that may not know, UPS Capital is what powers Insureshield Shipping Insurance. And as I’ve seen – yeah, how about that, Greg?
Greg White (12:06):
Say that three times fast.
Scott Luton (12:08):
Tongue, tongue twister for me. But as I’ve seen on some other outlets, including, I think I was checking out Good Morning America, y’all have rolled out this new innovative product called Delivery Defense. So, Archita, first off, what is it and how have you seen it help Insureshield customers with their SX, their shipping experience?
Greg White (12:29):
Oh.
Archita Prasad (12:30):
Wow. SX, I like that.
Scott Luton (12:33):
I stole it blatantly. I got to be honest.
Archita Prasad (12:35):
I’m going to use it now.
Scott Luton (12:38):
From me to you.
Archita Prasad (12:40):
Delivery Defense is an advanced analytical tool that provides predictive insights to businesses, which helps them make better shipping decisions. And us being UPS, it leverages the largest UPS carrier data, historical shipping information, and uses advanced, sophisticated machine learning data models to assign a confidence score to a given address. So, the score is on the scale of one to 1000, one being the lowest confidence and thousand being the highest confidence. So basically, what it does is it provides or it predicts the likelihood of a successful delivery for a given address or at a given address. Now, this kind of intelligence, it empowers the merchants to make much better-informed shipping decisions, helping them decide whether to ship, how to ship, helping them become a lot more efficient. Now that the score that I talked about, they can put specific business rules depending on the score that they get for the address, right? So if it’s high confidence, they can choose to still deliver. If it’s low confidence, they can choose for alternate delivery locations like UPS access points that I talked about. And then, if it’s average, they can just opt for insurance.
Scott Luton (14:10):
We need more confidence scores. I love that. Now, Greg, I heard a couple of, I saw your head nods and a couple of hmm as Archita was explaining the model behind Delivery Defense. Your thoughts, Greg, on what she just shared.
Greg White (14:22):
Yeah, it’s basically a scale of zero to 99.9, right? What’s the percentage that it doesn’t get stolen? So I like that. Like I said, have not had to use it, but I think that’s a really good tactic. What I was thinking was a merchant could actually shape your shipping options based on that. They could pretty much just exclude it being shipped to your house if the score is too low and say, or enforce insurance on the recipient, whatever.
Archita Prasad (14:51):
Yep.
Greg White (14:52):
So, I think that gives them a lot of options and I just see that happening almost invisibly for the consumer, right? So, they just go, “Oh, well I can’t get it shipped to my house but I can get it shipped to the nearest UPS store.
Archita Prasad (15:06):
Yep.
Greg White (15:06):
Fine.
Scott Luton (15:07):
Well said. All right. Before we move on, speaking of confidence scores, Archita, are you – do you happen to be a baseball fan?
Archita Prasad (15:14):
No, sorry.
Scott Luton (15:15):
No. Okay.
Archita Prasad (15:16):
Sorry.
Scott Luton (15:17):
Are you based in the Atlanta area, Archita?
Archita Prasad (15:18):
Yes, I am.
Scott Luton (15:19):
Okay. A llright. So you’re an honorary Atlanta Braves fan, okay, at least for today. And we’re assigning a confidence score to that upcoming – we’ll probably publish this. You know what, I’m going to save this because it might jinx the Braves versus Phillies so I’m just going to save it. But I was about to assign a confidence score to the NLDS, but I’m going to save that for later. But you still are an honorary Atlanta Braves fan, at least today, Archita.
Archita Prasad (15:42):
I am. I am.
Scott Luton (15:43):
Okay. All right. So, let’s tie things back. So earlier you mentioned some of the primary challenges that merchants have at this point in the year. Let’s speak more now that we really understand how Delivery Defense works. How can – using this innovation, how can it assist in mitigating some of these challenges while ensuring those safe and timely decisions that we got to have, Archita?
Archita Prasad (16:05):
Yeah. So, the key challenges that we talked about were shipping loss, risks and porch piracy. So, a tool like Delivery Defense, it empowers the merchants to take a preventive measure. As I said earlier, if the address – depending on the score that they get for the address, they can take preventive measures. They can either choose to ship it at an alternate delivery location or opt for real-time tracking or by insurance. So it basically helps them mitigate these losses by being more proactive about the decisions. Right? And our research, or our early findings using this tool indicates that the merchants are able to save up to 30% of their loss using this tool.
Scott Luton (16:54):
Okay. So, it could be a stupid question, but I’m going to ask anyway. For those high-volume shippers, can you set up presets based on the scoring so those decisions can be made without even –
Archita Prasad (17:04):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (17:05):
You know, any human involvement?
Archita Prasad (17:06):
Yeah, no, absolutely. They can set business rules within their system. So this is an automated process. They can say that within a certain range, do this. Within a certain range, continue with shipment. So, we are trying to make it absolutely seamless and automated and as efficient as we can for the merchants.
Scott Luton (17:25):
Love that, Archita. And, Greg, in the bigger sense of automate – all these conversations we’ve been having, automation, taking some of the blocking and tackling off of the human decision makers, I think this kind of is accepting that direction. Greg, would you agree?
Greg White (17:39):
Yeah. I think this goes to what we were talking about before where you could just set it up in your shopping cart as a merchant and just have it handled, right? That way you don’t have to make those manual decisions. I think that integration is, it’s incredible, right? It’s freeing.
Scott Luton (17:56):
Yes. Just have it handled. Just have it handled. Hey, I’ll sign up for that today, Archita, today. All right. So let’s get some examples, some success stories from businesses that have utilized Delivery Defense already. You’ve already shared that 30% figure, I think 30% less theft or loss I think is what you shared there. What other results have you seen, Archita?
Archita Prasad (18:18):
Sure. So, you know, we have launched the pilot with the few select customers and we are seeing very promising results so far. We serve a diverse set of customers, right? So, we have provided, or we are providing different options for the customers to integrate Delivery Defense into their existing systems, existing processes. So, for example, it can be integrated into the label creation process, you know, basically helping them identify the addresses which need special attention or which need preventive measures. At the same time, it is also useful to help reduce the empty box returns by determining when it’s safe to offer early refunds or when it’s advisable to wait till we receive the package back. So, there are diverse uses of this tool and we work very closely with our customers to identify what’s most suitable for them. And we are seeing some, as I said, very promising and great results. Now, sharing some key findings or I can’t share too much yet, but I would love to –
Scott Luton (19:37):
You have to kill us, right?
Archita Prasad (19:41):
Yeah. But I would still – I’m actually very, very proud of what we have created and how it’s helping our customers. I’m really proud. But again, sharing some key findings. When we look at the overall customer volume and map it against the address confidence score, what we are seeing is that a very small amount of addresses, roughly about 2%, is contributing to about 10% of the losses, right? So, the point being that by redirecting, rerouting just a small volume, 2% of the addresses, they are able to realize huge improvement or they’re able to reduce their losses by a significant amount. Now, when we did the same analysis just for retail industry, the results were slightly different. In this case, by rerouting about 5-10% of their volume, they’re able to reduce their losses by one third or 30%. That’s significant. That’s huge.
Scott Luton (20:46):
Agreed. Agreed. Greg, before I’m going to ask her about e-commerce applications, because, Archita, you’ve already – when you were talking about returns, that seemed to be a great advantage when it comes to leveraging delivery defense, anything else for those e-commerce businesses that you haven’t mentioned when it comes to Delivery Defense that you’d like to –
Archita Prasad (21:08):
Yeah, so delivery defense is a tool that’s valuable for any type size of the business, especially e-commerce. Like for large, large volume retailers, they are able to integrate Delivery Defense into, or seamlessly integrate Delivery Defense into their systems using API, you know, either at the checkout point or at the label creation point. And then for smaller growing merchants, we have another version of the tool available that’s the user-friendly web tool version, which we are launching pretty soon. So, the point being that there are different ways that the customers can use it. And Delivery Defense, it uses collective experience and intelligence of the entire UPS network, which is made up of data points from about 11 billion deliveries. That’s significant. That’s huge, right? Yeah, go ahead.
Scott Luton (22:14):
Yeah. Eleven billion, Greg, we talk about the ecosystem of data.
Archita Prasad (22:19):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (22:19):
And whether it’s reporting or technologies or whatever that leverages 11 billion data points, Archita, that’s something.
Archita Prasad (22:25):
Yeah. And in the past, this kind of insight or intelligence hasn’t been available for our merchants, right? And even if they tried to do it, it has been a manual process. It’s been a cumbersome time-consuming process, but Delivery Defense by using, you know, our data, our sophisticated technology, it has changed the game and it has made this entire process a lot more efficient and lot more, you know, doable for merchants.
Scott Luton (22:58):
And impactful in a practical manner.
Archita Prasad (23:00):
Of course.
Scott Luton (23:01):
Greg, based on what we’ve heard here – before we shift, we’re going to kind of make the turn down to home stretch and talk about predictive analytics in a second. But before we do that, Greg, any other thoughts as it relates to what Delivery Defense offers?
Greg White (23:16):
Yeah, I think it’s kind of a full loop security system if you think about it. If it identifies where it’s dangerous or, you know, risky to deliver and where it’s risky that you could receive a fraudulent return, then it allows you to identify policies that help eliminate that. I was thinking about the fact, way back when, Archita, when you were talking about whether you give an instant refund or you wait until confirmation of receipt. You know, I’d always thought of that, and I think for the most part it’s true that the people that wait for you to receive are small, whatever you want to call it, niche merchants. And they just don’t have a good system other than physical visual verification that they got it back.
Archita Prasad (24:05):
Yep.
Greg White (24:06):
But with this, anyone can choose what their policy is situationally. And I think that is really, really incredible because then this becomes their system for eliminating as much risk as they can from the delivery and making sure, first of all, the risk is not really on the merchant, because by the way, the merchant’s already been paid. The risk is really on the consumer. So helping alleviate the risk for the consumer as well. So, I think that’s a really, really important thing. And that could be a quantum leap for a lot of smaller merchants that are out there kind of struggling with the manual management of things like returns.
Scott Luton (24:49):
Archita?
Archita Prasad (24:50):
Yep.
Scott Luton (24:51):
Let me ask you a quick question, those 11 billion data points, I’m assuming that’s a dynamic set. So with each passing day, maybe each passing hour, the data is evolving and changing and giving you the latest and greatest actions to take, right?
Archita Prasad (25:05):
Absolutely. Yeah. So as we get more data points, the tool itself is becoming more intelligent. We are adding additional features, additional enhancements to make it even more impactful for our customers.
Scott Luton (25:18):
Technology is learning something new every day, even in the evenings as we sleep, Greg and Archita. That’s a thought, huh? All right. I want to shift gears as we kind of start to come down to home stretch. I want to talk more about predictive analytics, get some of your thoughts and experiences and expertise, Archita, starting with how can predictive analytics from where you sit help prevent shipping disasters and those negative outcomes, such as porch piracy.
Archita Prasad (25:46):
Yeah. So, we talked about Delivery Defense, that’s the live example. But the porch piracy or post-delivery loss, which is the loss that happens after a delivery scan has occurred, that contributes to about 70% of the total losses. Right? So, the point being that porch piracy is a huge culprit in this area.
Archita Prasad (26:13):
Delivery Defense or predictive analytics, which sits at the heart of delivery defense, it uses machine learning. It uses the historical shipping data for a given address to forecast the shipping outcome for that particular address. So, what we are doing with Delivery Defense is the ultimate example of how predictive analytics can use – can be used to address porch piracy issues. It empowers the merchants, as I said earlier and we talked about it several times, to take appropriate actions. It makes them much better informed and it helps them mitigate their shipping issues, shipping problems.
Scott Luton (27:02):
Lessening problems, saving them time, being smarter shippers amongst some of the advantages. Do –
Archita Prasad (27:08):
Top line helping them save their – increase their top line, protect their margins, and above all their customer experience, their customer experience.
Scott Luton (27:20):
Very cool. All right. So, and, Greg, chime in if I skip over you. I want to make sure we get your comment, Greg, if I’m moving too fast forward. But I want to apply it from predictive analytics to porch piracy, but also apply predictive analytics to some of these extreme climate conditions from wildfires, tropical storms, earthquakes, other natural disasters that we’ve seen, especially in recent years. Tell us more about how you see predictive analytics combating the shipping risk that are associated with some of these disasters.
Archita Prasad (27:54):
So, there are many different things that we can do using predictive analytics to address the extreme weather conditions or how to address shipping issues in these conditions. I’ll just name a few. The first one is the early warning system. So, basically looking at historical weather data to come up with advanced warning system or a system that can predict about extreme weather conditions, allowing merchants, shippers, to plan accordingly. Right?
Scott Luton (28:30):
Right.
Archita Prasad (28:30):
So that’s something that we can always do. Then –
Scott Luton (28:33):
Planning in supply chain.
Archita Prasad (28:35):
Yes.
Scott Luton (28:35):
Who’d have thought that was something, Greg and Archita, huh? So early warning systems is one.
Archita Prasad (28:41):
Yeah. Then second, I would say route optimization, looking at real time weather data to plan your routes optimally appropriately. And third, I would say is asset protection. So analyzing your shipping lanes, your cargo, looking at the historical lane data, shipping data, weather data to estimate the amount of risk associated and giving the merchants the option to opt for insurance. And there are many more, but all of them basically look at or target at helping the customers save their cost and, again, the same thing, the customer experience most importantly because imagine the second half, holiday season, we are expecting packages and something really, really, really, really important and the package doesn’t show up, and you would never ever buy from that merchant again.
Scott Luton (29:42):
Right. That’s right. And it would break your kids’ hearts.
Archita Prasad (29:45):
Yes.
Scott Luton (29:45):
It would ruin their day. It adds to the tidal wave postseason of returns that come back.
Archita Prasad (29:52):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (29:53):
Let’s just do it right the first time. Get it right the first time.
Archita Prasad (29:55):
Yep. That’s the goal.
Scott Luton (29:57):
That is the goal. Right? And going back, tying up full all the way back to the lean conversation, taking waste out if we do it right the first time more often.
Archita Prasad (30:05):
Poka-yoke.
Scott Luton (30:07):
Yes.
Archita Prasad (30:06):
If you remember Poka-yoke.
Scott Luton (30:08):
Yes. Mistake proofing.
Archita Prasad (30:09):
Yes.
Scott Luton (30:10):
Archita, man, I feel like I just got a pop quiz, Greg. All right. So, Greg, any comment there on some of those advantages that Archita just shared?
Greg White (30:18):
Yeah, well I can empathize with the impact of weather, living in a coastal area, right, and having endured that. And in this last storm, we had a storm blow by South Carolina. In my area, it didn’t have much impact other than some canceled dinner reservations and some delayed shipments. And I got to tell you, as a consumer, I knew that in this area that they could have gotten here, they may have had to have gone around some other areas. They could have gotten here on time if they had in any way planned and understood road things like road conditions and the actual weather that went through instead of whatever they used to determine they couldn’t deliver. And I didn’t blame UPS. Right? I didn’t blame – I didn’t blame the weather, whatever that storm’s name was, Franklin or whatever. I blamed the merchant because I just felt like they should do more diligence. And, you know, I think we’ve also seen a lot of companies, they just default to know whenever there is weather in a situation, whether it’s extreme or not, and use it as a point to let down a little bit and not perform. So, you know, a couple of those things were things I could have used. One of which was a hand-crank radio that I could’ve used before the storm.
Archita Prasad (31:43):
Yeah. And for smaller merchants, this becomes even more useful because this is the last opportunity to create a good experience with their customers. If that goes wrong, they lose their customer forever.
Greg White (31:56):
Yep.
Scott Luton (31:58):
That’s a great comment. And especially for the small businesses as you point out, Archita. All right. So if folks want to learn more about Delivery Defense, maybe want to join the pilot, if I heard you right, the ongoing pilot, before, I guess, widespread deployment, Archita, want to speak to that?
Archita Prasad (32:15):
We are almost concluding with the pilot and we are open for launch.
Scott Luton (32:21):
Nice. Ready for launch. If folks want to learn more, if they want to sign up for the program, if they want to pick your brain, whether it’s lean, whether it’s shipping, whether it’s supply chain or technological innovation, if they want to compare notes with you, Archita, how can folks connect with you?
Archita Prasad (32:35):
insureshield.com, that’s our website. And if they want to connect with me personally, it’s my LinkedIn.
Scott Luton (32:42):
Okay. It’s just that easy. Yeah, we’ll include that link in the show notes because that’s a really long URL that I can never memorize, Greg and Archita. We’ll include that in the show notes. And big thanks for your time here today, Archita Prasad, vice president of Strategy and Innovation with Insureshield Shipping Insurance by UPS –
Greg White (33:01):
Well done.
Scott Luton (33:02):
Capital. Hey, we try. Archita, thanks for being here.
Archita Prasad (33:04):
Thank you so much. It was really a pleasure being with you guys. Thank you.
Greg White (33:07):
Yeah, thank you very much.
Archita Prasad (33:08):
Thank you.
Scott Luton (33:09):
Well, so don’t go anywhere just yet. So, Greg, out of all of that, right, we covered a lot of ground there, a lot of different applications, a lot of them are universal across industry, a lot of them are very more targeted like some of the specific examples we shared. If you had to point out to our listeners one key thing from our conversation with Archita here today, what would that be, Greg?
Greg White (33:32):
Well, any opportunity to deliver better is great, especially as Archita talked about. If you are a small business, you’re disadvantaged already because you don’t have access, you don’t have your tool, the kind of advanced technologies. And this one is being provided for you that gives you insight into how likely it is to get delivered, enables you to build policies and adapt on the fly around that. And then, likewise, for returns, which is a critical, Scott, how much we love to say the supply chain is circular, right, so it’s critical for those small businesses. So I see this in an incredible bridge to level the playing field with the big e-comm companies out there.
Scott Luton (34:20):
Love that, Greg. What a great note to finish on. Folks, don’t ship like it’s 1982. Lean in to doing something different and take advantage of those 11 billion and growing data transactions that’s offering up a dynamic solution. So big thanks to Archita. Big thanks to the team behind that helped make production happen here today. Greg, always a pleasure to knock out these conversations with you. But, folks, to our listeners out there, hopefully we’ve enjoyed this chat with Archita and the team of Insureshield. To put something in action note, learn something. Archita brought a truckload of brilliance. Take something. Put it to use. It’s all about action, deeds not words. With that said, on behalf our entire team here at Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton challenging you, all of our listeners, to do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time right back here as Supply Chain Now. Thanks, everybody.
Intro/Outro (35:12):
Thanks for being a part of our Supply chain Now community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.
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Archita Prasad, As the Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at UPS Capital, Archita develops and implements the overall corporate strategy, spearheads growth initiatives, and leads the ongoing digital transformation journey. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior leader in business strategy and transformation, change management, and organizational strategy planning. Prior to joining UPS, Archita worked at NCR and IBM in various executive roles, where she led strategic transformation initiatives aimed at increasing customer value and growing the business. Archita is a certified Lean Coach, Lean Master, and Design Thinking Practitioner. In addition, she is a Section 4 Certified Strategist and has received Executive Education Program Certifications from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, India, and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Mumbai. Connect with Archita on LinkedIn.
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