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UPS Launches Tech-enabled Healthcare Systems, Standardizes Quality Systems, Forms Healthcare Unit

UPS introduces UPS Premier, a sensor and tracking technology, deploys technology-driven quality management system, and forms UPS Healthcare and Life Sciences unit.

UPS announces further service enhancements for existing and new healthcare and life science customers. The company will offer a portfolio of tech-enabled sensing and monitoring systems to help with the visibility, tracking, and management options for critical healthcare shipments. In addition, all UPS healthcare operations are meant to align under an innovative, technology-driven quality management and certification system to help meet high-quality operating standards and to simplify performance verification. To accomplish this, UPS is forming a dedicated Healthcare and Life Sciences (HCLS) unit.

Digitally-Enabled Healthcare Network

The UPS Premier product line is designed to provide differentiated levels of service for healthcare customers. It should leverage UPS’s Smart Global Logistics Network package tracking capabilities, combined with new, next-generation, on-package sensor technology to enable priority flow paths, sortation, contingency actions, and delivery services for critical healthcare shipments. This portfolio is meant to provide UPS’s comprehensive priority-handling services for chain of custody, time-dependent, and temperature-sensitive packages to help increase on-time reliability.

This system is part of an effort UPS is making to retrofit UPS’s facility network with smart, IoT systems to track healthcare packages. These technology-enabled systems are scheduled to come online Q1 2020.

Re-designed Quality Management System

Healthcare customers rely on UPS quality management systems (QMS) for storage, inventory management, and distribution of healthcare products, particularly those which are subject to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). The UPS quality management system has been re-designed to reflect systems that exist today at many pharmaceutical companies. The QMS features a cloud-based electronic document management system, global standard operating procedures (SOPs), validation processes, and global reporting tools.

As efficient inventory management is one of the most important healthcare supply chain components, having visibility into all other inventory systems globally will allow for enhanced predictability, visibility, and planning for the customer, according to the company.

UPS Healthcare and Life Sciences

The decision to connect all UPS healthcare operations and commercial groups within a single UPS HCLS unit is a product of extensive collaboration with customers and industry experts to understand how UPS can better provide tailored services while rapidly responding to healthcare-specific needs. The unit is meant to support operations and over 5,000 personnel from Marken, Polar Speed, and the 114 UPS healthcare facilities. Global healthcare operations will be harmonized and enhanced to meet rigorous quality standards and service levels, says U

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