This UPS Ad Has it Backwards

Time to pick on UPS again (see the "UPS" link at the bottom of the post)... Has anyone else seen the UPS "whiteboard" ad (the ones with the annoying long-haired business-casual corporate hippie guy) that's running during almost every NCAA basketball commercial break?

The ad talks about globalizing your business and it shows boxes flowing on a conveyor from a factory in the east coast to rest of the U.S. Kind of a quaint old "we used to build stuff here" supply chain. Once the business is enabled by UPS, supposedly, boxes are now flowing from that factory to the entire world.... including TO CHINA.

Since the UPS website is maddening to navigate, I'll save you the virtual waste of motion, embedding the stupid ad below (kicking myself for giving them free publicity):



Really? That's the most accurate supply chain they could have portrayed? Our trade imbalance with China, in the month of January 2008 alone, was $20 Billion dollars. Don't most executives watching basketball want to send tons of boxes the opposite direction, from China's cheap labor to the U.S. and global markets? I'm not encouraging that myself, but I would have expected the UPS globalization ad to be reasonably accurate for this decade, that's all.

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UPS Reducing Driving Waste

ABC News: UPS Figures Out the 'Right Way' to Save Money, Time and Gas

"Efficiency is so much a part of the culture at UPS..." UPS has always been known as an Industrial Engineering driven company. Here's an example of reducing driving waste:

Listen to driver Bert Johnson describe his route in Gardena, Calif.

"We're gonna make a right turn onto 135th to Western. We'll make another right on Western down to 139th," Johnson says. And he goes on, "Right turn on 139th and go down to the end of the block and we'll make another right turn."

You getting the idea? UPS plots its delivery routes to make as many right turns as possible. In a world where half the driving choices are left turns, they avoid turning left.

And how much of the time are UPS trucks turning right? Tasha Hovland, an industrial engineering manager, said, "A guesstimate, I would probably say 90 percent. I mean we really, really we hate left turns at UPS."

Would I call this "lean"? Sure. At least partly -- the focus on standard work and on eliminating waste is strong, which is a very good start. I wonder how much employee input they get into continuous improvement. Is it all driven by engineers and VP's?

Is there a mechanism for employee suggestions (no, not a "suggestion system")? See Chuck Yorke's column on harnessing employee ideas for more on this topic.

A Leaner Message Delivered by UPS

For some context, here are my complaints about UPS ads from earlier today and from last year.

Thanks to the "create your own whiteboard" feature on the UPS website, I created this Lean Message. Check it out:

Click this link for an animated version (as long as UPS doesn't pull it for being "objectionable" content.

The "story board", Part 1:

Part 2:

And the Big Finish:

Much better than their messages pushing offshoring and overseas suppliers... expedited with overnight global shipping. Of course UPS should be trying to sell global shipping, that's the business they are in. The ads still bug me. I just hope corporate executives aren't having their sourcing decisions and supply chain strategies influenced by stuff like this.

You can make your own whiteboard ad and email it to me at markgbox-lean@yahoo.com by visiting ups.com/whiteboard.

What Can Brown Do? They Dumb It Down For Us

The UPS Whiteboard. What Can Brown Do For You?

These "whiteboard" ads with the guy with the long hair (Mark Fields would be proud!) drawing out logistics concepts on a whiteboard are pretty ubiquitous, especially during news shows and sporting events (the types of programming advertisers use to target executives).

Are the whiteboard ads meant to be friendly and not intimidating or do they have to dumb it down for the finance-driven executives?

Like the ad for China shipping, the man says:

"All right, China shipping... so you need to bring your product from China to the U.S. and you like the reliability of those big brown trucks. Problem is... truck don't float."

Really? Can't build a bride to Hawaii like they wanted to on Gilligan's Island? I don't think the UPS ads are going for humor... so do they really need to explain it on this level?

"But what if, that big brown truck were a big brown plane?.... Now it will get here in a hurry, early in the morning if you want."

I'm not expecting detailed analysis and discussion of supply chain logistics tradeoffs in a 30-second ad, but isn't this ad an indication of the bias towards "it's natural to build stuff in China, but how do you get it here?"

Great post over at Evolving Excellence on that topic, why is it inevitable (at least to Wall Street) that all manufacturers must go to China? Of course UPS makes a lot of money in the process, but does YOUR company?

I know Toyota still imports product to the U.S., but wouldn't it be great if some cash-rich lean proponent could run similar whiteboard ads explaining why lean and being close to your customer can sometimes beat just rushing to China?

I'm still looking for a way to give away that MP3 player pre-loaded with all of the LeanBlog Podcasts. If you can write a creative Lean "Whiteboard" script, send it to me or post it in the comments.

This UPS ad bugged me too. Same reasons.

This UPS Ad Bugs Me

There is a TV ad that runs very often on Fox News, CNN, et. al. for UPS.

This ad tries to make the argument that UPS can be a competitive advantage. They compare two companies:

"You have overseas suppliers, they have overseas suppliers. You have low-cost manufacturing, they have low-cost manufacturing.... you have an ad agency, they have an ad agency...."

I think the point they are making is that you need more than flashy ads, you need an effective supply chain. That's a valid message, I can't take issue with that.

What bugs me is the casual use of the phrases "overseas suppliers" and "low-cost." The impression I get is that "low-cost" also equals "overseas." Overseas suppliers, overseas manufacturing.... low cost. That really seems to get drummed into your head. And that's what bugs me.

Running overseas to chase low labor costs is NOT the only way to have low costs (see KBS Wire, who is able to use lean to be cheap enough to beat Chinese competitors). Running overseas is particularly NOT the way to have an effective or fast supply chain (see Toyota or Dell, who are able to be fast and responsive here in the U.S).

What if the ad said "You have local fast-response suppliers, they have local fast-response suppliers. You have lean domestic factories, they have lean domestic factories."???

What can "Brown" for lean? I don't blame UPS for associating "overseas" with "low cost", they are just echoing the mood and trends of the business community that they serve. I wouldn't expect them to be lean zealots. Still, I can wish it was different.