Product Strategy of the U. S. Postal Service
Dwaynell Lowe
Strayer University
Operations Management
Dr. Phyllis Parise
November 15, 2015
Product Life Cycle Product life cycle refers to the stages that a product. Changes in demand for the product is the factor that delineates the changes from one cycle to another (Daft & Sanders, 2012). The typical product life cycle has four identifiable stages; * Introductory Stage-characterized by the launching of a new product. * Growth Stage-highlighted by strong growth and profits. * Maturity Stage-the product is well established and the organization seeks to maintain market share. * Decline Stage-the market for the product shrinks.
The United State Postal
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From 2007 to 2012 USPS posted net losses in excess of $41 billion with much of that driven by fuel costs. It currently spends $3.3 billion on highway contracts, while spending only $40 million on freight rail contracts. USPS should consider shifting part of its mail volume to rail. By making this change it has been estimated that USPS could save at least $100 million per year. Additionally, “because of its lesser sensitivity to fuel price increases and greater control of its own infrastructure, rail transportation has major, long-term strategic advantages over highway” (Berman, 2012).
Total Quality Management Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organizational approach that seeks to identify and eliminate the root causes of issues that undermine quality whether in a manufacturing or service organization. As stated previously USPS as a product is in a state of decline and must find ways to eliminate barriers to attaining its service commitments. Package delivery is a sector of its market in which it has remained competitive with private carriers such as UPS and FedEX. To continue to compete and excel in the package delivery arena USPS must insure that it eliminates barriers to meeting and or exceeding on time delivery expectations. Therefore, I would suggest the use of control charts to determine the cause of packages being delivered outside the upper control limit. The upper control limit for
The airports and the aircraft suppliers aren’t only relying on the express mail industry, so that also gives those suppliers more power to charge what they want (landing fees, cost of planes). Ground transportation vehicles is the only input that would allow for more bargaining power since there are numerous alternatives available, there is more room for the industry players to negotiate price.
What type of operations focus on products in the early stage of the life cycle?
The United States Post Office began in 1775, with the intention to create a bond across the nation and allow every American access to affordable mail delivery service. (S1) Over the years there have been many changes in the way people communicate. Gone are the days when the only way to send a written message was through the mail. Technology has given us many new ways to keep in touch with each other from email, to text messages, and even instant messages. Unfortunately, for the United State Postal Service, these advancements, which have little to no cost, mean a great loss in revenue for them. Since 2006 the Post Office has not turned a profit, which leads many people to question whether their services should be privatized. (S2)
The United States Postal Service has been struggling for due to the competition that is available for people to send their packages through other companies. Although, the revenue may have increased the financial state of the postal service is still at a significant lost. USPS needs to make changes in order to be better equipped to make important decisions and adjust practices to meet the demands of competition. The postal service can increase their profits by changing the organizational structure, performance appraisal and the organizational design.
this report takes a look at the United States Postal Service financial problems, which brought it to the brink of insolvency, after losing more than $25B in the last 5 years. It analyzes factors and performance and postulates corrective actions to bring USPS back to financial solvency. Both microeconomic and macroeconomic factors affecting the firm were analyzed while identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The postal service industry is vast and diverse with different objectives, needs and services. The postal services sector collects, transport and deliver mail and small parcels; the postal service industry includes the activities of the National Post Office and its subcontractor’s. The major players in the postal service sectors are United Parcel Service. Federal Express, DHL and USPS. The postal service industry continues to be an important and expansive industry. Postal service industry environment has changed so dramatically; it is currently facing increased competition and technological change. The team main focus is USPS. USPS is responsible for providing prompt, secure, reliable and affordable universal delivery services to all states and communities in the United States of America. USPS operate under the United States of America Constitution with service obligation to provide mail services and using the infrastructure required to fulfill that obligation. USPS operates in an industry that is complex and uniquely beneficial to both the American citizens and the government. Due to the nature of competition that exist in the postal industry, facilitated by the constant advance in technology and diverse customer base and demands.
USPS has been losing money and business over the past couple years. This business decline is from their "old" ways. They lost "1.1 billion dollars" in just one quarter of 2010 (source E). This 1.1 billion dollars effects many people, including those who work for the government, the ones who run the
The USPS is losing money and employees. As a result, the service is delivering substantially less mail than previous years. From the year 2000 to 2009, the number of USPS employees has dropped from 785,000 to 620,000 (graph). At the same time, the volume of mail delivered dropped from 208 billion to 177 billion pieces (graph). This clearly demonstrates the need for change. The lone increasing figure for the USPS is the number of delivery points. In the last decade, the amount of points has expanded by 14 million. The USPS has failed to capitalize on the increasing delivery points. Despite more potential demand
Ed O’Keefe’s article claimed that “the mail volume will never return to pre-recession levels.” E-mails lead to this drop because of their fast and efficient services that the USPS can also do but in a longer amount of time. Therefore, it can be reasonably inferred that the USPS lost many employees along the way because of this decline. Additionally, when changes are placed in order, delivery days will be cut back and as a result, there will be longer delivery times. Furthermore, prices for stamps will escalate and will be potential layoffs in the future. As a solution, in David Stone’s article, he proposes that the USPS should increase their services to seven days a week. Stone states, “Considering tightening hours, but the USPS could be the first carrier to reliably deliver all week.” With this proposition, mail volume will potentially increase in size. Delivery time of packages will decrease and the USPS will retain and attract more customers because of the faster delivery
Cullen mentions his personal preference saying, “e-mail is fast and simple, but to me an old-fashioned, handwritten letter has value in this speed-obsessed world” (Source F). When considering those who still use the service seven days a week delivery is simply better than that of six. As the world grows the volume of mail in regards to the USPS has decreased during the periods of 2000 to 2009 by thirty-one billion pieces (Source B). Within those years, a decrease in employment had occurred meaning many more delivery spots to hit for an employee of the USPS. In order for such a service to regain business, a change in incentive is needed.
In today’s modern age of digital media and instant access, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is on the verge of extinction. Being one of the oldest and most revered governmental entities, the USPS is an institution that is lack in today’s modern society. The United States Postal Service is struggling to keep up with the times and remain relevant in the face of all of the new technologies out there.
The USPS is experiencing more flexibility due to the major drop in mail volume (source C). According to author, O’Keefe in his article “Postal Service
As a result of declining flats volume, USPS Operations is performing capacity reviews of phase one sites in order to determine what impact the decline has on planned FSS deployments. The team has updated site-specific models with 2008 volume information to measure the impact. Though all deployed unit sites are sized appropriately, this due-diligence effort continues with a deeper analysis of trend and implementation data. There has been no decision on repositioning of any FSS units at this time but they are keeping their thumbs on the pulse of flats volume trends and have implemented quarterly reviews to ensure they have the right number of machines in the right locations. As the economy declines, so does mail volume. And that affects carrier routes. As part of USPS efforts to tighten costs across the organization, it is working to make route adjustments that reflect the current economic
over the mail which there is more reason why the USPS still is useful for today’s
For well over 200 years, The United States Postal Service has contented its mission when it came to transport trust and reasonable service to the Nation. USPS business model functioned well because of the mass mail volume that amplified at a stable pace. In recent years, however, as customer preferences have speedily involved the new technology which has changed how Americans communicate and transact business. The model has weakened. The mail volume, instead of snowballing it decline dramatically, thus the USPS ongoing ability to finance the nation- wide service is suffering at great risk. Without fundamental change, increasing losses could reach more than $238 billion by 2020. To avoid potential insolvency, the USPS needs