The service lets customers more efficiently collaborate with international suppliers and better manage their inbound supply chains, the company said. Enhancements include capabilities to provide greater accuracy and timeliness of overseas vendor bookings, improved processing and management of suppliers, automated exception management, near-real-time shipment status and line-level visibility of in-transit inventory, improved internal processes, and the facilitation of purchase-order consolidation and optimized shipping plans. A new vendor-booking system dispatches system-generated alerts to ensure vendor adherence to customer requirements, in addition to providing an online system for approvals. In the process, UPS said, the system eliminates e-mail communication and reduces the need for additional record-keeping by the customer. The improvements offered by UPS Order Watch are now available to current customers, and will be extended to new accounts beginning in early 2013.
