UPS in the Computer Repair Business When people think of UPS they usually think of brown delivery trucks and employees in shorts dropping off and picking up packages. This image is about to change. UPS has now entered the laptop repair business. Toshiba is handing over its entire laptop repair operation to UPS Supply Chain Solutions, the shipper's $2.4 billion logistics outsourcing division. Toshiba's decision to allow a shipping company to fix its laptops might appear odd to many individuals.
However, when you understand that the primary challenge of computer repair is more logistical than technical- Toshiba's business decision seems brilliant. "Moving a unit around and getting replacement parts consumes most of the time," explains Mark Simons, general manager at Toshiba's digital products division. "The actual service only takes about an hour." UPS will send broken Toshiba laptops to its facility in Louisville, Kentucky, where UPS engineers will diagnose and repair defects. Consumers will notice an immediate change: In the past, repairs could take weeks, depending on whether Toshiba needed components from Japan.
Since the UPS repair site is adjacent to its air hub, customers should get their machines back, as good as new, in just a matter of days. UPS has been servicing Lexmark and Hewlett-Packard printers since 1996 and has been performing initial inspections on laptops being returned to Toshiba since 1999. The expanded Toshiba relationship is another step in UPS's strategy to broaden its business beyond package delivery into commerce services. The company already works with clients to manage inventory, ordering, and custom processes. It recently introduced a service to dispose of unwanted electrical devices. To take on laptop repair, UPS put 50 technicians through a Toshibacertified training course
Questions
1. Do you think UPS's entrance into the laptop repair business was a good business decision? Why or why not?
2. Identify the different types of hardware UPS technicians might be working on when fixing laptops.
3. Assume you are a technician working at UPS. Explain to a customer the different types of memory and why only certain types of data are lost during a computer failure. Also identify a potential backup strategy you can suggest to the customer.
4. Assume you are a technician working at UPS. Explain to a customer the different types of software found in a typical laptop.