Overview of FedEx's Information Systems
INTRODUCTION
Federal W.Smith had a vision of overnight air express venture. He and his business partners commissioned two independent market research which suggested a market niche for a reliable, time-definite overnight delivery service. Then they executed the vision in 1973, establishing Federal Express.
Today, approximately 90,000 Federal Express employees, at more than 1,650 sites process 1.5 million shipments daily, all of which must be tracked in a central information system, sorted in a short time at facilities in Memphis, Indianapolis, Newark, Oakland, Los Angeles, Anchorage, and Brussels, and delivered by a highly decentralised distribution network. The firm 's air cargo fleet is now the world 's largest. Federal Express revenues totalled $7 billion in fiscal year 1990. In 1990, Federal Express became the first winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the service company category.
Let us go behind the scene to find out more about the company 's way of operations and the possible reasons behind the success.
The company 's mission is 'to provide our customers with totally reliable, competitively superior global air/ground transportation of high priority goods and documents that require rapid, time-certain delivery. '
CEO Fred Smith believes in his heart that customer satisfaction is everything. He feels that 'quality ' means nothing if the product they make of the service they give is not exactly what the customer wants. He makes it that the company 's goal is to achieve 100 per cent completely satisfied customer, service to his standards and not the company 's. This is why he comes up with the corporate philosophy of 'people, service, profit ' which means putting people first in every actions, every planning process and every business decision. This attitude applies to both internal and external customers. It is only when internal customers are satisfied, then there is the higher possibility of satisfying the external customers.
Federal W.Smith had a vision of overnight air express venture. He and his business partners commissioned two independent market research which suggested a market niche for a reliable, time-definite overnight delivery service. Then they executed the vision in 1973, establishing Federal Express.
Today, approximately 90,000 Federal Express employees, at more than 1,650 sites process 1.5 million shipments daily, all of which must be tracked in a central information system, sorted in a short time at facilities in Memphis, Indianapolis, Newark, Oakland, Los Angeles, Anchorage, and Brussels, and delivered by a highly decentralised distribution network. The firm 's air cargo fleet is now the world 's largest. Federal Express revenues totalled $7 billion in fiscal year 1990. In 1990, Federal Express became the first winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the service company category.
Let us go behind the scene to find out more about the company 's way of operations and the possible reasons behind the success.
The company 's mission is 'to provide our customers with totally reliable, competitively superior global air/ground transportation of high priority goods and documents that require rapid, time-certain delivery. '
CEO Fred Smith believes in his heart that customer satisfaction is everything. He feels that 'quality ' means nothing if the product they make of the service they give is not exactly what the customer wants. He makes it that the company 's goal is to achieve 100 per cent completely satisfied customer, service to his standards and not the company 's. This is why he comes up with the corporate philosophy of 'people, service, profit ' which means putting people first in every actions, every planning process and every business decision. This attitude applies to both internal and external customers. It is only when internal customers are satisfied, then there is the higher possibility of satisfying the external customers.