UPS: Technology Asset Control System

UPS needed a way to track technology equipment used for daily operation of its facilities. Each facility has a certain amount of equipment in use and as spare inventory. When an item breaks, a spare fills its place. If no spare is available, the facility risks shutting down daily operations costing millions of dollars. Once the expected time an item remains working in the system was determined, appropriate inventory levels could be determined for each facility. However, with a company that can ship equipment as easily as UPS, the total equipment level needed for all facilities under a shared inventory is significantly less than the total equipment level needed for independent inventories at each facility. To ldquosharerdquo inventory, UPS needed a database that is accessible anywhere, tracks all technology equipment, displays the status of each item, facilitates the borrowing of equipment between facilities, and outputs suggested inventory levels for equipment based on updated failure rates. Over the course of the past year, the UPS: Technology asset control system senior design team constructed such a database, with an objective of decreasing inventory in the Virginia district by five percent at a hypothetical cost (cost including estimated labor and overhead in addition to actual travel and web domain expenses), of $42,137.58 by April 21, 2009. The team estimates that the yearly savings will be $15,680.00, and as a result, the project will pay for its hypothetical cost in 2.787 years.