UPS will launch a precision logistics service in early 2020 that relies on high-powered sensors and a tool combining data analytics and machine learning to better track high-priority shipments of drugs and medical devices, The Wall Street Journal reports.
UPS Premier aims to ensure the safe, accurate and timely delivery of packages, regardless of external factors such as inclement weather. The service will reportedly prioritize shipments such as personalized medicines, DNA and gene therapies, investigative drugs, laboratory specimens and implantable medical devices.
Sensors placed on the shipments will use Bluetooth, cellular and Wi-Fi technologies to be read by electronic readers in sorting and distribution facilities. The sensors will enable near-real-time tracking of medical packages, which will in turn allow UPS employees in each facility to reroute or prioritize those packages as necessary, according to WSJ.
The sensors will be used in tandem with another tool from UPS that uses analytics and machine learning to leverage data from across the company's logistics network to improve predictions of package flow, volume and delivery status.
"Having better visibility about where shipments are [means] when unexpected things happen, we'll be in a better position to react," Juan Perez, UPS' chief information and engineering officer, told WSJ.
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