UPS inks $150M deal with chip maker

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 9/1/2000

United Parcel Service's UPS Logistics Group has been awarded a five-year, $150 million deal to manage National Semiconductor Corp.'s global supply chain distribution center in Singapore. The Logistics Group will manage the movement of National's chips from manufacturing plants in Malaysia and Singapore to the new global distribution center, and then to customers worldwide.

Proprietary information systems developed by the Logistics Group enable it to monitor receipt, storage, shipment, and delivery of chips to carriers or customer destinations. The company uses carrier-neutral transportation, closed-loop security, and online information systems to manage the supply chain.

National's distribution center uses radio frequency, bar-code scanning, and Web-based technologies to fill more than 450,000 orders for semiconductors a year and has an average delivery time of 48 hours worldwide. It has the capacity to receive 12 million inbound chips daily. Its chips are sold to the personal computer, communications, and consumer markets.

Construction of the center is part of National's growth plan, according to Kamal Aggarwal, executive vice president of the company's central technology manufacturing group. The company expects to ship four billion products this year, which is double last year's figure. National reported sales of $2.1 billion last year.