MIAMI--UPS is expanding its options for healthcare customers with the addition of a new state-of-the-art facility in Puerto Rico.
Set to open in the first quarter of 2009, the 150,000-sq.-ft. facility will be capable of storing medical devices, in addition to sensitive and perishable pharmaceutical and biotech products, while augmenting a supply chain network for customers that provides timely delivery throughout the world.
The new facility, located in San Juan, also will offer healthcare customers the flexibility needed to facilitate new product introductions, meet time-critical commitments, reduce inventory management costs and streamline ordering and billing processes, all while providing supply chain visibility. UPS will use the same validated technology platform employed in its U.S. and Canadian healthcare DCs.
“Puerto Rico is among the leading markets for pharmaceutical and biotech product research and production worldwide,” says Jorge Castillo, UPS Puerto Rico country manager. “Our new facility will strengthen our distribution network and enrich customers’ opportunities for growth by providing greater global market access and lower cost-sourcing through the UPS network.”
UPS’s investment in the facility will allow it to better serve companies in the healthcare industry in the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean in addition to the United States.
The new facility in Puerto Rico is opening at the same time as a previously announced 215,000-sq.-ft. healthcare distribution facility in Roermond, The Netherlands. Together, these two facilities will expand UPS’s existing global healthcare network to 25 facilities.
A recent UPS survey of decision makers in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech industries conducted by Harris Interactive identified various areas in which companies are planning to make changes to their supply chain models in the near future. Among the immediate changes companies plan to make is working with third-party logistics companies, such as UPS.
