Delivered from disaster . . . daily
At 1.30am on Wednesday, managers at FedEx's main US package handling facility at Memphis airport faced a difficult decision in the middle of their busiest week of the year. Parcel sorting was supposed to finish for the night at 2.07am, leaving enough time to get items to their final destination anywhere in North America before lunchtime. But two inbound FedEx aircraft from California were running late, meaning their cargoes risked being stranded in Tennessee.
“We have to weigh up the cost of leaving those packages behind against the cost of holding up the whole operation to wait for them,” said Marla Waldheim, a systems administrator. “If the outbound aircraft are held back too long some might miss their landing slots and then the delays start rippling through the system.”
As the lights of the late aircraft twinkled into view shortly before 2am, a decision was taken to extend the deadline by 20 minutes enough time to unload and redirect the delayed cargo. By 2.30am outbound aircraft packed with parcels were screaming down the runway destined for points all around the world. For the next two hours, Memphis was the busiest airport on the planet, with FedEx jets taking off at a rate of one every 50 seconds.
Mini dramas such as Wednesday night's are not unusual in the weeks running up to Christmas, when FedEx handles 40 per cent more parcels than usual. Monday was the company's busiest day of the year, with 7.7m packages having passed through its system, compared with the daily average of 5.5m. Everyone at FedEx understands that their collective performance over the festive season can make or break the company's year.
“We start planning for Christmas the day after [the previous] Christmas,” says John Dunavant, FedEx's managing director of global operations control the man responsible for keeping packages moving as smoothly as possible around the world.
Volume starts increasing as early as August or September as retailers and manufacturers prepare for the rush. International business peaks in November as Asian-manufactured consumer goods surge into North American and European retail outlets. Domestic markets are busiest in mid-December as gifts are exchanged among families and friends, and goods ordered through catalogues or the internet arrive on people's doorsteps.
“Ninety per cent of the package flow is predictable but that other 10 per cent can really throw you,” says David Rebholz, executive vice-president of FedEx's US operations and systems. “This year will be interesting because Christmas day is a Saturday, so people will keep on shopping late into next week. Parcels do not have reservations, so you just have to make an educated guess about demand.”
Mr Dunavant monitors the movement of the company's 500 daily flights from his Memphis “war room”. A giant screen on the wall shows the location of every FedEx aircraft in the sky, with dense clusters over North America and Europe and four winging their way across the Pacific from Asia.
Twice a day, Mr Dunavant conducts conference calls with 250 managers around the world to review the previous 24 hours and plan ahead. Spare aircraft and crews are located strategically around the world in case an aircraft breaks down or demand exceeds expectations. “We try to buildas much redundancy into the system as possible while keeping the system efficient,” he says. The biggest threat to the operation is bad weather. A typhoon in the Philippines last month forced FedEx to close its Asian hub at Subic Bay and redirect flights to Taipei. In the US, FedEx has a second large hub at Indianapolis that could take over if Memphis was closed.
Next door to the “war room”, a team of meteorologists scour satellite pictures for signs of any weather that could disrupt flights and the Weather Channel plays continuously on a television monitor.
On Wednesday morning, Memphis was at the centre of a high pressure system that gave clear skies and perfect flying conditions but brought bitterly cold temperatures for the 12,000-strong FedEx night shift.
About three-quarters of all FedEx packages sent to or from the US pass through the Memphis facility and its 300 miles of conveyor belts. Among the waves of packages flooding into the giant sorting houses on Wednesday morning, the most easily identifiable were countless boxes bearing the names Dell and Hewlett Packard, signalling strong sales of computer equipment.
Donald Colleran, FedEx's head of express freight sales, said i-Pods, the digital music players made by Apple, were another hot item this Christmas. Luxury goods, such as Louis Vuitton handbags and Gucci clothing, were also moving in large numbers.
The sorting process is almost entirely automated with infrared beams reading a barcode on each package to identify its destination and directing it to the correct aircraft. Details of packages arriving from overseas are provided to customs authorities in advance to avoid hold-ups. Items requested for inspection are automatically diverted to the on-site customs office. Robert Carter, FedEx's chief information officer, says this technology has allowed FedEx to tighten security in response to concern about terrorism without slowing down the system.
Chris Bickerstaff, a service assurance manager on the night shift, says there is still a human touch despite the high level of automation. “We are trained to treat every package as if it's the golden package,” he says. “There are some cases you get drawn into, such as making sure someone's cancer treatment gets on the plane, or getting a child's dress to a christening or a pair of wedding rings to a ceremony in the Bahamas the next day.”
Ms Waldheim recalls that just a decade ago the sorting process was done by hand, and only 31 years FedEx was launched from an old second world war hangar on the Memphis site it occupies today. On its first night of service, the company delivered 186 packages. Now, the facility sprawls over 300 acres and handles hundreds of thousands of packages daily.
Fred Smith, the former marine who founded the company, remains its chairman and chief executive.
Many of the company's management team, including Ms Waldheim, Mr Dunavant and Mr Rebholz, have risen through the ranks after joining as package handlers or couriers. “There is a lot of purple blood running through people's veins here,” says Ms Waldheim, referring to the company's corporate colour.
Another former package handler is Reginald Owens, now the man in charge of the Memphis hub. “You get a tremendous sense of satisfaction at the end of each night when you see the last aircraft up in the sky because you know how much work has gone into getting it there.”
联邦快递的圣诞危机管理
时间：周三凌晨1点30分，地点：田纳西州孟斐斯机场联邦快递(FedEx)美国包裹处理中心。这是一年中最繁忙的一周，而此时管理人员们面临着一个难题：晚间包裹分拣原来应该在凌晨2点07分完成，这样才有足够的时间，在中午之前把物品送到北美任何一处最终目的地。但两架从加州返航的联邦快递飞机晚点，意味着它们的货物可能会滞留在田纳西州。
“在这些包裹延迟送达和让整个业务停下来等待之间，我们必须权衡代价，”系统管理员马拉?瓦尔德海姆(Marla Waldheim)说，“如果等待离港的飞机耽搁太久，有些飞机可能会错过它们的跑道使用权，这种耽搁随后会波及整个系统。”
快到2点的时候，随着晚点飞机的闪烁灯光进入视线，管理人员出了一个决定，把截止时间延长20分 钟。这足够让飞机卸载并转发被延误的货物。到凌晨2点30分，离港飞机满载包裹呼啸着滑入跑道，准备飞往全世界各个目的地。在接下来两个小时中，孟斐斯成了这个星球上最繁忙的机场，联邦快递的喷气机以50秒的间隔起飞。
在临近圣诞节的这几星期，如周三夜晚，这样的小波折并不少见，联邦快递在圣诞期间运送的包裹比平常要多40%。周一是该公司一年中最繁忙的一天，有770万件包裹经过了它的系统，而每天的平均数量是550万件。联邦快递的每个人都明白，他们在圣诞季节的整体表现，关系到公司全年的成败。
“我们从前一个圣诞节的次日就开始为下个圣诞节作打算，”联邦快递全球业务控制董事总经理约翰?杜纳万特(John Dunavant)说，他负责让包裹尽可能在全球平稳递送。
随着零售商和制造商准备冲刺，包裹运送量早在8、9月就开始增加。随着亚洲制造的消费品涌入北美和欧洲的零售店铺，国际业务在11月达到顶峰。国内市场在12月中旬最繁忙，因为这时候亲朋好友在互送礼品，而通过目录或网络订购的商品送到了人们的家门口。
“90%的包裹流动是可预测的，但另外10%可能让你大伤脑筋，”联邦快递美国业务和系统部门执行副总裁戴维?瑞鲍茨(David Rebholz)说，“今年将很有意思，因为圣诞节是星期六，所以人们将一直购物到下一周。包裹没有预约，因此你就必须根据经验对需求作出预测。”
杜纳万特先生在“作战室”监控着该公司每日从孟斐斯 出发的500家航班。墙上一面巨大的屏幕显示着每架联邦快递飞机在天上的位置，北美和欧洲那里有密集的机群，还有4架飞机的路线从亚洲穿越太平洋。
杜纳万特每天要与世界各地的250名经理举行两次电话会议，核对此前24个小时的情况并预先计划。备用飞机和机组人员被战略性部署在世界各地，以防飞机故障或需求超过预期。“我们试图在系统中留出尽可能多的冗余，同时保持系统的效率，”他说。业务上最大的威胁是坏天气。上个月菲律宾的台风，迫使联邦快递关闭其位于苏比克湾的亚洲货物处理中心，并将航班备降台北。在美国，联邦快递在印第安纳波利斯还有第二个大型货物处理中心，可以在孟斐斯关闭时接管其运作。
在“作战室”隔壁的房间里，一组气象学家搜寻着卫星云图，查看可能阻碍航班的任何坏天气迹象，同时一台电视监控器上不断播放着天气频道的节目。
周三早上，孟斐斯受高气压控制，为足足1.2万名联邦快递夜班工人带来了晴朗的天空和极佳的飞行条件，但也带来了严寒。
在联邦快递的所有包裹中，有四分之三左右来往美国的包裹要经过孟斐斯中心及其总长300英里的运送带。在周三早上潮水般涌入巨大分拣厂房的包裹中，最容易识别的是无数带有戴尔(Dell)或惠普(Hewlett Packard)名字的盒子，标志着电脑设备的强劲销售。
联邦快递的快递货物销售主管唐纳德?科勒兰(Donald Colleran)表示，苹果电脑(Apple)制造的数码音乐播放机i-Pod是今年圣诞的另一个热销商品，路易威登(Louis Vuitton)手提包和古奇(Gucci)服装的数量也很大。
分拣过程几乎是全自动的：红外线波束读取每个包裹上的代码条，识别器其目的地，然后将它们导向正确的飞机。来自海外的包裹的详情被提前告知海关当局，以避免停滞。那些需要检查的东西被自动转送到一站式海关办公室。联邦快递首席信息官罗伯特?卡特(Robert Carter)说，这一技术可以让联邦快递加强安全措施，以对有关恐怖主义的担心做出回应，同时不延缓整个系统的运作。
晚班服务保障经理克里斯?比克斯达夫(Chris Bickerstaff)说，尽管自动化水平很高，但里面仍有一种人性的东西。“我们受到的训练是，像对待黄金包裹一样对待每个包裹，”他说，“有些情况下，你必须非常专注，比如确保某些人的癌症治疗药品上了飞机，或孩子的服装送到洗礼仪式上，或一对结婚戒指在第二天送达在巴哈马群岛举行的婚礼。”
瓦尔德海姆女士回忆道，就在10年前，分拣过程还是手工进行的，而仅在31年前，联邦快递刚从孟菲斯一个废弃的二战飞机修理库中诞生，就是现在的货物处理中心所在地。在公司开业的第一个晚上，它送出186个包裹。现在，该中心覆盖300多英亩，每天处理几十万件包裹。
前海军陆战队队员弗瑞德?史密斯(Fred Smith)创立了这家公司，现在他仍是公司董事长兼首席执行官。
公司管理层中很多人刚加入公司时都是包裹操作员或投递员，后来才升到目前的位置，比如瓦尔德海姆女士、杜纳万特先生和瑞鲍茨先生等。“这里的人血管里流动着紫色的血，”瓦尔德海姆女士说，她是指公司的企业标志色。
另一位曾担任包裹操作员的管理人员是雷金纳德?欧文斯(Reginald Owens)，他现在是孟菲斯处理中心的负责人。“每晚的最后时刻，当看到最后一架飞机飞上天空，你会有巨大的满足感，因为你知道为此投入了多少工作。”
