Work Perfect

The day we strive for  

Tandy A. Bailey

Director of engineering, Mid-Atlantic District
UPS
Pittsburgh

I am responsible for setting operational direction for industrial engineering at UPS in the Mid-Atlantic District, which covers most of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. I lead a department of 50 industrial engineers and managers who have more than 20 distinct roles and responsibilities supporting small package operations. The IE department’s primary functions are providing short- and long-term planning, work measurement and operating plans to ensure operational service excellence, cost reduction and revenue growth.

Another significant aspect of my job is being part of the executive staff, known as the district business planning unit. Directors of engineering, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and operations work collaboratively to develop and implement high-level strategy to attain our overall business results.

After being promoted beyond the mid-manager level, the focus of my job changed to provide leadership direction and develop people. Helping people learn and grow professionally in a way that positively motivates others is really the best part of my job. A perfect day includes interacting with people in a way that produces new ideas and perspectives, and the result is everyone involved becomes excited about emerging opportunities and becomes committed to developing work plans. Getting away from my desk and being able to participate in operational visits, customer meetings, community activities and professional training — where I am able to interact with employees, management and engineers in their daily environment — is very interesting and always yields opportunities for recognizing achievements and identifying new ways to optimize results.

My professional goal is to continue to take on new business challenges and learn new skills throughout the remainder of my career. What keeps me motivated is stretching the boundaries of my business acumen. That includes engineering as well as logistics, finance, marketing, sales and leadership.

– Interview by David Brandt

David Brandt is the Web managing editor for IIE.