Six Teams From Leading Companies to Compete for CSCMP's 2011 Supply Chain Innovation Award™ at Annual Conference

LOMBARD, Ill., Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Six corporate teams that demonstrated how their supply chain practices reduced costs, streamlined processes, saved energy, and improved operating efficiencies are finalists in the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) seventh annual Supply Chain Innovation Award™ competition.

The teams will present their case studies in the Supply Chain Innovations of the Year educational track at CSCMP's Annual Conference 2011, October 2-5, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Last year's presentations in San Diego received the highest rating of all of the conference's education sessions.

Each team will discuss the creative and nontraditional approaches, operations and cost-saving initiatives that resulted in their unique supply chain achievements. Finalist teams and their innovations include:

• ADT Security Services, Inc. and Inmar, Inc. collaborated in the development of a centralized return model, which delivered improvements in efficiency and return on investment. The results produced improvements in cycle time, and a reduction in administrative time and shipping costs.
• Ahold USA, Del Monte, and ES3, LLC implemented a direct-to-store (D2S) program that provides a shared, collaborative warehouse for manufacturers and retailers. Implementation results indicated a reduction in costs and carbon usage, improved speed to shelf, and increased on-shelf visibility.
• The Dow Chemical Company collaborated with Dr. Timothy Pettit of the Air Force Institute of Technology to research and develop a new way to assess business resilience. This collaboration resulted in a methodology to test supply chain capabilities against vulnerabilities, and was successfully applied to Dow's glycol ethers P-series business, resulting in significant benefits.
• IBM Corporation developed and deployed the Total Risk Assessment Tool to assess supply and supply chain risk. The Tool considers a wide range of external factors and returns a risk rating for each major grouping
• Motorola Mobility innovatively used supplier sales and operations planning (S&OP) to better meet customer demand and improve supplier/customer relationships. This created more revenue opportunities, improved gross margin, and reduced excess and obsolescence (E&O) exposure.
• Polo Ralph Lauren's deployment of an international vendor routing portal to extend inbound control resulted in a reduction of costs by alignment of air services, as well as an extension of handover visibility and reduced cycle times.  

The presentations will be judged by a panel comprised of members of CSCMP's Research Strategies Committee and representatives from SupplyChainBrain. The team judged to have achieved the most outstanding supply chain innovation will receive the Supply Chain Innovation Award™ at Wednesday's Closing Session.

The award was established by CSCMP's Research Strategies Committee and SupplyChainBrain to recognize a supply chain team's outstanding innovations as demonstrated by quantifiable and sustainable cost-savings, revenue-generating, or customer-satisfaction achievements.

CSCMP's Annual Global Conference is the largest of its kind for the supply chain management profession, hosting more than 3,000 practitioners, educators, and thought leaders from around the world.

SOURCE Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals