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SCOPEing out new strategies

During the SCOPE West conference, presenters from leading manufacturers, retailers, and distributors spoke about supply chain challenges they had faced and how they overcame them.

Toby Gooley
By Toby GooleySep 27, 2009
Toby Gooley
Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
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The focus was on supply chain best practices at SCOPE West, a conference and exposition for senior logistics and supply chain executives held in August. During the two-day event, presenters from leading manufacturers, retailers, and distributors spoke about supply chain challenges they had faced and how they overcame them.

Here are just a few of the tidbits we picked up at the conference:

  • H.J. Heinz Co. has developed a performance management program that links quality control practices like Lean and Six Sigma with best practices in manufacturing, supply chain management, and customer service. The worldwide initiative uses a formal communication methodology that's customizable for different languages and cultures.
  • To encourage continuous improvement, manufacturing conglomerate United Technologies has developed the "Achieving Competitive Excellence" (ACE) program, which certifies and rewards its own business units and its suppliers for excellence in service, supply chain management, and more. The company estimates that ACE adds more than $2 billion annually to its bottom line.
  • To deal with highly seasonal demand, Lennox International, a manufacturer of heating and cooling systems, used software to analyze the impact of inventory availability on customer service. The company achieved its goal of providing specified service levels at the lowest inventory cost, optimized by SKU for individual service locations.

Organized by Quartz Events, SCOPE conferences are offered twice a year. For more information, go to www.scopeeast.com or www.scopewest.com.

ArticleSC Services
october 2009
ArticleSC Services
october 2009

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