The Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions Association announced the winners of the 2011 VICS Collaborative Commerce Achievement Awards at this week’s VICS/U Connect Annual Conference at the Orlando World Center Marriott. The Awards are designed to identify and reward excellence in supply chain collaboration. Winners of the VICS Achievement Awards were decided by votes of the VICS Board of Directors, which is composed of an elite Who’s Who of industry luminaries.
The 2011 VICS Collaborative Commerce Achievement Awards honor outstanding companies for their strategic thinking and leadership, as well as the implementation of GS1 US standards and VICS collaborative commerce guidelines that have resulted in more effective supply chain practices and partnerships. The awards recognize the positive results of company-wide dedication to customer satisfaction that have made continuous improvements to the supply chain.
The following are the 2011 VICS Collaborative Commerce Achievement Awards Winners along with a brief description of their accomplishments --
Retail Excellence
Macy's, Inc.
Macy’s developed the 1:1 program, part of MyMacy’s, to aggregate LTL and multi-stop shipments to full truckload shipments, reducing the complexity, cost and time required to process vendor routings. The initiative increased TL and intermodal routing by 140 percent and increased cartons moved per inbound appointment by 24 percent.
Supply Side Excellence
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble increased its sales while reducing supply chain costs by leveraging its scale, utilizing late-stage differentiation and employing CPFR techniques to develop a broader, standardized range of cost-effective displays for its retail customers. Year-over-year growth for 2010 was 35 percent, or over $340 million.
VICS CPFR Implementation Excellence (tie – two winners)
Bloomingdale’s & E.S. Kluft & Co.
Bloomingdale’s and Kluft, a bedding brand launched in February 2006, collaborated in building a warehouse on the East Coast and using CPFR to grow sales and improve customer service. As a result, Kluft sales grew from $6 million in 2007 to over $17 million in 2010.
Verizon Wireless & Samsung Telecommunications
Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications initiated a data sharing and planning initiative based on CPFR to improve demand visibility and thus increase supply reliability to Verizon. The program reduced inventory levels by more than 50 percent and increased sales forecasting by more than 40 points.
Best Third-Party Provider
Manhattan Associates, Inc.
Manhattan Associates’ provides systems platforms to strategically support Macy’s growing ecommerce business via “Macy’s Accelerated Growth Strategy.” Manhattan's WMS, Labor, Reporting and Slotting solutions have helped Macy's achieve double-digit growth in online sales and improve throughput lift in inbound product flows by 80 percent, increase productivity via improved order combinations by 33 percent, and increase shipping capacity by 20 percent.
Sustainability Excellence
Macy's, Inc.
Macy’s worked with VICS on several initiatives, including replacing clear hangers that have been the industry standard for decades with environmentally-friendly black hangers. Macy’s uses 300 million hangers annually and the transition will save its suppliers $12 million annually in supply chain costs. Macy’s waste stream reduction initiative increased total recycling by 45 percent, to 102,593 tons. Macy’s lowered its total energy usage by 4.3 percent in 2010 from 2009 levels.
Empty Miles Top Contributor
National Retail Systems, Inc.
Starting in 2010, National Retail Systems began using VICS Empty Miles Service to optimize its freight load capacity and deliver superior customer service and value to its clients, including Target, Micro Center and Kmart. As a result of using VICS Empty Miles, NRS lowered client costs and improved its customer service.
The VICS Board of Directors also announced Dr. Donald Bowersox of Michigan State University as the 2011 winner of the prestigious VICS Roger Milliken Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented to an individual who has demonstrated leadership through selfless support and utilization of GS1 and VICS Standards as well as standards committee participation.
Bowersox has authored or co-authored 17 books with 14 foreign language translations. He’s written more than 250 articles on marketing, transportation, logistics and supply chain management. He served on the faculty of the Eli Broad Graduate School of Business Administration at MSU for 44 years. He has lectured and taught in more than twenty countries. In addition to his academic career, he has more than 50 years experience as a consultant to business and government. A founding member and second president of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, Bowersox was the recipient of the council’s Distinguished Service Award.
