The 2008 Supply Chain Innovation Award Goes To.......

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) has handed out the 2008 Supply Chain Innovation Awards and this year’s top award has been given to Cisco. The Web networking company won the award by completely transforming its reverse logistics program. According to company estimates, from 1995 to 2005, Cisco discarded more than 95 percent of its returned goods. As recently as 2005 Cisco dumped $500 million worth of returns while spending $8 million more to process returns than it generated in revenue from selling some of the returned items.

After Cisco began its reverse logistics program and regularly inspected returns, they found that 80% of returned items were in working order with only 50% of those needing minor cosmetic repairs. In the three years since the start of the program, 40% of returns are now reused and the program contributes $100 million in net profit to Cisco’s bottom line.