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.