Challenge: Our client, a consumer packaged goods company, had struggled to incorporate a holistic view of its manufacturing and distribution capabilities. In 2009, the client partnered with LeanCor to help it start applying lean principles in efforts to make product when and where needed.

Challenge: We worked with a Canadian client that wanted to sub-contract their US distribution operations to reduce operating costs but more importantly to allow them to focus on the core business as a manufacturer.

Challenge: The beer market in India is highly regulated in the form of multiple taxes and duties while transporting beer across provinces. One of the largest breweries in the world, was skeptical that any kind of network design or route planning would be beneficial. Many top tier consulting firms failed to prove so.

Challenge: This national educational materials company suspected they weren't getting the best parcel shipping rates that they could and turned to Insource Spend Management Group to help recover revenue and cut costs. The company had negotiated their own parcel shipping contracts with a leading worldwide 3PL in the past, and after 30 years thought they were getting the best rates they could on their own.

In the past two years, Chinese consumers have opened their wallets and pocketbooks online. Online buying and selling, including group purchasing (through the Chinese equivalents of Groupon), is the second-fastest-growing activity, after microblogging.

Fast food chain McDonald's has employed techniques including $500 staff incentives, 30-percent wind power requirements and lightweight tractor-trailers to help green up its operations, according to a report by the company.

Challenge: Celsis Rapid Detection provides systems that enable companies to more rapidly test and release safe products to market. One leading food products company uses three Celsis instruments in its microbiology lab to test daily production runs.

According to a recent survey of more than 200 global finance executives, the use of business networks and the technologies underlying them is helping to transform procurement from a tactical function to a strategic contributor to company success. "Procurement has traditionally been recognized and rewarded solely on the basis of its cost-cutting ability," said Sam Knox, senior vice president and director of research at CFO Publishing. "But through the productive use of automated systems, the function has been able to move beyond simply meeting savings targets to help address larger, more-complex issues such as managing cash and capital, managing risks to business performance, and expanding into new markets or business lines."

Innovation in consumer packaged goods isn't a luxury in today's competitive market - it's a necessity. In an uncertain economic environment, most companies are struggling to achieve organic growth. "Driving both the top and bottom line has been elusive," says Girish Gulvady, director of integrated demand management and food service planning with Campbell Soup Co. "Innovation is filling that void."