Cisco Systems earned the top spot in this year's Supply Chain Innovators competition by transforming its reverse logistics operation from a non-value-adding cost center to a profit generating program that enhances the satisfaction of both internal and external customers. Cisco's rigorous, innovative approach takes something from both marketing and finance to treat returns as a virtual business.

An optical technology developed by GENCO Supply Chain Solutions and Sky-Trax improves worker accuracy and productivity by eliminating errors and simplifying tasks. GENCO and its partner were named runners-up for the 2008 Supply Chain Innovation Award.

There's no margin of error in the tightly scheduled Joint Strike Fighter project, despite the involvement of four principal partners and thousands of suppliers.

APL Logistics and Con-way Freight designed an innovative service that provides a new shipping option between ocean and air, combining the cost savings of ocean containerships with the certainty of airfreight, but at a quarter of the price.

Through an innovative program called Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century, or eLog21, the U.S. Air Force is replacing outmoded, stove-pipe processes and disjointed IT systems with an enterprise-wide infrastructure that optimizes its supply chain.

Dynamic Worldwide Logistics, which offers a comprehensive menu of services to the apparel industry, found that manual management of its crushing growth in information would no longer suffice. It needed an innovative approach to accessing data.