IGD has announced the shortlisted companies for the Ian MacLaurin Supply Chain Excellence Award including Nestlé, Unilever, Nisa Today and DHL and SPAR UK and Oakland International.

Quantifiable impact on the supply chain

The Ian MacLaurin Supply Chain Excellence Award is given to a company that has driven a real quantifiable impact on the supply chain, thanks to recent innovations in areas such as cost reduction, faster flow of product, application of technology or synchronisation of production. Tarun Patel, IGD’s director of supply chain and award judge said:

"The finalists for this year’s Ian MacLaurin Award have showed not only great vision, but also strong and successful execution in their supply chains. The changes they have made go above and beyond the requirements for day-to-day trading."

Nestlé re-designs its transport operation and reduces inventory

Nestlé has re-designed its transport operation so that orders from different customers are grouped together and delivered on a 'milk-round' basis to a single geographic location. This allows each customer to order without full-trailer load constraints and means each can have daily deliveries at set-booking times. This project has delivered improved on-shelf availability and depot-to-store availability and reduced inventory.

Unilever reconfigures network to reduce costs and improve customer service

Unilever has undertaken a network re-configuration project in order to achieve better utilisation in existing distribution centres and minimise its end-to-end supply chain costs. This project spanned multiple countries and categories including homecare, personal care and ambient foods. The project has resulted in reduced costs and carbon emissions and improved customer service.

Nisa and DHL develop one national tri-temperature network

This partnership has overhauled and transformed Nisa's supply chain benefitting service to Nisa members and shoppers. The transformation has developed one national tri-temperature network that services 3,750 stores through one logistics provider. The initiative involved the companies working collaboratively across a number of sites, sharing resources and developing a bespoke supply chain model.

SPAR UK and Oakland International improve on-shelf availability

SPAR UK and logistics company Oakland International have been short-listed for a collaborative project that reduces SPAR's carbon footprint and improves product freshness and availability in-store. The project involves collaboration throughout the supply chain including SPAR's head office, its regional distribution centres and with retailers and suppliers.

The winner of the award will be announced at the IGD Food Industry Awards in London on 09 October 2012. For more information about the event and how to book a table to attend, please click here.