At present Col. Walden is pushing to increase the Army's adoption of radio frequency technologies for tracking and redistributing supplies. "My current effort is trying to convince folks that the use of passive RF tags and smaller shipping containers would improve the Army's distribution capabilities," he says. "With Wal-Mart and now the Department of Defense putting a mark on the wall for the use of smaller passive RF tags, the future ability to track supplies in the supply chain will increase. This will lead to greater collaboration between suppliers and customers, leading to improved customer support."

Col. Walden's philosophy regarding the use of technology to enable the supply chain: "I have worked in the supply chain since the days of the 80-column punch cards.
Having said that, it is technology that has enabled the dramatic improvements in supply chain operations over the past decade. Technologies such as warehouse management systems, enterprise resource planning and RFID are the difference between good and great supply chains. Technology is a must for world-class supply chains."

2004 Practitioner Pros to Know:

Tim Beauchamp, Senior Vice President, Distribution Operations, Corporate Express
With responsibilities covering everything from real estate to warehousing, from customer care to purchasing, Beauchamp's cross-functional perspective helps him to evaluate where his company can benefit from technical innovation and how change will affect others within the enterprise. Beauchamp is a strong believer in the need for continuous technological improvement. "My philosophy is that we should always be implementing something now, in six months and a year from now, and we should always be working on the next thing to improve our operations," he says. But he is a technology realist, too. "We're very careful about applying technology, understanding what it can and can't do, and making sure it's solving the right problems." As an example, he cites Corporate Express' initiative to implement pick-to-voice, a project that doubled the company's warehouse productivity and improved fulfillment accuracy to 99.9 percent.

William C. Boni, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Motorola Information Protection Services
Boni has worked on information security for more than a quarter of a century, starting as a U.S. Army counterintelligence officer and a U.S. government special agent before working on security for the "Star Wars" program. In the private sector, he has been a consultant, chaired the American Society of Industrial Security and authored the book I-Way Robbery: Crime on the Internet. Boni pioneered the application of such emerging technologies as computer forensics and intrusion detection to deal with attacks on e-business systems. "The supply chain is perhaps the most obvious example of how nearly every organization now is dependent on the extended cyber-enterprise & If those outside our organization experience a breakdown, then our ability to satisfy our customers' needs could be at risk," he says.

Tammy Craddock, Founder, Jubilations
Large enterprises may push supply chain innovations, but it's the small business owners that are pulling the rest of us into the 21st century, showing that efficient supply chain processes take forethought and risk. Tammy Craddock, a former schoolteacher and stay-at-home mom, started her career as a cheesecake chef and business owner in her home in 1983. When the demand for her desserts overwhelmed her individual ability to produce them, she moved into a commercial facility and focused on customer relationship management, growing her company's reputation and repertoire to include the production of over 40 flavors and sizes of cakes. Says Craddock: "If a company is not taking its supply and demand chain seriously, then it isn't taking its customers and bottom line seriously. Supply and demand is at the heart of success and should be regarded with utmost consideration and care."

Stephen David, Chief Information Officer and Business-to-business Officer, Procter & Gamble Co.
David has spent much of his career on the boundary between business and technology. With P&G for more than 30 years in a variety of progressively senior functions, he led the deployment of the first personal computers at the company, helping to train sales and advertising staff in how to use the new technology to boost the business. His appointment to his dual position in July 2000, with responsibility for the company's Internet strategy, reflected P&G's growing emphasis on using technology to drive cost reductions and sales growth. He has been a prominent speaker at various IT conferences, and his evangelism on technology's role in transforming the way enterprises conduct their business and manage their supply and demand chains earned him recognition as CIO of the Year by Salomon Smith Barney's Technology Group in 2002.