Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced it received the High-Tech Supply Chain Excellence Award at the recent SCMLogistics World 2006. The award recognizes companies for their transformation change management and leadership in driving supply-chain excellence to achieve greater business profitability and a higher level of customer service.

According to PCB007, the award is the only one in Asia that honors manufacturing companies and individuals in the region for their achievements in optimizing supply chains to attain greater business results. The award was presented to Agilent at the SCMLogistics World 2006 conference last month in Singapore.

The criteria for winning the award include having a clear vision; a commitment to designing paradigm-shifting innovation in supply chain concepts; and transforming these innovations into competitive differentiators.

"Great products have to be supported by an excellent supply chain to improve competitiveness and increase customer satisfaction," said Gooi Soon Chai, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Electronic Instruments Business Unit, who also has management responsibility for Agilent's Electronic Measurements Group's supply chain. "The program implemented by the supply chain team has transformed the company into a world-class organization, with significant cost savings and improved Turnaround time."

Gooi attributed this win to a dynamic business strategy built around supply chain excellence specially designed for cost-competitiveness. Agilent has reassessed and consolidated its overall supply base for greater efficiency and reliability, he said. This has been complemented by successful supply chain collaboration with suppliers who have enabled cost savings to be optimized both across the organization and with Agilent's partners.

The panel of judges, from schools and consultancies such as the Cranfield School of Management in the U.K., INSEAD in France, and the ARC Advisory Group in the United States, were unanimous in their selection of Agilent as the winner over 20 other global high-tech leaders.