Raul Corella, vice president of worldwide supply chain operations, stresses the importance of collaboration with key suppliers, understanding best practices and maintaining strict performance metrics - all with an eye toward continuous improvement.

It's great to have accurate supply-chain data within a given department. But companies must be able to communicate and collaborate across discrete business functions, as well as with outside suppliers. Sanjay Ravi, worldwide managing director of high tech & electronics industry at Microsoft, shows how it can be done.

Lean is a popular concept with many manufacturers, but it hasn't been widely applied in a coherent fashion that leads to bottom-line benefits. Tony Gorski, chief executive officer of DemandPoint, has some ideas on how companies can rethink their approach to the subject.