CVS Caremark has announced that it has been awarded the 2011 Supply Chain Distinction Award North America in the Logistics Best Practice Category. The awards were announced last week at the annual Supply Chain Logistics Summit held in Dallas, Texas.

The Logistics Best Practice Award recognizes companies that drive logistics excellence throughout the organization through the development of efficient, sustainable, and cost effective strategies. CVS Caremark received this year's award for a multi-year process improvement and technology integration program across its entire distribution network that significantly reduced the cost of operations while improving productivity and customer service.

Central to the CVS Caremark Logistics organization's success was a cultural and change management framework called Personal Responsibility in Delivering Excellence (PRIDE) that accompanied the implementation of several innovative process and technology improvements over a four-year period. This included the integration of a new warehouse management system for inventory and workflow, a labor management system for performance measurement and employee incentives, a route optimization program for managing store delivery schedules and routes, and an inbound freight appointment and visibility system.

CVS Caremark's implementation of PRIDE and supporting processes and technologies across 18 distribution centers, involving more than 7,000 associates, resulted in significant productivity improvements, a reduction in costs and inbound transit times, and improved on-time store delivery performance.

"Our 7,300 CVS/pharmacy stores serve more than 4 million customers daily, so it is critical that our distribution network operates at best-in-class efficiency to ensure that the products our customers want are delivered to our stores in a timely manner," said Ron Link, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Logistics at CVS Caremark. "Receiving the Logistics Best Practice Award is a testament to the outstanding and innovative work accomplished by our Logistics team, our suppliers and transportation providers, and our colleagues from around the company."

For more information about the 2011 Supply Chain Distinction Awards North America, visit http://supplychainawardsna.com/winners2011.asp.