Toyota’s Garry Carty Takes Home 2019 Supply Chain Innovation Award

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 28, 2019) — University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics presented the fifth annual Commonwealth Supply Chain Innovation Award, sponsored by SAS, to Garry Carty, logistics control systems senior analyst for Toyota Motor North America. The presentation ceremony was held during Thursday’s ninth annual Supply Chain Forum, held in the Woodford Reserve Club at Kroger Field.

The project was undertaken to enhance Toyota’s Just in Time logistics pipeline by implementing a unique shipping confirmation system allowing supplier packing and shipping efforts to be effectively tracked from the warehouse to the manufacturing facility. Implementation of the project touched 700 supplier locations delivering to six cross-docks and 10 manufacturing centers across North America — impacting more than 10,000 team members. Metrics in place to track improvement reflected not only reductions in downtime due to missing inventory, but also quality improvement for the entire supply chain in terms of daily operations and contingency events. Additional benefits were seen in reduction of paperwork — a win in everyone’s eyes.

“I am sincerely honored on behalf of Toyota and their supply base to be receiving this award,” Carty said. “This project was successful because of the exceptional commitment of our Management, Development, Implementation, Support and Supplier Teams. Everyone involved focused on a common goal of providing extended supply chain management.” 

Carty joined Toyota in 2012 and has served in multiple roles across Production Engineering, Project Management and Logistics Control Systems teams in Erlanger, Kentucky, and Plano, Texas.

This recognition honors individuals and organizations that have demonstrated operational excellence in supply chain management as evidenced in a recently completed supply chain improvement project. Business analytics company SAS, the award’s sponsor, has a 40-year history of helping industry globally use data to drive insights and optimize their supply chains.

The Commonwealth Supply Chain Innovation Award judging panel consists of practitioners, academics and consultants in the supply chain industry, appointed by the advisory board of the Gatton College Supply Chain Forum. The forum brings together more than 200 corporate leaders, professors and students to share ideas about the latest supply chain issues.

The theme of this year's conference was “Logistics in a New World.”

“It’s an exciting time to be in the supply chain industry,” said Simon Sheather, dean of the Gatton College. “The supply chain work that Garry Carty and Toyota are doing will inform other companies about ways to not only enhance their own processes, but also improve their return on investment.”

As the Commonwealth Supply Chain Innovation Award recipient, Toyota qualifies for future supply chain improvement project support from graduate students enrolled in the Gatton College’s one-year accelerated MBA program.