"In the past, IBM packaging engineers were dispersed throughout various organizations, each representing different segments within the company, with very little interaction with one another. As a result, we had a splintered strategy for packaging and distribution, most of our best practices were not widely adopted, customers were confused by very different packaging solutions for similar products, and the proverbial wheel was reinvented over and over again. 
To create a cohesive strategy and to begin sharing and implementing best practices across the corporation, IBM's Integrated Supply Chain created a cross-brand packaging engineering Center of Competency (CoC), which united all engineers under a single leadership team. This Award Winning CoC created an environment that fostered a philosophy that encouraged knowledge sharing, skills development, innovation, recording of results, and accountability. The results yielded significant cost reductions, environmental improvements, increases in quality, and best of all: improvements in the skills of each engineer so he/she could adjust to new challenges that come with an ever-changing global supply chain. Takeaways: The benefits of consolidating the packaging subject matter experts; challenges and methods to promote integration and information sharing and engagement for a global engineering team; examples of goals and measurements; methods to promote your team's accomplishments."