We’ve been keeping an eye on the aggressive supply chain and logistics initiatives of Williams-Sonoma, the retailer and catalog merchandiser of cooking related products and the parent of the Pottery Barn furniture and house goods chain.

In its recent earnings announcements and other public filings, William-Sonoma again emphasized the importance to its overall results of a variety of supply chain initiatives, which are led by Chief Supply Chain Officer Dean Miller.

In 2005, the company began a process of internal management of its import hubs for furniture, versus using third parties for this function previously. The company recently said that it expects “to continue to improve efficiency in our supply chain by expanding our furniture hub in-sourcing initiative,” and that it has achieved many process improvements as a result of this initiative.

The company has also launched a daily replenishment program for many of its stores, and in the New York market is actually combining customer-direct deliveries with store replenishments.

The company has also invested in a slew of new technology over the past few years, including warehouse management, retail inventory management, direct-to-consumer inventory management, order management, and more.

The company is also pursuing a number of strategies, to reduce product damage and other factors that lead to customer returns. It has said this was one of the benefits of the in-sourcing initiative for its in-bound hubs. In parallel, the company also has been improving its returns processing centers.

What’s the bottom line impact? As always, it’s hard to fully see the exact financial results, but CEO noted that, “A company-wide focus on execution and cost containment once again allowed us to deliver earnings at the high end of our revised expectations, as we leveraged our multi-channel marketing and supply chain capabilities."