Boston Red Sox rookie outfielder Daniel Nava accomplished the seemingly unthinkable back on June 12. His story should be destined for reel life in Hollywood, but we were able to enjoy it earlier in real life.

Nava stepped up to the plate for the very first time at Fenway Park as a professional slugger with the bases loaded. He swung at the first pitch and launched the ball into the Red Sox bullpen for a home run. Make that a grand slam.

According to a noted baseball columnist, Nava became one of 106 batters in game history to homer in their first at-bat and one of 25 on the first pitch. And he’s now one of two in game history to record a grand slam on the first pitch during his first time at bat.

Whether you’re a baseball fan or not, you must marvel at his feat.

Similarly, supply chain professionals defy such odds every day. Typically, they’re behind the scenes pulling strings that link clinicians with products, suppliers, payers and regulators in a convoluted process with little to no recognition, if not acknowledgement, of their critical efforts.

Achieving fusion may be rocket science. Accomplishing process fusion is a delicate art form with too many needlessly harsh critics and armchair field managers. Some supply chain managers homer, others walk and still others strike out. Those who are true leaders return to the plate in the next inning.

During a recent global supply chain and logistics improvement conference in Chicago in late June, one speaker referenced Nava’s big moment as the "perfect order." Let me pause and project a wink-wink, nudge-nudge and wry smile to Strategic Marketplace Initiative’s Tom Hughes and Dennis Orthman… not just for being avid Red Sox fans.

That same speaker bookended his illustration with the marathon, record-breaking Wimbledon tennis match in late June that lasted more than 11 hours as indicative of sustainability.

The connection for supply chain leaders? Achieving the perfect order requires perseverance, which will sustain customer service and organizational viability.

Yet a number of other statistics resonated about the fundamental importance of supply chain professionals.

For example, an executive at a financial services company noted that supply chain generally accounts for 60 percent to 90 percent of all company costs. Further, a 2 percent improvement in supply chain efficiency alone has a 3,000 to 5,000 percent higher impact than a 2 percent improvement in any other operation.

Don’t scoff. Outside of healthcare, these stats wouldn’t furrow a brow.

But one observation really hit the gasp-inducing, flash-eliciting grand slam. "With the supply chain, you’re the only one that truly touches the customer," he detonated. "The sales guys shake hands and walk away."

If you expand your definition of healthcare customer beyond the patient you’ll recognize the profundity of that statement and be able to take that quantum leap toward grasping the multidimensional string theory of true supply chain leadership.

Speaking of supply chain leaders and mastering possibilities, this month we spotlight the 2010 Supply Chain Management Department of the Year. Because this is the seventh year of HPN’s annual award, here are seven trivia items from the nominee pool.

• The supply chain leader of one nominee actually earned HPN’s award in the early 1990s when the magazine recognized individual department directors and not departments.

• Two nominees were competitors from the same city.

• One of those nominees was responsible for managing the organization’s gift shop.

• One nominee uses a fleet of laser-guided robots that move a wide variety of heavy materials throughout several hospitals in its main complex.

• One nominee nominated his facility’s sterile processing department for HPN’s 2010 Sterile Processing and Distribution Department of the Year award in May.

• The leader of the winning organization previously worked in New York City and was the first hospital there to sign with Medibuy.com, based on an article he read in HPN.

• The winning organization orchestrated a massive supply chain relief effort for earthquake-stricken Haiti.