Speakers- SCNext USA President Hasnain Millwala addressing the students followed by Mr Sudhanshu Gautam, Deputy Manager, Kohler India Vendor and Distribution Planning
The session started with an introductory note by Mr. Hasnain. He talked in depth about SCNext, its initiatives and how SCNext is trying to extract the best out of younger generation. He also emphasised on supply chain competition organized by SCNext which is an international b-school event and how students can be a part of the event. He also talked about different programmes and activities conducted by SCNext like internships, foreign exchange, recruitments and competitions and how these activities can help in building a symbiotic relationship between SCNext and us. He then interacted with students and answered some questions asked by them. He discussed about the role of supply chain in developed and developing countries and how they are different in terms of practice, talent, knowledge transfer, integration with organization’s vision and mission along with IT aspect and advancement in field of Supply Chain. Then he gave us an overview of how supply chain is aiding in developing the service sector.
In the second half, Mr. Sudhanshu spoke about Supply Chain-Opportunities and its Competitive Advantage through a slide show. He talked in depth about Supply Chain management, its evolution into the Value Chain. Some of the introductory slides incorporated different business partners along the supply chain which are demand management, supply management, enablers and integrators and how they play various yet crucial roles in a supply chain along with different components of Supply Chain Management. He then emphasised on different opportunities envisaging this field and how the current scenario like globalization, increasing competition, price hike, increasing complexities and hurdles in supply chain and lack of talent, is creating opportunities in this area along with barriers in the development of supply chain management.
It followed with discussion about different types of Supply Chains and how and at what level they are useful. He also gave us an overview about traditional Supply Chain Management and emerging supply chain processes and how focus is shifting from inside out to outside in. Then he traversed to the competitive advantages which supply chain brings along with itself like tailored approach which is replacing ‘one size fit all” approach, planning, implementing pull system across the value chain, proactively managing complexity etc.
In the last phase of his presentation, he brought in some practical and challenging cases which showcased how innovation in supply chain has carved the future of certain organizations. He concluded his session by answering some of the queries posted by the students. Few of the questions being: how reverse logistic is difficult to implement in a company which is still using traditional SCM and how reverse logistic is changing product life cycle of a product? Overall it was an informative session.