SKEIN, the Supply Chain and Operations Club of the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur hosted the 3^rdedition of its Annual flagship event, The Supply Chain Summit on 13^th February, 2016. The Annual event is a platform where global leaders share their views and opinions on supply chain engaging through a series of panel discussions.

This is an initiative to bring together the Supply Chain academia, the industry and the local community to bring in different perspectives and ideas providing valuable insights to the students. The clubs and committees of IIMU provide ample opportunities to apply their learnings while getting a hands-on experience in organizing events. SKIEN’s constant endeavor remains imparting the students of IIMU the latest knowledge from the World of Supply Chain.

The event flagged off with an inaugural speech by Prof.Janat Shah – Director, IIMU where he emphasized on the vision of the institute that is focused on research, analysis and entrepreneurship. The Umbrella theme for this Supply Chain Summit was – “Reinventing the Supply Chain”,  that aptly revolved around the current challenges and the need for innovation in supply chain environment. The theme throws light on the current supply chain environment, the processes and the increasing need for re-invention of these processes for an efficient supply chain to meet the demands of the customers.

The run-up to the event saw various kinds of competitions like Online quiz, Case study competition, article writing etc where students from various B-Schools all over India joined to battle their knowledge in the field of Operations and Supply Chain.

The event saw two important panel discussions between renowned industry leaders. The first Panel discussion was based on the sub-theme – “Data-Driven Decision Making in Supply Chain”, in which the panelists consisted of Pramod Sant, Vice President – Head of Import Export and Export Control and Customs – Seimens Ltd; Dev Arora, AVP Procurement – Moser baer; Ravi Sankar, Vice President and Head – Supply Chain Management, Tata Projects.The vast experience of these industry experts provided an enriching discussion touching upon various aspects of supply chain like Importance of data analytics and data visualization, Role of data analytics in designing the strategy of a business, alignment of supply chain processes, ERP systems and data analysis with the strategic objectives of the organisation etc., The panel also discussed about the challenges in data driven decision making, role of technology in creating simpler supply chains, percolation of data analytic into various industries etc., The panel discussion also lead to interesting discussions over intuition overriding data analytic and leveraging data analytic to enter new markets. They also threw light on the need for people with statistical approach and business savvy in the field of data analytic.

The second panel discussion revolved around the sub-theme “Re-inventing Retail Supply Chain – Procurement to Distribution”, with the Panelists Rahul Pandey, Founder & Director at IGSA Labs; Abhinav Sinha, Head of Planning – Cargill; Sandeep Anand, Head – Demand Planning, Delmonte. The panel discussed about the challenges in Retail Supply Chain and how supply chain acts as a competitive advantage to the businesses. Various aspects of operations like Lean manufacturing, SNOP, Importance of managing Lead times, Agile and Resilient supply chains, Supply Chain decision spectrum and Supply chain optimization.

This was followed by the unveiling of the third edition of the annual magazine of SKEIN, “OpSamhita” by Prof. Janat Shah. The event ended with a felicitation of the speakers and a vote of thanks. The Supply Chain Summit 2016 was a great success with appreciation from the speakers of the seamless organisation of the event and the students for the insights they gained through the discussions.