The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the significance and resilience of supply chains, the backbone of any modern-day business operation and a critical driver of business growth.
The subject will be the focus of an international conference organised by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) in collaboration with Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) India Chapter. The conference has the theme "Building Resilience in Supply Chains and Communities", and is scheduled Dec. 22-24, 2021.
Supply chain leaders, academicians and professionals will meet at the conference to discuss how businesses were impacted, how they responded and what must follow as businesses seek to make their supply chains more robust, responsive and networked. This comes with efforts to add in new layers of automation and AI to enable quick adjustments to changing demand profiles and to enable predictive decision-making.
In focus will also be a host of new data and experiences of businesses in the light the pandemic, which came as a once-in-a-lifetime disruption that strained supply chains like never before and threw up wild swings in demand with huge impacts on businesses.
For example, an EY survey of 200 supply chain professionals last year-end showed that "serious disruptions affected 57%, with 72% reporting a negative effect" on the business. Interestingly, the same research reported that "60% of executives say the pandemic has increased their supply chain's strategic importance". Another report by 'Nature' highlighted how disruptions can travel along today's connected supply chains. A model studied by the group showed "the importance of propagation through global supply chains-even countries that are not directly affected by the virus experience large losses, and low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to indirect effects".
The SPJIMR-POMS conference will be first major business-academia interaction after COVID-19 to analyse, study and discuss how supply chains stood up to the pressures, where they did not and what comes next. The conference will be Chaired by Dr. Debmallya Chatterjee, Head of the Operations & Supply Chain area at SPJIMR with Prof. Subodha Kumar, Professor at Temple University, Pennsylvania.
The first day of the conference will be a doctoral colloquium with a keynote address by eminent academician and scholar Dr Janat Shah, Dean - IIM Udaipur, India. The colloquium will also host a workshop by Dr Harita and Dr Sirish from IIM-B and IIM-Trichy. The conference agenda includes workshops, keynotes by eminent international scholars and practitioners, panel discussions by the Deans of the top global business schools, and leaders from industry, apart from the paper presentations in parallel tracks. The conference has invited abstracts/extended abstracts from academicians, scholars, and industry practitioners in varied themes listed at the conference website: .
Besides the doctoral colloquium, the conference will cover two keynotes: one by Dr Kamalini Ramdas, London Business School an another on community resilience by Dr Malavaika Chauhan, Deputy Director - Design, and Head - Rural Upliftment portfolio at the Tata Trusts.
The Dean's panel is aimed at understanding the directions for business education post COVID-19. The discussion will primarily focus on the changing landscape of business education, post COVID-19, and the preparedness of the different stakeholders. There are three broad themes in which the business schools need to reorient themselves: inclusive education, research that matters and developing management skillsets in a dynamic environment. Dr Varun Nagraj, Dean SPJIMR will moderate the panel.
The industry panel will be on the theme: Digitisation of Supply Chains for resilience. Digitizing the supply chains has been in the focus for several years but investments and execution have lagged. It is the COVID-19 pandemic that had acted as a catalyst and with so many digitization tools available at disposals, a leap in digital supply chains may be at the horizon. The big question in front of the organisations therefore is how to select the right approach and tools to maximise the benefits of the digitization investment.
The conference will also run a workshop aimed at helping researchers from India structure their papers for quality journals, led by Prof. Aravind Chandrasekaran from Ohio State University.
SPJIMR and POMS have collaborated in the past for supply chain conference but this is the first time the two come together at a time that is considered critical for a new phase of insights and investments in the operations and supply chain area.
SPJIMR is a top ranked school of management. The conference fits into the school's mission, which is to "influence practice" and "promote value-based growth". POMS works with the mission to "extend and integrate knowledge that contributes to the improved understanding and practice of production and operations management".
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( With inputs from ANI )
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