This National Seminar was held under the patronage of the Operations department on 31st Jul 2021 on the contemporary and pertinent topic of “The Smarter Supply Chains for India’s Future”. Global economy post pandemic is going through uncertain and disruptive phase, and it is important that Indian supply chain stakeholders take cognizant of the challenges in front of them and position their organizations to overcome the disruptions. Supply Chains in current scenario need to get smarter to face complex and competitive environments.
Outstanding speakers of extensive industry and multiple domain experiences shared their vast knowledge, expertise, experience, and discussed the initiatives taken and required to build a digital backbone for Indian supply chain. Dr. V.B. Angadi, Director, LLIM in the welcome and inaugural address emphasized the need to understand the deficiencies of the existing supply chain in India and the need for Smart Supply Chain.
Mr. Anil Damle, Sr. President – Corporate Projects & Supply Chain, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited gave introduction of supply chain and detailed about different stakeholders and enunciated the differences of Logistics versus Supply Chain. He brought out the objectives of supply chain like getting closer to customer, generating value, and maximizing profitability and supply chain decisions by building strategy and design, planning, and regular operations. Mr Damle explained in depth the Procurement activity, its cycle and parameters and ended what impedes the supply chain from performing and how conflicting objectives curtail supply chain.
Mr. K.L. Bhaskaran, CEO, SCM Vision, and Retired Senior Consultant, TCS emphasized the need for measuring and how it will aid the entire supply chain. He articulated the SMART goals in depth with industry examples and measuring processes of gathering performance data, analysing performance, and improving the performance. Mr. Bhaskaran detailed six steps of SCOR management processes and concluded why supply chain measures should be benchmarked with the best in the business. He demonstrated each step with relevant metrics of real-life examples.
Mr. Shripad Vaidya, Global Head of Banking Domain and Competency, Hexaware Technologies presented his keynote address on “Digital Innovations of Banking and Finance in Supply chain Environment”. He highlighted the digital divide between have and have-nots and how it is affecting the supply chain. Mr Vaidya enunciated the innovations in digital adoption between retail and corporate banking and explained how technologies like AI, Block chain, machine learning etc galvanised the spectacular growth of Retail banking. He provided numerous examples of applications providing smarter supply chain environment like Reconciliation in supply chain environment Invoice Payment recon; Finance Payment recon; Virtual account opening – International Supply chain; RPA in Corporate Banking and Supply chain environment; and concluded how Supply Chain Financing digitalising can make India’s future better.
Technical presentations by the students and Valedictory session were concluded with vote of thanks by the Seminar Coordinator Prof. N. Balasubramanian. The expertise, experience, initiatives, information, and perceptions brought in new dimensions and vista for all the participants