- 27 February 2009
- NICK ALLEN
How does top retailer Zara organise its supply chain? What does IT leader Intel really mean by collaboration? And how has Sony Ericsson built a customer-facing supply chain? Ail will be revealed at Extended Supply Chain 2009.
The conference – the sixth in the series – has a packed two-day programme themed around leveraging partnerships and maximising collaboration to minimise risk and deliver business value.
More than 30 leading thinkers and practitioners in supply chain management will be involved in more than 30 unique sessions of interactive workshops, master classes and best practice discussions, with somewhere in the region of 300 professional delegates from across the full industrial spectrum expected to attend. 
The plenary session progrannne begins at 12.30pm with an opening address from Paul Brooks, chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
Leading the way for the afternoon sessions on day one will be Robert Blackburn, SVP and head of global supply chain operations at BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany – an additional role of his is to lead BASF Group’s worldwide business transformation programme.
Prior to his current position, Blackburn served as senior vice president and head of corporate portfolio development for Siemens where he was a member of the company’s worldwide leadership team. He served on the CEO’s direct reporting team responsible for reshaping Siemens’ broad portfolio of businesses.
Talking on “Sustainable global sourcing in a changing market environment”, Blackburn’s extensive supply chain knowledge, delivered from a senior executive perspective, will make this a session well worth attending.
Undoubtedly, one of the main attractions to the Extended Supply Chain event will be the keynote session “Zara – Fast Fashion – An innovative supply chain model for the apparel sector”, bringing an insight into the best practice supply chain model of Zara. Professor Jose Luis Nueno of the lESE Business School will offer an in-depth analysis of the supply chain behind Zara parent company, Inditex.
The session promises to explore areas of supply chain adjustment and innovation, looking at the key differences between Inditex and its global competitors, examining the company’s relationships with its local partners and contractors. Zara has an innovative distribution model that operates using the axes of time, value for money, experience, accessibility and variety. What can be learned from this model? The answer has to be – plenty.
Professor Jose Luis Nueno is sure to deliver a valuable insight into the workings of Zara’s supply chain. He is professor of marketing at lESE Business School, having received his doctorate of business administration (marketing) from Harvard University, a master of business administration from lESE and a degree in law from the Universitat de Barcelona. He has published articles on globalisation, the marketing of consumer goods and relationship marketing and he has taught at several business schools, including the elective course on industrial marketing at INSEAD.
Following on from the case study on Zara will be a practitioner’s view of “Intelligent collaboration”, delivered by supply chain strategy manager for Intel, Simon Barrett.
As an “Intel supply chain master” Barrett will explain how every interaction is an opportunity for collaboration, but importantly, he will advise on how you can reduce the risk of engaging in collaboration where the costs outweigh the return.
Collaboration
Intel Corporation is no stranger to either the benefits or the risks of collaboration. This session will focus on practical lessons that Intel Logistics has learnt about how to encourage multiple organisations to work together in a way that generates results that neither organisation could achieve alone. Barrett will reveal the best ways to engage in intelligent collaboration, both selectively determining when collaboration might be a good approach – and profitably, making collaboration more productive and less risky.
Patrik Jansson, head of supply chain at Sony Ericsson, will be looking at the customer-facing supply chain. In his revealing session on “Supply chain evolution – how to efficiently support today’s customers”, Jansson wilI focus on the extensive supply chain change process that Sony Ericsson has recently been going through, highlighting some of the major challenges that had to be overcome and the decisions that brought results. He will also be giving his views on possible future demands and the impact of the current financial situation on the supply chain.
Later on in the afternoon of the first day we get the analyst’s view. Kevin O’Marah, chief strategy officer for AMR Research talks on “Supply chain leadership and financial value”. The global supply chain has changed the way general management and financial investors look at manufacturing, distribution and product introduction. O’Marah will demonstrate that supply chain management is no mere cost-centre but instead an engine of business competitiveness. This session will address new metrics for operational and innovation excellence and how these drive financial value.
Rounding off day one will be a “Supply chain excellence panel discussion: Managing supply chain risks to optimise performance”. On rhe illustrious panel discussing the biggest risks to the supply chain in these rimes of economic uncertainty will be Mick Jones, VP EMEA. global supply chain, Lenovo; Tom Carroll, supply chain director, Dyson; Emile Naus, network strategy lead, Marks & Spencer; Bo Jensen, head of material execution IDS, Nokia Siemens Networks (overall winner of the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2008); and Jon Chorley, vice president, product strategy, Oracle Corporation.
Moving on to day two – a day chaired by Professor Alan Waller OBE, supply chain council (member of the SCC leadership team) – the comprehensive programme of interactive workshops offers the delegate flexibility in building an itinerary around the topics they consider of greatest interest and relevance.
Top consultancies, leading thinkers and prize winning enterprises involved in the practice of supply chain management will present their ideas and learnings in the 30 plus interactive workshop sessions.
A practitioner-led session entitled “Customer-driven supply chain networks and the key design features”, presented by Chris Dyson, head of supply chain SW Europe for Nokia Siemens Networks, is sure to be well attended. The company was the Overall Winner of the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2008.
Dyson has worked for the Nokia Group since 1995, moving into global and regional roles for the Nokia Networks business. He has led the development of future business models and their implementation with special focus on sales and operation planning and ERP/SAP system and supply chain process deployment to support the new customer-driven supply chain model. Since Nokia and Siemens joined their telecommunications operations in 2007, he has been leading the integration of the European region supply chain.
Oracle will be running three sessions. Dave Food, business development director for supply chain applications, will be talking on “Enabling business transformation through supply chain change”. Food has more than 20 years experience in the supply chain solutions industry in a variety of roles including education, marketing, consulting and development. He has delivered and managed supply chain projects around the world from Norway to New Guinea, working in a wide range of industries including the automotive, food, CPG, aerospace and banking supply chains.
Planning
Timothy Hughes, business development director for value chaln planning at Oracle, will present his ideas on “Demand planning and forecasting: drawing the best from S&OP”. He has 20 years consulting experience specific to blue chip businesses across a number of different industrial sectors including pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing and consumer products. He is currently working with customers to maximise supply chain efficiency through the use of sales and operations planning (S&OPI, service parts planning and comprehensive trade management.
Jon Chorley, vice president, SCM product strategy, Oracle, will deliver a talk on “Keeping your supply chain demand-driven in a constantly changing global environmenr”. Chorley leads the team responsible for the EBusiness Suite product line and Oracle’s supply chain management applications.
PA Consulting will be leading two interactive sessions:
“Supermodelling for supply chains – robust, dynamic, scenario-based simulation for complex decision-making”, presented by Tim Lawrence and Knud Erik Wichmann. And a session entitled “Better think ahead to avoid nasty surprises – identifying and managing tomorrow’s supply chain risk now”, led by Richard Stuart and Julie Metelko. Both these sessions should offer some valuable pointers for surviving the present downturn.
Accenture will also be presenting two sessions, one on “The seven imperatives of what makes a high-performance supply chain”, the other on “Sustainable sourcing for todays high performing supply chains”.
Chairman for the day, Alan Waller, will also be talking for ELUPEG when he runs the session on ‘Acquiring and retaining logistics skills in leadership”. The workshop wiu undoubtedly be lively and informative, as anyone who knows Alan would expect.
Where and when
Extended Supply Chain takes place on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th March at the five star Sofitel which is right next to Terminal 5 at London Heathrow.
The event takes the format of a series of leading keynote sessions on day one, followed on day two by an extensive programme of six sessions, each comprising six choices of interactive workshops. Plenty of opportunities to network have been built into the programme.
Registration is at 11 am on Tuesday 24th March with the opening session starting after lunch.
