XLRI PGDM (GM) Hosts Annual Operation and Supply Chain Conclave “CLOCKSPEED 1.0”

Jamshedpur: XLRI PGDM(GM) in association with the Association of Supply Chain Professionals INDIA (ASCP) recently organized the annual flagship Operations and Supply Chain Conclave “CLOCKSPEED 1.0” on Virtual mode. The theme for the conclave was “Future-Proofing Supply Chains through Technology and Inclusion”.

Mr Amitava Bakshi, Chief Procurement Officer, Tata Steel, and the President of the Association of Supply Chain Professionals; Mr. Richard Rekhy, Board Member, KPMG Dubai, Former Chief Executive Officer, KPMG India, Mr. Matheen Sait, Supply Chain Manager – Logistics, 3M; Mr. Subrata Basak, Chief Logistics Officer, Tata Steel BSL; Prof. Edward Sweeney, Professor of Logistics and Systems, Head, Department of Engineering Systems & Supply Chain Management (ESSCM), College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University, UK, Ms. Swastika Basu, Chief – Enterprise Risk Management, Tata Steel, Mr. Kaustav Sen, Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG were the key speakers at Operations and Supply Chain Conclave. Fr. P. Christie, S. J. Director of XLRI – Xavier School of Management delivered the inaugural address. The Vote of Thanks was delivered by Prof. Kanagaraj, Chairperson, GMP Placements, XLRI Jamshedpur, who called the event ‘an unqualified success executed brilliantly by this cohort of future leaders.

In the Inaugural address Fr. P. Christie, S. J. Director of XLRI – Xavier School of Management said “I am delighted to inaugurate the annual Operations and supply chain conclave Clockspeed 1.0. My heartfelt congratulations to the organizing team. We are currently experiencing rapid changes globally and in India in all areas social, economic, cultural, political, and especially in technology; there is a strong technological disruption happening at a scale and speed that is unprecedented in modern history. Leaders, including those in the IT industry, are struggling to cope with it. Industry 4.0, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, cloud computing augmented virtual reality. Internet ofthings, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and mobile computing greatly impact our industry, particularly supply chain management, to make it efficient and productive. To achieve high performance, the supply chain needs to recognize and respond adequately to the challenges and opportunities forced by this technological disruption today. XLRI, what we can do as an educational institution, we need to focus on research. Institute like us have an opportunity and responsibility to get involved in the relevant research, how to create a cost-effective, robust and efficient system. XLRI, as a Jesuit institution that focuses on ethics, we should look at ethical aspects of Supply chain management”.

Mr. Amitava Bakshi, Chief Procurement Officer, Tata Steel, in his special address, said,” Covid -19 Pandemic hit hard all the supply chain professional in the business. It has been a very challenging journey. However, the challenges also opened up many opportunities to redesign the supply chain much better in every organization and industry. The COVID-19 challenges opened up opportunities for digitalizing the operations of the supply chain. It leads to the development of digital tools, which helped during the pandemic, which would be useful for us going forward. In the coming years, it will be all about data and AI. There is a huge opportunity in the supply chain for AI applications as there are many transactional activities. The supply chain can really get very well reinforced by extensive use of both data and AI. The supply chain generates tons of data, and the data analytics can really make all supply chain professionals very robust in the decision making”.