{"49832":{"#nid":"49832","#data":{"type":"news","title":"SCEF Focuses on Leading Supply Chains Through Uncertainty","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn response to the continuing global economic recession, the Spring 2009 Supply Chain Executive Forum (SCEF) focused on an issue that is at the forefront of most of our minds: How do we mitigate uncertainly during times of recession, and develop strategies and practices to facilitate reemergence going forward?   \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHeld on April 22nd and 23rd and hosted by the Georgia Tech Supply Chain \u0026amp; Logistics Institute (SCL), the biannual Forum unites executives from manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, transportation providers, third-party logistics providers, and IT firms to foster supply chain integration and to respond to current supply chain challenges such as this one.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. C. John Langley, Director of Supply Chain Executive Forum and SCL Professor of Supply Chain Management, welcomed the group to campus and encouraged the participants to consider these six key questions during the day long discussions:\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E* \u003Cem\u003EWhat types of \u0022uncertainty\u0022 are being faced by supply chain managers today?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* \u003Cem\u003EWhat are the leadership needs and challenges that relate to the management of supply chain uncertainty?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* \u003Cem\u003EOf what importance is \u0022flexibility\u0022 to understanding and solving supply chain problems?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* \u003Cem\u003EHow can supply chain flexibility be measured and valued?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* \u003Cem\u003EOnce appropriate initiatives have been identified to help lead supply chains through uncertainty, what barriers or challenges do you see gaining support from companies in getting started with a recovery agenda?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* \u003Cem\u003ETo what extent should supply chain management be viewed as a key resource to mitigating or eliminating major types of uncertainty faced by business organizations?\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. James Tompkins, President and CEO of the consulting firm Tompkins Associates, provided the opening keynote on \u0022Transforming Economic Adversity to Opportunity.\u0022 In his discussion of \u0022How Companies Should Prepare for the Return to Profitable Growth,\u0022 Tompkins celebrated the Great Recession as the \u0022foundation for the Great Comeback.\u0022 He reminded the audience of the cyclical nature of the economy and urged companies to retain their talent and to develop their comeback plans in preparation for the forthcoming period of regrowth.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. David Simchi-Levi, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Chief Science Officer of the IBM Company ILOG, discussed \u0022Managing Uncertainty through Increased Supply Chain Flexibility.\u0022 Simchi-Levi introduced flexibility as the solution to rising energy costs, rising labor costs, and rising customer expectations. He enumerated methods to achieve flexibility by standardizing product parts, by training a flexible work force, by employing Lean manufacturing techniques, and by designing for capacity redundancy.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Forum then divided into smaller groups for executive break-out sessions that sought to target specific areas of supply chain uncertainty with strategies of integration and flexibility. Panels examined the difficulty of quantifying flexibility and the ability to overcome organizational barriers. The executive panels reported back to the group anticipated obstacles and proposed solutions to incorporating early recovery agendas.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBringing in an international perspective, the SCEF concluded with a presentation about the Georgia Tech Executive Masters in International Logistics (EMIL) Program\u0027s 2009 residence in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. John Vande Vate, Professor and Faculty Director of EMIL, and Mr. Greg Andrews, EMIL Managing Director, conveyed the \u0022Impact on Current Economic Turmoil on Supply Chains.\u0022 Their observations examined the role of China as an emerging world power as the country continues to invest aggressively abroad and as the RMB becomes an increasingly dominant regional currency. The EMIL directors reinforced Dr. Tompkins\u0027 message, contrasting short-term responses to recession to long-term strategies that are \u0022careful not to sacrifice long-term viability at the alter of short-term profitability.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Spring 2009 Supply Chain Executive Forum marked the second year in a row that SCL and the SCEF cosponsored the event with the Atlanta Chapter of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). The jointly-sponsored portion of the meeting was held on the first day of the SCEF, concentrating on the issue of \u0022Getting Green from Green: Bottom Line Results and the Sustainable Supply Chain.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOn the first day, Dr. Peter Klaus, Professor at Fraunhofer Institute in Nurnberg, Germany, dictated the \u0022Greening Logistics in Europe: A 30-Years Tale of Success and Failures.\u0022 Lang Herndon, Vice President of Allied Waste, then introduced the idea of \u0022The Triple Bottom Line: Economics\/Environment\/Corporate Responsibility.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJanet Flores, Senior Vice President of NFI Industries, spoke of \u0022Inside the Box: How Green Buildings and Operations Are Transforming the Supply Chain.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlso, an insightful executive panel session included Jim Butts from C.H. Robinson, Dennis Flynn fromCoca-Cola North America, Tom Sanderson of Transplace, and Ben Cubitt of Rock-Tenn.  Finally, Elizabeth Fretheim, Director of Business Strategy and Sustainability for Logistics at Wal-Mart Stores, discussed \u0022Supply Chain Efficiencies and Sustainability - It\u0027s Not Just the Right Thing to Do.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe next meeting of the Supply Chain Executive Forum is scheduled for October 7-8, 2009. For more information on how to become a member and participate in the Supply Chain Executive Forum, please call the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at 404-894-2343, or visit \u003Ca href=\u0027http:\/\/www.scl.gatech.edu\/scef\/\u0027\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.scl.gatech.edu\/scef\/\u003C\/a\u003E.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"In response to the continuing global economic recession, the Spring 2009 Supply Chain Executive Forum (SCEF) focused on an issue that is at the forefront of most of our minds: How do we mitigate uncertainly during times of recession, and develop strategies and practices to facilitate reemergence going forward?","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"SCEF Focuses on Leading Supply Chains Through Uncertainty"}],"uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2009-05-05 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:59","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2009-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2009-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"49833":{"id":"49833","type":"image","title":"Supply Chain Executive Forum Keynote Speakers","body":null,"created":"1449175373","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:42:53","changed":"1475894453","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:53","alt":"Supply Chain Executive Forum Keynote Speakers","file":{"fid":"127012","name":"tff36645.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tff36645_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tff36645_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":61873,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tff36645_0.jpg?itok=vU7OOqkI"}},"49834":{"id":"49834","type":"image","title":"Executive break sessions reporting on findings.","body":null,"created":"1449175373","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:42:53","changed":"1475894453","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:53","alt":"Executive break sessions reporting on findings.","file":{"fid":"127011","name":"teg36645.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/teg36645_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/teg36645_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":60419,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/teg36645_0.jpg?itok=MpoqDsW8"}},"49835":{"id":"49835","type":"image","title":"For the second time, CSCMP and SCEF co-joined thei","body":null,"created":"1449175373","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:42:53","changed":"1475894453","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:53","alt":"For the second time, CSCMP and SCEF co-joined thei","file":{"fid":"127010","name":"toe36931.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/toe36931_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/toe36931_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":39991,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/toe36931_0.jpg?itok=UDMVIl6b"}}},"media_ids":["49833","49834","49835"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"}],"keywords":[{"id":"167210","name":"scef"},{"id":"167176","name":"supply chain executive forum"},{"id":"169360","name":"supply chain strategy"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=bt3\u0022\u003EContact Barbara Christopher\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}