The Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB) on Saturday held a panel discussion ‘Ashwamedh’13: Building competitive advantage through operations’. The eminent panelists highlighted the significance of robust supply chain management (SCM) and logistics machineries in ensuring the success of any business, which was moderated by XIMB Area Coordinator (Operations Management and Decision Sciences) Prof Arun Paul.
Allcargo logistics Vice President (HR) Nishant Kolgaonkar gave an excellent overview of the global logistics industry and the immense growth opportunities in India. He highlighted the challenges faced by SCM professionals and the importance of the integrated logistics approach. Supply Chain Management at Dr Reddy’s laboratories director V Ragunathan highlighted the importance of overall quality in supply chains and the growing organizational need to strive towards environmental and energy excellence for sustained performance. He highlighted the shift towards closed loop processes and safety measures by mechanisation and automation that ensure wellbeing of all stakeholders.
Shaktipada Mohapatra from GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals ltd described the notion of sustainable ‘customer advantage’ and elaborated upon operations as a process that delivers varying value to products across geographies, times and circumstances. An interactive open floor question and answer session was held, where the audience raised questions on the importance of HR, role of IT and ERP software in operations, policy hurdles faced by practitioners and lack of organized operations processes in several industries.
“Companies should focus more on the core strategic processes and let ERP take care of the rest,” said Deloitte Consulting senior manager Nandu Giriyapur, who also stressed on the importance of presence of physical infrastructure in ensuring that ERPs actually deliver value to clients. Students also learnt about the importance of clearly understanding customer needs to effectively deliver value from KnoWerX Education (India) chairman and chief mentor Ravindra Tulsyan.