Samiksha : Demand Driven Supply Chain: Benefits and Challenges
Samiksha - a series of panel discussions on contemporary business themes has successfully brought together experts from various industries and students for the last many years. It has provided an ideal platform for students and eminent corporate dignitaries to interact with each other.
Continuing with the proud tradition of earlier Samikshas, 27th February 2008 witnessed yet another edition of Samiksha. This time the topic was “Demand Driven Supply Chain: Benefits and Challenges”.
Recent advances in fact-based methods for supply chain management have opened up opportunities for its coordination with demand management. These developments include:
A Demand-Driven Supply Network (DDSN) is one method of supply chain management which involves building supply chain in response to demand signals. This sort of network orchestrates dynamic far-reaching supply chain across the extended enterprise. Demand-driven supply chain models are playing an increasingly important role in helping managers translate these concepts into effective decision-making processes. In addition, their integration with data-driven models for marketing and sales, otherwise known as “marketing science,” enhances firm's capability to identify and pursue holistic strategies for maximizing net revenues.
As always we had some distinguished panelists, who gave insightful talks on the topic.
The panel consisted of:
The proceedings started with a welcome speech and were followed by presentations on the topic by each of the panelists.
The first speaker, Mr. Kalra gave a preview of Demand Driven Supply Network and how the companies need to manage Channel Orders, Customer Demand and Supply to achieve the same. He touched upon DDSN Capabilities and shed light on process change involved from ‘Plan & Supply as per Forecast’ to ‘Plan as per Forecast, Make & Supply as per Consumer Demand’. He explained Customer Centric Approach with the help of a case study and enlightened the crowd with the knowledge of Integrated e- Demand Chain.
The next speaker, Mr. Ganguly added a new dimension to the discussion by portraying Supply Chain Management as Demand Network Management. Through the examples of Mangalgiri Saree and P&G Supply Chain, he explained how DDSN existed in India even 12 years back. He also talked about Lean Supply Chain, how we achieve DDSN in industries and advancements in technology that had led to implementation of simpler and economical DDSN. He also pointed out that application of DDSN in companies can expose hidden incompetency.
The final speaker, Mr. Pikle emphasized on enhancing relationship with modern retail business, revamping the IT strategy behind Supply Chain execution, intensifying collaborations for efficient procurement and distribution, managing manufacturing complexity through selective outsourcing for timely and efficient results and removing the kinks in supply chain.
The presentations were later followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mr. L. Ganpathy, Professor, NITIE. Each panelist was asked his point of view on topics like major cost cutting areas in FMCG, applications of VMI (vendor managed inventory), information sharing between FMCG giants and retailers, etc. The students participated in the discussion by asking questions pertinent to the topic like “How does manufacturing cope with DDSN?” and “How is DDSN relevant to those commodities which are constantly upgraded and have short lifecycles but larger lead times?” Fruitful discussions also happened on topics like Risk Management techniques undertaken for DDSN, demand planning techniques adopted in India versus Western world, etc.
This Samiksha, in keeping with its earlier tradition, provided a healthy interaction between the corporate world and management students. It gave valuable insight on supply chain and its importance in the industry. The event concluded on a vote of thanks and distribution of mementos to the panelists.