15th Annual Virtual Summit: Building in supply chain resilience

What a difference a year makes. As logistics and supply chain management professionals turned the corner into 2020, they were already digging in for a long-term battle on the global trade front, re-working their last-mile and e-commerce fulfillment operations, and keeping busy weighing the need for a host of software and technology tools with the promise of operations transformation.

Three months into 2020 we witnessed logistics supply chain operations across the globe grinding to a halt, adding a new twist to an already challenging environment. Now, as we roll into recovery, the conversation is turning to the importance of building supply chain resilience into our operations.

In our 15th Annual Virtual Summit, the editors of Logistics Management (LM) and Supply Chain Management Review (SCMR) have programmed sessions that put some of today’s game-changing strategies and digital solutions into perspective and offer practical tips for evaluating, implementing and leveraging today’s technology to streamline operations and build resilience into your supply chain.

Steven Melnyk, professor of operations and supply chain management at Michigan State University, will kick things off in his Keynote address. He believes that the pandemic is giving us a chance to rethink supply chain resilience and to rebuild it into a better system while also creating an improved, stronger supply chain.

Professor Yossi Sheffi, the director of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, offers us a session that takes a look at how the pandemic has actually accelerated the acceptance of new supply chain technology and intelligence tools. The research team behind the “29th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends” will then put the 2020 findings into context and share how and where logistics leaders are plugging in that new intelligence to improve logistics operations.

Howard Turner, project director at supply chain consultancy St. Onge Company, takes a deep dive into the essential role that transportation management systems (TMS) now need to play in your post-pandemic logistics network. Alan Amling will then sketch out the emerging last-mile landscape—from fulfillment to the front porch—and provide alternatives to consider as attendees navigate a world where disruptions are the rule, not the exception. Amling helped drive innovation over a 27-year career with UPS and is currently a distinguished fellow at The University of Tennessee.

Moving into the warehouse and DC operation, Jeff Hedges, president of JHedges Consulting and a 35-year veteran of the material handling automation industry, offers attendees an in-depth look at the different types of robots coming into the market and explores how operations can better tie robotics in with automation and existing workforce.

And then we’ll pan out for a 30,000-foot view on global supply chain strategy as Rosemary Coates, the president and Founder of Blue Silk Consulting and the executive director of the Reshoring Institute, offers attendees the pros and cons of reshoring and shares real examples of successes and failures in moving sourcing and manufacturing closer to home.

“Dealing with cost, tariffs, trade wars and now a pandemic are all causing manufacturers to re-examine policies such as global manufacturing, single-source and risky suppliers and turn their attention to the potential to reshore,” says Coates. “Now’s the time to dig in and see if it’s really right for you.”