18 - 20 November 2019, Florida, USA
Supply Chain Leadership Summit
Making Industry 4.0 Meaningful: Overcoming Reactivity, Supercharging Proactivity
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Making Industry 4.0 Meaningful: Overcoming Reactivity, Supercharging Proactivity
On 18-20 November 2019, the US edition of our NG Supply Chain Summit will bring together senior decision-makers and business leaders from across North America at the fantastic The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, Florida, to share their views on how to tackle the biggest challenges in supply chain management today.
Industry 4.0, the move to “place sensors in everything, create networks everywhere, automate anything, and analyze everything to significantly improve performance and customer satisfaction”, has become disconnected from the realities of real supply chain organisations. With no silver bullet to business transformation, there is a need for a common mission statement across departments to break free of silo-thinking and continuously improve. At the Next Generation Supply Chain Leadership Summit, learn to balance agility, alignment and adeptness in tackling the key challenges of the day. Including: automating last mile costs, piloting ERP solutions with rapidity, and leveraging artificial intelligence to optimize intermodal networking.
From case studies that lift the lid on operations inside best-in-class organisations, to workshops and collaborative sessions that focus on real challenges and future technology innovations, to one-to-one meetings with industry peers offering practical advice tailored to your specific needs, the summit will provide you with everything you need to implement your key projects more effectively.
GDS asked for a narrative – they really wanted to understand what I’m working on. They took that information and put together a couple of days that were more valuable for me.
Aaron Duff - Director, EHS Standardization, Johnson & Johnson
Our Approach
Every GDS Summit has one stated aim: to help attending executives implement their key projects more effectively. We do this by developing an in-depth understanding of those executives' project needs, the business outcomes they want to achieve, and the challenges they face in terms of hitting those goals.
Who Attends
Our summits are designed for executives looking to take their business to the next level – from market-leading brands to disruptive new entrants. As such, we’ve worked with some of the world’s best-loved and most forward-thinking businesses.
Attendees Include
The upcoming summit will welcome executives from some of the world's biggest and most recognisable firms - as well as the most forward-thinking - as they look to address their project challenges.
Ranjan Ghosh
Global Head of Digital Manufacturing
ABB
Chris Goodenough
Senior Director, Quality Excellence - Supply Chain
Walmart
Khurram Zaman
Director, Quality Excellence | Central Operations, US Supply Chain
Walmart
Derek Jemeysom
Sr Director Logistics - DC Operations
Sam's Club
Nuno Fernandes
President & CEO
Ilumno
Chris Van Schijndel
Cybersecurity Director – Customer Connectivity and Logistics, Global Supply Chain
Johnson & Johnson
Anand Singh
Director Global Procurement
Philips
Matthew Liotine
Clinical Professor, Information & Decision Sciences
University of Illinois
5 Challenges in Supply Chain
Our summit is focused on solving your strategic challenges
- Shifting leadership mindsets from reactivity to proactivity
- Powering operational excellence through integrated planning & execution
- Continuously improving business process re-engineering
- Digitizing the kinetic world: upscaling your technology stack
- Making industry 4.0 meaningful through balancing agility, adeptness and alignment
Summit Schedule
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Monday November 18, 2019
Registration
1:00pm - 6:00pm
Solution Provider Briefing
2:00pm - 2:30pm
Welcome Remarks and Delegate Briefing
2:30pm - 2:45pm
Panel Discussion
2:45pm - 3:30pm
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
Opening keynote panel: what characterizes a proactive mindset in Industry 4.0?
Ranjan Ghosh
Global Head of Digital Manufacturing - ABB
- Industry 4.0 often looms as a backdrop to many supply chain executives of the Fortune 500. Yet, other than being an abstract vision to hang conversation off of, does 4.0 really signal a significant change in supply chain capability or maturity?
- “97% of respondents with autonomous supply chains report their customer satisfaction somewhat or significantly increased in the past year, compared to only 8% with linear supply chains.” – EY
- The panel discusses the benefits and drawbacks of onboarding 4.0 innovation, such as AI, RPA and IoT, over leveraging existing investments within an organization to foster agility and proactivity within traditional operations.
Keynote
3:30pm - 3:50pm
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Prioritizing Industry 4.0 Investments: Aligning Digital Goals with Reality in Supply Chain
Ranjan Ghosh
Global Head of Digital Manufacturing - ABB
- Discover Industry 4.0 at a glance, and understand who the new paradigm is quickly becoming a cross-functional and cross-industry challenge.
- Ranjan contextualizes the 4.0 movement with the history of industrial supply chains, whilst analyzing the threats, focus areas and opportunities now demanding attention from retailers and manufacturers alike.
- Align your digital goals with the realities and capabilities of 21st century supply chain environments.
Roundtable Track 1
Session 1 - Challenges
3:50pm - 5:30pm
It’s all about identifying your challenges. What are the key questions that keep you up at night? What solutions are you looking for? Find common ground.
Shifting leadership mindsets from reactivity to proactivity
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences
Roundtable Track 2
Session 1 - Challenges
3:50pm - 5:30pm
It’s all about identifying your challenges. What are the key questions that keep you up at night? What solutions are you looking for? Find common ground.
Powering operational excellence through integrated planning & execution
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences
Roundtable Track 3
Session 1 - Challenges
3:50pm - 5:30pm
It’s all about identifying your challenges. What are the key questions that keep you up at night? What solutions are you looking for? Find common ground.
Continuously improving business process re-engineering
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences
Roundtable Track 4
Session 1 - Challenges
3:50pm - 5:30pm
It’s all about identifying your challenges. What are the key questions that keep you up at night? What solutions are you looking for? Find common ground.
Digitizing the kinetic world: upscaling your technology stack
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences
Roundtable Track 5
Session 1 - Challenges
3:50pm - 5:30pm
It’s all about identifying your challenges. What are the key questions that keep you up at night? What solutions are you looking for? Find common ground.
Making industry 4.0 meaningful through balancing agility, adeptness and alignment
Ranjan Ghosh
Global Head of Digital Manufacturing - ABB
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences
Networking Drinks
5:30pm - 7:00pm
Gala Dinner
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Keynote
8:00pm - 8:30pm
Our Keynote speaker will be addressing the entirety of Summit attendees during our Gala Dinner. They will be going beyond the 'brand story' and sharing their experience and the real truths of tackling a challenge that is shaping the industry.
Breaking free of silo-thinking
- Pierce, writing in Supply Chain Digital, writes that “the question is how to achieve a reduction in supply chain costs without an equivalent reduction in service quality – whether you are delivering to a production line, a retailer’s RDC… or to the end-customer’s home.”
- A common challenge between executives involved in distribution, procurement and asset management is a need to balance cost reduction with faster go-to-market and innovation.
- Learn from a delegate case study on how to best to align the priorities, strategies and incentives of your supply chain departments and find that common mission statement.
Tuesday November 19, 2019
Breakfast
7:00am - 7:50am
Welcome Remarks
7:50am - 8:00am
Panel Discussion
8:00am - 8:30am
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
Attracting and retaining top talent in disruptive business environments
- What does the burgeoning number of Universities offering Supply Chain Management degrees indicate for the future of younger generations entering the profession?
- “55% of companies report they are retraining employees in the supply chain function for digital technologies, but a lack of skilled employees is cited as the #2 obstacle to a successful supply chain.” – EY
- With the rise of AI, IoT and Blockchain, never before has the profession had an obscurer picture of what key skills are needed to bridge the generational disconnect in supply chain. Learning to attract and retain top talent in this space may require an end to silo-thinking.
Keynote
8:30am - 9:00am
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Keynote
Details To Follow.
Panel Discussion
9:00am - 9:30am
A one on one interview diving into the details of how to prepare yourself for the realities of one of the industry's top challengers.
Lessons from the industry gold-standard: are Amazon still the dominant logistics innovators?
- Amazon are known for having the fastest and most nimble go-to-market, optimizing all elements of the chain from warehousing to inventory management to delivery.
- Logistics Viewpoints write that “Amazon was already moving away from reliance on the parcel giants by giving an increasing share of its parcel business to lower cost regional providers. And many e-commerce shoppers have seen their orders delivered by the company’s fleet of private trucks”
- Even the largest globally distributed companies remain an order of magnitude below the market extent of the Amazonian supply chain, so what transferable lessons are there for failing fast in this disruptive business environment?
Oxford Style Debate and Live Polling
9:30am - 10:10am
One Topic. Two experts. Two opinions. You'll get the chance to vote on where you stand before the session starts. We'll then hear from our two experts, to see if they can sway your opinion when you participate in the closing vote.
Best practices in demand planning: is inventory asset or waste?
- Cecere writes that “Most companies are not measuring and adapting with volatility. Analyzing forecastability of the item portfolio is a good starting place…Embracing demand and supply volatility is critical. Learn to dance with uncertainty”
- Inventory is the most vital buffer of supply and demand volatility – but forecasting capability can feel disconnected from inventory strategy.
- Do we need to rethink inventory completely to cater to the customer’s needs?
Coffee & Networking Break
10:10am - 10:35am
Case Study
10:35am - 11:05am
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Leveraging artificial intelligence to optimize intermodal networking
Nuno Fernandes
President & CEO - Ilumno
- MH&L found that “businesses estimate they spend on average per week around 55 hours doing manual, paper-based processes and checks; 39 hours chasing invoice exceptions, discrepancies and errors and 23 hours responding to supplier inquiries”.
- With the market saturated with pilot-stage 4.0 solutions, is there a way to develop a maturity index for businesses to better understand the landscape of innovation on the horizon?
- More over, which solutions can actually enhance the productivity and profits of a real organization looking for the best tools to smooth A-B logistics across modes?
Workshop
11:10am - 11:40am
An industry expert will lead an interactive workshop tackling common challenges and scenarios, engaging the audience to confront the issues and discuss ideas. What will your proposed solutions be?
Carrier Cost Drivers: Negotiating an Effective Carrier Contract
Kenneth Moyer
Partner/VP of Supply Chain Strategies - LJM Group
- Learn to ‘Think like a Carrier’ relative to the cost and needs of your business.
- When it comes to Carrier cost – can you differentiate what is true and what is fluff? Your Carrier rates may be more flexible than you think – and you may have more influence over them than you think.
- Review the common pitfalls and opportunities of a Carrier Agreement by deconstructing its most basic elements – and then isolate solutions where everyone wins.
Panel Discussion
11:45am - 12:15am
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
Reducing last-mile costs: can we simply automate everything?
Nick Zaveri
Senior Director, Product Management, Enterprise Cloud Applications, Retail Supply Chain - Sears Holdings Corporation
- The maximum density of automated last-mile solutions, such as drones and driverless trucks, are often limited by governmental and environmental constraints.
- Executives might not yet have a clear picture on the social proclivities of leveraging this new technology in downtown, metropolitan areas.
- But does the end goal of reducing last mile costs necessarily mean innovating to the nth degree, or can more scalable solutions be achieved through resource sharing?
Keynote
12:20pm - 12:50pm
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Keynote: Case study
Details To Follow.
Networking Lunch
12:50pm - 1:50pm
Roundtable
Session 2 - Discovery
1:50pm - 2:40pm
Learning and sharing with your group. What are the solutions? Are they readily available? What path are you going to take?
Drill-Down Roundtables
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences:
- Shifting leadership mindsets from reactivity to proactivity
- Powering operational excellence through integrated planning & execution
- Continuously improving business process re-engineering
- Digitizing the kinetic world: upscaling your technology stack
- Making industry 4.0 meaningful through balancing agility, adeptness and alignment
Workshop
2:40pm - 3:10pm
An industry expert will lead an interactive workshop tackling common challenges and scenarios, engaging the audience to confront the issues and discuss ideas. What will your proposed solutions be?
Workshop
Details To Follow.
Case Study
3:15pm - 3:45pm
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Driving operational excellence in IoT to speed J-I-T production and delivery.
Phil Hodge
Vice President Supply Chain - Eberspächer Group
- Forbes write that IoT is set to enhance asset tracking, vendor relations, forecasting, inventory management, connected fleets and scheduled maintenance: “beyond the use of data for improved efficiencies noted above… businesses can get creative with supply chain transparency”
- What’s missing from this picture is the actionable insight to source and apply IoT solutions in the chain, from quality control to waste elimination to people development.
- Hear from a delegate who has done just that.
Panel Discussion
3:50pm - 4:20pm
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
Driving optimal readiness with your technology service providers.
Matthew Liotine
Clinical Professor, Information & Decision Sciences - University of Illinois
- T-Systems write that “the companies that will benefit are those who transform their supply chain management systems now. If production and logistics processes are comprehensively digitized, the value chain can quickly transform into a genuine value network and boost the business potential of all processes, right through to after-sales service.”
- Often with leadership the ambition and business case for implementing new technology, such as AI, IoT and Blockchain, is there. What’s missing is the readiness of service providers to suit the idiosyncratic needs of your business projects. As a result, the space now has a mix of non-traditional players.
- The panel discusses the foundation of this challenge: harmonizing the maturity of data with the maturity of the business – and the need to look outside the box to drive further integration
Oxford Style Debate and Live Polling
4:20pm - 5:20pm
One Topic. Two experts. Two opinions. You'll get the chance to vote on where you stand before the session starts. We'll then hear from our two experts, to see if they can sway your opinion when you participate in the closing vote.
Orchestrating the control tower: fad or future?
- Investing in and actioning intelligent solutions is impossible without data mastery within an organization. Building and developing the interconnectedness of your chain should be always take priority over deploying flashy technology in silos.
- In response, the control tower promises integrated end-to-end visibility, demand tracking and supplier tracing capabilities through leveraging predictive analytics in a single execution layer.
- The panel discusses the best practices in control tower to automate manual tasks and free up time to add value to your end user at every stage of the chain. Furthermore, the panel discusses whether the control tower can not only predict faults in the chain, but prescribe and propose solutions in real-time.
Attendee downtime
5:20pm - 7:00pm
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
- T-Systems write that “the companies that will benefit are those who transform their supply chain management systems now. If production and logistics processes are comprehensively digitized, the value chain can quickly transform into a genuine value network and boost the business potential of all processes, right through to after-sales service.”
- Often with leadership the ambition and business case for implementing new technology, such as AI, IoT and Blockchain, is there. What’s missing is the readiness of service providers to suit the idiosyncratic needs of your business projects. As a result, the space now has a mix of non-traditional players.
- The panel discusses the foundation of this challenge: harmonizing the maturity of data with the maturity of the business – and the need to look outside the box to drive further integration.
Networking drinks
7:00pm - 7:30pm
Dinner & Entertainment
7:30pm - 10:00pm
Wednesday November 20, 2019
Breakfast
7:30 am - 8:20 am
Welcome Remarks
8:20 am - 8:30 am
Keynote
8:30 am - 9:00 am
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Protecting supply chains from geopolitical risk.
Jerry Storey
Founder & Director of Supply Chain Logistics - Washington DC Leaders in Supply Chain
- Whilst the scale and intensity of geopolitical events varies wildly, risk is not impossible to predict.
- IBM asks “How are you addressing the negative consequences of increased global sourcing? With volatility rising, do you have the analytical capabilities to determine the optimal global configuration for your supply chain?”
- Learn from a delegate who has not only mastered the monitoring of their vulnerabilities within their supply chain, but understood the impacts of geopolitical risk on their organization down to the molecular level.
Roundtable
Session 3 - Outcomes
9:30 am - 10:10 am
What does it all mean. Tracing back through two days of work, where are we? What you are bringing back to the office with you.
Drill-Down Rountables
Summit to break down into roundtables to discuss overarching themes of summit, drawing on salient case studies, facts, figures and experiences:
- Shifting leadership mindsets from reactivity to proactivity
- Powering operational excellence through integrated planning & execution
- Continuously improving business process re-engineering
- Digitizing the kinetic world: upscaling your technology stack
- Making industry 4.0 meaningful through balancing agility, adeptness and alignment
Coffee & Networking Break
10:10 am - 10:35 am
Case Study
10:35 am - 11:05 am
A brand exec takes you behind the scenes, providing insight into a successful project implementation – what worked, what didn’t and which pitfalls to avoid.
Embracing cyber-security as a business problem.
Chris Van Schijndel
Cybersecurity Director – Customer Connectivity and Logistics, Global Supply Chain - Johnson & Johnson
- Whilst cybersecurity used to be centered around regulatory compliance and data confidentiality, since the watershed moment of 2017, the challenges of cyber threats are forcing companies into survival mode. It is now worth more than the illegal drug trade.
- With the move to digitization now unstoppable, the threat of catastrophic availability events, such as ransomware attacks, becomes ever more acute. Can blockchain alone neutralize all these threats?
- Harmonizing first, second and third-tier players is a critical challenge in of itself. How can we develop people, processes and technology to wake up to the pressing urgency of cyber security as a business problem?
Workshop
11:10 pm - 11:40 pm
An industry expert will lead an interactive workshop tackling common challenges and scenarios, engaging the audience to confront the issues and discuss ideas. What will your proposed solutions be?
Workshop
Details to follow.
Interview
11:45 am - 12:05 pm
Q&A With the most rated speaker of the event
Panel Discussion
12:10 pm - 1:00 pm
The perspectives of 4-5 industry experts into one of the key challenges we're all facing today. This will be moderated to create a session of different perspectives, opinions and tangible takeaways of how our panelists are tackling them.
Redefining the terms of partner relationships to share risk, cost and rewards equitably.
Anand Singh
Director Global Procurement - Philips
Juan Semante
Global Supply Chain Director - AngioDynamics
Ranjan Ghosh
Global Head of Digital Manufacturing - ABB
- “In an ideal supply chain relationship, both customers and suppliers get connected in ways that allow them to easily exchange information, demand data, and the visibility of status”. How can executives gauge accurately where they are strategically with partners, with each of varying size and technological maturity?
- The closing panel discusses the mission-critical statement that ties together the overarching challenges for the summit: aligning operational excellence, innovation and customer-centricity to embrace political-economic uncertainty as opportunity.
Buffet lunch
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Summit Location
The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, Florida
Our events take place at some of the most prestigious venues in the world. Five-star accommodation, dining and amenities make attending one of our summits both business and pleasure. Being productive has never been so much fun.
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To discuss how GDS Summits can help you solve your project challenges contact us on: 0117 921 4000 or email sayhello@gdsgroup.com.
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