Supply Chain Forum: The Customer-Centric Supply Chain - Friday, Oct. 21, 2016

Oct. 21 - Supply Chain Forum: The Customer-Centric Supply Chain

Featured keynote: Chris Caplice, executive director, Center for Transportation and Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The future rarely moves in predictable ways. Shifting trends in technology, demographics and economics are dramatically impacting how companies plan and operate. These changes aren’t following historical patterns, either, making them difficult to predict using traditional forecasting.

Unfortunately, companies often are unprepared for what’s to come, locked in their current environment with little capability to change or adjust along with underlying conditions. This can lead to a dominant design that’s not amenable to disruptions, as seen in the U.S. distribution and freight transportation network. New trends on the rise, however, are challenging supply chains that haven’t changed in decades.

Caplice in this session will highlight how four oncoming trends – miniaturization, virtualization, decentralization and digitization – will alter the competitive landscape as companies devise new ways to serve their customers. This session will provide supply chain managers and others with new insights as they rethink assumptions in their partner selection, distribution network design, and chosen service platforms. 

An award-winning scholar in the transportation and logistics field, Caplice also is the founder of MIT’s FreightLab, a research initiative that focuses on improving the way freight transportation is designed and managed. He has experience in supply chain consulting, product development, and professional services at several companies and is the chief scientist for Chainalytics, the leading analytical supply chain consulting firm. Read his full bio on MIT’s website here.

This session is open to employees of COE member companies and invited guests only.

agenda	session	location
8 a.m.	Check-in / Supply Chain Career Connection  Informal networking event with Fisher graduate students seeking careers in supply chain.	365 Gerlach Hall, FCOB
9:30 a.m.	Keynote: "Disrupting The Dominant Design for Distribution" Chris Caplice, MIT	365 Gerlach Hall, FCOB
11 a.m.	Panel Discussion: The Customer-Centric Supply Chain Chris Caplice, MIT David Widdifield, global director, retail solutions, Crane Worldwide Logistics Mike Knemeyer, professor of logistics, Fisher College of Business Jeff Woodard, VP Operational Excellence, T. Marzetti Co.	365 Gerlach Hall, FCOB
Noon	Program concludes

EVENT FULL. Registration will add your name on a first-come, first-serve waitlist.