Logistics experts consider supply chain digitalization and visibility key to improved service for clients

Logistics experts consider supply chain digitalization and visibility key to improved service for clients
Some of the most renowned experts in logistics management gathered for two days at Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC). A debate transpired between academic and business perspectives in the search for improvements in the supply chain that will benefit the client. The key factors for this stage were seen as digitalization and visibility to enhance the anticipation or reduction of costs. Ibercaja collaborated with the forum, showing its support to the effort made by ZLC in education and research in the area of logistics.

Zaragoza, 24 May 2016

Zaragoza Logistics Center, the research center fostered by the Government of Aragon in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), hosted the second session of the Global Supply Chain Forum on Tuesday. This encounter gathered together the leading figures in European logistics, representatives of leading companies such as Accenture, Azucarera, BMS, Bridgestone, Clariant, DHL, Gefco, Johnson&Johnson, La Zaragozana, Leo Pharma, Procter&Gamble, Pfizer, Privalia and Saica.

Sponsored by Ibercaja, this session aimed to analyze and debate the main trends in this area of business and, for this purpose, two round-table discussion sessions were held. The first of these analyzed how making the supply chain visible could foster business resilience, while the second examined how digitalization is affecting logistical processes.

On this matter, Víctor del Pozo, operations manager at Privalia, noted that ‘digitalization is very important as it allows us to improve our operations because, in a world in which the client is the main focus, it provides us with extensive data on the type of client, their preferences and their habits’. He also predicted that the Internet of things will facilitate the organization of a ‘more predictive’ supply chain, one able to anticipate needs, as it will be based on real-time trend and information analyses.

Meanwhile, Gustavo Rodríguez, head of Supply Chain Management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Clariant, explained that control over the supply chain and data handling ‘allows decisions to be taken faster and clear action plans to be put in place should there be divergences, delivery problems or interruptions in the supply’. ‘It helps us to be more efficient’, he asserted.

In the same vein, during the first panel of the day, emphasis was placed on the importance of monitoring the whole supply chain, something that will also help in planning for and anticipating in decision making, as well as in reducing costs.

This event has become on of the main professional forums in the supply chain area, one in which European sector leaders can share experiences and hear about success stories in supply chain management.

‘The session was very successful’, said María Jesús Sáenz, head of the centre. Indeed, she highlighted the fact that the debate between academia and industry from an applied research standpoint was ‘extremely enriching’ because ‘it helps a company to reflect on the next step to take or on those taken by other businesses, and, for us, we have the chance to develop awareness of specific matters which can later be repurposed’.

Moreover, the session allowed researchers from the center to meet representatives from the business world, managers in the areas in which they are working, in order to try to identify common ground between their needs and the research at the center.

MONDAY ENCOUNTER

The Global Supply Chain Research Forum began this Monday with the Research Fest, in which students from the Master of Engineering in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (ZLOG) had the chance to present their research projects to professors, corporate partners and jury members who then gave awards to the very best work.

For further details, please contact:
* Sira Marqueta
Marketing & Communications Manager at Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC)
608 237 804 / [email protected]

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