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 The
Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM), the apex body
of professional materials managers in the country, is holding their
annual convention in Chennai this year. The convention NATCOM
2001 has as its theme - Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the
e-era. With the world moving towards a networked economy model
and organisations focussed on enhancing commerce and communication
through connectivity and the fast growing information technology,
they could not have chosen a better topic.
The convention will be inaugurated by N Kumar, Vice Chairman,
Chemplast Sanmar Group and the keynote address will be delivered
by S Mahalingam, Executive Vice-President, Tata Consultancy
Services.
 Convention
Chairman, Anil P Aggarwal, while addressing the media said,
"Indian companies now have to compete with intense competition
from international players, who have entered the Indian market following
liberalisation. And with the customer demanding a top class
product, faster delivery at a competitive price, the companies need
to work towards fine-tuning each element of the value chain.
The two-day convention is aimed at bringing out all the elements
of the value chain for business in general and for practicing materials
professionals in particular".
The convention will feature five technical sessions including,
discussions on various case studies in the area of e-procurement,
product presentations, third party service providers and emerging
technologies in the e-era. Speakers from GE, L & T,
Hyundai, Ernst and Young, Ford, SembCorp, IIT - Mumbai, Infosys,
Wipro, Ramco, SafeExpress, ICICI Infotech, TCS, Antarix and
Lucas-TVS will address the delegates at the convention and
share their experiences on various topics of the technical sessions.The
focus audience of the convention are CEOs, MDs, entrepreneurs, senior
and middle level professionals dealing with procurement, inventory
control, warehousing and logistics, quality assurance and so on.
S Krishnaswamy, former National President of IIMM and Advisor,
NATCOM 2001, said that from a practitioner's point of view, the
convention would yield key answers to the current and future needs
of the industry on a real time application stage.
When pointed out that the convention seemed to focus on the engineering
sector while leaving out sectors such as food retailing, M Sundaram
of IIMM said that the aim was to focus on educating the delegates
about the 'concepts'. "We want to provoke the delegates
to think. Though the specifics in each industry are different,
the basic principles are the same and one has just to understand
the principle to know how to apply it in his or her company. And
as for the focus on the automotive sector is concerned, that is
one area where we have proven case studies".
 When
questioned whether the present level of IT integration in Supply
Chain Management in India was low, Anil agreed. But he pointed
out that it had more to do with lack of other factors such as bad
infrastructure, delayed customs clearance and so on rather than
with lack of availability of information technology in India.
He also added that things were looking to change for the better,
though the progress was slow.
S B Lovekar of IIMM expressed the view that Indian companies
have to shape up or ship out. "We don't have a choice,
either we change or we die. Soon there will be only one price
- an international price and only one quality - international quality.
And the one area that can bring down prices by even 10%, is Supply
Chain Management (SCM). If we take the example of Ashok
Leyland, which is doing well in spite of a slowdown in the automotive
sector, it is because they have been focussing on SCM for the past
two years. The same is the case with Hindustan Lever."
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