The Manufacturing Logistics and Supply Chain Conference

Supply Chain conference covers a long waterfront

From the inner workings of the Nissan UK supply chain to the democracy and transparency of Manufacturer of the Year Gripple’s exemplary SME operations - with presentations on logistics from Wincanton, service orientated architecture from Logica and IT integration from Oracle and Thales in between - the Manufacturer’s Logistics and Supply Chain Conference on 19/20 June pretty much covered this diverse waterfront.

A keynote address from Nissan UK’s Keith Copeland set the tone with a forthright analysis of supplier relationships and the extent of collaborative working with Europe’s most productive car plant.

A three-strong presentation team from Thales explained the aerospace and defence giant’s approach to rolling out Oracle applications to integrate the needs of design engineering, programme management and ERP into a single solution.

In a presentation, Supply Chain Collaboration and Service Oriented Architecture, Logica CMG’s Steve Whittaker and Andy Pritchard took delegates through the too-little understood area of SOA to facilitate the integration of legacy systems and new business applications.
Wincanton’s Chris Taylor picked up the logistics aspects of collaboration, demonstrating how flexibility and continuous improvement form the cornerstone of supplier/customer relationships.

Les Cooper, production director at Gripple, the reigning Manufacturer of the Year, unveiled the secrets and, in particular, the open democracy that marks out his company and dictates the relationships it enjoys up and down the chain from suppliers to customers.

Following a ‘virtual factory tour’ with the Institute of Operations Management’s fictional Rometex Lawnmowers plant, the conference concluded with a lively interactive panel debate ranging across issues from overseas procurement to reverse logistics. And before heading home, the conferences braver delegates took up an invitation to go for a spin in a 250 horsepower Westfield sportscar, courtesy of delegate and Westfield CEO Julian Turner.