- MIT – March 2013
- Shanghai Jiao Tong – June 2013
- IIMB Bangalore – November 2013
- Stanford – March 13, 2014
These executive forums focused on global supply chains that are managed by multinational companies that operate in the US and abroad. This includes OEMs, contract manufacturers, service providers and lower tier suppliers in both manufacturing and service industries. Our emphasis was on issues associated with the sourcing of manufacturing and services. The following is a brief overview of the motivation and objectives of the forum.
Many manufacturing firms are re-examining the structure of their global supply chains and their associated sourcing strategy in response to the uncertainties and risks they face in these turbulent times. These adjustments are occurring against a backdrop of fundamental change to the environment in which global supply chains operate. For decades a dominant strategy in manufacturing has been to outsource to low cost global suppliers. This has led to the transfer of manufacturing jobs and development activities out of the US, Japan and Europe and into low labor cost countries such as China, India and Vietnam. Today this trend is being challenged by a movement by some companies to “re-shore” their manufacturing by bringing it back or at least moving it closer to their developed country market, i.e. by “near-shoring”. At the same time many firms continue to select offshore locations for outsourcing of material inputs and services.
The forums considered the current status of sourcing strategy from the perspective of major multi-national firms. Participants were provided with the opportunity to interact with senior executives from leading multi-national companies headquartered or operating in the various regions in which the forum took place (i.e. East coast US, West coast US, China, India), to explore current thinking and practices concerning global supply chain strategy and sourcing. Forum interactions included an exchange of ideas that identified managerial challenges and concerns. The forums also provided an overview current practices and intentions of participating companies. The focus was on issues that include development of an understanding of the drivers of sourcing decisions as perceived by the participants in order to identify opportunities for improvement and barriers to implementation. The forum adopted a full product life cycle perspective that included issues concerning value creation through product design, manufacturing, fulfillment logistics, and after sales customer service support. The impact of technology developments and government policies was also considered.