By
Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Dec 06, GNA –
The Second Supply Chain Conference 2019 has been held in Accra on the theme “A
Resilient Supply Chain in a Competitive Global Market: The Role of a
Practitioner”.
A day’s conference,
organised by the Supply Chain Connect (SCC) brought together a broad spectrum
of supply chain experts, academics, vendors and senior-level executives, aimed
at updating the knowledge and skills of Supply Chain Practitioners.
Supply chain
management is the management of the flow of goods and services and include; all
processes that transform raw materials into final products.
It involves the
active streamlining of a business’s supply-side activities to maximise customer
value and gain a competitive advantage in the market place.
Mr Ebo Hammond,
President, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CLIT) Ghana and
Chairman of the Supply Chain Conference 2019, said Supply Chain Practitioners
in this modern time were faced with numerous challenges such as dependency on
few suppliers in some products to numerous suppliers in others, inability to
react quickly to uncertainties, global supply chain uncertainties from climate
change and social upheavals, among other constraints.
“It is imperative
that practitioners adopt different strategies to manage these risks and
vulnerable factors to minimise costs and to ensure profitability of their
business.
“To ensure supply
chain resilience, practitioners must exhibit a strong understanding of the
nature of their markets and value chain, have a good appreciation of the supply
ecosystem, use it to build an effective market intelligence, which may be
utilised to design and build a robust supply chain.”
Mr Hammond noted
that to manage and maintain a resilient supply chain, practitioners must help
build agile supply chains in their operations (strategic and operational) and
form strong networks and collaboration.
He said even though
more often, organisations were fixated on competition and outsmarting one
another in the supply chain, the breakup of the chain of supply might have
systematic impact on all players in the chain.
He said building and
maintaining a resilient supply chain might require organisations in supply
streams to move from competition to cooperation, from inward orientation to
outward orientation and from management of finances to management of companies.
Madam Birago Amofa,
Supply Chain Manager, SCC, said at SCC, their credo was to connect, learn and
inspire one another.
“From the waakye you
had for breakfast yesterday, to the phones we whatsApp with by the minute, to
the fuel in our cars or even the chairs we are sitting on now, everyone of us
has a touch point with Supply Chain on daily basis,” she stated.
“It is the
profession that ensures that goods and services are available – and that at the
right place, at the right time, in the right condition and at the right price.”
Mr Farouk Sai,
Supply Chain Director, Coca Cola Bottling Company of Ghana, urged Supply Chain
Practitioners to guard against corruption.
Mr Farouk in his
presentation dubbed “A Resilient Supply Chain in a Competitive Global Market”,
cautioned Supply Chain Practitioners against allowing products/goods to expire
in warehouses.
He urged them to
ensure that warehouses were well equipped with closed circuit television (CCT)
cameras, which according to him would go a long way to help curb the phenomenon
of thefts in warehouses.
He advised those in
leadership portfolios to find capable and trustworthy men/women and mentored
them; so that they would leave behind a lasting legacy of succession.
GNA
