Supply Chain Day 2019 at University of Economics in Katowice
This year, for the fifth time, the Supply Chain Day was held and the following events took place:
- A study trip to the Dachser Branch in Sosnowiec
- The lean workshops "Flow of materials and information in the production process. The use of Lean tools in the process of improving supply chain processes".
- “The workshops TransEdu Academy: Logistics 4.0"
- The workshops “New trends in shopping. Vision of the future shopping employee".
A total of 61 people attended the Supply Chain Day this year - students of the Faculty of Management and the Faculty of Economics as well as high school students from Bytom and Jastrzębie-Zdrój.
The study tour to the Dachser Branch in Sosnowiec took place at the invitation of Mr. Grzegorz Lichocik Ph.D. Eng., President of Dachser Sp. z o.o. The invitation had been addressed to students of our University, especially for those who study: Logistics, International Economic Relations and Economic Analysis. It was an opportunity to get to know general information on the functioning of the Dachser company in macro and micro scale and to see the company. The participants of the study tour could also get acquainted with elements related to product loading, logistics and warehouse organization. The meeting of students with staff also gave an opportunity to actively ask questions.
The lean workshops were conducted by Nexteer staff: Mr. Robert Jękot, M.Sc., eng. and Mrs. Patrycja Lewandowska, MA, from Nexteer. Substantive care was provided by Ms Anna Ossowska MA, a Director of Supply Chain in Nexteer Automotive Poland Sp. z o.o., a member of the Logistics Program Board at the Faculty of Management. The aim of the workshops and benefits for the participants were to acquire basic knowledge about lean tools in logistic processes, as well as the possibility of their practical testing in a safe environment during a simulation game. The workshop was mainly based on a simulation game reflecting the production process and consisted of several rounds. During the first round, participants learned about the rules of material and information flow (the so-called MIFA). After each round, the lean tools chosen by the participants were implemented in order to optimize the process and see for themselves what effect the tools used bring and what changes they caaused. The simulation during the workshop required group cooperation, at the same time "forcing" the correctness of activities performed by a given person. Each round ended with a summary of the achieved results. It was an element that made the participants very involved in the active creation of the process.
"TransEdu Academy: Logistics 4.0" was conducted by Mr. Bogumił Paszkiewicz, TransEdu Project Manager. The workshop consisted of two parts. During the first part the participants got acquainted with basic concepts related to IT systems for logistics, relations of these systems with regard to the work of logisticians, and got acquainted with freight exchanges.
The participants also symulated business relations and held a negotiation workshop, taking on the role of entities (persons) ordering and accepting transport orders. The aim of this part of the workshop was to pay special attention to soft competences required in logistics work. This part of the workshop ended with an interactive presentation (in the form of a lecture) concerning the security of business relations. The second part of the meeting began with a presentation, supported by practical examples, on the subject of IT systems used in modern logistics and technologies referred to as 4.0. An interesting theme was to present the computerization of processes and the possibility of shortening the time of activities thanks to the use of self-learning algorithms. The last part of the meeting was filled with a game based on the Trans.eu stock exchange system (simulation of the role of the carrier). The workshop paid special attention to the basic aspects of working with the program - the exchange system.
The workshop "Building a purchasing strategy" was conducted by Ms Agata Kulikowska, MA, Leading Procurement Management Specialist at Tauron Polska Energia S.A. It consisted of three parts. The first one served as an explanation of what it is to shape the purchasing strategy, what is the concept of purchasing levers and what are the basic tools for the analysis of the purchasing market. In the second part, there were business cases. They showed how important it is to describe the subject of the contract in tenders. The task of the participants was to describe the subject of the contract for a selected assortment of products and to present the consequences of an incorrectly described subject of the contract. Then the factors influencing the price were discussed (part two of the workshop). The participants' task was also to propose appropriate optimization levers in order to minimize the influence of a given factor on the price. This part of the workshop also included group work and mentoring. Participants had the opportunity to carry out a TCO analysis for a selected purchasing category and to decide how to purchase a particular category. The last, third part of the workshop was related to the scenario of conducting a so-called market conversation. It consisted in developing common principles to be borne in mind when organizing a meeting with suppliers. It was also an opportunity for the participants to take on the role of a Buyer and conduct a conversation with the Supplier, who was the person leading the workshop. The last element of the meeting was the presentation of selected methods of estimating savings, carried out on the basis of the presented practical task (with given assumptions).
We would like to thank all the companies and business representatives who participated in this event, the University Authorities, as well as Authorities of the Faculty of Management and the Faculty of Economics and all the participants of this year's edition of Supply Chain Day.
