Location: SAS Institute, Kasteel de Robiano, Hertenbergstraat 6, B-3080 Tervuren.

Timing:  31/05/2012.  14.00h  – 17.00h

Pricing: 195€ non-members.  145€ members (excl VAT)

Participants: COO, CFO, Supply Chain Director and managers

limited seating! Maximum 50 participants.

The Supply Chain is not a business function, it is a network of companies and Supply Chain Management is the implementation of cross-functional relationships with key customers and suppliers in that network.  The economic crisis has only increased the supply chain complexity by ever increasing customer requirements and expectations, globalization, the pressure on cost, and the availability and access to resources. On top of this, management is expected to improve profitability, increase revenue growth and capture and protect larger market share. 

In this seminar, both academic as professional speakers will provide you insights into importance of Supply Chain Finance.

14.00h.  Keynote:                     Prof. dr. Nico Vandaele / KU Leuven

Finance versus Operations:  Choose or Share?

In the everlasting turmoil of operational excellence in financial difficult times, the lean concept stays at the center of the table. It should be clear that inventories are not the only buffers and moreover that the financial impact of the various buffers is definitely not the same. Lean fanatics may turn a good business into amnesia. Well-thought financial evaluation of operational decision making may put the business into a sustainable mode.

Nico Vandaele holds a degree Commercial Engineering (1990) and obtained a PhD. in Applied Economics, Operations Research and Operations Management from the K.U. Leuven in 1996. He is currently Full Professor Operations Management at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is a research member of the Research Center of Operations Management. He is also a visiting researcher at CORE and IAG (Université Catholique de Louvain.

Nico Vandaele teaches courses in statistics, operations research and operations management. His research interests are situated in modeling of manufacturing and service systems, performance measurement, the design of planning systems, factory physics, health care management and traffic modeling. Recently new research has been set up in the area of decision support for product design and development. He published in leading journals like IIE Transactions, Managements Science, Transportation Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Interfaces, MSOM journal, Robotics and Intelligent Systems, International Journal of Production Economics, Computers and Operations Research, among others. He is active in several executive training programs, both national and international, and has served as consultant/advisor for major global companies, like Am!bev, Atlas Copco, IBM, Baxter, Johnson & Johnson, Continental, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Monsanto, Bekaert, Procter & Gamble, as well as small and medium sized companies.

Since 2007 he is executive director of IICK at Kortrijk and Nyo Alatus, a KULeuven spin-off company.

14.45h:                 Gary Cokins, CPIM

Supply Chain Profitability and Cost Management – Promises and Perils

Logistics and supply chain managers have increasingly realized that the greatest potential to create financial value lies not within a single firm but across all the trading partner enterprises comprising a supply chain, particularly at the interface between trading partners.  At the boundaries of their firm – with their suppliers and customers – is where companies can identify mutually beneficial cost savings initiatives plus new and greater opportunities to reduce costs from core processes and to provide higher service levels to their customers. 

Supply chain profitability and cost measurement has been frequently identified as a source of value creation and competitiveness. It involves the collection, expense assignment, and analysis of profit margins and cost information across all of the work activities comprising a supply chain for the purpose of identifying opportunities to obtain a competitive advantage through a combination of reduced costs or improved performance. Although managerial accounting practices and systems exist, few companies have completed the journey of inter-organizational supply chain profit management.    

Gary Cokins is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and performance improvement systems. He is a Principal in Business Consulting involved with analytics and enterprise performance and risk management solutions with SAS, a leading provider of enterprise performance management and business analytics software headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. Gary received a BS degree with honors in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Cornell University in 1971. He received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1974.

Gary began his career as a strategic planner with FMC’s Link-Belt Division and then served as Financial Controller and Operations Manager. In 1981 Gary began his management consulting career first with Deloitte Consulting. Next with KPMG, Gary was trained on ABC by Harvard Business School Professors Robert S. Kaplan and Robin Cooper.  Prior to joining SAS, Gary headed the National Cost Management Consulting Services for Electronic Data Systems (EDS).

Mr. Cokins participates and serves on committees including: The AICPA, CAM-I, APICS, the American Association of Accountants (AAA), the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the Supply Chain Council, and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

Mr. Cokins serves on board of advisors and regularly posts articles for www.kpilibrary.com , www.smartdatacollective.com , http://bigfatfinanceblog.com/ , www.information-management.com , www.iianalytics.com , and www.informs.org .

He serves with Professor Robert S. Kaplan on the International Monetary Fund’s activity-based costing advisory panel.

15.30h Networking break

15.45h.         Wim Wuyts, Head of Tax, Bekaert

A tax efficient supply chain.  

A tax-efficient supply chain is one that integrates tax considerations into the company’s overall business and operational planning. Together, these strategies result in increased savings. Tax-efficient supply chain planning typically involves centralizing one or more business activities.

This will be illustrated with a business case he implemented in the past.

Wim Wuyts is a seasoned professional in the international fiscal world. He has more than 15 years of international experience, leading global tax organizations and heading up major corporate reorganization programs.

Wim is heading up the tax function at the Bekaert Group and prior to working for Bekaert he has been working with other leading corporations in the world such as Arthur Andersen, Levi Strauss & Co, Baxter Inc and the Agfa-Gevaert Group. Wim studied in Brussels (EHSAL and ICHEC) and Paris (Sorbonne and INSEAD).

Wim has recently been appointed Chairman of the Tax Committee of the VBO-FEB. He also created in 2004 the (Belgian) Tax Think Tank. Wim is a frequently asked public speaker on international taxation, general tax management and coaching.

16.30h  Debate                          

17.00h  Networking drink        

18.00h  End