Introduction

Supply chain management (SCM) as a business concept has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade. Being a systems approach, it has caught the attention of probably every firm which desires to be competitive today. The advent of SCM has shifted the focus from functional excellence to functional integration and the performance of supply chains has become representative of the firm performance. This has turned the war between business organizations today into a war between their supply chains.

The importance of managing supply chains more effectively has assumed greater importance with the onset of globalization. Globalization is increasing competition forcing business organizations to be more competitive and effective management of the supply chain seems to be the best way for firms to gain competitive advantage. Globalization has also forced companies to have supply chains which are geographically dispersed with raw material being sourced from one region of the globe and the processing of the material into finished product being carried out in a different region. This makes the issue of effective management of supply chains even more pertinent.

SCM being a holistic concept covers a wide range of aspects for any business organization. Logistics is an integral part of SCM so much so that it has become synonymous with SCM. Information technology has become a pre-requisite for SCM and use of ERP and DSS is being recognized as a necessary condition for managing supply chains effectively. Emergence of the concept of Information Integrity will give a new dimension to the relevance of information technology in SCM. Outsourcing and strategic partnerships have enhanced the efficiency of supply chains while reducing involvement of firms in non-core activities. Issues regarding environment and reverse logistics are forcing governments and business firms to think of innovative solutions to manage their supply chains.

Considering the importance of SCM in the fiercely competitive world of today, the conference aims to provide a common forum to academicians and industry practitioners within the country, for exchanging views on how supply chain management can enhance competitiveness of business firms, the issues that arise while implementing the concept and their possible solutions. While academicians can put forward new theories, practitioners can add value by highlighting on practical issues faced by them while implementing supply chain management. The conference welcomes papers covering exploratory research, modeling and case studies.