Professional Development Events

June PDM: UMaterial Requirement Planning (MRP) system failure - a survivor’s guide

Date: Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Location: Holiday Inn Torrance (map)

Topic Summary:
Companies usually create elaborate contingency plans to protect data against catastrophic events like fires or earthquakes. However, a more likely risk is for the system to malfunction. A malfunction can be triggered by a number of reasons like isolated upgrades or migration to new applications.

The speaker went through a situation when the MRP system used to plan global finished goods inventory started ignoring transit times i.e. product made in one place would be available instantaneously anywhere in the world. This “Beam me up Scotty” world is every supply chain professional’s dream, but it is not reality. While the MRP system was saying all was well, warehouses were calling about widespread stock outs, suppliers were calling saying orders had dropped dramatically, yet the MRP system was saying, “no problem, you are in good shape”.

What is the best way to deal with this problem?

Shankar recommends a five step process that was used successfully to ensure business continuity and fix the MRP system. Each step is filled with practical technical and leadership advice. In addition, he will also discuss ways to avoid future failures.

About the Speaker:
Shankar Suryanarayanan is a visionary operations management executive who has established and continually improved global supply chains, multi-plant manufacturing and distribution networks. He has 20+ years of operations management experience creating significant value for Life Science, Consumer Goods and Industrial companies during start up, transformation and M&A situations.

Shankar has done business on six continents and lived in US, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore and India while working for blue chip organizations like Roche, Novartis, Monitor Group and Emerson Electric.

He has written articles on global operations management, doing business in emerging markets and improving business competitiveness. Shankar has a M.S. in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management and M.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace engineering from University of Missouri in Columbia. His undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering is from the Indian Institute of Technology. Shankar can be reached at sshankar@alum.mit.edu

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LOCATION/DIRECTIONS:
Holiday Inn Torrance
19800 S Vermont Ave
Torrance, CA 90502
Map

TIME: 6:00 PM

You can now Pay your PDM Registration fee by credit card using our PayPal account. Complete the form below and click on Submit. A new page will automatically appear with a list of Los Angeles APICS offerings and credit card payment instructions. You do not have to have a PayPal account to pay by credit card.