Greetings from the Supply Chain Management Centre at Indian Institute of Management @ Bangalore (IIMB)!
IIMB has been at the forefront of supply chain management education and research for many years. With a distinguished faculty line-up including world-class scholars and a talented pool of researchers and Ph.D students, IIMB carries out dedicated research, teaching, and consulting activities in a range of areas. These include strategic sourcing, digital supply chains, operational issues in the sharing economy, sustainable supply chains, healthcare operations, retail analytics, and revenue management.
Recognizing the need for an effective mechanism to promote a close and enduring industry-academia collaboration, the Supply Chain Management Centre (SCMC) came into existence in January 2007 as one of the strategic multidisciplinary Centres of Excellence (CoE) within IIMB. Headed by a leadership team comprising the Chairperson (a faculty member from IIMB) and notable Advisory Council Members from various industry verticals, the SCMC is dedicated to carrying out theoretical and applied research on all aspects of supply chain management with participation from a multidisciplinary faculty and industry practitioners. The SCMC is currently supported by 23 IIMB faculty drawn from different disciplines including operations management, data analytics, marketing, public policy, strategy, economics, and finance. The SCMC builds upon the existing strengths of IIMB in research, education, and integration of inter-functional business disciplines to serve as a valuable knowledge-generating resource and contributes to development of cutting-edge strategies and practical solutions to problems encountered by organizations across all aspects of supply chains.
The overarching goal of the SCMC cannot be realized without the efforts of our students and research associates. One of the unique features for IIMB’s students within the MBA programme is the facility to take up live Contemporary Concerns Study (CCS) projects sponsored by companies from varying industry sectors. These CCS project durations are typically spread over 3 months, and the SCMC has successfully delivered 31 CCS projects in AY 2021-22. There are currently 37 CCS projects in progress for AY 2022-23. The organizations sponsoring CCS project include both Multinational organisations and large Indian corporates.
The Centre is funded exclusively by its corporate sponsors from varying industry verticals, some of which include oil and energy (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.), automotive industry (TVS Supply Chain Solutions), supply chain software and consulting (Manhattan Associates) and technology (Intel Corporation and Microsoft Azure). The endeavour of the Centre is to develop associations with corporate sponsors who can contribute to the research mission of IIMB, gain from this association by adopting the best practices in supply chain management, and contribute back to towards lifting the overall knowhow of supply chain management on a broad scale.
SCMC has recently set up a lab named TCI-IIMB Supply Chain Sustainability Lab (TCI-IIMB SCSL) in partnership with Transport Corporation of India (TCI). This lab is a testament to IIMB’s commitment to academic excellence, research, and innovation in the areas of sustainable supply chain. The TCI-IIMB SCSL is a one-of-a-kind centre of excellence in sustainable supply chain practice, dissemination, and advocacy. The TCI-IIMB Supply Chain Sustainability Lab conducts research and publish papers in areas such as decarbonization, circular economy, and sustainable procurement. It also aspires to offer consulting services on carbon-related mapping, measurement, mitigation, and management.
With its academic pursuits and strong industry alliances, the SCMC aims to be a key player in influencing supply chain policy, both in India and globally, and provide strong leadership in the SCM domain. We anticipate the Centre to be a vibrant hub for supply chain research, delivering on new knowledge creation and dissemination, thereby influencing the overall supply chain landscape. If you wish to become a corporate sponsor; or engage with us on a CCS project; or are a supply chain professional that is interested in becoming part of the SCMC; or you are just excited to be a supply chain and logistics professional and wish to share your thoughts, we encourage you to contact us at scmc[at]iimb[dot]ac[dot]in.
Prof. Tarun Jain
Chairperson, Supply Chain Management Centre @ IIMB