Supply Chain Crisis Week: a true reflection of the supply chain
8 teams competed with each other on 4 crisis scenarios.
Marie-Laure FURGALA, director of the ISLI MSc and alumni of the programme, reveals one of the two scenarios imagined with the Schneider Electric teams :
Day 1 at 9am:
Christophe Augustoni, Senior Upstream Supply Chain Expert & Global Procurement Effectiveness at Schneider Electric, starts with a presentation of the company and explains its strategy and its supply chain organisation. Then, he announces to the student groups that relations deteriorate between China and Taïwan.
Students are asked to answer the following questions in order to set up their continuity plan:
- What are the consequences on the business?
- What communication will you put in place internally with your teams and externally with your customers?
- What type of business continuity plan can you develop at this stage covering all the functions of a CODIR?
- What data do you need?
Day 1 at 2pm:
New twist: all roads (sea and air) are closed between the island and the rest of the world.
- What will be the business impact for Schneider in the short term / medium term / long term?
- What solutions can be found to mitigate the impact?
- Define a business continuity plan with timetables based on 3 scenarios of this crisis evolution.
Day 2 at 9am:
Bombings have taken place on TMSC factories, 2/3 of the world's semiconductor capacity disappeared in a flash.
- Assessing the consequences for the end-to-end supply chain
- What recovery plan should be put in place?
- How can this type of risk be prevented in the future?
- Has a country already deployed a contingency plan for reliance on the TSMC manufacturing site?
A strong work experience for students in supply chain
For the students, this experience helped to put their knowledge into practice, to act in a crisis scenario in a very short period of time and to measure their capacity to react as well as their agility in proposing realistic and effective solutions.
"This experience allowed us to brainstorm in a multicultural team and to work together on geopolitical aspects. We also appreciated the fact that for once, we are not following processes but creating them. »
"Throughout these two days, we learned how to manage an SC crisis by finding workable solutions to complex operational and strategic problems on a multi-functional scale. We used professional knowledge and expertise to find solutions focused on resilience, risk mitigation and post-crisis recovery. »
Students who have worked on the different cases are unanimous about the Supply Chain Crisis Week : intensive but very formative.
"This experience was particularly intense and formative. We are very grateful to the Sephora team and the management of our programme for this opportunity, we will remember it. »
"Prepare for the worst, expect the best" are words that really resonate with us now after experiencing the joys and sorrows of managing a real-time supply chain (SC) crisis. »
"It was difficult, but exciting and rewarding, a true reflection of what the supply chain is all about!".
The objective of this SCCW was to best prepare the students of the MSc ISLI in Global Supply Chain to face an unexpected situation in a VUCA world.
Each team had to work over 2 days, from 8am to 8pm, on a crisis scenario. 2 teams competing on each company case. Within 48 hours, they had to report back to the different members of the company and explain their solutions to ensure the business continuity plan.
"This is not a random case that was given to us, but a real-life threatening crisis, similar to the current COVID pandemic, which is challenging all the means of the supply chain worldwide. As supply chain students, we are taught to combine theoretical and practical concepts, but when it comes to real life application, we welcome the opportunity to act as professionals to be more decisive with a results-oriented mindset. Meeting this challenge more effectively was the main learning of these 2 days. »
This SCCW is a unique opportunity to study and understand a company's global logistics environment. Its allows students of all nationalities from the MSc ISLI to apply all their general skills and knowledge of Supply Chain to ensure customer satisfaction.
The teams from Sephora, SANOFI and Schneider Electric underlined the quality of the students' ability to react, think and propose solutions.
He recalled the importance in a crisis situation of ensuring the safety of the teams first and foremost. He also emphasised the importance of defining the roles and responsibilities of each person in such a situation, as well as the importance of data in decision-making.
Patricia Plane-Robert, Head of Otc Matures Plant Coordination - CHC GBU Supply Chain at Sanofi, congratulated the students: "I was impressed by the involvement, teamwork and excellent work done to deliver a continuity plan in a short time. You were not stressed and stayed focused and involved. You were professional and checked the supply chain from end to end. »
Benedicte Dubly, Brand Labelling Operations and Import Director at Schneider Electric, for her part, emphasised the students' investment and their way of thinking "out of the box".
We congratulate the ISLI students for the quality of their work and their investment in this Supply Chain Crisis experience.
#ISLIPOWER
Discover the ISLI Supply Chain Master of Science
Ranked 5th in the Best Masters world ranking in the supply chain category, ISLI is a reference course in logistics and global supply chain management. 95% of its graduates obtain a job before leaving. This full-time, 100% English-taught supply chain master's degree offers a multicultural, international and innovative vision.
Find out more about the MSc ISLI in Global Supply Chain
