AI, Trade-offs and the Future of Supply Chains: Insights from Schulich’s Işik Biçer
“Sorry, we’re out of stock due to supply chain issues.”
How many times have you heard that common refrain while looking at empty shelves over the past 5 years? As a consumer, it’s a frustrating experience – but think about how much more frustrating it is for supply chain managers, retailers and manufacturers.
Usually, this isn’t the fault of the store, but a result of increasingly complex supply chain and trade networks that allow little room for disruption or interruptions. Every single part of a supply chain is full of countless decisions, partners, risks, and uncertainties – each of which must be managed successfully to move things from point A to point B.
But what if there was a way to reduce uncertainties and improve supply chains? One Schulich faculty member may have a solution.
On Thursday, November 20th, Schulich School of Business professor Işik Biçer (Associate Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems) presented his new book Re-Imagining Supply Chain Management: Uncovering the Hidden Trade-offs in the Digital Age, which outlines how supply chain managers can reduce uncertainties and build smoother, more effective supply chains.
Speaking before a crowd of 44 students, university faculty members, supply chain industry professionals and policy makers, Işik presented a new framework for supply chain management noting that “Modern supply chains should enable not only individual firms but entire economic systems to thrive, allowing society’s most pressing economic and social problems to be addressed more effectively.”
During an in-depth interview with Danny Bloem, Account Manager from Slimstock, Işik emphasized the potential of digital solutions as a means to manage supply chains: “Generative AI offers new opportunities, but we can unlock its full potential only by revising our economic thinking and identifying the hidden trade-offs of supply chain management.”
The event also featured an industry dialogue session facilitated by Schulich professor David Johnston (Professor, Operations Management and Information Systems & Director, George Weston Ltd Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains). Industry panelists Sean Militello, Raymond Khan, Danny Bloem, and Ankit Chauhan spoke at length about the challenges facing supply chain managers and highlighted how modern supply chain leaders can use supply chain planning and design as a business growth tool. Slimstock’s Danny Bloem (doing double duty as an interviewer and a panelist) remarked “Prof. Biçer’s work highlights how supply chain managers can design their supply chains around trade-offs not always obvious to the scope supply chain is often responsible for…[and] will turn supply chain departments into strategic enablers for business growth.”
Reflecting on the event, Professor Johnston stated, “Isik’s new book is valuable in educating the next generation of supply chain managers on how to make decisions and build supporting organizational capabilities that consistently match supply with demand in a world full of transformative change, hard strategic choices and complicated trade-offs.”
Isik’s book Re-Imagining Supply Chain Management: Uncovering the Hidden Trade-offs in the Digital Age is on sale now. If you would like to learn more about Işik’s book, please feel free to contact him at bicer@schulich.yorku.ca
This event was proudly sponsored by Slimstock, an industry leader in AI-driven supply chain planning. If you would like to contact Slimstock about supply chain planning services, please feel free to reach out to Danny Bloem at d.bloem@slimstock.com
