Lasers, poetry, business figures, politicians and leading researchers will all feature in an inaugural Global Supply Chain Debate entitled ‘Putting the UK at the Heart of Global Supply Chains’ created and hosted by WMG, at the University of Warwick, on 10-11 November 2015.

The two day conference and debate will bring together senior professionals from a range of backgrounds to discuss and debate perspectives, and the role that the UK can play. The two-day conference will be a mixture of workshops, and scene setting covering topics including: ‘The Role of the Supply Chain in Enabling Next Generation Innovation’, ‘Insights from the Wright Review of UK Manufacturing Supply Chains’, and ‘The Strategic Importance of Supply Chains to Boeing.’

The speakers will include:

• WMG’s Chairman Professor Lord Bhattacharyya

• Former Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna

• Dr Richard Miller, Deputy Director Innovation in Industry at Innovate UK

• Mike Wright, Executive Director at JLR

• Sir Michael Arthur, President Boeing UK

• Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive University Hospitals Birmingham

• Janice Munday Director of Advance Manufacturing and Services, BIS

• Gill Ringland, CEO at SAMI Consulting

• Jan Godsell Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at WMG

• Representatives from Pinsent Mason will also provide input from a legal perspective.

WMG Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Jan Godsell comments: “It’s such a topical subject, the supply chain has hit the news headlines from the horse-meat scandal, to the more recent farmers’ milk crisis, and is often cited as a reason for corporate success or failure. We really need to ensure that the UK is at the heart of the network of global supply chains.”

The conference will also unveil two sets of artistic commissions that seek to make the supply chain more visible, and accessible. Pangaea Poetry has been commissioned to create five poems that explore the general concept of the supply chain, and how it supports issues such housing, mental health, agriculture and food, the circular economy and energy.

Unfold will also be creating some physical laser cut structures that will give a sense of the scale and complexity of the supply chain for a range of different products.

The event will be chaired by Professor Godsell, for the full agenda and to register visit go.warwick.ac.uk/gscd15 or http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/research/scip/gscd

About WMG - WMG was founded by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 to help reinvigorate UK manufacturing. From its inception WMG’s mission has been to improve the competitiveness of organisations through the application of value adding innovation, new technologies and skills deployment, bringing academic rigour to industrial and organisational practice. The Group has grown into an international role model for how universities and business can successfully work together, with Professor Lord Bhattacharyya continuing to lead as Chairman of WMG.

About Professor Jan Godsell - Professor Jan Godsell has recently been appointed to advise the UK Government on manufacturing policy as a member of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Manufacturing Advisory Group (MAG).