Operations & Supply Chain Management governed by Design Thinking

This post refers to my above titled invited talk at the OSCM Symposium organized by the Department of Business Administration, Sambalpur University on 20 March 2016 (Sunday). The talk started by introducing the learners to the concept of intelligent products coming out of a transformative process in the automotive supply chain (something akin to the smart product in the movie "Tarzan - The  Wonder Car" - a smart car which can also think and act). A concept much like students coming out of a transformative process in the education system which takes care to see the students from two perspectives: both as (a) products and also as (b) customers. As in the movie, it is important in supply chains to harness the power of design. The abstract of the talk follows:

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Abstract: To realize the benefits of competitiveness, Indian companies need to improve domestic performance. They have to be strongly rooted in the needs and wants of the domestic customers. Therefore, they need to first overcome the local challenges before going global. If we look closely, most of the answers to the challenges faced by our manufacturing industry can be traced back to the design stage. Therefore, design plays a prominent role in enhancing both efficiency and responsiveness of these domestic supply chains. Our research indicates that there is a certain firm-level design deficit that inhibits our manufacturing performance. Hence, there is a need for harnessing the power of design thinking which promotes the adoption of improved design methods for fostering firm-level competitiveness. Design thinking provides the guiding principles for aligning design with various supply chain initiatives. There is a huge potential yet to be tapped – be it with regard to “design for supply chains” or “design of supply chains”. Design thinking which starts with empathy holds the promise for developing viable domestic supply chains in support of the recent initiatives of the Govt. of India – be it for ‘Make-in-India’, ‘Skill India’ or ‘Digital India’. These programs will all start well if we put design upfront in our endeavors.

To support the needs of the industry it is also important to bring changes in the professional higher education sector of India. There is a need for business school programs to overhaul their courses by establishing innovation labs for supporting the learning environment. We will discuss our experience in adopting design thinking for supporting various operations and supply chain management courses while looking for synergies in the approaches related to product lifecycle management (PLM), total quality management (TQM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM).

Keywords – Design thinking, design deficit, competitiveness, manufacturing challenges, industry-driven curriculum

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Related links:
Promoting Design Thinking in Indian Professional Higher Education
Under design thinking label 

EMPATHY – one of the 5Es for leading change

One of the 5E's articulated by our Prime Minister at the 103rd Indian Science Congress is "Empathy" (the very first step in Design Thinking).(Click)  He seemed to be echoing what Harvard Business School is doing right now – i.e., focusing on design thinking in its leadership teaching courses. According to Prof. Anthony Mayo, it requires a different kind of leadership skills for driving change -  "What it requires is empathy...and so you have to put yourself in the shoes of the customer and that can be difficult for leaders because it requires humility. It requires vulnerability, it requires you to be comfortable saying I don't know," said Mayo. [Click here]

Indian establishments need a lot of that to stimulate "Make in India" in its true sense. See an earlier post titled “[PLMSS-2015] Design Thinking for Steering PLM Implementation @DRDO [Sat, 26 Dec 2015]”

As part of cooperative federalism and global collaboration, it is worthwhile to note the NITI Ayog’s suggestion for Research in India through various “Make in Universities” programs.  All these require the leadership in our scientific, research and industrial establishments to partner with Universities for pursuing transformational changes rather than transactional changes.  Some may find this news report useful: 'Research in India', Contracted Foreign Defence Firms Told [Tue, 29 Dec 2015, TNIE]. Here is an excerpt: [Quote] With the aim of promoting universities as hubs of research, the committee on 'innovation and entrepreneurship' has recommended steps like encouraging professors to be stakeholders or partners in entrepreneurial and incubation ecosystems in universities by offering 'faculty entrepreneurial fellowships' [Unquote]. These developments also support the ideas in my previous posts on University-Industry research-interactions around the PLM Centers of KIIT University and other similar establishments elsewhere in the country.

Here is a related post w.r.t Indian Science Congress-2010 carrying the former PM's message on similar lines: Design Thinking in the Upcoming IITs, IIMs, NITs.

Also, here is one excerpt from this editorial titled “Stop The Circus, Stick to Science” [Sat, 9 Jan 2016, TNIE]. “Disbanding the Indian Science Congress would be like throwing the baby with the bathwater. Instead, they should refocus on the core purpose and stick to it.”

When Harvard has not yet given up on Intelligent Design, it is strange to see controversies still brewing around science and religion. (Read: Nobel laureate V Ramakrishnan calls Indian Science Congress a circus. Do you agree?). Here I assume that “Intelligent Design” is not necessarily limited to promoting the views of one particular religion. By adhering to the tenets of a pluralistic society, why can’t we look up and, as DT proponents advocate, consider taking the “Leaps of Faith”? Related link:  Intelligent cause for academic freedom [Wed, Feb 13, 2008].