*Johan Devos recounts his time as Chairperson of EPCA’s Supply Chain
Program Committee (SCPC)*
Looking back at my chairmanship (2014-2018), I can only admit that this was
a challenging and great period, which flew by very quickly. It began, when
my predecessor Raf Bemelmans (at that time: Director Supply Chain Polymers
Europe, SABIC) stepped down in April 2014 and I took over quite
unexpectedly, although with unanimous support. The preparations for the
workshop “Talent & Technology – Drivers for Supply Chain Leadership”, that
successfully took place in June 2014, were already in a final stage and
also the “Supply Chain and Logistics Leaders Breakfast” Session at the 48th
EPCA Annual Meeting in Vienna was being planned. Fortunately, everything
rolled out smoothly.
The big change for me personally was the fresh approach from EPCA CEO
Caroline Ciuciu, who supported the SCPC and my personal strive for a
full-blown Logistics & Supply Chain Session at the Annual Meeting. The
first one in Budapest during the 50th EPCA Annual Meeting in 2016 was an
immediate hit with the famous Futurist and Business Thinker Patrick Dixon
delivering the keynote speech. The audience was very positive, and the
feedback was excellent. The year after, our Logistics & Supply Chain
Session at the 51st EPCA Annual Meeting in Berlin, tackled the new wave of
digitisation in the petrochemical supply chain. The cooperation with the
Vlerick Business School worked out great and, therefore, we pursued this
topic and organised a successful workshop on “Digitisation in the
Petrochemical Supply Chain” in Brussels on 20th until 21th of June 2018.
My last year as Chairman really was overwhelming. The SCPC members are a
great team, with a nice balance of experts from both the *petrochemical
producers* and the *logistics service providers* (LSPs). In combination
with the enthusiastic EPCA team under the wings of their CEO Caroline
Ciuciu, we were able to organise once again a well-attended Logistics &
Supply Chain Session at the 52nd EPCA Annual Meeting in Vienna. We had an
inspiring keynote speaker, Professor Yossi Sheffi, Elisha Gray II
Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, Director of the MIT Center for
Transportation & Logistics, and great interaction with the other speakers
and the audience, which is growing year by year!
Digitisation will remain a hot topic for the future and the need for
resilient supply chain solutions, in view of the ever-growing
globalisation, will be key. Producing all these magnificent chemical
molecules is one thing, moving them around the globe in a safe way, with
on-time visibility will be the main message. Therefore, I remain with my
mantra:
“Logistics and Supply Chain are key elements in each and every business
strategy! “
Now I will move on to the EPCA Board to support all the EPCA activities,
but my heart will always stay with the SCPC team. I wish my successor, Dirk
Verstraeten, a great fellow Belgian with long years of global supply chain
knowledge, a lot of success!
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