The 18th International Conference on Operations and Supply Chain Management and the 2024 Strategic Supply Chain 50-Person Forum were held at Tongji SEM from 19 to 20 July. Jointly organized by Tongji SEM, the CEIBS Supply Chain Innovation Institute and the Association of Supply Chain and Operations Management(ASCOM), the conference, themed “The New Frontier of Supply Chain Innovation: Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology”, invited nearly 20 renowned experts, scholars, enterprise representatives and other domestic and international speakers to discuss in depth the application and development trends of artificial intelligence and digital technology in supply chain innovation. More than 200 experts, scholars, teachers, students and enterprise representatives from home and abroad attended the conference.

Members of the 18th International Conference on Operations and Supply Chain Management (ICOSCM 2024)

Professor SHI Qian, Chairman of the School Council of SEM, Professor ZHAO Xiande, Honorary Life Chairman of ASCOM, Professor of the Jingdong Chair of Operations and Supply Chain Management at CEIBS and President of the CEIBS Supply Chain Innovation Institute, and Professor HUO Baofeng, Chairman of ASCOM and Director of the Institute of Supply Chain Management at Zhejiang University, delivered the opening speeches of this year’s conference.

Professor SHI Qian

Professor ZHAO Xiande

Professor HUO Baofeng

In the main forum of the conference, six renowned scholars from home and abroad delivered keynote speeches. Professor ZHU Qinghua from Shanghai Jiaotong University delivered a keynote speech entitled “Network Intelligence Strategies of NGOs to Enhance ESG of SME”, in which he discussed the phenomenon of NGOs pressuring multinational companies to encourage and help suppliers to improve their ESG performance by publicly disclosing non-compliant information. Professor PENG Xiaosong from Lehigh University delivered a keynote speech entitled “Picking Efficiency in Goods-to-People Picking Systems: Insights from E-Commerce Order Fulfillment Centres”, which focused on the research question of how workload affects the efficiency of order pickers. The problem was explained in terms of comparing peak and weekday workloads, recovery from high workloads, and the work experience of order pickers. Professor Anant Mishra of the University of Minnesota System gave a keynote speech entitled “Health Insurance and Labour Productivity: Evidence from the Medicaid Expansion”, in which he analyzed the impact of the expansion of the US Medicaid programme on labour productivity in the US manufacturing sector by presenting the background to the expansion of the programme.

The three professors also shared their insights on digital technology and supply chain management practices in an invited forum on “The Impact of AI on Manufacturing”

Professor ZHU Qinghua

Professor PENG Xiaosong

Professor Anant Mishra

Professor YU Yugang from the University of Science and Technology of China gave a keynote speech entitled “Research Paradigm Driving the Integration of Digital Intelligence Industry and Research–The Case of Digital Intelligence Supply Chain” and shared his insights on the future development path of business schools, research paradigm and experience of doctoral education. The keynote speech is about the future development path of business schools, research paradigms and experience of doctoral training. Professor Acura Tang from Linköping University gave a keynote speech entitled “Hydrogen Market from Swedish and European Perspectives”, presenting three typical cases and discussing the future development challenges. Professor NIU Baozhuang, Professor of South China University of Technology, gave a keynote speech entitled “Channel Conflict, Coordination and Resilience in Cross-border E-commerce”, in which he introduced the background of the booming development of cross-border e-commerce, focused on the conflict and coordination challenges, economic benefits and resilience performance of cross-border e-commerce, and shared an e-retailer’s research on the strategic waiting decision of the channel in the global supply chain. He also shared an e-retailer’s research on strategic waiting for disruption information in the global supply chain.

In the second invited forum on “How Chinese Enterprises Use AI to Shape Supply Chain Advantage”, three professors shared their insights on the opportunities and challenges of applying AI in areas such as inventory management and logistics optimization.

Professor YU Yugang

Professor TANG Ou

Professor NIU Baozhuang

Associate Professor MAO Wenzheng of Tongji SEM, PhD student WANG Kedi of Zhejiang University and Assistant Professor GONG Tianyu of Tongji SEM moderated the relevant parts of the forum.

Professor TAN Yinliang of CEIBS hosted a seminar on “Sharing Excellent Practices of AI and Big Data in Enterprises and Discussing Research Cooperation”, where experts and scholars from various industries shared successful cases and innovative ideas on AI-driven business transformation, big data analysis and optimization, and intelligent decision support.

In the 14 parallel forums of the conference, a number of scholars from home and abroad conducted more than 50 paper-sharing sessions on the topics of green supply chain management and performance, supply chain resilience, etc.

In addition, a journal editorial board dialogue was held on how to publish supply chain-related research in high-impact journals. Professor ZHAO Xiande, Professor LAI Fujun, Professor TANG Ou and Professor TAN Yinliang shared their valuable experiences and insights, which sparked a lively discussion on the spot.

The closing ceremony was held for the best papers, with a total of four papers winning the “ASCOM Outstanding Paper Award”. The four papers are “An empirical analysis of carbon emission reduction effect: The perspective of integration and innovation of manufacturing and logistics industries”） by Rui Lan, Liu Weihua, Yuan Chaolun, Qiu Jingcheng, Gao Yongzheng, Ou Tang）, “Right to Repair and Competition in Durable Goods Markets”） by Yang Luyi, Zhu Cungen, Jin Chen）, “The impact of heterogeneous political ties on firms’ exploratory innovations: Apolitical embeddedness perspective”（by Cheng Ru, Wang Qiang） and “Agricultural Supply Chain Operations and Financing: The Value of Blockchain Quality Certification”（by Shan Zhenjie, Lin Qiang, Yi Zelong, Chen Ying-Ju）. Professors QI Yinan, HUO Baofeng and SHI Qian presented certificates to the authors of the four papers, and Professor LAI Fujun presided over the award ceremony.

Presenting Ceremony of “ASCOM Outstanding Paper Award”

Presenting Ceremony of “Xiande Zhao Best Paper Award”

The next conference will be held at Zhengzhou University next year. Professor SHI Qian, Chairman of the School Council of Tongji SEM, and Professor ZHAI Yunkai, Dean of the School of Management of Zhengzhou University, held a flag handover ceremony at the end.