Supply Chain Management for Utilities Conference

Few things can gum up a utility’s operations more completely than mismanaging supplier relationships, parts sourcing, and inventory.

Today’s supply chains are the result of what we’ve done in the past; tomorrow’s supply chain will be the result of what we do today. So, a utility that is constantly examining the efficiency of their supply chain should consistently remain more efficient.

Supply chain management has undergone substantial evolution in the past few decades along with other changes in management philosophy that began in the 1980s. Procurement today is now recognized as a key specialty in any utility’s operations.

The field of supply chains for utilities is not standing still. Technology, digitization and automation are dramatically changing the supply chain. Utility supply chain experts have recognized that there is still plenty of room for improvement, and that while some utilities and generators are leading the way on managing lean, efficient, smooth-running supply chains, many others still have substantial savings and efficiencies to capture, particularly when looking at different needs for different states/regions in which each utility operates.

Through a series of interactive and engaging sessions, mini-panels and presentations, the Supply Chain Management for Utilities Conference will tackle issues such as:

Supply Chain Management for the Future
Strategic Sourcing
Inventory Control
Green Logistics
Talent Management
Asset Management
Supplier Integration
Risk Management
Sustainability
Contract Management
Supplier Diversity
And More

Learning Outcomes

Identify how technology will redefine supply chain optimization
Examine best practices for supplier relationships
Discover how strengthened SCM drives improved inventory management and equipment reliability
Explore methods to capture data, processes and people
Build and sustain all stakeholder relationships
Review practical methods on making contracting more transparent
Leverage data analytics using business intelligence tools like Tableau, Cognos, etc
Transform your supply chain by leveraging the shift towards renewable energies
Apply a framework to your succession planning strategy to future fill your talent pipeline
Better measure and mitigate risk throughout your supply chain
Implement effective change management strategies during an M&A
Determine the risk of failure and how it is related to asset health
Solidify partnerships for effective and diverse supplier development and inclusion strategies
Assess career development, technology, and governance models to help enable success

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 1.2 CEUs for this event.

Requirements for Successful Completion of Program

Participants must sign in/out each day and be in attendance for the entirety of the conference to be eligible for continuing education credit.

Instructional Methods

The instructional content will be administered through case studies, panel discussions and PowerPoint presentations

Agenda

Thursday, October 12, 2017

8:00 – 8:45 a.m. :: Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:45 – 9:00 a.m. :: Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

9:00 – 9:55 a.m. :: The Utility Supply Chain of the Future – Tomorrow’s Vision or Today’s Reality?

Few things can gum up a plant’s operations more completely than mismanaging supplier relationships, parts sourcing, and inventory. Supply chain management has undergone substantial evolution in the past few decades along with other changes in management philosophy that began in the 1980s. Procurement, once viewed as a low-level clerical function, is now recognized as a key specialty in any organization’s operations.

But the field is not standing still. Utility supply chain experts have recognized that there is still plenty of room for improvement, and that while some utilities and generators are leading the way on managing lean, efficient, smooth-running supply chains, many others still have substantial savings and efficiencies to capture. In this session, we will:

Provide insights into how technology will redefine supply chain optimization from “doing things better” to “doing a better thing”.
What are the challenges?
What are the human and technological issues that will need to be overcome?
Determine where we are today and where we need to be tomorrow

Timothy McAreavey, Director, Supply Chain Management, Omaha Public Power District

Emmett Vaughn, Director Diverse Business Empowerment, Exelon Corp

9:55 – 10:40 a.m. :: Importance of Effective Communication and Change Management to Help Gather Insight and Support from Key Stakeholders

Establishing communication and change management plans that extend to all levels of the organization is challenging for most companies. How strategic initiatives and key information is disseminated and received is critical to organizational health. Timely and effective communication can serve as an enabler to gain stakeholder support, accelerate performance as well as drive maturity and bottom line results. In an evolving business environment, properly integrating new people, processes and systems/tools is paramount for achieving desired results.

How to identify key stakeholders: supporters and distractors
Utilizing cross-functional teams and Centers of Excellence
Crafting the right message – What’s in it for me?
Voice of the Customer and other forums for gaining customer insight
How to change perceptions to align with strategic goals

Shaun Anderson, Managing Director Supply Chain, Dynegy

10:40 – 11:00 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:00 – 11:40 a.m. :: Collaboration is Key: Benefits of Strengthening the Supply Chain Partnership with Engineering

In successful organizations, Supply Chain as a function is positioned to bridge the gap between Engineering & Suppliers. As regulatory and industry pressures drive the need for cost reduction, these three groups need to work better together to achieve common goals. Characteristics for good collaboration consist of joint estimating, effective communication, timely decision making and holding others accountable.

Karen will discuss requirements for effective collaboration, providing stories and examples to demonstrate the following:

Benefits: cost reduction, on-time/on-budget projects and receiving items & services to desired specifications
Pitfalls: overspending, project/delivery delays, change orders, re-work & poor quality/safety issues
Enablers to success include: cross-functional teamwork, detailed project planning, effective negotiation & quality control

Karen Cook, Planning & Purchasing Manager, Xcel Energy

11:40 – 12:25 p.m. :: Recruitment, Retention and Succession Planning Strategies to Fill your Future Supply Chain Talent Pipeline

In today’s competitive global landscape, the need for adequately prepared talent ready to take on key leadership positions is critical. The span of time available to develop talent is becoming shorter due to baby boomers retiring, insufficient succession planning, and the lack of talent development opportunities. Utilities have even greater talent management challenges – as Utilities continue to grow “long in the teeth” and aren’t necessarily seen as “sexy” by college students. This means executive leadership in all areas across the Utility must become more engaged in the development of a talent pipeline in key ways: designing unique recruitment programs, working with colleges and universities and even high schools to develop interest in the utility industry, actively working with high potential candidates to assess their leadership capabilities, providing challenging assignments for development, and supporting the development opportunities with the resources necessary to “build the talent pipeline” rather than be forced to “buy it”.

We will look into things such as:

“Associate” programs with universities for recruitment design
Identify the current succession planning challenges facing organizations today
Understand how Assessment, Challenge, and Support are critical to developing talent to align with the business strategy
Apply a framework to your succession planning strategy that can be used to future fill your talent pipeline
Best practices for global talent development

Peter Manni, Director of Procurement, National Grid

12:25 – 1:35 p.m. :: Lunch

1:35 – 2:15 p.m. :: Effective Inventory Controls

Inventory levels are considered to be ‘excessively’ high throughout the industry. With each outage or capital project, procured materials, parts and components are scoped, designed and ordered but not always with the full input from the organization which can result in delays to schedule, increased costs, re-order or dispositioning to inventory. The more significant impacts could be challenges to safety or plant operation if the errors go undetected. In the fast-paced work environment of the plant activities, legacy and un-used items can make it to inventory and, over time be a key contributor to unnecessarily high volumes of inventories.

This session will present an executive level overview of inventory management from the perspective of leadership engagement, risk based decision making and methods, and strategies for full supply chain governance models. When combined, the strengthened management of the supply chain can drive improved inventory management, higher equipment reliability and reduction of impacts to plant operation.

Randy Mundy, Supply Chain Projects Manager, Southern Company

2:15 – 3:00 p.m. :: Partnerships as the Pathway to Diverse Supplier Development and Inclusion

This discussion examines the role that effective partnership play in shaping effective diverse supplier development and inclusion strategies. Corporate Supplier Diversity professionals, Corporate Supply Chain professionals, Diverse Suppliers, Prime Suppliers and Diverse Community Economic Development organizations each play a critical role in shaping vital economic inclusion partnerships that foster supplier diversity growth.

Sherrie Duncan, Director, Supplier Engagement and Diversity, Duke Energy

Emmett Vaughn, Director Diverse Business Empowerment, Exelon Corp

3:10 – 3:25 p.m. :: Networking Break

3:25 – 4:20 p.m. :: Improving Contract Management & Making Contracting Process and System More Transparent for Infrastructure Projects

The concept of open contracting is emerging as a strategy to increase contract transparency and monitoring, with major expected benefits in terms of quality of governance, better value for money, reduced corruption, increased service delivery and better development outcomes. The level and extent of disclosure greatly varies across countries, however. Implementation of Freedom of Information laws is also lagging in most countries, and there are still uncertainties in terms of what information should be disclosed to whom, and how, and more generally, about the appropriate level of transparency to balance the costs of transparency. In this session, you will:

Understand the importance of transparency for effective regulation on contract management
Explore methods to capture data, processes and people in your contract management process
Utilizing contract management teams
Discuss contract requests for projects and the role of transparency as a tool to prevent corruption
Develop a framework for a transparent and equitable contracting process
Creating mechanisms for participation at all stages of contracting to build and sustain relationships of all stakeholders
Outline the significant barriers to access and using the procurement data in designing the contract
Learn the practical methods on how can contracting be made to be more transparent

Rodney Long, Director, Sourcing, Duke Energy

Tracy Baker, Director Commercial Contracts Management, Duke Energy

4:20 – 5:20 p.m. :: Leveraging Data Analytics and Automation to Extract Value

A session to discuss how to leverage data analytics using business intelligence tools like Tableau, Cognos, etc to identify opportunities with a category and use category dashboards to identify, track and deliver value to the organization.

Rohan Dighe, Director, Corporate/Retail Sourcing and Performance Excellence, Vistra Energy

John Berardi, Director, Supply Chain, Luminant

5:20 – 5:30 p.m. :: Day One Closing Remarks

5:30 p.m. :: Conference Day One Adjourns

Friday, October 13, 2017

7:45 – 8:30 a.m. :: Continental Breakfast

8:30 – 8:45 a.m. :: Opening Remarks

8:45 – 9:30 a.m. :: Supply Chain and Contractor Safety Management

Safety is paramount at all utilities. As the industry moves to higher and higher utilization of contractors to perform services ranging from construction to maintenance, contractor safety becomes more and more challenging. This discussion will cover some of the roles and responsibilities of Supply Chain in Contractor Safety Management from identifying the problem to implementing a plan.

Issues discussed will be:

Identify the need
Cost benefit analysis of in-house vs. 3^rd party vendor
Management and BU support
Implementation
Future Issues

Kevin Featherston, Senior Contract Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority

9:30 – 10:30 a.m. :: Leading a Supply Chain Organization through Bankruptcy

This case study will review the evolution of bankruptcy and the impacts it has on Supply Chain

Prior to entering bankruptcy, understanding the importance of supplier relationship activities and their impacts
Once in bankruptcy, utilizing new created leverage to negotiate with suppliers
As you prepare to exit bankruptcy, managing organizational restructuring

Rohan Dighe, Director, Corporate/Retail Sourcing and Performance Excellence, Vistra Energy

Lee Kader, Supply Chain Director, Vistra Energy

10:30 – 10:45 a.m. :: Networking Break

10:45 – 11:45 a.m. :: Leading a Supply Chain Through a Merger/Acquisition/Indenture

Challenges and opportunities – spend consolidation, engineering standards, data management & analytics, savings tracking
Importance of change management – team integration, stress management, cultural nuances
Foundation for continued growth and opportunities
ERP system integration

Karen Beachy, Vice President, Supply Chain, Black Hills Corporation

Amy Miller, Manager of Supply Chain, Arizona’s G&T Cooperatives

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. :: Supplier Integration: Benefits of Sharing Information Up and Down the Supply Chain

Supply Chain is not simply an internal process; suppliers have to be deeply involved as well. Utilities that have progressed furthest along in the supplier integration process the supplier, procurement, and business unit will function as a seamless unit. When implemented effectively, the result can be reduced labor costs, improved resource availability, more efficient logistics, decreased transactional costs, improved visibility of the total costs of material, and better risk management. This session will examine key components to an effective integrated supply program including:

Procurement and fulfillment linking
Transparent compensation models of suppliers
On-site labor provided by supplier to augment purchasing and storeroom functions
Sharing of inventory ownership
Service level metrics, including risk and reward components.
Working with suppliers to handle third-party transactions

Jaspreet Singh, Director – Supply Chain Management, DTE Energy

12:30 – 12:45 p.m. :: Chairperson’s Closing Remarks

12:45 p.m. :: Conference Adjourns

Speakers

Shaun Anderson, Managing Director, Supply Chain, Dynegy

Tracy Baker, Director Commercial Contracts Management, Duke Energy

Karen Beachy, Vice President, Supply Chain, Black Hills Corporation

John Berardi, Director, Supply Chain, Luminant

Karen Cook, Planning & Purchasing Manager, Xcel Energy

Alan Cooper, Senior Supply Chain Manager, NextEra Energy

Rohan Dighe, Director, Corporate/Retail Sourcing and Performance Excellence, Vistra Energy

Kevin Featherston, Senior Contract Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority

Lee Kader, Supply Chain Director, Luminant

Rodney Long, Director, Sourcing, Duke Energy

Peter Manni, Director of Procurement, National Grid

Timothy McAreavey, Director, Supply Chain Management, Omaha Public Power District

Amy Miller, Manager of Supply Chain, Arizona’s G&T Cooperatives

Randy Mundy, Supply Chain Projects Manager, Southern Company

Jaspreet Singh, Director – Supply Chain Management, DTE Energy

Emmett Vaughn, Director Diverse Business Empowerment, Exelon Corp

Bryan Umstead, Lead Engineer, Duke Energy

Location

Omni Dallas Hotel
555 South Lamar Street
Dallas, TX 75202

To reserve your room, please call 1-800-THE-OMNI
Please indicate that you are with the EUCI group to receive the group rate.

OR Book Online Here

Room Rate:

The room rate is $229.00 single or $249.00 double plus applicable taxes.

Room Block Dates:

A room block has been reserved for the nights of October 11 – 12, 2017.

Rate Available Until:

Make your reservations prior to September 30, 2017. There are a limited number of rooms available at the conference rate. Please make your reservations early.

Register

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