Fraunhofer IML

The Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML (below Fraunhofer IML), located in Dortmund, will host the 25th annual IPSERA Conference.
The Fraunhofer IML stands for application-oriented research, has recently strengthened massively in the subject area of Purchasing and Supply Management and is willing to support IPSERA 2016 as organiser.

The conference organisers have a dual role both at a chair at the TU Dortmund University, and at the same time at the Fraunhofer IML.

In direct vicinity to Fraunhofer IML, two high tech centers, the Technology Center Dortmund (“TechnologieZentrumDortmund”) and Europe’s largest technology park, successfully transform research ideas into industrial and business formats. As you can see, Dortmund represents an highly attractive science location.

Members of the organising committee have an established track record within IPSERA, serve on the IPSERA committee and attended the annual conference regularly for many years. Members of the organising committee have published several articles in high ranked international journals for Purchasing and Supply Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

A member of the organising committee has already co-organised the 18th IPSERA Conference, Wiesbaden 2009 (Chairs of Christopher Jahns, Evi Hartmann).

Moreover the members of the organising committee have organised several international conferences such as:

  • International Supply Chain Risk Management Network (ISCRiM) 2006
  • International Logistics Science Conference (ILSC) 2013
  • 7th European Conference on ICT for Transport Logistics (ECITL) 2014

The organising committee therefore has the necessary expertise and creativity to make for a successful IPSERA conference in 2016.

The proposed conference theme “Purchasing & Supply Management – from efficiency to effectiveness in an integrated Supply Chain Management” reflects the current discussion beyond Procurement, which has a major impact on the profession.

Where is Purchasing and Supply Management heading? Many organisations are facing this question now. As they have tackled the transactional basics, mastered the fundamentals of strategic procurement and moved firmly into the space of demand management and rationalisation, the question on the lips of many CPOs is “what’s next?”. Companies are demanding that procurement teams deliver more and integrate better with other elements of the firm along the supply chain. Operational excellence no longer can stand alone as the definition of a high performing sourcing function. The need to lead procurement departments on par with other senior functions is increasingly expected of today’s purchasing teams. But what contributions can the function make beyond its traditional remit? Which roles and responsibilities can it pursue in the future? These questions should be answered from a scientific perspective at IPSERA 2016 in specialised streams, but also through invited keynote speakers from the corporate world (e.g. CPO from Deutsche Bahn, attendance confirmed).