From the Director's desk April 2020

Welcome to the first edition of Supply Chain Link for 2020. Like many things recently, this newsletter was delayed by COVID-19, which is affecting all our personal and professional “supply chains”.

While most of the newsletter was written before the scale of the crisis became clear, we have managed to include a link to a new article by Auckland Business School Professors Kotlarsky and Oshri on their perspective on how COVID-19 is disrupting the food supply chain in New Zealand.

Also in this newsletter, we have an interesting article about the transition to a sustainable low- missions economy in New Zealand. Sharne Usherwood, KPMG director and member of our advisory board, explains how collaboration along the supply chain plays a key role in this transition. We also have two articles, each explaining an exciting future research. Dr Riccardo Mogre, Associate Professor at Durham University, tells us about the dilemma that small companies face when winning a big project and his research plan to investigate this problem with a specific focus on the energy supply chain. Then, Lahiru Gunasekara, PhD candidate at The University of Auckland, discusses how far the fashion industry is from being sustainable due to various challenges and explains how his research is going to propose a mathematical model to approach this problem.

Furthermore, we have Felicity Lawrence in this issue who gives us an introduction to the supply chain advisory group, the CSCM centre, and the opportunity it provides for you to learn, build your network, and promote yourselves. Note that our next iteration of the strategic supply chain executive programme has been delayed at least until September. Finally, Lucas Arrowsmith, a student at The University of Auckland, shares with us his experiences in taking a unique course at the university, INFOSYS 345 (now 310).

I wish you all the best in these very troubled times. Stay home if you can, and many thanks to those of you essential personnel who can’t.