Monday, September 27, 2010

 8:10 am – 9:10 am
Location: Richmond/Adelaide Room

Opening Keynote

Linda Sprague

First Emeritus Professor at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai

China's Evolving Supply Chain Infrastructure: Life in the High Speed Lane

In the 30 years since China's REFORM & OPENING UP initiative, the country has been dramatically developing its supply chain infrastructure, keeping the pace being set by its increasingly productive manufacturing operations. This presentation will briefly summarize the substantial development of the physical aspects of supply chain development — the hardware of supply chain –  and introduce critical aspects of  supporting software developments — from introduction of the country's first legal system to the recent shutdown of China's famous Central Planning System.

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 Dr. Linda G. Sprague is the First Emeritus Professor at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. She was a Founding Professor at the National Center for Industrial Science & Technology Management Development (at Dalian) in 1980. She has served on the Faculties at IESE (Barcelona), Stanford Graduate School of Business, The Tuck School (Dartmouth) and IMD in Lausanne Switzerland.  Sprague was Professor of Manufacturing and Operations Management at Cranfield University in their School of Industrial and Manufacturing Sciences where she was also Academic Director of their British Aerospace (UK) and Kalyani Steel/Bharat Forge (India) Manufacturing Fellowship Programs. She served as Principal Investigator for Cranfield's Airbus ERP implementation project. Sprague is Professor Emerita at the University of New Hampshire's Whitmore School of Business & Economics. Sprague is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Management (UK) and a Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. In 2002 she was elected Distinguished Scholar by the Operations Management Division of the Academy of Management.  She is an APICS Certified Practitioner in Inventory Management.  Sprague received an SB in Industrial Management from M.I.T., an MBA from Boston University and a DBA from the Harvard Business School.  She is the immediate Past President of ISIR (International Society for Inventory Research (in Budapest).