Identifying & Delivering Improvements in the Financial Supply Chain
With the current economic climate putting pressure on business revenues & profits, looking at opportunities to reduce logistics cost contribution to the overall product costs is more intense than ever.  There continues to be focus on traditional quick wins, like the purchase price of raw material and logistics services which deliver immediate savings directly to the bottom line.  More difficult though is to identify operating expense reductions that deliver an impact to transactional costs through re-engineering of the supply chain.  This session will share some insights across how to best approach cost saving, areas of opportunity & how to successfully govern these initiatives to ensure delivery of the savings.
Justin Pennington, China Logistics Director, Dell Computers

Shift Supply Chain focus to contribution to bottom line
Normally you can either adopt more aggressive supply chain strategy to help boost top line; or take defensive strategy to maximize bottom line benefits. When customer tends to be more cost sensitive, it's time to shift supply chain gravity, too. Except pushing vendors to lower down price which is always necessary, you can also look at taking 'inferior' supply chain solution, pilot vendor collaboration, and vertical supply integration.
Patrick Xu, Supply Chain Director, Best Buy China (retail) & Best Buy Asia Pacific (sourcing)

Driving speed, flexibility and innovation while lowering costs and risks via an actively managed 3rd-party model
With China now accounting for >90% of worldwide ODM manufacturing of PCs and Smartphones, software distribution in this region is a critical requirement for customers worldwide. You will hear about how Microsoft handles this challenge via a 3rd party outsourced model while maintaining extremely high service levels and low cost structures.  Case studies will be given on how MS continues to refine this model in the region through new program implementations such as VMI, movement toward digital licensing, media-less software bundles, and multi/local sourcing.
John Solheim, Director for OEM Supply Chain, Asia and Americas, Microsoft
Kevin Liu, Sr. Program Manager, Asia Pacific Supply Chain, Microsoft

Cost Cutting Project Examples
All of us have been achieving cost reduction, via negotiation, dual sourcing, lean manufacturing, resourcing in "Low Cost Countries"... What is the most efficient, what is the best adapted solution to your business? We will go through some successfull and unsuccessful experienced in automotive analysing the root causes in order that you can assess their efficiency in your own scope of business.
Yann Teste, Head of East Asia Purchasing, Truck division, Knorr-Bremse Commercial Vehicle Systems

Optimize your cost by re-design, market re-act purchasing model and fully utilize tax/duty policy

Materials cost is the most important portion for a tangible product manufacturing company. But only focusing on the purchasing price is not enough to manage the cost effectively.  In Lishen, we successfully by: 1. React to the metal price market trend, adopt to different of purchasing model to low the incoming materials cost. 2. Fully utilize the logistics park policy to enjoy the $ depreciation by pay $ rather than RMB and avoid the duty for incoming material. Sale the goods via logistics park rather than bonded transfer to rebate the VAT for local purchasing. 3. Re-design the products via cooperation of cross functions' lean projects. 4. Shop flow management to reduce the materials shrinkage and 5. Communicate with business partners to adapt to right strategy to react to the economics recession.

Robert Zhang, VP of SCM, Lishen Battery Stock

Manufacturing competitiveness in China - the pressure is on
The same consolidation and restructuring that is taking place elsewhere in the world will certainly happen here in China. With the tightening of credit markets globally, declines in demand in most industries and competition becoming much more intense, the pressure on manufacturers and supply chains to tighten efficiency and lower costs will cause Chinese manufacturers to adjust to remain competitive or risk.... No longer can Chinese manufacturers rely on year over year sales growth and low labor costs to offset omissions of best practices in manufacturing and supply chain management. Adjustments being made by some local companies that 'get it' include implementing best practices in manufacturing and supply chain management to focus on improving cash flow, increasing their focus on inventory and capacity management, getting at cost control, immediately, and without cutting corners.
Duane Bolinger, Managing Director, BBK Shanghai

Cutting costs through Redesign-to-Cost (RTC)
The presentation provides a real case example of an international producer of fork lifters, who was able to achieve extensive cost savings by conducting a Redesign to Cost (RTC) project for his driver cabins. RTC is a very strong lever to get transparency about cost structures of products and components. By conducting a functional and value analysis, over-specifications and cost drivers will be identified, which can be turned into extensive savings. The presentation will cover the process and its implementation on basis of an example.
Erich Winsloe, Partner & Managing Director, ARAIA Supply Management

Pulling it all together: Making S&OP work in China
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is not just a way of balancing your demand and supply numbers, it is the way to integrate your business and to truly realize the benefits from all of your various cost reduction efforts. Indeed, S&OP is the management process to integrate product, demand, supply, finance and strategy.  In this session, we will present the results from a focused team that has been working in recent months to adapt the western notion of S&OP to the context of China.
Barry Elliott, Director, ABF1

Reducing Costs Through Customs and Indirect Tax Savings
Do you know how much your company pays in indirect taxes? Indirect taxes and customs are transactional taxes still payable irrespective of whether the entity is earning profits or incurring losses. Many companies are surprised to discover the size of these "hidden" indirect tax costs and learn there is no one in the organization charged with managing this important area of responsibility. The result is that valuable resources can be unknowingly siphoned out of the organization unless the indirect tax costs are appropriately managed.  This session will highlight the importance of customs and indirect taxes to a business as well as provide some insightful discussion on strategies to mitigate these costs.
Robert Smith, Partner, Customs and Indirect Tax, Ernst & Young