2023 Schedule
Thriving Instead of Surviving: How Redundancy Can Save Money Presenter: Danaka Porter
Regional Managing Partner, Iota Consultants
Description:
Thriving instead of surviving: how a little bit of redundancy is helping companies to thrive in tumultuous times. Changing the strategy and planning around “trimming the fat” or “make it lean” is going to take some time, but the change is required. The events of the past four years have proved that “lean and mean” is more akin to clinging on by the fingernails or being left behind. Proper asset management strategies depend on being able to access parts in a timely manner so that preventative maintenance can be performed as scheduled. Keeping a spare or critical spare on hand acts as a buffer when a supplier is unable to deliver on time, or a shipment is stuck waiting in a port. It may appear to be a “waste of money,” as this piece of inventory is now hitting the bottom line and is not yet needed; however, what is the cost of not having it? Or the cost of having to outsource it last minute? Moreover, how are the supplier relationships? This presentation will explain how redundancy can help save money and time through changing how businesses operate and view their bottom line. Attendees will learn how to review and calculate the cost of a stockout and compare it to holding a spare or critical spare; hear how to set or adjust inventory review policies; and discover that having multiple supplier options will help operations continue even in times of change and emergency. About the Presenter:
Danaka Porter obtained her Master of Engineering in Systems and Supply Chain from MIT. She is a partner at Iota Consulting, a management consulting firm, where she consults in supply chain, project management, and data analytics in heavy manufacturing and technology. Danaka is also a sessional lecturer at the Dhillon School of Business, where she teaches Supply Chain and Project Management. She has written a supply chain textbook, as she did not feel the current ones contained enough application of supply chain and focused too heavily on theory. Her algorithm writing took her into the medical side; Danaka is a co-founder and the current COO of VitaNova Tech, a fertility company in the U.S. She wrote algorithms to better match surrogates and egg donors with intended parents. She is currently completing her PhD in Cardiology at the Cumming School of Medicine where she is using machine learning to help predict SCD (sudden cardiac death) by rewriting the algorithms that are currently being used to find certain markers. Danaka sits on the Training and Education Committee for the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada, where she educates other PhDs, trainees, doctors, and healthcare workers in implementing and using technology in cardiac care. She also sits on the board of motionball, a national fundraising committee dedicated to raising money for Special Olympics. |