Manufacturing forms the backbone of any economy. Currently, the share of manufacturing in our GDP is about 15% which reflects a marginal decrease from 16.1% in the five years till March 2013. The manufacturing sector saw its annual growth rate decline from 9.7% in 2010-11 to 2.7% in 2011-12 and 1% in 2012-13. The draft 'National Manufacturing Policy' seeks to increase the share of manufacturing in the GDP to 25 per cent by 2022. India is now being looked upon as one of the most appropriate manufacturing destinations by foreign companies, thanks to the sub-continent's vast pool of resources, cost-efficient environment and skilled workforce. Supply chain Management is closely related to manufacturing as it ensures that products are delivered to customers at the desired cost and at the right time and of the correct specifications. Managing the supply chain has become so important these days that the war between business organizations today has turned into a war between their supply chains. Recognizing the importance of manufacturing and supply chain management IMI has set up a Center for Excellence in this field. The center envisages the following activities.

• Strengthening of research in the area of manufacturing and supply chain management through paper presentations in conferences, publications in journals and through sponsored research. Research activities are also furthered by offering doctoral and fellow program in the field
• Development of case studies by focusing on manufacturing and supply chain management in real companies
• Enhancing competitiveness of managers in the corporate sector by providing corporate training through management development programs
• Organizing conferences/ seminars to provide a platform for knowledge exchange to researchers in this field
• Organizing certificate programs in this area to enhance knowledge of working executives
• Gaining synergy through collaborating with other professional bodies in related fields
• Organizing guest lectures by industry professionals to disseminate real life experiences to students in the area of manufacturing and supply chain management

Activities carried out by the center

1. Research

• Paper published: Varma, Siddharth (2012). Managing faculty demand in technical education: A supply chain model for the IITs. South Asian Journal of Management, 19 (4), 124-134
• Bhaumik, Pradip K. Supply Chain Network Design Based on Integration of Forward And Reverse Logistics. Global Business Review. (Accepted).
• Fellow program: Three students currently pursuing this program with two working in the area of petroleum supply chain under Prof Siddharth Varma

2. Corporate Training

• Two day training program on Supply Chain Management done by Prof Siddharth Varma for middle managers of IOCL for past three years

3. Conference

• The 7th International Conference of the Indian Subcontinent Region of DSI (ISDSI) jointly with the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) Forum, Indonesia was held successfully at IMI Delhi during December 28-30, 2013

4. Certificate Programs

• ITEC sponsored “Certificate Program in Operations Management” being organized successfully for last 4 years with Prof Siddharth Varma and Prof Arvind Chaturvedi as Program Directors. This program has modules on Supply Chain Management/ Operations Management/ Quality Management/ Operations research/ Statistics all of which are relevant to Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management
• The Area conducted a five-week Six Sigma Green Belt Certification course between 28th July and 1st September, 2013. Thirteen PGDM students successfully completed the programme which was conducted by Six Sigma Master Black Belt professionals. A similar program completed in October 2014 witnessed a total of 59 PGDM students successfully completing the program

4. External Collaboration

• Under the MOU with Project Management Associates (representing IPMA, Netherlands in India), our students who complete the elective course on Project Management are eligible to directly go for their basic PMA certification without any additional course work and also offered a special rate