EXTON, PA--(Marketwired - Jul 1, 2013) - Elemica, the leading Supply Chain Operating Network provider for the process industries, recently showcased their entirely new QuickLink Network platform at their annual North American Supply Chain Conference titled inSIGHT 2013. The event garnered rave reviews from industry executives and analysts in the audience. Other presentations covered supply chain complexities in an age of uncertainty, market driven value chains, analytics, and B2B connectivity. Over one hundred Elemica customers and other process industry professionals attended the conference and left with a clear view into supply chain networks built for the future. These networks are designed from the outside-in, with new processes that will best sense and respond to customer demand, while also delivering the insights needed to efficiently operate in a complex and volatile global market.

"Attendees at our inSIGHT 2013 conference were blown away by all the actionable information they gathered from industry leaders and analysts," said Ed Rusch, Director of Corporate Marketing at Elemica. "Knowledge shared on the latest supply chain trends, the benefits of B2B social collaboration, and how to drive better supply chain performance proved extremely valuable."

Summaries of presentations include:

• Supply Chain 2.0: Managing Supply Chain Complexity in an Age of Uncertainty - Dr. Martin Christopher, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield University - Conventional supply chain design is in need of an overhaul because it focuses on forecasts, assumes relative stability, is based on lean thinking, and emphasizes cost reduction. Supply Chain 2.0 should be demand driven, agile, and responsive. One of the biggest barriers to change for Supply Chain 2.0 is complexity -- multiple suppliers, outsourcing, proliferating SKUs, etc. The solution is to eliminate the complexity that customers will not pay for and closely align supply chain processes with value propositions.

• A Market Driven Supply Chain - Lora Cecere, Founder & CEO, Supply Chain Insights - The chemical industry needs to focus on reducing inventories, increasing revenues, and managing growing complexities. To survive, companies must forecast demand better, look at alternative sourcing and materials to meet corporate social responsibility guidelines, elicit true collaboration, connect the extended supply chain for better end-to-end orchestration, and focus on outside-in supply chains.

• Growing Lean: The New Paradigm - Joel Nickelsen, Senior Advisor, Applied Value - Cost and capital efficiency is the foundation for long-term profitability. Lean growth is multi-dimensional across the entire enterprise. To grow lean, companies should outsource as much as they can for non-core activities, minimize complexity, focus on profitable products only, and emphasize speed, which is an asset with greater value than money.