The Operations and Supply Chain Management club of MDI Gurgaon, or Opsession as it is known, is the go-to place for the student community for all things related manufacturing, engineering, operations, supply chain or logistics. It has served as a unifying platform for every student who wishes to pursue a career in this domain. What began humbly as a group of people with a likeminded interest in Operations, Opsession has grown to become a community that actively contributes to the central knowledge repository, which is accessible to every student, through monthly newsletters, simulation games, flagship events, opportunities for live projects, industry exposure, an annual magazine; and these forms just the tip of the iceberg.
Team Opsession’s constant endeavour has been to aid the student community in widening their horizons when it comes to Operations, something that every element in our day-to-day lives greatly depends on. This element of relatability has helped us come up with innovative ways to constantly foster engagement with the students, which in turn becomes a value addition for them in terms of knowledge about the subject area from a wide perspective. Across the past year, the club has conducted multiple events – both at the national as well as the campus level, and has released a series of publications with varying frequencies – monthly, semi-annually, and annually.
The session of 2020-22 began with the unprecedented situation that we still find ourselves in, but Opsession soldiered on in the spirit of operations. After all, the machinery of the world must keep turning. To that end, the club brought many opportunities. The event calendar began with a successful Annual Article Writing Competition for the Operations Magazine (2020 edition), where we received more than 650 registrations. This year the theme for the magazine was “Designing the Supply Chain in the VUCA World”. The club collaborated with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for a Supply Chain Management Professional Certification (CII-SCMPro), which greatly helped the students stand out and fare well during the summer placement season. The team then conducted its flagship Cast Study Challenge called “Opniscient 2020”, which saw enthusiastic participation from premiere B-Schools such as NITIE, SPJIMR, XLRI, IIMB, IIFT and many more, with a total of 630+ registrations. The teams ran the gauntlet of three case-study rounds, and the winner and runner-up teams from SPJIMR received a whopping prize worth Rs. 2.75 Lakhs, comprising APICS Certifications like CPIM, CSCP & CLTD worth Rs. 70,000 from KnowerXEducation for every team member; and a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 along with a live project opportunity with EFESCO Consulting.
As if that weren’t enough, Opsession also saw yet another exciting edition of the Annual Operations Management Conclave, “Ops-Talks 2020”, conducted on the 12th of December, 2020. The conclave was graced by the presence of our Keynote Speaker, Mr. Satyashri Mohanty, the Founder Director of Vector Consulting Group, who talked about the importance of “Building Supply Chain Agility to thrive in VUCA World”. It was followed by two panel discussions, one on the topic “Building a Resilient Supply Chain” by Mr. Dheeraj Shah from TCS, Mr. Ponraj Periswami from Wahl Clipper Corporation, Mr. Brish Ban Vaidya from Uber, and Mr. Amol Nagar from GE Aviation; and “Driving Sustainable Operational Excellence” by Dr. Rakesh Sinha from Reflexive Supply Chain Solutions, and Mr. Ashish Mendiratta from Chamber of Visionary Supply Chain Leaders. Both panel discussions were facilitated by the Operations Management faculty of MDI Gurgaon – Dr. Rajesh K. Singh, Dr. Anupama Prashar, and Dr. Manoj Kumar Srivastava. The Annual Operations Magazine, “OpStakes 2020”, was also launched at the conclave in the presence of industry stalwarts, as well as all the business school students and corporate professionals in the audience.
In order to keep the students engaged in the world of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Team Opsession has adopted a “Fun with Learning” approach and conducted SCOPS Quiz 1.0 in the month of November. The launch of SCOPS Quiz 2.0 is planned for 2021. The quiz aims to increase the knowledge base of students whilst awarding prizes to the best performer. OpsLite 2020, a series of 26 knowledge-sharing posts, where one Ops-related word or phrase starting with each letter of the English alphabet is explained in brief, with the aid of interesting infographic. Compendia and Newsletters are frequently updated and shared among the students of MDI Gurgaon so as to provide all the important news and innovations in the field of Supply Chain and Operations in a timely, brief package.
Although the year draws to a close, a new year stands poised to allow us to chart a new course while adjusting to new norms in the current and post-COVID world. The club will be looking at new horizons while striving to bring more opportunities for any student who’s interested, with the help of Live Projects and Guest Lecture series in the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management. Also in the pipeline are various forms of infotainment, such as “Term of the day”, and “Did You Know?”, both of which are likely to be launched in 2021.
Opsession, keeping its core tenet of sharing knowledge by coming together, looks forward to collaborating with other business schools and corporate partners on projects that can help increase the acumen of students who will, one day, become the movers and planners of the world. You can connect us on LinkedIn (Opsession, MDI Gurgaon), Instagram (opsession_mdi) and Facebook (Opsession: The Operations Management Club, MDI Gurgaon).