Melbourne Supply Chain & Operations Technology Summit 2027

Beat the rush and join us early for complimentary barista-made coffee and breakfast.

From warehouse automation and AI planning to connected fleets, new technology is changing how supply chains operate. But investing in more technology doesn't automatically create a better network.

This session looks at where technology is delivering real value, what organisations should prioritise, and how to build a supply chain that can adapt as conditions change.

Key takeaways:

• Where automation and AI are delivering the biggest improvements across the supply chain
• How better data and technology can reduce costs, improve resilience and cut emissions
• What organisations should prioritise now to build a stronger supply chain for 2030

As AI increasingly optimises logistics, demand forecasting, and procurement decisions while simultaneously reshaping how software itself gets built and assembled, this closing keynote examines the double-edged nature of AI's growing role across the supply chain, delivering genuine efficiency while introducing risks the discipline hasn't fully reckoned with.

• Evidence-based examples of AI improving demand forecasting, route optimisation, and supplier risk scoring across Australian logistics and procurement operations.
• How AI-generated and AI-assembled code is introducing dependencies and vulnerabilities at a pace traditional review and vetting processes weren't built to match.
• What unified governance looks like for organisations using AI simultaneously to optimise physical logistics decisions and to accelerate software development, and where the risks and safeguards genuinely differ.

Automation can reduce labour, increase throughput, improve safety and make operations more consistent. It can also require a huge upfront investment and years before the numbers work.

This panel gets into where warehouse and manufacturing automation has paid off, where it has not and what organisations need to understand before committing to the next project.

We'll discuss:

• Where robotics, ASRS, AMRs, computer vision and automated workflows have delivered measurable value
• How site constraints, utilisation, labour costs and operational variability change the business case
• Which processes still make more sense with people involved

After being caught out by demand spikes during extreme weather events and periods of panic buying, one retail supply chain leader rebuilt their demand forecasting model to incorporate external signals such as weather forecasts, news sentiment, and historical disruption patterns that traditional forecasting had ignored.

• How the team identified that traditional forecasting models, built purely on historical sales patterns, consistently failed to anticipate demand spikes driven by external shocks.
• The specific data sources integrated into the model, and how the team validated that these signals genuinely improved forecast accuracy rather than adding noise.
• How improved forecasting was paired with a faster inventory reallocation process, since better prediction alone doesn't help without the operational ability to respond to it.

A hands-on, interactive session working through a real supply chain scenario as a room. Details announced soon.

Geopolitical disruption, trade restrictions and regional instability are making global supply chains harder to manage. This session explores practical ways supply chain and procurement leaders can reduce supplier risk, build stronger multi-sourcing strategies and prepare for disruption while keeping costs under control and critical supply moving.

Key Takeaways:

• Improve visibility of supplier risk. Identify risks early and work closely with suppliers before disruption happens.
• Build a smarter multi-sourcing strategy. Balance cost and resilience by developing alternative suppliers across different regions.
• Build stronger continuity plans. Use scenario planning, cross-functional collaboration and supplier partnerships to prepare for disruption and recover faster.

Facing costly delays at Australian ports caused by manual customs documentation errors and processing bottlenecks, one import and logistics leader built an automated customs data integration system that significantly reduced clearance times and demurrage costs.

• How the team traced recurring clearance delays back to specific, repeated documentation errors rather than assuming delays were purely due to port congestion.
• The technical approach used to automate data flow between previously disconnected parties in the import process.
• How the team tracked the financial impact of reduced clearance times through avoided storage and demurrage costs, building a clear ROI case for the investment.

This panel looks at the technology making faster supply chain re-planning possible, from digital twins and optimisation tools that test alternative suppliers, routes and locations, to demand sensing that helps decide what to protect first. We’ll also explore where AI can speed up decisions, where human judgement still matters, and what needs to be in place before disruption hits.

We’ll discuss:

• Rebuilding the network quickly: How digital twins, AI and optimisation tools can model alternative suppliers, routes and locations in hours rather than weeks.
• Making the trade-offs: How demand signals can help decide which products, customers and channels get priority when supply is limited.
• Being ready before disruption hits: The scenarios, alternative suppliers, data and playbooks teams need to have prepared in advance.

Small-group, discussion-based sessions where you'll work through real supply chain and logistics challenges with peers in similar roles. Roundtable topics will be announced soon.

Put your knowledge to the test in this fast-paced quiz covering real-world trivia, key concepts, and emerging trends. Compete for bragging rights — and a voucher — as the top scorer takes the crown.

2D barcodes can carry much more information than a standard product code, including batch, expiry, serial and recall data.

This live demonstration looks at what changes when that information connects directly into inventory, warehouse and retail systems, and where it can remove manual work or improve decisions.

We'll cover:

• How 2D barcodes can improve recalls, expiry management, inventory accuracy and traceability
• What needs to connect across product data, ERP, WMS and frontline systems
• Which actions can happen automatically once systems know exactly which item they are dealing with

With global trade tensions, geopolitical conflict, and concentrated vendor markets creating compounding risk across both physical sourcing and critical software dependencies, this keynote examines how Australian organisations are building resilience against disruption they can't predict or control.

• How reliance on a small number of shipping routes, manufacturing regions, cloud providers, or software vendors creates systemic fragility, whether the dependency is a physical good or a critical package.
• Lessons from recent trade disruption and regional instability on which mitigation strategies have genuinely worked versus proven too costly to sustain.
• How leading organisations are shifting from planning for specific known risks toward building genuine adaptive capacity for disruption of any origin.

Warehouses, factories and logistics networks now depend on more connected technology than ever. If WMS goes down, an integration fails, connectivity drops or a cyber incident forces systems offline, the impact can move very quickly from IT into the physical operation.

This panel looks at what happens when critical technology fails and how organisations prepare to keep operating when the systems they depend on are unavailable.

We'll discuss:

• Which systems have become single points of failure across warehouses, manufacturing and logistics
• What fallback and recovery plans actually work when systems go down
• What operations and technology teams need to agree before automation becomes critical to keeping the business running

Unwind with your peers for a couple of drinks on us!

Beat the rush and join us early for complimentary barista-made coffee and breakfast.

From warehouse automation and AI planning to connected fleets, new technology is changing how supply chains operate. But investing in more technology doesn't automatically create a better network.

This session looks at where technology is delivering real value, what organisations should prioritise, and how to build a supply chain that can adapt as conditions change.

Key takeaways:

• Where automation and AI are delivering the biggest improvements across the supply chain
• How better data and technology can reduce costs, improve resilience and cut emissions
• What organisations should prioritise now to build a stronger supply chain for 2030

As AI increasingly optimises logistics, demand forecasting, and procurement decisions while simultaneously reshaping how software itself gets built and assembled, this closing keynote examines the double-edged nature of AI's growing role across the supply chain, delivering genuine efficiency while introducing risks the discipline hasn't fully reckoned with.

• Evidence-based examples of AI improving demand forecasting, route optimisation, and supplier risk scoring across Australian logistics and procurement operations.
• How AI-generated and AI-assembled code is introducing dependencies and vulnerabilities at a pace traditional review and vetting processes weren't built to match.
• What unified governance looks like for organisations using AI simultaneously to optimise physical logistics decisions and to accelerate software development, and where the risks and safeguards genuinely differ.

Automation can reduce labour, increase throughput, improve safety and make operations more consistent. It can also require a huge upfront investment and years before the numbers work.

This panel gets into where warehouse and manufacturing automation has paid off, where it has not and what organisations need to understand before committing to the next project.

We'll discuss:

• Where robotics, ASRS, AMRs, computer vision and automated workflows have delivered measurable value
• How site constraints, utilisation, labour costs and operational variability change the business case
• Which processes still make more sense with people involved

After being caught out by demand spikes during extreme weather events and periods of panic buying, one retail supply chain leader rebuilt their demand forecasting model to incorporate external signals such as weather forecasts, news sentiment, and historical disruption patterns that traditional forecasting had ignored.

• How the team identified that traditional forecasting models, built purely on historical sales patterns, consistently failed to anticipate demand spikes driven by external shocks.
• The specific data sources integrated into the model, and how the team validated that these signals genuinely improved forecast accuracy rather than adding noise.
• How improved forecasting was paired with a faster inventory reallocation process, since better prediction alone doesn't help without the operational ability to respond to it.

A hands-on, interactive session working through a real supply chain scenario as a room. Details announced soon.

Geopolitical disruption, trade restrictions and regional instability are making global supply chains harder to manage. This session explores practical ways supply chain and procurement leaders can reduce supplier risk, build stronger multi-sourcing strategies and prepare for disruption while keeping costs under control and critical supply moving.

Key Takeaways:

• Improve visibility of supplier risk. Identify risks early and work closely with suppliers before disruption happens.
• Build a smarter multi-sourcing strategy. Balance cost and resilience by developing alternative suppliers across different regions.
• Build stronger continuity plans. Use scenario planning, cross-functional collaboration and supplier partnerships to prepare for disruption and recover faster.

Facing costly delays at Australian ports caused by manual customs documentation errors and processing bottlenecks, one import and logistics leader built an automated customs data integration system that significantly reduced clearance times and demurrage costs.

• How the team traced recurring clearance delays back to specific, repeated documentation errors rather than assuming delays were purely due to port congestion.
• The technical approach used to automate data flow between previously disconnected parties in the import process.
• How the team tracked the financial impact of reduced clearance times through avoided storage and demurrage costs, building a clear ROI case for the investment.

This panel looks at the technology making faster supply chain re-planning possible, from digital twins and optimisation tools that test alternative suppliers, routes and locations, to demand sensing that helps decide what to protect first. We’ll also explore where AI can speed up decisions, where human judgement still matters, and what needs to be in place before disruption hits.

We’ll discuss:

• Rebuilding the network quickly: How digital twins, AI and optimisation tools can model alternative suppliers, routes and locations in hours rather than weeks.
• Making the trade-offs: How demand signals can help decide which products, customers and channels get priority when supply is limited.
• Being ready before disruption hits: The scenarios, alternative suppliers, data and playbooks teams need to have prepared in advance.

Small-group, discussion-based sessions where you'll work through real supply chain and logistics challenges with peers in similar roles. Roundtable topics will be announced soon.

Put your knowledge to the test in this fast-paced quiz covering real-world trivia, key concepts, and emerging trends. Compete for bragging rights — and a voucher — as the top scorer takes the crown.

2D barcodes can carry much more information than a standard product code, including batch, expiry, serial and recall data.

This live demonstration looks at what changes when that information connects directly into inventory, warehouse and retail systems, and where it can remove manual work or improve decisions.

We'll cover:

• How 2D barcodes can improve recalls, expiry management, inventory accuracy and traceability
• What needs to connect across product data, ERP, WMS and frontline systems
• Which actions can happen automatically once systems know exactly which item they are dealing with

With global trade tensions, geopolitical conflict, and concentrated vendor markets creating compounding risk across both physical sourcing and critical software dependencies, this keynote examines how Australian organisations are building resilience against disruption they can't predict or control.

• How reliance on a small number of shipping routes, manufacturing regions, cloud providers, or software vendors creates systemic fragility, whether the dependency is a physical good or a critical package.
• Lessons from recent trade disruption and regional instability on which mitigation strategies have genuinely worked versus proven too costly to sustain.
• How leading organisations are shifting from planning for specific known risks toward building genuine adaptive capacity for disruption of any origin.

Warehouses, factories and logistics networks now depend on more connected technology than ever. If WMS goes down, an integration fails, connectivity drops or a cyber incident forces systems offline, the impact can move very quickly from IT into the physical operation.

This panel looks at what happens when critical technology fails and how organisations prepare to keep operating when the systems they depend on are unavailable.

We'll discuss:

• Which systems have become single points of failure across warehouses, manufacturing and logistics
• What fallback and recovery plans actually work when systems go down
• What operations and technology teams need to agree before automation becomes critical to keeping the business running

Unwind with your peers for a couple of drinks on us!