On 21-22 January, some 40 researchers and educators gathered in Lunteren (NL) for the 17th edition of the WION seminar (‘Workshop Inkoop Onderzoek Nederland’). Initiated in 2004, by Arjan van Weele and his colleagues from Eindhoven, this seminar brings together PhD students, teachers, professors – be it fulltime or part-time – in the area of Purchasing and Supply Management, from the Netherlands.
The program format is quite unique, with some plenary presentations and multiple paper review sessions. The plenary sessions typically feature a practitioner and an academic, but from another discipline.
This year Jan Roodenburg, former SVP Supplier Development, Philips and VP SC & Ops, HP EMEA, spoke about sustainable supply chains – reminding us that sustainability efforts have been going on for quite some time already, but that is quite challenging to keep this consistently on the agenda of senior management.
Kees Ahaus, professor of Health Services Management & Organisation at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, presented research on how different institutional logics interact in the organization of care supply chains, such as in the case of COPD patients.
In the paper review sessions, two reviewers are assigned to each paper, and each session lasts for 60 mins. This duration and the small group setting (in parallel sessions) mean that the discussions can be quite extensive and detailed.
Finally, each WION edition features workshops and group discussion on techniques and methods, and this year we focused on teaching – more specifically, problem-based learning. Frank Rozemeijer, Nadine Kiratli and Robert Suurmond from Maastricht University led an interactive and productive session exploring techniques for online learning and bring real-life problems into the classroom.
Finn Wynstra chaired WION for the last six years on behalf of the Rotterdam team, but as of 2021, the team from Maastricht will take over the baton.
