Speaker: Peter Eklöf, Head of Purchasing - Electronics, Automation, Connectivity and Services - Volvo Construction Equipment

​As Head of Purchasing at Volvo Construction Equipment, Peter opens with an introduction to the Volvo Group and the distinct role Volvo CE plays within it, before turning to the pressures reshaping purchasing today: volatile supply chains, rising cost pressure, and the pace of digitalization.

Drawing on lessons learned across the organization, the session moves from strategic conclusions into practical execution - how Volvo CE is building supply chain resilience, becoming a more data-driven organization, adopting digital tools, and balancing local versus global sourcing decisions. The talk closes with a forward look at where purchasing is headed next, offering the audience a grounded, experience-based view of what it takes to turn strategy into results.

Speakers: Peter Budweiser - Senior Director, Supply Chain - Celonis

Annick Heugens - Business Controlling Manager at H&M

A resilient supply chain that delivers financial impact has to look beyond supply chain. One global manufacturer is making contractual on-time delivery a shared measure across engineering, supply chain, finance and customer service, and put AI on the handoffs between them. In this session we will cover the three lessons behind that work:

1. Results from AI start with a foundation: one view of the order as it moves through planning, purchasing, production, dispatch and invoicing, whatever systems it crosses on the way.

2. Then aim AI at the constraint. The delay usually sits at a handoff nobody owns, so automating a step inside one function makes that step faster and leaves the delivery date where it was.

3. The same process view is what makes the return on AI measurable, tying each agent to that on-time delivery number so the investment can be reported in cash.

With AstraZeneca, Sandvik, MTU Aero Engines & RELEX Solutions - Moderated by Dirk Lembregts.

Global disruption has exposed the limits of optimising supply chain and operations in isolation.

This panel brings together senior leaders from across manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and industrial production to explore how organisations are rethinking end-to-end operations, from working capital and production systems to process intelligence and planning, to build businesses that are genuinely resilient, not just reactive.

Speaker: Rajiv Ranjan Sinha, Head of Supply Chain Transformation & Network Strategy Sweden at IKEA

The future operationsleader requires system thinking, AI literacy, strategic influence, coaching mindset, psychological safety, embracing technology and people and a business mindedness.

Full details coming soon…

A chance to connect with fellow operations leaders over lunch,

Manufacturers are generating more operational data than ever before, yet many still struggle to translate that information into better decisions, higher productivity, and repeatable business outcomes.

In this fireside conversation, Dirk Lembregts speaks with Abby Eon about how manufacturers are turning trusted operational data and frontline expertise into action, scaling successful improvements across the enterprise, and applying Industrial AI to improve performance and adaptability.

Speaker: Lars Fabricius Kierkegaard, Global Product Innovation Lead - Maersk

The presentation will explore how AI is moving from experimentation into operational processes, customer solutions, and decision support. Rather than focusing on technology or AI hype, the session will address where AI creates tangible value, why promising solutions struggle to scale, and what leaders must do differently to move from talk to action.

The gap between industrial leaders and laggards is widening. AI, automation, workforce transformation and sustainability are rapidly expanding what is possible in manufacturing. Technology itself is increasingly accessible, and knowledge increasingly commoditized.  So where then does your competitive advantage come from? The advantage will not come from the tools or models, but the data and expertise used to feed them, and translate them into measurable impact.

That is operational excellence: the ability to turn new technologies and ideas into better decisions, stronger execution and sustained performance.

Drawing on McKinsey’s latest research and global work with leading manufacturers, Dado Misljencevic will explore what operational excellence looks like in the next era of manufacturing—from AI-enabled decision-making and new ways of working to the capabilities required across the frontline. The manufacturers that lead will be those that bring technology, people and operational discipline together to continuously raise the bar on performance.