The XXI Annual Conference of the Society of Operations of Management was organized at Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University, between 21st and 23rd December 2017.

The objective of the Conference was to provide participants with a platform to disseminate and share knowledge and experiences through the presentation of research papers, panel discussions, and one-on-one or group meetings. Papers addressing a broader area of Operations Management and the interfaces between Operations Management and other disciplines of Management were received. Participants did get the opportunity to learn new theoretical developments in the field, and on the other hand, got to know about the practical applications of theories through real-life examples and case studies. Since the conference was a congregation of academicians, practitioners, doctoral students and other researchers, both theories and practices of Operations Management got due prominence and were expected to complement each other during the course of the Conference.

The doctoral consortium saw a total of 13 research paper presentations and the main conference saw in total of 42 presentations, while total participants number was 65.

The first day of the conference was a doctoral consortium. Emerald Publishing sponsored the prize money for the consortium. The best paper award for the doctoral consortium was awarded to S Srivatsa Srinivas guided by Prof. Rahul Marathe for his paper titled 'On managing outpatient queues with strategic patients’, the second prize for the doctoral consortium was awarded to Govind Lal Kumavat guided by Prof. Debjit Roy on paper titled ‘Decision model for technology selection in seaside operations at automated container terminals’. Later on the first day, Prof. R. K. Amit from IIT – Madras took a tutorial session on Game Theory and its applications in Operations

Second day witnessed the inaugural of the main conference, which was graced by Key Note Speaker Mr. Aamir Akhtar (CEO – Denim Fabrics, Arvind Ltd), Professor Pankaj Chandra (Vice Chancellor and Chairman, Board off Management), Professor Devanath Tirupati (Dean – AMSOM and Conference Chair) and Professor Peeyush Mehta (President – Society of Operations Management). After the inaugural session, participants presented their papers and question-answer rounds were held at the end of each presentation. Later in the day Professor N. Ravichandran from IIM – Ahmedabad took a plenary session on Competing through Manufacturing: Insights from Case Studies. Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society of Operations Management took place in the evening at 6.30 pm which was graced by the society members.

The third day saw the participants presenting and discussing their research presentations and engaging in questions and answers, the conference ended post-lunch.