A half day was well spent on 17th November 2023 at the 2nd edition of The Supply Chain Leadership Forum, with the theme “Futurecasting Supply Chain – The Paradigm Shift of Planet and People.”
Mr. Chung Ming Law, Executive Director, Transport and Logistics, Enterprise Singapore (ESG) as the Guest of Honour, mentioned that Singapore has been ranked this year #1 as a Global Logistics Hub (up from 7th in the previous ranking). He mentioned three insights to futureproof our supply chain given its vulnerabilities to shocks like covid, war and so on. He used the acronym G.I.C.
#1 G: Green Economy: Sustainability is no longer a choice but a responsibility to act together, by prioritising it in every part of the workflow. ESG does not see it as a cost or burden, but rather as an opportunity to harness the green wave, by creating new business solutions, and serve customers better.
#2 I: Innovation: ESG advocates electrification of the logistics fleet and also promoting sandbox trials to promote leasing models, and autonomous solutions. ESG’s ‘Trade and Connectivity Challenge’ (TCC) https://tradeandconnectivity.innovation-challenge.sg/en/challenges/4th-edition is an opportunity for logistics companies to leverage on ESG’s global network, and use the ecosystems of companies and start-ups to come up with solutions for their problems. #openinnovation can greatly benefit Singapore’s logistics sector.
#3 C: Collaborating for greeneconomy and for innovation: Chung Ming Law emphasised the importance of SGTradex https://sgtradex.com/ which aims to create and to bring all supply chain players into this digital highway. This will help companies avoid building multiple APIs with each partner they deal with. A single API to the SGTradex would help ease data exchanges. This way, all data structures will be harmonised, making the information flow seamlessly and safely by building in world class cybersecurity. Supply chain data visibility will help optimise and build resilience in the supply chain.
(This is of particular importance to logistics companies as well as to sustainability professionals who are interested in greening the supply chain, through sustainability implementation and reporting. Disclosure requirements are intensely data driven especially for Scope 3 emissions which may make up 80 to 90% or more of an organisation’s emissions. The urgency to get SMEs on board to measure and disclose their Scope 1 and 2 emissions becomes greater than ever, as they make up the bulk of the value chain).
The event had three interesting panel discussions. I summarise some of the key points in brief below:
Features of a future ready supply chain:
- Has 4 pillars: visibility, flexibility, collaboration and control
- Digitisation, Digitalisation and digital transformation needs to be done to reduce paperwork and increase efficient flow of information
- Sustainability is going to be of increasing importance in this sector
- ‘Co-opetition’ = ‘Collaboration + Competition’ can be concurrent features of the supply chain as players compete on very thin margins, but are required to collaborate on data
- Keeping a close eye on the Free Trade Agreements and economic corridors being developed can help create opportunities for supply chain players
- Regulation is the accelerator for sustainability as well as data harmonisation
- Corporate leaders have to drive the sustainability agenda. It cannot be regulation alone as a driver. Build the business case for sustainability : compliance, operational efficiency and sustainability conscious consumers
Challenges
- Balancing profits with #agility to respond to consumer demand
- Reality is that there is not a lot of data sharing among supply chain players
- Difficulties in mindset change and fear of job loss in digitisation of paperwork
- When digitising, there is a need to understand processes and data, and to invest in the foundation: one’s own people
As one panelist mentioned, the supply chain is interdependent. How we work together will get us to the next level. If we don’t share data, we don’t get data to be clean and moving. “Improve others and others will improve you.”
The forum was organised by GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE, BOON SOFTWARE, SEEBURGER, NUS The Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific, and RosettaNet Singapore.
Written by a forum delegate of Bhavani Prakash, Co-Founder of Conscious Leadership Asia, a sustainability reporting and strategy consultancy based out of Singapore. (second on the left)
