Supply Chain Frontiers issue #53
The Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation’s (MISI) 2014 annual conference, Design Anywhere – Make Anywhere – Deliver Anywhere, took place in Lanai Kijang, Malaysia, on March 20, 2014. More than 250 participants from almost 20 countries attended the event.
The conference topic reflected current industry trends where complexity, variability, and uncertainty are becoming the key attributes of supply chain management model designs. Distinguished speakers from academia and industry presented their views on how companies should embed these attributes in their supply chain strategies.
The key trends discussed included the impact of dominant design (Dr. Chris Caplice, MIT CTL), clusters (Dr. David Gonzalvez, MIT-Zaragoza), disruptive technologies (Professor Martin Christopher, Cranfield School of Management), agile and service-drive supply chains (Mr. Gregory Otte, McKinsey & Co), and automotive supply chain structure (Dr. V. Sumantran, Hinduja Automotive and Ashok Leyland). Each of these trends has its own challenges for future supply chains.
A panel of experts discussed future supply chain challenges that companies will need to address. The main takeaways of these deliberations are summarized below.
- The supply chain function will play a more critical role at a strategic level in companies of the future.
- About 25% of the companies in the west have supply chain management functions.
- Eliminating complexity is not the main issue that modern supply chains must address. Managers should be trained to manage complexity.
- The demand for supply chain management talent is increasing. The quality of professional skill sets is of major importance.
- Supply chain managers should embed both soft and hard skills in their decision-making processes.
- Efficient supply chains are not necessarily cost-driven.
- Successful companies do a good job dealing with change. Great companies are the ones that embrace change.
- Supply chain disruptions are becoming the norm.
The conference summary pages can be viewed on the MISI website:
http://www.misi.edu.my/scc2014summary/