With global businesses looking to Southeast Asia to diversify and shore up their supply chains, Singapore has developed a series of programmes to train and upskill supply chain management (SCM) talent. This includes the SCM Skills Plan, a one-stop reference guide for companies, training providers and individuals offering insights into the key tasks, skills, applications, tools and available training support for SCM. It builds on the recently-launched Supply Chain Management Jobs Transformation Map that describes the impact of trends such as digitalisation and sustainability on SCM functions and how companies can prepare their workforce to meet these changes.   

In July, EDB, together with its partners, organised the Singapore – Leading Supply Chain Management Hub in Asia conference with over 200 supply chain management professionals, business leaders and educators. The programme included an invigorating discussion by senior industry leaders on trends impacting supply chain management and strategies to build resilience.

Here are three takeaways from the event:

1. Companies choose Singapore for its strong logistics and connectivity

Theo Kneepkens, Senior Vice President of Global Operations, KLA Corporation, a global semiconductor manufacturer, said the company’s practice is to site both a logistics hub and service engineers near their customers. Today, Singapore is the location of KLA’s largest factory in the world, and has been a centre for coordinating the activities of regional hubs such as Taiwan, Korea, Japan and most recently, India.  

Carlos Mandia, Director, Overseas Delivery Services at BASF, said that the company located its RDC in Singapore due to its connectivity, availability of talent and the availability of chemicals service providers. 

Michelle Shi-Verdaasdonk, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Dyson, said that the company moved its global headquarters to Singapore in 2019 and was heartened that it experienced no downtime in production during the pandemic. She credited that to both the talent in Dyson as well as the stability and consistency that Singapore was able to provide. 

Singapore kept its logistics network and trade links up and running during Covid, and continues to be one of the most connected countries in the world. It has 600 port links in over 120 countries worldwide, is a member of 27 FTAs globally and is part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that accounts for 30 per cent of global GDP.

2. Digitalise, but do so purposefully

As companies expand sourcing and manufacturing networks within Asia Pacific, there is an increasing need to build resilience across the supply chain. 

One way of doing so is by optimising operational efficiency, especially in data-driven decision-making roles such as supply and demand planning. Yip Ying Kiong, Managing Director, Pratt & Whitney-Eagle Services Asia, a joint venture between a US aircraft engine provider and the SIA Engineering Company, shared that supply chain resilience is no longer just about building inventory, but also about improving efficiency and reducing redundancies. His company is piloting a project that uses AI to improve the accuracy of their forecasts and lower support function costs. They also hope to use it to improve workforce activity efficiencies. 

Dr Knut Alicke, Partner at McKinsey & Company, agreed, describing this as “replacing inventory with information”. He shared that 80 per cent of companies still use Microsoft Excel for planning, and a survey revealed that a large number of supply chain professionals felt that their companies were not prepared to deal with trends in digitalisation and sustainability. He emphasised the importance of innovating and using technology to enhance decision-making and allowing the workforce to be upgraded.

Dyson’s Shi agreed. She cautioned against blindly adopting new technology, but to take the time to understand a system, and to harness the data to enhance the strength of the company’s supply chain and positioning. At Dyson, data collected from every stage – from designing, engineering, manufacturing, sales and customer usage – is analysed and used to enable holistic decision-making for improvements to each stage. 

3. Having the right talent in place is key to driving the business forward

Adopting technology would not lead to an increase in efficiency without the right talent in place to manage the new systems, panellists said. 

Kneepkens shared that KLA’s Singapore centre employs doctorates and degree-holders to test equipment on the manufacturing floor. He acknowledged that without this calibre of talent innovating at the forefront of technology, their product development would probably take 10 times as long. 

Sanket Buche, Vice President of Product Supply, Procter & Gamble AMEA, said being able to access good engineers and other top talent has helped to drive cutting edge developments at the P&G Supply Chain Innovation Hub in Singapore. He added that P&G sends their Singaporean talents abroad to gain experience managing different retail landscapes across the region, who then bring their expertise back to Singapore. P&G has tapped on the digital natives among employees to roll out a reverse mentoring programme, where younger employees teach the older ones digital skills. 

Shi shared that Dyson works with all the local universities in order to introduce themselves to students early. They also have an employee scholarship programme with no bond, where at least 10 per cent of their workforce is attending courses in one of the IHLs. 

Raoul Bonnet, Director of Supply Chain Management at ams OSRAM, summed it up by saying that the most important attribute in dealing with disruptions is to stay curious and open-minded. That will allow you to think about possibilities in various scenarios, and how to move on.