SC Excellence Conference March 2019 Infographic
News Article
Symbios Consulting organized its annual Supply Chain Conference in March 2019. Gaining more attention year after year and supported by Supply Chain Leaders from distinguished companies as Unilever, KAPCI Paintings, Egypt Foods, L’Oreal among 10 Speakers.
The 3rd conference was held on 16th March 2019 under the Title of “ End to End Digital Supply Chain”. Once again was well organized and received over 200 attendees. The conference was followed by a Workshop on 17th March that included 3 deep dive sessions and practices from 5 different industrial segments.
Key Speaker : Professor Holly Ott – Testimonial on 3rd SC Excellence Conference
I would like to thank-Symbios Consulting for the inviting me to speak at the 3rd SC Excellence conference, which was an opportunity for me to look more deeply into Industry 4.0 projects in SCM and to get a sense of the supply chain activities in Egypt.
The presentation from Unilever was a perfect segue from the research work on Industry 4.0in SCM in my presentation, where I discussed how the Germany strategic initiative, Industry 4.0, which started as a vision to establish Germany as a lead market and provider of advanced manufacturing solutions. But Industry 4.0 cannot be limited to manufacturing; it must be a fundamental part of the supply chain, as companies move towards meeting the challenges brought the increasing demand for customised products in a global markets. We looked at on-going research projects, including the work from the German company, Infineon Technologies, a lead semiconductor provider in the areas of automotive, industrial power and security. We looked at how Infineon is performing cutting-edge research to incorporate machine learning into their complex, global production planning. There are clear challenges to implementing such new methods into supply chain management, but the first results at Infineon already show that Industry 4.0 can contribute significantly in our supply chain processes.
Unilever, like Infineon, have already taken major steps towards implementing Industry 4.0 in their supply chain. They are also, ofcourse, targeting sustainability initiatives very aggressively as part of their Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. The presentations from KAPCI, 4PL and Ideal Standard underscored the critical role that supply chains play today, as they examine their supply chains and the potential for increasing their competitive advantage through efficient supply chain management. These companies reminded us of the importance of the fundamentals of SCM, using the SCOR model to model and evaluate important supply chain KPIs. Then, in stark contrast both to Unilever and to the others, L’Oreal reminded us that technology and KPIs are only part of the success factors in SCM. The speaker emphasised operations and the supply chain but stressed the importance of his people, both the employees in the supply chain and the customers, with phenomenal results.
We discussed “people" in our Deep Dive session, where the participants posed the question about the future jobs with increasing automatisation through advanced analytics and machine learning tools. First we asked what the managers look for in new hires, and the answers were, almost without exception: passion and ability to learn new things. Analytical skills was an important second, but, clearly, the current workforce must have a combination of math or computer skills but be able to perform as leaders in innovation and drive new solutions using new technologies.
Yes, our conclusion was that we will see that jobs disappear. Machines will take over tasks more efficiently and faster than humans. And yes, we will see new types of supply chain jobs, but it seems inevitable that jobs requiring basic skills will be reduced, and we cannot answer the question where the new jobs will be and how many, compared to the pool of future workers.
We also discussed how smaller Egyptian companies can compete in today’s world of giants. We agreed that only a change in our own - as consumers and as members of a happy and productive society - must prevail. Our own values will play a huge role in the future of companies. We used the example of the very steep rise in the demand for organic food in Germany and the interest that consumers have there in sustainable/local products. One participant, a social entrepreneur in Egypt, discussed challenges she faces with her business, but if we value a clean environment for our families then we, as consumers, will support companies, local companies which meet these needs.
Shereen, you and your company are doing wonderful things, and I hope that I can support you in the future.
