In a jargon-free 263 pages Mark Millar's new book: "Global Supply Chain Ecosystems --Strategies for competitive advantage in a complex world* admirably deals with these interdependent issues, though in certain areas there is some room for improvement he could consider for any revised edition he may plan.
Based in Hong Kong as a visiting lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he has completed over 350 speaking engagements at corporate events and industry conferences across 23 countries so he has an inside track on the crucible of momentous logistics changes based in the Far East, which comes through strongly in his book, being regarded as one of Asia's top 50 influencers in supply chain and logistics. He has no doubts that Asia, for example, will not suffer from the trend beyond globalization to more regional supply chains. He says that re-shoring or near-shoring formerly outsourced manufacturing to Asia back to Europe and America for a host of good reasons will not lead to a mass exodus from manufacturing in Asia largely because of a well-established, finely tuned and highly efficient and global supply chain ecosystems that service the Asia-Europe and Asia-America trades, but also because the potential of the domestic consumer markets in the economies is so enormous. One can only hope that will be true but there are significant risks that could upset the apple cart. A more immediate problem, however, that exists for multi-national brands who are following the expansion of Asian consumer markets closely is which means they need to review and reconfigure how their supply chain ecosystems operate to reach and service these markets.
What companies often do not know is what is happening throughout their supply chain ecosystems, which includes information on trends, costs, performance metrics and other measurements essential for continuous improvement and development, says Mark. "In order to sense a problem it must be visible," but I would aver that it is also important to sense the as yet invisible problems by observing much more than the trends. A 2014 Economist Intelligence Unit/KPMG international report said 49% of global manufacturing executives admitted that their companies do not have visibility of their supply chains beyond their tier 1 suppliers. Only 9% said they had complete supplier visibility and visibility is probably the biggest challenge to their businesses and it will almost certainly worsen in the near term.
The author agreed with this writer that boardrooms are seriously lacking in their assessment of moral hazards and political risks to the global supply chains, and he gives a warning note on this. "More so than ever before is a need for detailed due diligence in the evaluation and selection of supply chain partners, processes that involve not just assessment of their capabilities but also scrutinizes their reputations, track record and background, including their finances. Since the world's consumers became netizens the power of social media can destroy in seconds the diligently developed and carefully nurtured reputations of companies, brands and products." Yet in my view global corporations seem little fazed by these threats, hoping they will blow over and be soon forgotten. But a seemingly new threat is looming on the horizon that could be a game changer. A Californian woman is suing Costco for selling farmed shrimp from Thailand, where slave labour and human trafficking in the fishing industry are widespread, and allegedly misleading US consumers. The degree of slavery, torture and murder among the migrant workers on board Thai-owned trawlers can be seen by Googling my blog: "Thailand's trawlers of terror shame food supply chains." If the law suit succeeds it could open the floodgates for an ocean of similar actions.
One area where the book seems to be lightweight is the problem of JIT-oriented global supplies and how to acquire robust disaster recovery plans before a disaster hits. A case study offers some limited advice on spreading contract awards among several suppliers, which provides flexibility of supplier choice and enables one to switch to another supplier who already knows your product. There is no mention how global companies with manufacturing plants spread around the world, like General Motors, have bred flexibility through commonality by replicating their factories and standardising manufacturing processes. None of GM's flexible plants has fixed conveyor lines and each plant can be reconfigured over a weekend. Such capabilities, however, will require flexible supply contracts and flexible distribution capabilities. Standardising manufacturing processes is not the only way to create flexibility through interchangeability. One can redesign products to use standardised parts so that several factories within one corporate group can contribute when problems loom.
The degree of global exposure to JIT-oriented parts supplies was eminently highlighted by the 2011 Japanese sub-sea quake and resulting tsunami, which led to multi-billion dollar losses around the world, with the auto industry particularly hard hit. It prompted one US logistics company chief executive to proclaim: "In many cases tightly stretched global supply chains do not make sense anymore." The degree of dependence on Japan for electronic components at the time was alarming, and Japan was home to nearly 100 manufacturing choke points that could affect business worldwide. But how well prepared is global business post 2011? Not much, it seems. As Mark Millar points out, some 50% of the world's laptop chips and 65% of iPads are produced in the capital of Chengdu, Sichuan province, a known high risk earthquake zone.
There is one risk that is still being largely ignored, says Millar, and it is like a ticking time bomb, but one amenable to prevention -- management of human capital. As the author rightly points out, managing a vast, varied pool of human capital is probably the most important topic in the book. This is because every other aspect of operating a productive supply chain is "utterly dependent on how well staff carry out their tasks." In Vietnam as in many other countries there are not enough young people choosing logistics as their career. An ageing population within the logistics sector could undermine long-term economic growth. There are tips on how to attract and retain the right form of talent. Not least of the problems, it seems, is the low salaries offered.
The final chapter on supply chain innovation devotes only one page to warehouse robotics while giving no mention to the power of WMS to cut storage costs drastically. A good stock forecasting program, for example, that can react in real time to, say, daily weather forecasts can trim inventories by up to 30% while leaving customer service levels unharmed. Given that the cost of holding inventories can dwarf all other warehouse running costs combined, these programs can deliver a 2-week payback.
Despite these few lightly touched areas that deserve more prominence the book presents a well-rounded view of the problems, solutions and opportunities that lie ahead in the fast-changing, global supply chains and deserves to be on every logistician's bookshelf.
*Published by Kogan Page. logistics@koganpage.com
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Mark Millar
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