Covid-19 exposes uneven pace of digitalisation in supply chains: panellists

THE Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the weakness of a silo approach by supply chain players in digitalisation, even as this process has been sped up by Covid-induced lockdowns, noted Tan Chong Meng, PSA International's group chief executive officer.

He made the observation as a panellist at a dialogue of the Singapore Maritime Technology Conference on Tuesday, when asked about the current pace of digitalisation in the industry.

The head honcho of the port operator suggested that management of supply chain players have an understanding of how the entire ecosystem digitalises and uses data. He said individual players in the supply chain may have a thorough understanding of their own business, but may know very little about how other players in the ecosystem use data and the types of data used.

Bereft of such understanding will slow down the digitalisation process of the ecosystem, as "logistics is a team sport", Mr Tan added.

Caroline Yang, president of the Singapore Shipping Association and another panellist, said the pace is varied, with the bigger players being "very forward" in their digitalisation approach, while the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have shown inconsistent standards.

Coming from an SME, the chief executive of Hong Lam Marine said small players are firefighting problems daily and hardly have enough human resources for digitalisation.

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She added: "But I realised in this digitalisation journey, you need to dedicate resources, you need to find people. So you need to invest in systems, you need to invest in the talent, you must have the talent to come in to do this digitalisation, so it's a commitment."

Indeed, Mr Tan said the people involved in the supply chain must take part in the digitalisation journey, after starting from the customer to address their pain points. "Don't try to solve the whole equation, move in stages, train the people. The last bit is, people must come along."

He also encouraged players to help their business partners, especially the weaker ones as these might undermine the players' success. "Why don't we all take the first step of helping them? And helping them navigate what you call the minefield of many schemes and ensure that the people around you are stronger, and if all of us can do that, I think it raises the bar."

Besides these issues, there is also the question of attracting information technology talent to the maritime sector.

Lew Chuen Hong, chief executive officer of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), said having both the domain knowledge as well as the digital element and the ability to bring together the two is where the secret sauce happens.

IMDA's TechSkills Accelerator programme has helped train nearly 8,000 mid-career workers since 2016 under this company-led training initiative to convert them to take on tech-light roles like UI/UX and digital marketing, or in tech-heavy areas of artificial intelligence and cloud software development.

Mr Lew said: "We are pushing very hard as far as mid-career conversions are concerned. Why, because these are the people who already come, be it finance or shipping, already that core skill sets in your domain. And if you then top that up as far as technical skill set is concerned, is extremely powerful. That's one key way in which a lot of companies have found success to be able to try and kickstarted their digitalisation plan."

IMDA is looking to train another 5,000 mid-career professionals in collaboration with the private sector over the next two to three years.

The dialogue, moderated by Quah Ley Hoon, chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, was held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Ted Tan, deputy chief executive officer of Enterprise Singapore, was also on the panel.