Supply chain integration across  all departments is the key to resilient supply chains which, in turn, lead to  more resilient businesses.

“Businesses don’t just become  resilient by themselves,” says SAPICS www.sapics.org  President Cobus Rossouw, fresh from last week’s annual SAPICS Supply  Chain conference held at Sun City. The conference was attended by close to 1000  supply chain participants from Africa and the world’s major business centres.  

“Until each part of the business -  including the guys from research and development , sales and finance - understand  how they fit into the supply chain and the fact that their contribution matters  to its overall resilience, companies simply won’t achieve the level of  resilience required for them to be truly competitive in today’s fast-changing,  demanding marketplace,” he  adds.

According to Rossouw, resilience is the capacity to recover  quickly from difficulties. “We’re not saying: the better you plan, the easier it’ll be to  avoid trouble. We’re saying, difficulties are unpredictable and unavoidable,  but the better you plan, the faster you’ll recover.” Another key discussion  point raised during the conference is the perception that the supply chain  profession is being tainted by the criticism against the role of procurement.  “The casual  interchange of the terms procurement, supply management and supply chain  management is compromising the ability of our value chain integration  profession to deliver maximum business value,” he said.

“This  dilemma extends into the private sector as well, where buyers continue to focus  on price as the major decision-driver, often to the detriment of the integrated  supply chain. This inevitably has a disastrous effect on supply chain  relationships.”

The role of  relationships in resilience

In his experience, Rossouw says recovering from difficulties  requires collaboration and innovation from all parties involved.  “Collaboration seems so easy at the outset  but, in the end, it requires parties to accept that ‘being right’ is less  important than ‘being aligned’. “ Innovation that leads to greater resilience  requires an open mind and the desire to be brave. “I have  learnt that all supply chains and all relationships are exposed to  difficulties.  Plain-sailing is only a  figment of your imagination or a lack of drive to seek out the next opportunity  for improvement.  This means that we need  to be resilient, to recover from these difficulties quickly.  Whether difficulties are forced upon us by  circumstances outside our control or emanating from our drive to deliver more  value, we have to be tough,” he says.

“This will  require collaboration and innovation,” Rossouw concludes. “It will require us  to be aligned with all our partners and to seek out different ways to succeed.”

SAPICS 2014 Conference Award  winners

The awards for the best  single unit and multi-unit stands were decided on several criteria, but this  year the judges were looking for the stands that offered a totally integrated  experience. The winning stands did  a great job of tying in their messages with graphics, decor, and promotions,  and also provided continued helpful assistance and information to delegates.

Best single unit exhibition  stand: Bakers Transport 
Best multi-unit exhibition  stand:  CHEP

While the exhibitor  stands were chosen by a small number of representatives from the delegate body,  the speaker awards have been decided by tallying up the scores from the  feedback forms delegates completed during the course of the conference.

SAPICS Award for the Best-written  paper from a practitioner:        

Nancy Wendorf and Vera  Peller from General Dynamics C4 Systems – “Counterintelligence Warfare  Strategies for Supply Chain Integrity.”

SAB Miller Kingfisher  award for the most innovative presentation:            

Sean Culey CSCP from  Supply Chain Council – “Transformers: The Rise of Supply Chain 3.0 - the  Automated, Personalised and Local Supply Chain. A Cassandra or Pollyanna  future?”

Terry Smee award for  the overall best speaker at the conference:             

Gary Hartley from New  Zealand RFID Pathfinder Group – “The use of EPC RFID standards for livestock  and meat traceability”

2014  Supply Chain Management Education Excellence Awards

The annual Supply Chain  Management Education Excellence Awards www.scmeea.org.za aims to recognise and honour companies and individuals who are contribute  substantially to alleviating the global skills crisis in supply chain  management. The Corporate Educator of the year award demonstrates a supply chain  management education and skills development leader, an organisation that has  the ability to attract, engage and retain top human capital whilst tackling the  every-day challenges of SCM.

The nominations that were received by the SCMEEA committee are  exciting examples of the types of initiatives and projects that are being  undertaken to tackle the skills challenges.  

The shortlisted companies were:

• &bull Automotive Industry  Development Centre

• &bull NGK Spark Plugs

• &bull Transnet

Runner up was SYSPRO with Imperial Logistics taking first place. Editor’s note: Low  resolution photos attached. High resolution photos are available on request.