“Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Forum 2014——Challenges and Best Practices of Supply Chain Management in the Internet Era“, which is hosted by Zhejiang University School of Management and Desautels Faculty of Management, and organized by Zhejiang University MBA Program Office and the Master in Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Program, has ended successfully at Qi Zhen Hall in Qi Zhen Restaurant, Zhejiang University Zi Jin Gang Campus, on June 12th 2014. This forum gathered experts, corporate executives, associations and media in manufacturing and supply chain management field, to discuss the topic of how to innovate and develop supply chains in the internet era, and have provided our audiences a knowledge feast of supply chain management.
Professor Ling Chen, vice president of Zhejiang University School of Management; Professor Weihua Zhou, vice president of Zhejiang University School of Management; Associate Professor Yongyi Shou, director of Zhejiang University MBA Program Office; Mr. Chao Chen, deputy director of Zhejiang University MBA Program Office; Mr. Shuqun Ma, admission director of GMSCM program; Professor Shanling Li of McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management, attended this forum as sponsor guests. Mr. Yonghui Fu, vice president of Business Development & Supply Chain Consulting of DHL; Professor Vincent Thomson of Department of Mechanical Engineering in McGill University; Ms. Lijuan Zhao, board director of Hong Kong Li & Fung Group; Mr. Hao Duan, senior director of Alibaba and head of Investment and Operation of Cainiao Network; Mr. Haoming Lin, vice president of ULink Supply Chain Management; Mr. Pingyi Li, CEO of FineEx; Mr. Qian Zheng, President of Mingjie Logistics Group; Mr. Xiaoming Huang, president of KCM Valve, attended this forum as presentation guests.
The forum was hosted by Mr. Yongyi Shou, director of Zhejiang University MBA Program Office.
In the beginning, Professor Ling Chen, vice president of Zhejiang University School of Management, made a speech on behalf of the sponsor, Zhejiang University School of Management. He congratulated the start of this forum, and welcomed all the guests. Professor Chen stated that, in the internet era, traditional manufacturing is facing great challenges and e-commerce is having great opportunities that never happened before. This is one of the most important topics that Zhejiang University School of Management will serve China’s manufacturing and e-commerce. Professor Chen also briefly introduced Zhejiang University and McGill University to our guests. He pointed out that the GMSCM program, founded together by Zhejiang University School of Management and McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management, was an innovation for MBA internationalization and specialization. Professor Chen hopes this program will educate more graduates that have integrated management skills in production supply chain and business operation, as well as operating skills to adapt the shifting market demand and global economy.
Professor Ling Chen, vice president of Zhejiang University School of Management
Associate Professor Yongyi Shou, director of Zhejiang University MBA Program Office
Secondly, Professor Shanling Li of McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management made a speech with the topic “The Designing of Demand Chain Management and Distribution Network”. Professor Li indicated that customer satisfaction and profit maximizing is the ultimate goal of companies, but customer demands are very difficult to forecast in the internet era. Therefore, it is vital important to design a supply chain that match the demand, and build an appropriate distribution network. She cited actual cases from Toyota, SEVEN-ELEVEN, Dell, ZARA, United Airlines and GM to demonstrate how to coordinate information stream, logistic and cash flow to maximize profits. After that, Professor Li pointed out that the best supply chain is the one with best response time, and then explained this with an example of how Toyota control their risks. At the end of her speech, Professor Li demonstrated how to operate and offset with internet under unpredictable situations.
Professor Shanling Li of McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management
Mr. Yonghui Fu, vice president of Business Development & Supply Chain Consulting of DHL, and also part-time professor at Zhejiang University, made a speech with the topic “Challenges and Innovations of Supply Chain Management: The Internet Logic and O2O Case Study”. He pointed out that it is the same reason in Apple, McDonald’s, Amazon, Unilever and P&G’s success: Oriented from customers, they built up digital and physical supply chains, to provide their customers one-stop solutions, and consider supply chains as their trustworthy partners and help them to improve value chains. Mr. Fu mentioned several challenges that supply chain is facing at current stage, and listed some examples to explain how to cope with them and seek opportunities at the same time. In the end, through the example of a traditional home appliance company, Mr. Fu pointed out that the internet logic is not only recreating supply chain’s value, and also recreating organizations, business processes and mindsets.
Mr. Yonghui Fu, vice president of Business Development & Supply Chain Consulting of DHL, and also part-time professor at Zhejiang University
Professor Vincent Thomson of Department of Mechanical Engineering in McGill University, made a speech with the topic “Supply Chain Management in Aerospace Industry”. He demonstrated the structure, characteristic, quality management system, product development and practical application of aerospace supply chain. Professor Thomson indicated that management had become the most important sector of aerospace supply chain management. Companies need to understand the culture, logistics and distribution differences between suppliers. Regional transportation and end users are very important factors.
Professor Vincent Thomson of Department of Mechanical Engineering in McGill University
In the afternoon, Mr. Hao Duan, senior director of Alibaba and head of Investment and Operation of Cainiao Network, made his speech and answered the question of why Alibaba Group founded Cainiao Network: Mr. Yun Ma set Cainiao’s mission as “To make customers in China receive their packages within 24 hours.” Mr. Duan pointed out that in the future, customers will need faster, newer and cheaper delivery services. Therefore, Cainiao set up three standards and the ultimate goal.
Mr. Hao Duan, senior director of Alibaba and head of Investment and Operation of Cainiao Network
Ms. Lijuan Zhao, board director of Hong Kong Li & Fung Group, introduced their supply chain management system. She indicated that logistics is only a small part of Li & Fung’s supply chain management system, and the most important part of our “All Channel” concept is customer’s demand. Orient from customers, not the current platform. Ms. Zhao pointed out that we can provide differentiated supply chain management to customers only when we understand their needs. Li & Fung provides customers practical operations, values, solutions, and makes supply chain management flexible. Ms. Zhao also stated that there are two ways to increase revenues, one is reducing costs, and the other one is increasing profits. Therefore, providing customers different thinking and helping them grow is as important as reducing costs.
Ms. Lijuan Zhao, board director of Hong Kong Li & Fung Group
Mr. Haoming Lin, vice president of ULink Supply Chain Management, made a speech with the topic “Logistics and E-commerce Platform in the Background of Mobile Internet”. He introduced two development directions of supply chain: value based supply chain and technology based supply chain. After that, Mr. Lin analyzed the logistic market and the conjunction of logistics and e-commerce. By analyzing the detailed fee charging methods, Mr. Lin claimed that major client and customer logistics fees can be reduced by improving the information flow efficiency. In the end, Mr. Lin explain the differences between logistical e-commerce and e- commercial logistics, and the fee charging methods of e-commerce platform.
Mr. Haoming Lin, vice president of ULink Supply Chain Management
Under the circumstance of internet economy, the traditional supply chain pattern of Chinese firms is facing the challenges of rapid transition and innovation. In the meanwhile, there are also new business opportunities. This forum wishes to share the new successful supply chain patterns developed by innovative companies through our guests’ presentations, and practically help Chinese companies transit.
