A “chaotic scenario” is expected for Asian companies in the next 24 months due to issues on demand visibility brought by geopolitical conflicts impacting supply chains, according to Procurement and Supply Institute of Asia (PASIA) President Charlie Villaseñor.
“There’s a lot of things going on—reverse globalization, or supply chain diversification—countries are going to be moving towards more geopolitical politics, even though they don’t want to do it, but they’re being forced to address this also; there seems to be still an issue on demand visibility,” Villaseñor said in a televised interview.
The issue of demand visibility among companies, the PASIA president noted, is that companies are “not really getting a firmer appreciation of what the demand and the supply situation would be.” With supply chain visibility, parts, components or products in transit can be tracked from the manufacturer to the final destination.
Villaseñor emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) is “a little bit bothersome” for some professionals and organizations who fret over the possibls significant impact on jobs or those who are working in this particular industry.
With this, the head of the Asia-based association for Supply Chain, Procurement, and Logistics said, “So there’s quite a bit of a chaotic scenario. I don’t think it’s going to be lifted up or be out of the range within the next 24 months as we are going to be ushered into the new year of 2024. So quite a bit of a challenge.”
Nonetheless, Villaseñor said it is imperative for Asian companies to collaborate with their neighbors and “synchronize whatever we can actually upgrade in terms of synergy within the supply chain and logistics.”
Meanwhile, as Christmas is fast approaching, Villaseñor noted that as he has been watching the development of importation, items entering the Philippines are “going to be on time.”
However, he said, “There’s much to be desired. You know, for those who can afford, they need to really get the items.”
“It’s really a question of the demand and the propensity of the consumers to consume if they’re really able to reach the prices that the commodities or the items that they would like to afford can actually be afforded by them,” he added.
According to a report published by the BusinessMirror last August 2023, gaining supply chain visibility isn’t an end in itself. To achieve visibility, companies must address the challenges of today’s increasingly complex supply chains.
In fact, a recent survey of supply chain executives conducted by KPMG LLP noted that a large swath of respondents stressed that greater supply chain viability would support crucial date and information to minimize disruptions, enable risk mitigation, improve supply chain decision-making, and increase speed to market.
The survey also noted that while visibility is important, it has been so difficult for companies to achieve because of the “sheer complexity of the modern multitiered supply chain.”
A recent KPMG global survey revealed that 70 percent of companies perceive their supply chain as “very” or “extremely complex.”
Other challenges to gaining real-time visibility cited by the survey are the lack of adequate technology and the inability to access relevant data sets. (Full story here: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/08/14/supply-chain-visibility-improves-overall-resiliency/)
Image credits: Pieter Janssen | Dreamstime.com
