Congress Conversations supplement - S9

CLOUD TECHNOLOGY
WOULD BOOST RESILIENCE OF THE
SUPPLY CHAIN, INCREASE TRANSPARENCY
The microchip shortage disrupting the auto industry -
coupled with disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic,
the devastating winter storm in Texas last February and
a massive cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal in March
- have vividly exposed the vulnerability of
intricate global supply chains.
One solution, experts say: More resilience -
an ability to better control the innumerable
variables that can disrupt extended supply
chains. And cloud technology that can make
supply chains more transparent will be critical,
said Darren Coil, Microsoft's director of strategy
for business development, automotive,
manufacturing and supply chain technology.
" With cloud technology, you can stream data
from thousands of data sources ... to actually
make real-time, data-driven decisions, " Coil said.
Furthermore, Microsoft believes the industry needs a
more " vendor agnostic " model in which data can flow
easily from one cloud to another, increasing transparency.
Microsoft is working toward that with its open supply chain
platform initiative, Coil said.
But to make sense of these immense streams of data,
companies also will need to hire data scientists, engineers
and business analytics experts who can develop actionable
insights, he said.
" There's a need to be
better connected - to
understand, digitize
and connect data and
share the same single
source of truth. "
Justin McCoy, Toyota
North America
Justin McCoy, general manager of the Manufacturing
Project Innovation Center at Toyota Motor North America,
called for more product interchangeability that would
improve the flexibility of supply chains.
" If there is a way to design products up
front with an idea of what backups might be
available, ... that would be unbelievably beneficial
to greatly minimizing supply chain disruption, "
McCoy said. " There's a need to be
better connected - to understand, digitize
and connect data and share the same single
source of truth. "
On a similar note, Steve Pillsbury, smart-factory
practice leader and principal at PwC,
said the ability to change production modes
to meet changing demand patterns, supply
issues and the like would add game-changing flexibility to
supply chains.
" You could just react instantaneously to the needs of the
market through localization, through multimodal lines,
etc., and do that in a way that's more affordable so you
don't have to replicate dozens of capital-intensive plants
around the world, " Pillsbury said. " I think companies are
moving toward that, ... setting up an ability to hedge operationally
to react to changes in supply and demand that are
not going way. "
SHARING DATA
IS CRITICAL TO CREATING A
CONNECTED MOBILITY ECOSYSTEM
Futurists envision a connected mobility ecosystem that
uses technology to reduce traffic congestion and carbon
emissions, eliminate last-mile delivery problems, make
transportation safer and sustainable, and more.
How this ecosystem will evolve and who will control it is
unclear - and thought-provoking, experts agree. But one
thing is certain: It will involve sharing massive amounts
of data between the public and private sectors without
harming the companies that invest significant capital to
develop it.
Who owns and holds data, how it's monetized, what data is
free and what isn't, who gets access to it and who doesn't
is a pervasive issue, said Anil Khurana, global industrial manufacturing
and automotive leader and a principal at PwC.
CONGRESS CONVERSATIONS * 9
Congress Conversations supplement

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