Supply chain disruptions are setting Singapore’s economy back by $2.6 billion per year, according to business transformation consultancy TMX Global.
TMX Global’s Country Manager of Malaysia and Singapore, Greg O’Shea, notes that Singapore had a GDP of US$423.6 billion last year. With supply chain disruptions impacting an average of 0.47% of business revenue around the world, businesses in Singapore are forfeiting an estimated $2.6 billion a year in sales.
Disruptions include delays in raw material shipments, higher freight costs driven by global shortages in containers and vessels, and port congestion.
As such, the Singapore government has rolled out initiatives aimed at building more resilient supply chains.
This includes an $18 million Supply Chain 4.0 Initiative to integrate digital and automated solutions to help businesses anticipate scenarios in the event of disruptions to their supply chains. The Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex) has also been launched to facilitate the secure sharing of information between the supply chain ecosystem participants via a common data corridor.
However, O’Shea states that technology is not a cure-all. Businesses also need to optimise and transform their operations to enable business agility as well as upskill their workforce to serve a reinvented supply chain.
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“Singapore has been Asia’s top logistics hub for 10 years in a row and is recognised for offering world-class connectivity to the region and beyond. But it is equally important that businesses keep in mind that things can change in an instant and anticipate the effects of global disruption as demonstrated by the pandemic and recent events. Supply chains thrive on predictability, and so the ability to take away as much of the uncertainty as possible through a resilient supply chain is crucial,” he says.
