The Swiss economy and its supply chains are closely intertwined with other countries and heavily dependent on global events, says Thomas Friedli, head of the Institute for Supply Chain Management (ISCM) at the University of St. Gallen. This presents a good opportunity to discuss the underlying issues at the Supply Chain Innovation Day on September 25th.
For approximately ten years, ISCM-HSG has been organizing the Supply Chain Innovation Day (SCID). This year's SCID will take place at the Hotel "Einstein" in St. Gallen under the motto: "Supply Chain Viability 2024 – Supply Chains in the Tension Between Efficiency, Resilience and Sustainability".
The prominent keynote speaker will be Rolf André Siegenthaler, head of the army's logistics base, which includes Logistics Brigade 1, the five army logistics centers, the army pharmacy, as well as the medical and support services.
RA Siegenthaler
According to Siegenthaler, various conflicts in the Middle East are jeopardizing key trade routes and significantly increasing transport times and costs. "East Asia is in focus because of China and Taiwan. The port closures in China in 2022 demonstrated how dependent the West is on suppliers in the Far East (...). Ongoing military conflicts are endangering land and air transport routes, impacting transport costs in international trade.".
Furthermore, Friedli argues, societal expectations for ESG-compliant supply chains are rising. CO2 concentrations have increased steadily over the past 60 years and are now higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years, "with human activity being the primary cause of climate change." In addition to environmental standards, there are also increasing demands for social standards and respect for human rights. The question then arises as to how supply chains can be made sustainable and which key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used to measure this.
All images: UNISG/zVg
Other parts of the program deal with autonomous vehicles. Technological progress promises to make freight transport more efficient and solve the problem of the driver shortage, say Christian Clauss, Head of IT & Digital Transformation at Traveco, and logistics expert Marcus Schriefers. Vehicles capable of autonomous driving already exist. However, before widespread implementation, several challenges regarding the legal framework and the development of security concepts to address cyber risks still need to be resolved.
The introduction of autonomous transport vehicles has great economic potential
Potential for productivity gains, cost efficiency, and sustainability. Whether the autonomous
However, it is questionable whether freight transport will soon become a reality on Swiss roads.
