On February 16th, 2022, Mr. Song Shiqiang, general manager of Shenzhen Slkor Micro-Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (www.slkormicro.com), was invited to attend the ECAS Roundtable Forum. At the meeting, Mr. Song Shiqiang gave a speech and analysis on supply chain problems, semiconductor future market development and other issues, and won the "Talking about the Wind" award.

 Slkor Song shiqiang（right）accepts the awards

Slkor Micro and its brother company, Shenzhen kinghelm Electronics Co., Ltd. (www.kinghelm.com.cn), are members of china information industry trade association. Mr. Song Shiqiang, the general manager, has conducted in-depth research in the semiconductor industry market, Beidou GPS antenna, RF antenna and other fields for many years, and has a very deep understanding of the market, supply chain and other issues, and has a good grasp of market trends. Mr. Song Shiqiang delivered a speech on his research results for many years at this forum, which was recognized by many participating units and enterprises.

 Kinghelm/Slkor Song shiqiang won the awards of“Talking about Wind Life”

The roundtable forum of ECAS 2022 will focus on how to build a healthy component supply chain. Can digital transformation solve the imbalance between supply and demand? How to realize safety stock? Issues such as in-depth discussion, forum links, supply chain talents, positioning practical problems, colliding with wisdom, splashing countless sparks. Invited guests include: Xia Jun, Chairman of Shenlei Technology, Tian Weidong, Chairman of Xinzhi Holdings, Wang Yucheng, Chairman of Haohao Information Technology, Ouyang Xu, Director of Ligong Technology, Peng Zhenqi, General Manager of Tianhe Star Sales, Dr. Mai Manquan, Expert Committee Member of ECAS, and Wu Zhenzhou, Vice Chairman of ECAS. The forum was hosted by Mr. Wu Shounong, Vice Chairman of ECAS, with the theme of "Building a Healthy Supply Chain and Empowering China's Electronic Industry", and found out the root causes of the current supply chain problems from different angles and explored the answers to solve the dilemma.

ECAS roundtable forum site

 What is a healthy supply chain？

Simply put, a healthy supply chain means that chips flow unimpeded from upstream to downstream. Wu Zhenzhou mentioned that there is a saying that the supply chain is "short, flat and fast". In the past many years, the supply chain has not been well connected with the "last mile", so a healthy supply chain should also reflect "short, flat and fast". However, there are different ways of "short and fast" in different times. In the past, it was the "short and fast" formed by manpower, and the division of labor was clear, including logistics, finance, sales, procurement and other links; Nowadays, a healthy supply chain is more "short, flat and fast" through digital platforms.

ECAS vice chairman Wu

In the process of chip rapid circulation, problems are handled by distributors and agents. It is not easy to do this. In this regard, Tian Weidong believes that a safe and stable supply chain needs transparent information. In the past few years, agents have suffered from high inventory due to opaque demand information. Although different enterprises in the supply chain have different evaluations of information equivalence, it is still the basis of supply chain security and stability.

Chairman of XINZHI holdingTian Zhidong

From the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, each enterprise plays a different role. Xia Jun thinks that the distributor is the service industry, and serving the upstream and downstream well is the value of the distributor. In the whole process of information transmission, logistics and capital transmission, creating its own value will stabilize the upstream and downstream of the overall industrial chain. Wang Yucheng's understanding of healthy supply chain is an ecology of coexistence and symbiosis, which is the consensus of many enterprises after the imbalance between supply and demand caused by trade conflicts and epidemics for many years.

Chairman of Shenlei Technology Xia Jun

The market is unpredictable. Ouyang Xu said that the supply chain has been fluctuating up and down. Even before the epidemic and trade conflicts, the supply chain was fluctuating, so there is no stable supply chain, but it is relatively stable.

The best three year？Worst three year？

In the face of the impact of past epidemics and trade barriers, what experiences have the original factories, agents and distributors had? How to deal with the impact? According to Ouyang Xu, up to now, automobile chips are still in short supply three years after the epidemic. The reason for this situation is that automobile chips pay attention to high reliability instead of advanced technology, and the traditional technology that depends on high reliability is mastered by a few original factories. Its production capacity was originally limited, and it is difficult to expand its production capacity. This is the reason for the lack of core in automobiles. In this case, the automobile chip market has changed from the original buyer's market to the current seller's market, which will not change in the short term, but it can be predicted that it will be alleviated in the next few years.

Chairman of Ligong Technology OuYang Xu

The epidemic situation has created the role exchange between Party A and Party B, which has affected the business progress and promoted the relationship between distributors and customers, and the working mode and industry pattern have also changed. Every cycle fluctuation brings impact, but it also has positive side. Wang Yucheng said that no matter what impact, when others think it is unforgettable, it is the time for distributors to exert their value. In the past three years, there have been unforgettable moments and exciting gains, and entering the industry in 2023 may be the new normal.

Chairman of Haoshanghao Wang Yucheng

The Ideal and Reality of Digitalization 

The imbalance between supply and demand of chips is mainly caused by unequal information. The digital transformation of supply chain is considered as a solution to the imbalance between supply and demand. The question is how to land. What is the difficulty?   A healthy supply chain is related to the ecosystem and involves all parties in the supply chain, so the corresponding system platform cannot be built by one person or one company. With the participation of banks, governments and other institutions, the category of ecosystem has been extended. Wu Zhenzhou believes that the digital transformation must build an ecological platform together with professionals, people who know software and people who know development, and it must be an ecological platform in digital form.   Digitalization is inevitable, but there are difficulties. Mai Manquan said that everyone strives for the greatest return for their own interests. Therefore, data sharing is not a very simple topic. Wu Shounong believes that digitalization depends on the nature, scale and culture of the enterprise, and the cost of digitalization should also be considered.

ECAS expect committee merber Dr.Mai man quan 

Tian Weidong predicted that if the whole industry and business are digitized, enterprises that don't do digital transformation may fall behind. At present, digitalization is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. Enterprises now have a sense of urgency, but how to do it involves all aspects, and it is not easy to achieve landing.

Inventory, the problem of going too far. 

Excess inventory is a common problem for distributors at present, and it is also a problem that must be faced. Xia Jun said that without inventory, there would be no business, so safety and efficiency are two sides of inventory, and only by choosing the one that suits you well. Tian Weidong pointed out that in addition to "safe inventory", there is also "optimal inventory", and it is difficult to define different concepts. When chips are in short supply, the more inventory, the better. When the market situation changes, these inventories turn into dead goods, which brings a painful lesson.

Peng Zhenqi,General manager of TianHe Star Sales

Peng Zhenqi also believes that it is difficult to distinguish the definition of safety inventory. Each enterprise may have different definitions of safety inventory in different industries, different customers, different materials and different prices at different times, and each operator may have different definitions of safety inventory in different States. In the implementation, we mainly focus on refined management, and define materials appropriately according to different conditions, and this definition should be very specific in order to have accurate inventory water level. In addition, how to timely and reliably share data and information is an important issue in digital construction. Tianhe Star has invested a lot in systems and data, collecting upstream and downstream information, and also sharing and docking data. It can adopt a phased and step-by-step sharing method, for example, there are data such as materials and assets corresponding to customers in the system; For the material data with slow flow or no flow, it should be reliable, timely, shareable and connected with partners. 

Summarize

The supply chain will still face many challenges in 2023. While improving the system and architecture, enterprises should strengthen cooperation with upstream and downstream, which is also an effective measure to increase the visibility of supply and demand and reduce risks. What we should also see is that the supply chain is no longer a linear relationship between the original factory, distributors, traders and terminal manufacturers. The government's planning for the component trading market and the bank's assistance to supply chain finance have made the supply chain diversified. Behind these changes, ECAS will play the role of a bridge and link, provide a platform for enterprises to exchange and cooperate, and actively promote a healthy supply chain ecology.