SEMI launches supply chain initiative and working groups to tackle disruption
SEMICON Southeast Asia kicked off in Penang, with opening speeches and keynotes by its CEO, a representative from Global Foundries, and even addresses by the Penang Chief Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Read about it here.
At the opening ceremony, Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI outlined the top 5 challenges that global CEOs are faced with especially the last 7 years.
He outlined the Top five challenges below.
- Global economic outlook. Inflation in recent years have created a lot of uncertainties in the world. Geopolitical issues like the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated matters
- How to be a more resilient organisation.
- The path to net zero and understanding the relevance of climate change impacting our lives around the globe.
- Talent shortage – the industry is growing exponentially, but relevant talent growth is unable to keep up with its pace.
- A totally disrupted supply chain. Ajit described, “The supply chain used to work like a champ. The Just in Time (JIT) philosophy does not work for us anymore. Not it’s Just in Case (JIC).”
No matter how you slice and dice it, a majority of these challenges sort of converge at the issue of supply chain. To address the global economy, resiliency, and disruption, it requires also at least addressing supply chain.
Above all of this however, it was interesting to note that SEMI had also launched a Supply Chain Management (SCM) initiative with a mission to create a blueprint for a more resilient and agile semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.
Ajit also opined, “SEMI is really the most important agent and catalyst to support the industry across the globe. Because no single company, no single country can deal with these issues which have to be dealt with collectively by entities like SEMI.”
During the 3-day conference SEMI anticipates addressing part of these challenges via dedicated forums/events/programs like the SEMI SEA University Bootcamp which will host over 100 students from all over the region, and introduce them to the semiconductor industry.
Above all of this however, it was interesting to note that SEMI had also launched a Supply Chain Management (SCM) initiative with a mission to create a blueprint for a more resilient and agile semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.
SEMI claims to be”company neutral, country-neutral, pro- supply chain, and pro-industry.”
An Industry Advisory Council (IAC) began in February 2023, and to date the IAC has members like Google, Intel, Infineon, Merck, TSMC, with an open invitation for more to join.What has happened since then is the launch of two working groups created to tackle separate issues of Resiliency (via supply chain mapping), and Agility via strategic partner capabilities/tools mapping.
SEMI currently connects more than 2,500-member companies and 1.3 million professionals worldwide to advance the technology and business of electronics design and manufacturing. It also claims to be “company neutral, country-neutral, pro- supply chain, and pro-industry,” with one of its global trade principles VALIANTLY trying to address current geo-political tensions as well:
Ensure national security controls on commercial technology are narrowly tailored to specific national security concerns and implemented multilaterally.
Let’s see.
