The finals of Supply Chain Challenge 2017 took place at Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on July 19. Complementing the theme E-Commerce Logistics: Your Click is my Command in his welcome speech, our President Professor Cheong Hee Kiat brought the audience back to some 50 years ago where goods were ordered by phone, inventory was managed via ledgers and mental calculations, and the last-mile was either done by the provision shop “towkay” or the person collecting the goods. Fast forward to today where we have online commerce, sophisticated IT and management systems, highly automated warehouses, high-tech logistics transport, autonomous vehicles and drones, online payments, blockchain, and so on, he painted a bright future for logistics despite the many disruptions in the industry and encouraged young aspiring logisticians to keep learning and honing their skills – leveraging and tapping on the experiences of their peers and seniors.
Following his welcome address, the attention was brought to the four polytechnic teams who had made it to the finals – three teams from Singapore Polytechnic and one from Temasek Polytechnic. These teams had been working with their respective mentor companies – Addicon Logistics Management (S) Pte Ltd, iCommerce Asia Private Limited, Jacobson Global Logistics Singapore Pte Ltd, and Logisfleet Pte Ltd – for the past six weeks to develop real solutions to meet their e-commerce challenges. The teams pulled out all stops to convince the judging panel of their proposed solutions – one team incorporated a skit in its presentation and another featured a live demonstration of a mobile application.
It was Team EZLIFE from Singapore Polytechnic who eventually took home the Supply Chain Challenge 2017 trophy and cash prize of S$4,000. Defeated by a narrow margin, Team MGS from Temasek Polytechnic was awarded first runner-up with a cash prize of S$2,000 and Team Gusto from Singapore Polytechnic was awarded second runner-up with a cash prize of S$1,000.
(From left) Professor Cheong Hee Kiat, Team EZLIFE from Singapore Polytechnic, and Mr Stanley Lim, Chairman of the Programme Advisory Committee of SBIZ’s Logistics and Supply Chain Management programme.