Lenovo Group and Tsinghua University have created the first ICT supply chain res

On July 4th, the Supply Chain Resilience Summit and the launch of "Supply Chain Resilience - An Evaluation Indicator System Based on the ICT Industry" were grandly held at Tsinghua University, co-hosted by Lenovo Group and Tsinghua University. The first supply chain resilience evaluation indicator system for the information and communication technology industry in China was born! The conference attracted nearly 60 representatives from the industry and academia.

As a leading enterprise in the ICT industry, Lenovo Group has always been known for its world-leading supply chain, having been selected ten times for the Gartner Global Supply Chain Top 25 list, ranking in the top 10 for three consecutive years, and continuing to lead in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also the only high-tech manufacturing enterprise from China and the Asia-Pacific region to be listed, maintaining the record for the most times listed among Chinese enterprises. Behind this impressive performance, on one hand, is Lenovo's own effective exploration, and on the other hand, Lenovo has been committed to injecting new development momentum into the supply chain through industry-university cooperation.

Since 2023, under the "Intelligent Manufacturing Industry-Academia-Research Deep Integration Special Project" cooperation framework signed between Lenovo Group and Tsinghua University, Lenovo's global supply chain and Lenovo Research Institute have closely collaborated with the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University to jointly conduct expansive research on supply chain resilience.

Guan Wei, Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group and Head of Global Supply Chain, and Song Shiqi, Professor of the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University, Distinguished Professor of the Yangtze River Scholars Program by the Ministry of Education, and Director of the Institute of Industrial Intelligence and Systems, delivered opening remarks for the event.

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Guan Wei, Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group and Head of Global Supply Chain:

"Lenovo and Tsinghua University jointly release 'Supply Chain Resilience - An Evaluation Indicator System Based on the ICT Industry'. Against the current international and domestic situation, it has more industry value and significance of the times. At the same time, the significance of this book also lies in that it provides a common language system and measurement standards for the entire industry when discussing resilience topics." Guan Wei emphasized, "The unity of knowledge and action, this monograph is not only an innovation in theory but also a guide for practice, showcasing our years of exploration and practical efforts in the field of supply chain resilience. The supply chain is the cornerstone of Lenovo's global operations. For enterprises, only by creating an efficient and collaborative supply chain system and establishing a sustainable ecosystem can they better cope with various risks and challenges, and enhance the competitiveness of the entire ICT industry."

Chen Jian, Lenovo Chair Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, and Director of the Key Research Base of the Ministry of Education for Humanities and Social Sciences - Tsinghua University Modern Management Research Center:

Peng Xinliang, Secretary-General of the Public Procurement Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, and Executive Deputy Director of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management Professional Committee:

Chen Jian, Lenovo Chair Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, and Director of the Key Research Base of the Ministry of Education for Humanities and Social Sciences - Tsinghua University Modern Management Research Center, and Peng Xinliang, Secretary-General of the Public Procurement Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, and Executive Deputy Director of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management Professional Committee, respectively, gave wonderful speeches on the themes of "From Supply Chain Coordination to Supply Chain Resilience" and "Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience and Security Level, Promoting Supply Chain Optimization and Upgrading".Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Tenured Full Professor Xiao Yongbo

Tenured Full Professor Xiao Yongbo from the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management has provided an in-depth analysis of the key content of the book "Supply Chain Resilience - An Evaluation Indicator System Based on the ICT Industry."

Supply Chain Resilience Roundtable Forum

Lenovo Global Supply Chain Senior Director, Head of Strategy, Security, and Sustainable Development Fan Xing

Lenovo Research Institute Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Intelligent Data Director Qi Hongsheng

The roundtable forum was chaired by Fan Xing, Senior Director of Lenovo's Global Supply Chain, Head of Strategy, Security, and Sustainable Development. Qi Hongsheng, Director of Intelligent Data at the Lenovo Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, emphasized that this achievement is the first phase of research on supply chain resilience by Lenovo and Tsinghua University on the theme of intelligent manufacturing. It involves establishing an evaluation indicator system with industry guidance significance through theoretical analysis and data simulation, creating a "ruler" for measuring and diagnosing supply chain resilience. The second phase will focus on expanding the theoretical and applied innovation of intelligent technology in enhancing supply chain resilience, while the third phase will focus on researching and verifying the continuous evolution model of supply chain resilience in the intelligent supply chain ecosystem. Therefore, as an evaluation indicator system for supply chain resilience, it has a fundamental significance in both theory and practice.

Duan Huili, Director of Intelligent Operations Management of Lenovo Global Supply Chain, stated that Lenovo's global supply chain has achieved end-to-end operational visibility by integrating key operational data such as planning, order fulfillment, procurement, production, logistics, and quality management through various transaction systems on the Supply Chain Intelligence Control Tower (SCI) platform. In the future, there are plans to apply generative AI to create an interactive intelligent robot for Lenovo's supply chain, integrating capabilities such as supply chain knowledge graphs, operational conditions, optimization, and predictive models into a new intelligent interactive entity, further enhancing the resilience management capabilities of the intelligent supply chain.

Professor and Doctoral Supervisor Li Guo from the School of Management at Beijing Institute of Technology, a Distinguished Professor of the Cheung Kong Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education, and Professor and Doctoral Supervisor Xu Xiaolin from the Business School at Nanjing University, Director of the Case Center, specifically mentioned that building supply chain resilience as a systemic behavior in the supply chain involves decision-making entities beyond a single company, thus placing high demands on supply chain incentive compatibility and coordination.

Du Yanze, Senior Research Manager at IDC, stated that over the next 5-10 years, the global supply chain will embrace new opportunities with AI, where technological innovation, market trends, and changes in consumer behavior will influence the upgrade of supply chain resilience strategies.**Supply Chain Resilience - An Evaluation Indicator System Based on the ICT Industry** Introduction

With the development of the global political and economic situation and the industry, the global supply chain has shown a trend towards regionalization and fragmentation, leading to an increasingly "shortened chain" phenomenon. This has resulted in issues such as chain congestion, disruption, and detachment, posing significant challenges to the normal operation of industries. The issue of supply chain resilience has become increasingly prominent, and is considered to be related to industrial development, and even the stability and security of nations. It is a major issue currently of common concern to governments, industry, and academia.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, where Lenovo operates, is no exception. The ICT industry involves multiple fields such as telecommunications, the internet, electronic devices, and software development. Its supply chain faces numerous highly influential factors, complex links, and is dynamic and globally distributed, with a high degree of complexity, dynamism, and globality. It is susceptible to various internal and external shocks, leading to supply chain disruptions and imbalances.

Focusing on the significant shocks the ICT industry has experienced in the past and its future development trends, this monograph systematically reviews the potential shocks faced by the industry from three levels: micro (internal corporate operations management), meso (market competition and government regulation), and macro (external environment such as politics, military, and economy). It analyzes the possible impacts of these shocks. Based on this, following the logic before, during, and after the shock, Lenovo and the Tsinghua team have systematically constructed a resilience evaluation AAR indicator system that includes three dimensions: Absorption, Adaption, and Restoration. They have also combined the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to build a supply chain resilience evaluation method with strong theoretical guidance. In addition, through data simulation and hypothetical scenarios, multiple rounds of experimental resilience assessments have been conducted, efficiently identifying the weak links in the supply chain's resilience. At the same time, the team has proposed policy recommendations with solid theoretical foundations and strong practical guidance from the perspective of systematically enhancing the resilience of China's ICT industry.

Supply Chain Resilience Evaluation Indicator System: Absorption, Adaption, Restoration

Supply chain resilience is a multi-objective system that needs to be measured from three dimensions: before, during, and after significant emergency events. Before the shock, the ability of the supply chain topology structure to resist shocks is examined from a strategic level (Absorption). During the shock, the ability of the supply chain to quickly switch to backup or redundant structures after being impacted is examined from an emergency level (Adaption). After the shock, the ability of the supply chain to quickly recover from the impacted state to a normal state is examined from a recovery level (Restoration).

Supply Chain Resilience Evaluation Method

In terms of supply chain resilience evaluation and measurement methods, the monograph elaborates on the calculation formulas and measurement methods for 47 indicators, and combines Lenovo's supply chain data for weight analysis and importance ranking. The analysis results show that the five most critical indicators affecting the resilience of the ICT supply chain are, in order: reconstruction and reconfiguration of technical reserves, reconstruction and reconfiguration of resource reserves, recovery management organizational system, shock early warning operation mechanism, and supplier substitutability. Based on this evaluation system, the monograph has conducted a comprehensive calculation for three anonymous companies, resulting in the scores of different dimensions and levels of indicators for each company, as well as the overall supply chain resilience ranking. This provides an operable indicator system and evaluation method for enterprises to enhance supply chain resilience.

Five Dimensions to Enhance Supply Chain Resilience

The ICT industry involves many links such as the research and development, application, and service of information and communication technology. Compared to traditional enterprises, the supply chain of the ICT industry is longer and mostly has global distribution, product and service complexity, and supplier diversity. The operation and management of its supply chain will also experience more complex and variable internal and external challenges. How to enhance the resilience of the ICT industry's supply chain? The monograph suggests that measures can be taken in five dimensions, including operational strategy, operational organizational structure, supply chain topology structure, operational management, and digital empowerment.The collaborative achievement between Lenovo and Tsinghua University has, for the first time, established a scientific and comprehensive evaluation system for the domestic ICT industry. The hope is that through qualitative and quantitative assessments of enterprise supply chain resilience, it will gradually evolve into a reliable "yardstick" for measuring and diagnosing resilience in the process of supply chain digitalization. In the process of supply chain digitalization, by integrating innovative applications of technologies including generative AI, a closed-loop intelligent supply chain with autonomous perception and self-learning capabilities will be formed. This will assist in the continuous optimization and upgrading of corporate supply chains, promote the enhancement of China's overall supply chain competitiveness, and contribute to the high-quality development of the economy.

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