Kansai Event report Supply chain
Good start for the First Kansai Business Summit!
The Evolution of Supply Chains after the Covid pandemic: a rich subject for our first Kansai Business Summit, with over 50 people in attendance.
One year in the planning, but finally! On October 4, 2023, our very own Kansai Business Summit was held in a conference room with a great (and rather fitting) view over the harbor district, on the 29th floor of the Kansai Economic Federation building in Nakanoshima.
This event was put together thanks to the sponsorships of Dassault Systems (main) and Kuehne+Nagel (secondary). Our co-organizer, the KanKeiRen (Kansai Economic Federation), also played a crucial role in providing and preparing the conference room, in order to accommodate the crowd of over 50 participants who had registered. It is to be noted that many people from the ACCJ (American Chamber of Commerce) in Kansai were also present, thanks to this partner’s undying involvement at our side.
The event started at 3 pm. After a short introduction by the CCIFJ, it was Mr. Takeshi Inoue (井上 剛志), Director of International Affairs at the KanKeiRen, who opened the event in earnest with a vibrant homage to international collaborations.
The keynote speech was then delivered by Mr Shinichirō Kohno, Managing Director, Industry X Engineering & Manufacturing Lead at Accenture, to introduce the theme at hand: Evolution of Logistics and Supply Chain Automation in the Post-Covid Era.
To better cover it, our five speakers explored it through each of their own specialties:
Ms. Misuzu Maruyama (丸山 美鈴), General Manager Sales and Marketing at Kuehne+Nagel focused on sea transport and international aspects.
Mr. Kazuto Tada (多田 和人), Manager, Customer Service Japan & Korea at Air France KLM Cargo focused on air transport.
Mr. Hayato Shingu (新宮 早人), General Manager, Head of Aero Commercial Department at Kansai Airports developed the infrastructural point of view with an insight on the logistics environment at an airport.
Then Mr. Yoshihiro Maruyama (丸山 義弘), Osaka Branch General Manager at Nippon Express, covered the ground transportation and warehouse management aspects.
To conclude, Mr. Kohno from Accenture brought the whole theme together with a severe analysis of Japan’s falling behind on digitalization and the necessity to consider “hyper-automation” to optimize the whole chain, with a shift from a vertical organization to a fully automated network, in order to increase flexibility and adaptability.
A Q&A was supposed to take place after the conference, but due to some oversights in time-management, the speeches were longer than expected and that part had to be cut in order to save enough time for people to network in the end.
For those who want to learn more and can read Japanese (or have a good translator), the Daily Cargo published a full report of the event on page 11 of their n°13159 (October 10).
That networking session finally allowed all participants to get to know each other and to exchange freely around a few tables filled with French delicacies, such as pâté en croûte, rillettes and quiches.
On the drinks side, our member Jupiter international was kind enough to provide an abundance of Perrier bottles, after already supplying an equal amount of Contrex bottles for the conference.
The company Focus from Nagano also provided an impressive draft beer machine, which delivered a quality craft beer imported straight from Europe. It was particularly appreciated by some of our German friends.
Draft beer "Licorne" by Focus
This was our first edition, and there sure is some room for improvement, but all parts involved did an incredible job to make this event worthy. We are very much looking forward to collaborating again next year!
