Trend: As Chinese companies expand overseas, how can they ensure supply chain resilience?

The wave of digitalization in manufacturing is surging! Zhuntida has hit the mark.

In 2024, entrepreneurs often feel that opportunities are dwindling, yet regardless of the market environment, new markets will always emerge. As emerging markets take shape and the global trade landscape evolves, supply chain processes are becoming increasingly complex and diversified. Is there still hope for the supply chain? Are there still opportunities to enhance it? These trends deserve close attention from leading companies and supply chain service providers.

Trend One: Chinese Enterprises’ Response “Passive” Globalization

Starting last year, as Tesla sought to replicate a Shanghai‑style factory in Mexico, an unusual piece of news emerged. — Tesla is rallying its Chinese supplier partners to build factories in Mexico. In 2023, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory delivered a cumulative total of 947,000 vehicles, accounting for more than half of the company’s global production capacity. Behind this success lies a localization rate exceeding 95% among its suppliers, underscoring that Tesla’s achievements in China, on a broader level, reflect the strength of China’s supply chain. Today, several Tesla suppliers have publicly announced plans to establish manufacturing facilities in Mexico; companies such as Xusheng Group, Joyson Group, Jingdang Technology, Ningbo Huaxiang, Ruike Da, and Sanhua Intelligent Control have all begun vigorously laying out their Mexican operations. Riding on the coattails of Tesla represents a crucial opportunity for domestic new‑energy‑vehicle suppliers to diversify risks and pursue global expansion. Yet going overseas is far from merely building a factory; Chinese firms must also take their own supply chains abroad. This is no simple replication of the domestic supply‑chain model. Most Chinese enterprises—particularly manufacturers—lack experience in managing global supply chains. As they expand globally, they often find that lead times balloon dramatically. First, there’s the impact of geographic distance: if a plant is located in Mexico while raw‑material suppliers remain predominantly in China, the time from placing an order to receiving goods can stretch from the usual two or three days at home to 60 days or even longer. For many Chinese suppliers, planning production with such extended lead times poses significant challenges. Second, language barriers and time‑zone differences further complicate matters. Many Chinese manufacturers are based in second-, third- or fourth‑tier cities, where foreign‑language talent is scarce and familiarity with international supply‑chain regulations is limited. Coupled with time‑zone disparities, these factors drive up the complexity of supply‑chain management. Moreover, as supply chains grow longer and involve more nodes, the number of potential contingencies increases. When operating within China, managing logistics, transportation, and warehousing might suffice. But once suppliers’ plants are relocated to Mexico while raw materials continue to be sourced domestically, the process involves export and import customs clearance, international sea, land, and air freight, domestic pickup, overseas delivery, and last‑mile warehousing and distribution—each step fraught with intricate details and prone to unexpected disruptions. Such complexities generate numerous operational challenges and pain points for companies. Consequently, there arises a pressing need for integrated supply‑chain management aimed at enhancing resilience. With globalization still largely aspirational, doesn’t it sometimes feel a bit daunting?

02 Trend Two: Digital Transformation of the Supply Chain “Decision paralysis” is worsening.

In traditional manufacturing management, significant inefficiencies abound—waste from raw materials, excess inventory, production bottlenecks, rework of defective products, and unnecessary material handling, among others. Digital technologies offer effective solutions to address these challenges. However, for conventional manufacturing enterprises, The pace of change in 2024 has been remarkably rapid, with many companies still in the midst of digitizing their supply chains. In today’s challenging market environment, boosting operational efficiency and reducing supply-chain costs have become the top priorities for Chinese suppliers undergoing digital transformation—a trend that is set to deepen further in 2024. According to Gartner, by 2027, more than 50% of enterprises will leverage industry‑specific cloud platforms to accelerate their business strategies, driving greater supply-chain efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness—up from less than 15% in 2023. Meanwhile, Deloitte recently noted in an analysis that industry‑cloud markets across sectors are maturing rapidly, with the potential to grow into a $640 billion market by 2024. Beyond cloud computing, since 2024, an increasing number of companies have been focusing on deeply integrating AI into their broader digital transformation roadmaps. Whether deployed as standalone intelligent chatbots or as virtual assistants supporting customer-service teams, artificial intelligence is poised to play a pivotal role in digital‑transformation initiatives. A recent Accenture report projects that, by 2035, AI technologies could boost manufacturing productivity by 40%, and 92% of senior manufacturing executives believe that “smart factory” digital technologies will enhance both productivity and supply-chain performance—yet only 12% of manufacturers currently make extensive use of AI. As a result, firms that embrace digital transformation early will enjoy a competitive edge in their respective markets. However, identifying the right blueprint for digitally transforming the supply chains of Chinese suppliers remains a daunting challenge, often leaving organizations grappling with decision paralysis.

Trend Three: A new AI-driven era of supply chain has arrived.

When it comes to the digital transformation of supply chains, most traditional enterprises are still in the reactive and exploratory stages. However, simply upgrading technology or adopting off-the-shelf solutions is far from sufficient to meet the challenges posed by digital transformation. As a holistic business entity, each company’s supply chain is unique; drawing on case studies from other firms is not only a waste of time but also of resources. Companies that successfully navigate digital supply-chain transformation typically invest heavily in opportunities they identify as promising. 100% effort and sufficient resources. Artificial intelligence (AI), with its exceptional data-processing capabilities, deep-learning technologies, and precise predictive advantages, is profoundly transforming supply-chain management models and driving the intelligent upgrading of supply chains. By leveraging big-data analytics, machine learning, and other advanced techniques, AI injects powerful momentum into enterprises’ digital transformation across multiple domains—including demand forecasting, inventory optimization, supplier management, and logistics route planning—thereby enhancing overall supply-chain efficiency and significantly reducing operational costs. For instance, in demand forecasting and inventory optimization, AI harnesses big-data analytics to integrate and mine information from diverse sources such as historical sales data, consumer‑behavior patterns, and market trends, enabling the construction of highly accurate demand‑forecasting models. Through real-time monitoring and deep learning, AI can detect subtle signals of demand shifts, anticipate future market needs, and help companies make more informed, data‑driven decisions at every stage—procurement, production, and distribution—thus preventing both overstocking and stockouts. In terms of inventory optimization, AI dynamically adjusts inventory levels and replenishment strategies based on continuously updated sales data and demand forecasts. This intelligent inventory-management system enables granular, precision‑driven control, ensuring adequate product availability while minimizing warehousing costs. Moreover, AI can simulate the performance of various inventory‑management strategies and recommend optimal inventory‑turnover plans, meeting customer demands at the lowest possible holding cost. For businesses, integrating digital platforms that connect manufacturing, procurement, and distribution, coupled with flexible, agile, and intelligent solutions, can reduce costs, boost efficiency, and enable end-to-end integrated management. Such approaches also empower companies to navigate unexpected disruptions and strengthen supply-chain resilience in the face of environmental challenges, compete effectively in an increasingly globalized marketplace, respond to evolving consumer preferences, and address the complex, hard‑to‑manage pain points of cross‑border supply chains. With the widespread adoption of big data, AI, and the Internet of Things, the global technological revolution is poised to enter a new phase of exponential convergence over the next decade. Digital‑intelligence technologies will further provide robust technical and application‑specific support for manufacturers expanding overseas. In the years ahead, competition in manufacturing will inevitably shift toward supply-chain management; and by combining AI with advanced big‑data processing capabilities, these challenges can be addressed more effectively. AI’s ability to process massive volumes of supply-chain data in real time and perform sophisticated analytical computations allows for far more precise predictions of future production and sales trends. This technology will help optimize supply-chain operations and enhance enterprises’ competitive edge in an increasingly fierce market environment.

Trend Four: Industrial Interconnectivity Enables Networked Collaboration and Value Creation Across the Supply Chain Ecosystem.

The digitalization of supply chains goes beyond the digitization of individual industry components or isolated domains; it emphasizes networked collaboration and value creation across the entire supply chain ecosystem through inter‑industry connectivity. For logistics supply chains, digitalization not only enhances operational efficiency via real-time data sharing and intelligent decision support, but also, through integrated, collaborative supply chain platforms, enables manufacturing firms to achieve precise supply‑demand alignment and rapid responsiveness to market changes—thereby bolstering the overall agility and risk resilience of the entire industrial value chain.

Zhunshida is a leading practitioner in driving the digital transformation of manufacturing supply chains. As a technology‑driven supply chain management service provider, Zhunshida continuously invests in technological innovation and the iterative enhancement of its products and services. Over years of operational experience, it has systematically developed data‑driven capabilities—spanning data collection to leveraging data to support enterprise decision‑making. Through… Juslink’s platform‑based management enables customers to gain end-to-end supply chain visibility, real-time monitoring of every link in the chain, and proactive risk mitigation. It delivers one‑stop, dynamic information visualization, giving customers full control over the real‑time status of their global supply chains and enhancing their competitive edge.

In the manufacturing supply chain industry, Qindalda is among the first companies to explore integrating and optimizing large language models with information systems. Currently, its core products… JusElsa has been launched and is now in production. This product leverages advanced large‑language‑model technology and is deeply integrated with the JusLink platform. Interestingly, the platform’s cartoon mascot—shown in the image below—is also AI‑generated. JusElsa can use natural language to assist customer service representatives in communicating with clients, handling tasks such as querying shipment information, tracking delivery status, and providing guidance on resolving exceptions. Moreover, JusElsa helps users overcome language barriers in cross‑border collaboration by supporting multiple major target languages, enabling seamless international communication.

By integrating large language models, this product has revolutionized traditional logistics operations. Users can access all robot‑based interactions through a single interface, with one‑click Q&A, enabling them to obtain the services they need quickly, accurately, and at low cost. The launch of the JusAI intelligent dialogue engine delivers a brand‑new, unparalleled service experience to customers, opening the door to a new era of smart supply chain management.

Conclusion

As supply chain globalization takes hold and the wave of digital transformation sweeps through manufacturing, logistics and supply chains—key components of this shift—are leveraging digitalization and intelligent technologies to propel the industry toward higher‑level development. When benchmark companies like Junshida actively engage in building a digital supply chain and continuously strengthen the foundational infrastructure of manufacturing supply chains, the entire industrial value chain… “Chinese enterprises” will advance more steadily on the path of digital transformation.

Source /Logistics Insights (ID: wuliuzhiwen)