[00:00:01] Welcome to your Play Now in Spanish, presented by Better Global Logistics and Supply Chain Now. This is the program we give to Spanish-speaking people in the ever-changing logistics industry. Join us as we discover the inspiring stories of our guests and learn from their collective experience. Our goal is not only to entertain you, but to foster your passion for this exciting industry and support your professional development along the way. And now, here is today’s episode of your Chain Now in Spanish.
[00:00:35] Welcome to a new episode of Supply Chain in Spanish. Today I have a person that for pet lovers, you will be very interested to know his story, as he is the one who could tell you why there is no kibble, but it is not his fault. Ok. Here is Santiago Hernandez. Santiago. How are you doing?
[00:00:59] Hi Sofi. Very well, thank you very much for having me here in the program. Thank you very much for the invitation.
[00:01:07] Yes, of course. The truth is that we are always looking for people from different industries and who are in your class and who are very passionate and we know that you are one of those people and well, just to break the ice a little bit and for people to get to know you in bits and pieces, we are going to ask a few quick questions. Which do you prefer, dogs or cats?
[00:01:29] Híjole! Well, well. As I think you may have seen from the title of the podcast I work for Pet co, which is a pet company both in the United States and in Mexico, Canada. We export to Australia, France and I don’t want to go into detail. So I am a pet lover. Of all pets. Sophie Obviously I at some point in my life wanted to be a veterinarian. When I was a kid I had a shark. Eye, it was a shark.
[00:02:07] Very.
[00:02:08] Chiquito. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And now I have a little dog, a Yorkie named Moly, who is almost 14 years old. That’s the little dog that my wife and I have at home here. And unfortunately in Mexico I had to leave my dog, who I grew up with since I was a teenager until I left home, because he is a pit bull, an American Bully. For those who know very well the Pitbull breeds, the truth is that it is very playful, it is not at all the stereotype that they put to the pitbulls, they are not fighting dogs, but they are very strong. So what happens if you play with the Yorkie? It could hurt her.
[00:02:56] If then it has no further preference to all animals.
[00:03:00] I love all animals and I love horses too, to be honest. This riding to have.
[00:03:09] If I ever have a horse one day.
[00:03:12] Yes, of course it is. And it’s the promise I had to make to my wife to convince her to marry me someday. Someday we were going to live on a ranch and have horses.
[00:03:24] Well, it has already been recorded in this podcast. Yes, there is already evidence.
[00:03:29] He made me sign it. Almost, almost.
[00:03:32] Well, hey, and well, super quick any the last series you’ve watched on Netflix that you recommend or on another platform?
[00:03:41] Híjole, I think it was Wendy’s, Merlina’s on Netflix and I highly recommend it. I think it was a while ago, we just saw it around mid-December, which was a little bit after it came out, but I highly recommend it, I really do. Director Tim Burton did an excellent job of captivating the audience, drawing you into the series. The cinematography is amazing and well, I really liked it.
[00:04:18] I think it’s good.
[00:04:20] Whether you have seen it or not.
[00:04:22] And it’s interesting, isn’t it? I kind of like other kinds of series better, especially if they’re zombie series. And for example, now there is the one with the voice in.
[00:04:32] Off.
[00:04:33] And as I used to play the video game, because I am one of those people who play video games and the truth is that I liked it a lot and it is very similar, so they have done justice to the video game, so I highly recommend it.
[00:04:52] It’s a good thing I lived up to expectations, because now that you mention it, I had my super nerdy days too. Of video games and I was a fan of it. And the series of.
[00:05:05] La.
[00:05:05] Distance? I saw it, yes, but I didn’t like it very much, to be honest. I do not believe that.
[00:05:10] I’ve done everything, but I think it’s because I almost didn’t play it. So I feel that because I have heard conflicting opinions there, yes, of the two things.
[00:05:24] Yes.
[00:05:25] Well, we love nerdy and cool people here, so that’s why we’re here, to see what they’re listening to. Listen. And these are our video game recommendations as well. Well, then let’s move on to a more serious topic, Santiago, but to get to know you a little bit more about how you started, maybe your professional career, but from the point of view of your education, right? What did you study? How did you choose? Did you already know what to do when you were 18 and had to sign? Where were you going to college? I think that question, the truth is, if no one has ever answered me, if I already knew what to do, because I think it is an age, one is too young to make such a big decision.
[00:06:17] No? Super Agree with you, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. It was a very confusing time. You don’t have to make a decision at the age of 17, because you do have to before. Exactly, since you’re looking at colleges and what careers to apply to and everything and you haven’t even experienced the whole world. So not only do you hear stories from working adults and so on. And well, this leads me to I studied in the career, I am an engineer in the food industry by the Tec de Monterrey, in the Querétaro Campus, and I chose this career. In fact, I started studying Industrial Engineering for one semester and switched to Food Engineering, which if I look back I say chin, I would have stayed in Industrial Engineering. I started studying Industrial Engineering because many people in my family are industrial engineers, my sister, my brother-in-law, several uncles and aunts, and they told me man, I saw you, I see you as an industrial engineer, you are going to be an industrial engineer, industrial engineer. And I said ah, so that’s what I’m going to do, right? Entering the Tec de Monterrey I see that there are more careers, it is not just Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Architecture and Law, right? In other words, no, there are no more than four or five races. And then, like me, transition to engineering in the food industry. It is that my for two things. The first is that my grandfather had a food company and he is a person I admire very much and in a way I want to follow in his footsteps. So I said that food does not call my attention, I kind of saw that career at the Tec de Monterrey. And the second is that one of my dreams has always been to contribute to society through good nutrition. Are we going to get to that in the Supply Chain theme, but the supply chain theme focused on food is fascinating to me, isn’t it?
[00:08:35] And well, all that you mention does not fulfill that mission or could ever fulfill that emotion.
[00:08:41] Exactly. So I said let’s see my grandfather and besides I have that dream, I have that mission in life which is to help humanity through food, not necessarily to be a nutritionist. And I made that decision to switch to engineering in the food industry. I made the decision a week or ten days before the new semester started. Then it was chaos because the university told me that was perfect, that is, we changed careers, but did not warn me that the classes I would be taking, since the second semester classes had already been filled, since I changed between the first and second semesters, were already full. Then I started studying Industrial Food Engineering with 4th semester classes without having taken any background in the career. I did lousy. The truth is that I didn’t really start to enjoy the race as much as I started. Very difficult, isn’t it? And in the last semester.
[00:09:48] But you stayed?
[00:09:50] I stayed even then.
[00:09:52] It’s just that at that moment you said no, how difficult, Maybe I can’t, but look, if you could it’s not. Those great motivational nuances that say when you least thought you could and could and more.
[00:10:08] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, exactly. No, and I stop. For this. At that time I experienced very strong family situations. I mean, it’s not an excuse and it’s not a podcast to vent sorrows, but I live very hard situations which force me to transition a little bit to the mindset. I mean, I have to start preparing myself for my future, not only personally, psychologically, but also economically. And that’s when I start the world of. From. From investments, that’s like my. My side business. I don’t know, I mean, it’s the podcast, it’s not focused on that, but that’s where I start making investments in a little bit in the stock market, a little bit in Real Estate, right? And this one. And that’s how I was able to, quote unquote, have a university development, not only with engineering bases, but also with a little bit of business bases outside the university.
[00:11:22] Well, I think these are things that having sites gives you.
[00:11:26] Yes, exactly.
[00:11:28] You learn about other things that maybe at the beginning you say no, well, what good is this going to do for me, for my career or what I want to achieve right now. But the truth is that they complement you as you develop them, don’t they?
[00:11:42] Yes, well, as you well understand, right? Now that.
[00:11:46] I now know a lot of things about marketing and social media issues that before for me it was like why do I want to get into that if I’m not an Instagram influencer, for example?
[00:12:01] Exactly, Yes, yes, yes, exactly. Neither am I. Nor was my goal to be a real estate agent, so to speak, but neither a stockbroker. But that’s where life is taking you, isn’t it? And now you really have to go down that road. And that’s the way I’m here now in Pet Shop, in Supply Chain, isn’t it? Em In the last semester of college I wanted to more or less aligned to the mission of not helping people through some product in supply chain issue. I include a topic that is international logistics. I include this topic to learn obviously to see if I need to import a product, transform it in Mexico, export it again, distribute it in Mexico, etcetera, it will at least give me a very good basis. I put in the topic and discover that I love it. I do not tell the truth. The professor that I had, excellent professor, excellent person, he gave the class in a very dynamic way, he sent you to investigate to stores, you know he goes to stores and takes the products and takes a picture and kind of breaks it down as you would do it to bring this product. He gave you business choices, so I loved both the class and the Supply Chain topic and because of the engineering background I had had in my career, I approached the problems a little differently than the undergraduates. No, I’m not saying one way is better than the other, it’s just different.
[00:13:53] It is different.
[00:13:54] Exactly. And my professor really liked the way I approached the problems and the essays, it should be noted, were in English and he really liked my level of English as well. Then he invited me to apply to that, to start. Now that my working life applies as a contractor. So the truth was not a process, now it was formal, in quotation marks, not as someone who applies what he directly is. I had it later and I entered as a contractor to see more legal beach issues, to have relations with the federal entities. Sagarpa at that time was born and two weeks and ten days after starting the position, a person from Kellogg’s international logistics team leaves the company. He was leaving overnight. I mean, it was a Wednesday and he said Friday is my last day. So what I. What I have to do is to replace his role. No Supply Chain experience, no logistics experience, nothing. So that was the first one.
[00:15:21] Wave of such experiences for Santiago, a first one in the career and then the second one in the working life.
[00:15:30] Yes, exactly. Then it is learning to hit the truth. And I say it. The truth is that I had excellent mentors at Kellogg who taught me everything I needed to know in three days. To perform the job correctly.
[00:15:53] You were literally thrown into the sea without knowing how to swim. But that’s how you learn sometimes and especially also in some supply chain roles. So there are going to be moments in life and I think this stability that you have to adapt to an unknown environment and two very big challenges is noticeable, isn’t it? I think it’s something that resilience is something that you already have with you. So in the end you’re leveraging it in the right industry, in logistics.
[00:16:30] Exactly. Here, if you do not like to adapt, solve problems in a matter of days, minutes, sometimes yes. Definitely. Supply Chain is not for you.
[00:16:44] Yes, you have to be willing to do. Yes, facing very big challenges that sometimes there is no solution or have never happened. But. But I think that’s what’s interesting about this kind of work we have, because in the end you never get bored, no day is the same, no day is repetitive. Then it is very interesting to know how you got there. Hey, and what did you change from Carlos to pesar.
[00:17:14] From what to Pedro? Well, look, my role at Kellogg was to handle all the. I had several problems. The first was to handle all imports from the United States to Mexico, whether by road or rail or sea. Not the old one, and I started to establish a very good relationship, the truth, with our suppliers in the United States, which at the end of the day is that the Company not Kellogg in Mexico is now yes, that part of the Company in the United States I start to create that relationship, because you won’t let me lie. I believe that in Supply Chain having relationships with your suppliers, with your customers, with your strategic parts of the business is key. So having that relationship with the U.S. side opened many doors for me. I started to establish the relationship because I say you see, in the process of that nop, not that for those of you who listen to us, I don’t know if you are new to Supply Chain Sells and Operations Planning, which is when marketing and sales fight against operations and obviously sales is Supply Chain’s number one enemy, because they want to sell, sell, sell and Supply Chain says no, wait, wait a minute, we don’t have the capacity, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
[00:18:48] Not that, but basically they are the ones who have the magic ball to decide what Sales and Marketing says.
[00:18:57] Yes, of course, that.
[00:18:58] Yes, it will be sold. Exactly is this process of forecasting and.
[00:19:03] Exactly.
[00:19:04] Trying to predict the future. And usually yes, sadly yes. It’s a fight between operations and what sales says. But don’t be discouraged if you are working there or are going to work there. The truth is that there are many things that are changing. So you can do this, you can be part of your change agents, but well, then you were on seals in Operations Planning.
[00:19:32] Huh? More like wishes in Operations Planning, eh? They told us, let’s see, we need this, but with the relationships that I had with the outside as much as those in the United States with those in sales, the joke was that now I had to satisfy my internal clients, who at the end of the day were those in planning, supply planning, etcetera, so it was very easy for me if they had it. Some. Any emergency. They wanted to bring in product very quickly. I would ask that favor of the United States as well. That’s why that relationship served me well. And well, to make a long story short. Several projects I did at Kellogg went very well, so I was very well sold with those relationships in the United States. One of these people left the company and went to Petkoff. When she left the company, everyone was shocked because she had a very good role in Petro. She becomes the director of international logistics, all the imports from China, all the shipments from the United States to Mexico and all the other places where we send product and in a short time she opens one. He opened a vacancy in his Petkoff team, who was manager of International Logistics, for which I said to my current ex-boss sorry, ex-boss to my ex-boss Hey, look, take off your jacket. The vacancy that just opened at Petro saw me and I think he thought I wanted to apply or something like that, because I just told him the one that opened to pear that was from before Kellogg, he thought I wanted to apply and he told me apply, surely you are going to stay.
[00:21:29] For me at the time it was a leap that what would it have taken me? I think ten years come to a management and I say no man, you’re crazy. I mean, I barely have, I have very little experience. The truth is that I don’t feel prepared and it applies to see how far you get in the process. And I said ok, I’m going to apply for chistosito, I apply and pass the first round, I pass the second round, they call me for the third round and they tell me hey, I want to see your availability because we want to fly you from Querétaro to come to San Antonio, Texas, where I am currently at corporate, for the last round of interviews. Me with a square eye, you know? This is how it should look. I already told my former boss, hey, they want to blow up my interview and also, I mean, he was applying himself because he said Chin, I mean, he was joking. It was a little joke. It is already becoming a reality. Then I come to San Antonio for the interview. This was around February twenty-something, 2020. So I think that I believe it is going to be.
[00:22:45] So before the pandemic.
[00:22:48] Exactly. I think you more or less know where it’s going. In fact, I remember that on one of the flights I had a nurse next to me who kept telling me, “No man, this thing is going to get horrible, I mean, it’s going to be very bad, take care of yourself, take care of yourself,” and I was like that. In other words, it will surely be like the swine flu we had in Mexico in 2012, which lasted two weeks.
[00:23:16] Back I did not believe.
[00:23:18] Yeah, and well, no, we all know what happened, don’t we? I get to the interview, I do very well in the interviews, I go back to Querétaro and on March 10 or so of 2020, that is, three days before the world shakedown, they tell me you didn’t make it? Me at the same time as I just did so how? I mean, the truth is that I tell you, I played a good role and I was looking forward to a new challenge. I think this is very important in Supply Chain, it is always looking for challenges, when you stagnate, when you enter your comfort zone, you stop growing both as a professional and as a person. And this was a new challenge for me. So I was that good, no way, I had just been promoted at Kellogg. Besides, I was now managing all the distribution of Pringles potato chips in Latin America, that is, Brazil, Colombia, all Latin America. But oh boy, how I remember Peru. But hey, a customer.
[00:24:30] Someone from Peru is listening to us and did not receive their chips.
[00:24:35] Before the pandemic, I did not have 100% on time delivery, that’s for sure.
[00:24:40] Good.
[00:24:41] Yes, but.
[00:24:41] If you have any complaints, we will leave your contact information here.
[00:24:47] And two days after I got the news that I had not been hired, one of the people who interviewed me, the head of the company that had opened the vacancy, wrote to me. No? And he says to me Hey, the truth is that we promoted someone internal. It wasn’t you. You played an excellent role. I wish you all the best. Your profile caught my attention. If there is ever an opportunity within my team, if you give me permission, I will send you the vacancy and you apply and follow the process. And now it goes. In truth, it is never another. Other type. I never close a door. I did not leave the door open. And well, Friday the 13th of 2020 everything happens, etcetera etcetera And a fast forward more or less June 2023 I get a message on LinkedIn from this guy who had told me that if there was any opportunity he would look for me. Well, by this time obviously I was saying let’s see, nobody is going to hire in the 2023 pandemic, yes 2020, 2020 June 2020, four months after the pandemic starts.
[00:26:10] Ya ok.
[00:26:11] And yes, sorry.
[00:26:14] That’s what we’re here for in the future. This is an episode from the future.
[00:26:19] Hopefully. Good things are coming.
[00:26:22] And there are some very interesting things to come.
[00:26:25] And me, me in this one. So I thought no one is going to be hiring during the pandemic. It is not a time, yes, to take care of resources. Exactly. He writes to me and says hey, there is an opportunity in my team if you are interested, I will contact you with the hiring manager. Orale, I don’t know what. A very strange interview because I didn’t know what I was applying for, I hadn’t read any Job Description, he hadn’t told me anything, he just connected me with the director very informally to get to know each other, talk a little bit, well, more or less like that, almost like we were talking about my experience of what I had done in my career, obviously more and more focused on results and numbers, etc. We clicked, we clicked and he wrote me a little while later, a few days later and told me hey, the vacancy has officially opened in the job portal if you want to apply. I checked the vacancy and I was the e-commerce supply chain manager for PDV. So nothing to do with what I had done all my life, both in my career and in my professional life. Well, I passed the process, I passed the interviews, and fortunately I got the position, but the truth is that when I applied I was scared because I said, are they sure they want me? I have no e-commerce experience at all. I was used to it.
[00:28:14] There. The truth is that no one had sufficient experience or commerce to meet the challenges that were totally new to the pandemic. I mean, nobody was prepared for that level of sales, that level of service, that customer expectation was something completely new then, and it was something we were talking about. I think it’s a bit like good, you get into things or challenges that sometimes you think you are not prepared, but in reality if you do not have those bases, as we mentioned of engineering that make you open your head, you are able to solve complex problems in a short time, you have this other experience on the side of negotiation and building relationships with others, etc. These are those skills that you are already grabbing from other areas or others that you have from your education and what you have lived, that make you able to enter the world of supply chain and logistics. And I think I say there are quite a few episodes also of this series of his movie Gina or in Spanish that have interviewed people from different. So from lawyers to people who used to be musicians who are now dedicated to that, not to product distribution, to check the, uh, the warehouses where you have to store products, where your demand is, etcetera in. The truth is that these are the kind of skills that make you able to enter this world.
[00:30:06] Yes, yes, what you say is very true. That is, passion. I feel it is not. It doesn’t matter what your background is, because for example, when I discovered my passion for Supply Chain, it was the two moments, not the moment I took the topic in college. And there was another moment, since I was working at Kellogg, that I have marked in my life. Well, something I love is to create processes from scratch, see how they evolve and see the final product. There is a story that my mom loves to tell, she loves to tell that I loved lego as a child. I still love it, but it’s still too expensive, I don’t have time anymore. But when I bought a new Lego set, the first thing I would do was throw away the instructions and empty all the pieces into a giant Lego garbage can and set about making my own stuff. Because for example, at Kellogg, what I did a lot was to question processes, to say why it has always been done this way.
[00:31:17] No?
[00:31:18] And it’s something that we as young people in Supply Chain is what we have to do. Does Supply Chain of course has been around for a long time in terms of how some companies do their processes, that eventually people say Ah, well I don’t know why we do it that way, that’s just the way we do it, that’s the way I was taught and that’s the way we do it, right? So, breaking that scheme has always been done. So they are in fact my initials. It has always been done this way. Santiago Armando Álvarez That stuck with me, a mentor told me that is es es. It is important in terms of Supply Chain. And well, going back to how I also discovered the passion for the tangible that is the Supply Chain. It was after implementing an optimization project we did at Kellogg. I went into a convenience store, not to say the name of this place, which.
[00:32:21] It is the place.
[00:32:24] I grabbed a can of Pringles and saw the lot below. I took out my cell phone, looked up the batch and I could see all the traceability of the product in there on my cell phone that it came from here, it went through here, I did this and that’s when I said wow, I mean, I helped bring this product from its origin to its exact destination. And I feel that this is a rather absurd example, because a can is a can of Pringles, but now imagine how you can help society if you have a strategic role and a decisive role in the Supply Chain, right? That’s good, that’s it, that’s it. It is my medium-term goal to be a transcendent person in the Supply Chain who can make those decisions.
[00:33:18] Santiago how crazy, we have the same objective.
[00:33:21] Here.
[00:33:22] See you today.
[00:33:23] Exactly CIMA.
[00:33:26] Today, recapping a little bit what you mentioned, I loved what you said about our work as young people in Supply Chain, to challenge how things are done and I think we are precisely at a time when, well, the pandemic is over and a super spotlight is put on the Supply Chain, which is logistics, where things come from, how they arrive, who are the people who are dedicated to that? Isn’t it great? In the end it’s attention, it makes more people from around our lives, from who are in other industries, turn around and say oh, but what is that? For better or for worse, right? But at least we are on the radar. And then secondly, now that things seem to be getting back to normal, I feel like you’re seeing this trend that, well, there’s no longer disruption as we saw it before. Why don’t we go back to how we used to do things, right? And it’s like well, and it will be then that this calm that we are seeing really is the same calm that you lived in 2019 and that is something that I have questioned in the last weeks of January, which were several. But to be thinking well, can we assume that what happened before the pandemic is going to be what’s going to happen? Now and what we are going to experience and the way we solved problems before will also work now. So I feel that we are in a moment of opportunity to identify and redo things. So I loved what you said. I’m going to put in the comments about your initials. I think it’s something. I don’t know which mentor told you, but I was. It is very interesting. How do you share it?
[00:35:26] Yes, yes, indeed, yes. I don’t think so. I think now companies are obviously going to prepare for a black swan, which was literally what we experienced in 2020 because of the pandemic. But I don’t think we should assume the calm, so to speak, that we had before 2019, if not already because of the pandemic. We learned that if you need to install a new ERP to manage your e-commerce, you can do it quickly. In other words, now the motivation was the urgency of the pandemic and the companies knew how to adapt.
[00:36:12] And it is just that. Do not lose that sense of urgency. So, Santiago, tell us a little bit about what you do in Pisco now that you are in Pisco, what is your role, what is your day to day life like and what is different from your other experiences?
[00:36:30] Regarding my other experiences. Well, my current role is called Logistics Optimization Manager and what is very different is that it is very data-heavy and number-heavy. And well, now yes, as the optimization title says, it is not so much an operational role, it is much more of a strategic role, not of advising the business. If you move one side of the supply chain, how will the other side react? Not the whole issue of savings, visibility and mainly in the area that I focus on is transportation and transportation. It’s basically because I don’t remember the figure, but I think it’s like 70, 75% of the logistics cost of a product. It is basically 3/4 out of the cost, that is, out of the cost of the good is going to be your transportation expense. Right now at Petkoff we have two very big projects. The first is a digital transformation of our Supply Chain in terms of El Times, the Transport Station Management System. Not that what the Times does for those of you listening is basically the system that handles all your transportation doesn’t send signals to your carriers of where and when and what they are going to pick up. If it goes from point A to point B or point A, B and then C, etc., etc. No? Basically a system. What happens to me when I enter this new transitional role from the e-commerce role to the logistics optimization role. And it goes that transition is given by the theme of life. He went back to normal, not to put it that way. So e-commerce was already optimized, it was already on autopilot in a way. Obviously there is a team that is still in charge of.
[00:38:54] That.
[00:38:56] And I am transitioning to logistics optimization. When it entered this new role, I see that there is no data, there is nothing to compare, there is nothing to analyze and practically what happens to many supply chains is that they have dinosaur systems, they do not have systems from years ago and no, not now. Yes, the leaders of a company do not want to invest in new programs, in new technology. Rather them, the ones he was interested in, obviously. Then everything happens. The theme of the pandemic was to invest in sales, in marketing. I don’t want to sell more, I want to sell more. And now we managed to convince our leadership team to invest in a new topic. The thing is that we chose is Uber Freight, which used to be. For what those who listen to us and have used this time. And what really caught our attention was the whole issue of optimization in terms of consolidation and rating, which is in what? Which store it will stop at first, which distribution center it will go to next, which salesperson it will go to next, and so on and so forth. And on the visibility issue as well, and basically my first project in this role was that whole transition from our dinosaur system to this much more sophisticated system. Sofia It was a nightmare, I mean, I loved it.
[00:40:45] The systems are always.
[00:40:49] Look, I dare say.
[00:40:50] Thousands.
[00:40:51] If not, the business never went down. It was a seamless transition, wasn’t it? The truth is that they recognize me. Of what? Listen to the truth, my respects. In other words, the transition was excellent, nothing happened, but it was a nightmare. It was an absolute nightmare, because the supply chain is not just the exchange of goods. No, it’s not sending kibble from point A to point B, it’s everything that goes behind that. It’s also the information that flows from our systems to the vendors, from the vendors to our systems, to the transportation systems and all the financial stuff as well, right? Because that is also the movement of finance, isn’t it? From now on payments from a supplier to us, a supplier to us or from our customer to us, etc. etc. etc. then.
[00:41:57] And that even there there are different speeds, I don’t feel that we can call it that first there is this speed at which you can physically move. Then there’s the other speed at which you receive the data and information, and then there’s the whole other speed at which the payments are recorded at which the invoices come to you, which is sometimes three different timelines, so to speak. What do you have to say? Well, then, what are the dependencies between each one and how does it influence, how do those things impact? Also in how I move. I don’t think that is also something that I have learned and that I didn’t consider before, I didn’t say well, this is your network, eh? You know where the optimal storage location is, you know the best method of transportation. I have everything ready. No? But then you put those factors in and say Oh, those are other constraints that I hadn’t considered. No? So it is something very interesting for those who also listen to us to say anything. I am interested in entering this world of optimization. This. This is one of the most challenging but fun parts to do, isn’t it?
[00:43:18] Accurate and fair. So, once the system is installed, that’s when the fun begins, right? Yes, when optimization really begins. Because first of all, we need something that we can optimize with, because if that doesn’t exist, then the truth is that a company cannot continue living off Excel, no matter how much it loves it and how much it is one of the best dimensions of man. Good.
[00:43:44] The man after the wheel. And so.
[00:43:48] For everything, eh? Is it when we start to create our models to see if for example we expand the transport radiuses, right? How much? That is to say, of what? That a truck can go to certain stores in one radius or certain vendors in another radius, right? Em How much does it save us? How much more do we spend? And not only focusing on the economic issue, but also on the issue, for example, of CO2 emissions, which companies are now looking for a lot, right? Oh, yes, on the subject of let’s see if we get this store in, for example, it doesn’t have a loading and unloading dock for the trailer. Ok, but if we mix that store with trailers that need to be moved but we send a fixed forklift to that store, so to speak. What are those trails that. That. That. Exactly, that elasticity so to speak. What do you have. On the subject of volumes, not in en en en. Here in the United States, all states can also be a little different in terms of regulations. California is very special, not all of it. And that’s when we started to implement a lot of mathematical models for optimization, before making our decisions in the field. And that’s not coming in with the leadership team and saying sometimes it can be some nonsense that hey, look, if we locate our pallets three cubic feet bigger, we’re going to have more damage, but we’re going to have better utilization. Then when we have better utilization, we can just send that chaos when we want to reduce our cost, for example, of transportation at the end of the final period of the fiscal year.
[00:45:54] Whatever you want. Well, no way, we are not going to send fish tanks, for example, the stores can only buy them online because it allows us to locate more trailers and send more product to the store, thus reducing the cost. All those who use the platform. And the second, the second optimization project with that platform that we are implementing is the visibility issue, right? In Supply Chain we have to understand that we are the backbone of a company from the moment the purchase order for the raw material comes in until the product is delivered to the customer or point of sale. Everything is supply chain and we cannot have a closed vision of what I am going to do Supply chain. In other words, it is working in silos. No, we cannot work in silos. What am I going to do Supply Chain to deliver my income statement and be the star of the company? No, what we are doing, for example, is in retail companies. The truth is that the workers who have to take the most credit are those who are in the stores, the workers who are the face of the consumer and with the consumer because they are the dogs, although they can take them to the stores, but they are the face of the consumer.
[00:47:22] Customer and talk doggies too.
[00:47:25] If they could, I think they could, and this is for us the most important point in terms of employees in the company, because it is the face with the customer. So what we are doing with this, with this software, is giving them real-time visibility on their cell phone of when their truck is going to arrive to deliver the product to the store. What does this allow the store to do? It allows them to open the map on their cell phone and say Ah, perfect, my truck is two hours late, I can switch roles and go do X and or Z and then I’ll get my truck. This is what I want. This is crucial for companies because it is the issue of how I am going to spend my time, of my employees who face the customers and optimize their time. It is an indirect optimization, so to speak. Exactly.
[00:48:33] It’s a way to also take away your employees’ leisure time and give them, I mean, it’s an empowerment to your employees, not this kind of information. They also know about this, that they have this access to this visibility, so that they can also answer customer questions and satisfy customer curiosity.
[00:49:00] Not so much.
[00:49:02] Even to your despair, so to speak, right? And secondly, do they also have, as you say, this opportunity to well, how do I manage my time in other activities without being, I mean, without being tied to waiting to receive as well?
[00:49:20] Exactly. And that’s just our, our goal. How they can allocate their time to more beneficial activities, both for themselves and for the company.
[00:49:33] So, in the end, the impact of Supply Chain can be one. What this mission Grande Santiago was talking about was that I want to impact the health of the people of the world through food, now also in the health of animals. And there are even examples like that I don’t want to shock. In how people and workers invest their time and bring value to their work. Even in these areas, what we do in this industry has an impact. So, very interesting points there. Diego. Thank you very much for sharing Pedro’s projects. There are also in the podcast comments. We’re also going to put a little bit about what else Pedro does. People can even identify where, if there is a store near them and say Ah, I listened to a podcast with Pedro Hernandez.
[00:50:36] No, the truth is that the company has taken very quickly. If you want, I’ll summarize it for you because we would have to finish the program by now. But what Pedro does is a disruptive company, it’s not a company that all companies are obviously looking to make a profit, right? But it is not a company that focuses 100% on that. I give you examples. We stopped importing dog food from China because it was harmful to their health. We stopped putting unhealthy dyes in U.S.-made dog food because it was bad for their health. We do not sell collars that stop dogs from barking, because we do not believe in that. We believe in training with. Now that’s positive rewards, encouragement positive response to animals and as many will know if they have been to PET stores. We do not sell dogs or cats, we only promote adoption.
[00:51:51] Exactly. These are therefore part of the values that the company has and that also permeate in how they do things, which is also something very important. Well, to close Santiago, tell us what would you say to someone? How would you convince someone to start their career or career path in supply chain? If you are talking to a 17 year old or a 62 year old as well who says I want a change in my life. How do you attract it to this world we all live in?
[00:52:31] That’s a good question. I think I rather want to challenge those who listen to us. Today we live in a society that is who has the most? Who? Who has the best car, the best house, the best clothes? Who has more? I invite you to be the one who gives the most. And in Supply Chain I think it is one of the industries where you can give more, because you can help, as I mentioned indirectly to people directly, in my case pets, the welfare of pets and we can go into supply chain branches that solve environmental problems, solve disruptions in food issues, which is a turn that I would like to give eventually. And the joke is to solve if you’re someone who likes to solve problems, this is the industry for you. If you are someone who likes stability and doing the same thing every day and not solving problems and not feeling the excitement of being able to say I started this, I optimized this, I created this process and you can see it tangibly, like I saw that can of Pringles. End to end from idea to reality. And how do you see a consumer with his bag of kibble, with his stuffed animal that you brought from China? Not since the stuffed dog, not since you brought from China. If you like to see that. This is the industry for you today.
[00:54:22] I think it’s perfect. Perfect way to close this episode. Thank you very much for sharing with us, Santiago. How can someone contact you if they want to talk more with you, learn more about what you do. What is the best channel?
[00:54:41] The best channel would be LinkedIn for me. Surely the link to my profile can be found in the description of the podcast. Today send me a request to connect and mention that. You heard me on Supply Chain House in Spanish and obviously I will accept them and I will be very happy to talk about what challenges you have in Supply Chain.
[00:55:09] It comes out perfect. Well, thank you very much to everyone who listens to us. Thanks again Santiago. And well, we are. This is the end of this episode. See you later.
[00:55:19] Thank you very much.
