Lecedra Welch

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now. On Monday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of Digital Transformers, produced in partnership with TNS, host Kevin L. Jackson welcomes Praveen Rao, Managing Director with IBM, to the podcast. On This Week in Business History, host Scott W. Luton relates true stories marking notable anniversary dates this week, including the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the first Chevy Corvette to be produced in 1953, & more! On Tuesday, we released an episode of TEK TOK! In this episode, host Karin Bursa dives into 6 strategies that supply chain innovators are doing now to become more resilient. On Wednesday’s episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton and Kelly Barner, Host of Dial P for Procurement, dive into the friction between North Face and the oil and gas industry – an industry that supplies the substance and materials North Face needs to make its products. Despite this, North Face is concerned with protecting their brand from the potential damage of publicly associating with oil and gas, leaving them in a tough spot with regard to their supply…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Karin Bursa, Supply Chain Industry Advisor and Supply Chain Now Host   Here is a diagnostic question I use with supply chain leaders: when disruption hits, do your teams spend most of their time debating the data, debating the scenarios, debating the plan, or debating the decision? Or all of the above? Seriously though, in 2026, that distinction matters. Network shifts driven by tariffs, geopolitics, cost pressure, and sustainability are accelerating. Gartner’s 2025 U.S. Trade and Immigration Policy Survey indicate 77% of respondents selected network changes among their top actions in response to tariff impacts. [2] If the physical network is moving, the digital planning platform must move even faster. The environment is forcing decisions to be made faster, more frequently, and with more variables than ever before. Gartner says supply chain decisions are becoming 71% more complex, happening 52% more frequently, and need to be made 57% faster. That triple constraint cannot be accomplished with cadence-based batch planning cycles as a default operating model. This is why I am focused on a single, practical outcome for supply chain teams: accelerating decision velocity. The ability to move from data to insights to actions faster…