Headed into Halloween, candy prices are getting downright spooky, but never fear! Scott and Greg are back with the Buzz to break down the latest on inflation, along with top headlines related to labor, NATO intervention and more. Joined by Ryan Kitchie of 6 River Systems, the team also tackles hidden costs of turnover and automation’s full potential in a tight labor market.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges, and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.

Scott Luton (00:00:30):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s show. Gregory, how are we doing?

Greg White (00:00:37):

Doing quite well, Scott. How are you doing?

Scott Luton (00:00:40):

We’re doing great. Good weekend. It’s gorgeous here. Again, best time of year, one of the best times of year here in the Metro Atlanta area. And –

Greg White (00:00:47):

You’re getting your fall as you desired, and it doesn’t appear to be a false fall this time. Right?

Scott Luton (00:00:52):

We’re keeping our fingers crossed, Greg. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Greg White (00:00:55):

It’s going to get hot. It will be around Halloween when all those poor kids have their costumes on, right?

Scott Luton (00:01:02):

That’s right. Speaking of Halloween, that’s one of the things we’ll be talking about here on the Supply Chain Buzz, where we share some of the leading stories across global business. Greg, we’re going to be talking about a variety of topics today, and we’ve got a great guest joining us about 12:25 PM Eastern Time as Ryan Kitchie with 6 River Systems will be here. And, finally, Greg, folks should get ready ‘cause we’re going to hear from them as well, right?

Greg White (00:01:27):

Yeah, no doubt. Let me check that out and see if we’re hearing from [inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:01:32):

We got a bunch of folks –

Greg White (00:01:32):

Oh, yeah.

Scott Luton (00:01:33):

[inaudible] in. But before we say hello to a few folks, I want to make sure folks are aware of the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index for Third Quarter 2022 just came out, chock-full of insights on the domestic freight market. We had a great review livestream last week, Greg. We’ll be releasing that replay this week. But you know what’s great about the Freight Payment Index beyond all the information?

Greg White (00:01:58):

Tell us, Scott.

Scott Luton (00:02:00):

It’s free. It is free. You can check it out. You can sign up for it to hit your inbox each quarter at freight.usbank.com. And, Greg, this is – we look forward to discussion each quarter, right?

Greg White (00:02:14):

Yeah. And a great one this quarter. So, when we publish that show, which we do live at every quarter, so keep your calendar open for that. But when we publish that, it’s a great opportunity to hear from somebody who’s not only a supply chain educator at the top, arguably the top supply chain school in the world, Michigan State, but also an incredible economist, studier and user of the Freight Payment Index, so he knows of what he speaks.

Scott Luton (00:02:43):

That’s right. So y’all check that out, freight.usbank.com. One other quick note before I say hello to a few folks, we want to wish everybody around the world Happy Diwali to all of our friends and Supply Chain Now family and listeners, you name it, that are tuned in that celebrate this sacred holiday.

Greg White (00:02:59):

I’m so glad that they’ve shortened that. You know, it’s used to be, and I think sometimes still is called Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, right?

Scott Luton (00:03:09):

Yeah. Yeah.

Greg White (00:03:09):

But, boy, that’s a lot for me to spit out.

Scott Luton (00:03:13):

Well, you know, I struggled to get my kids’ names right still from time to time. So, I’ll take all the convenience we can get. But, hey, if you celebrate this wonderful holiday, we’re wishing you all, all the very best. Okay, so let’s – Greg, we’re going to move fast today. This is a jampacked session. It looks like we got a jampacked cheap seats, sky box, you name it. I want say hello to Donna via LinkedIn. Donna, let us know where you’re tuned in from. Great to have you here with us today. Bob tuned in from – well, I’m not sure. Bob, let us know where you’re tuned in from, via LinkedIn. That’s right. Todd Morley is with us here today, via LinkedIn. Todd, great to see ya. Bill Vining, also via LinkedIn. Good morning to you. I bet Jonathan is happy this morning. Greg, why do you think?

Greg White (00:04:03):

Oh, yeah. What a struggle. And you too. Tigers – all the tigers had a good weekend, didn’t they?

Scott Luton (00:04:11):

That’s right.

Greg White (00:04:13):

The Lions, not so much, but the Tigers, come on.

Scott Luton (00:04:16):

Oh, gosh. Jonathan, congrats to your LSU Tigers. And, yes, as Greg mentioned, Clemson snuck past Syracuse this weekend. That was a tough game to watch, especially the first half. But, Jonathan, great to see you.

Greg White (00:04:27):

But they tried to do the way, didn’t they?

Scott Luton (00:04:29):

Man, you’re in line. Katherine, I really appreciate all the work. You and Amanda and Chantelle, the whole production team does behind the scenes, great to see you.

Greg White (00:04:38):

And the comedy. Supply chain and comedy, I mean, you’re going to see it folks. But Katherine is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and super quick and witty. She did it again today.

Scott Luton (00:04:50):

She did.

Greg White (00:04:51):

Right?

Scott Luton (00:04:52):

We may have to recycle that joke later in the episode, but Katherine always brings it. Hey, old TV, Tom Valentine’s with us here today. “Happy Diwali, Scott and Greg.” Tom, hope this finds you and your family well. All right. Greg, I’m going to hit just a couple more of these. Julio, good morning again for my supply chain internship in Houston. Great to have you back with us, Julio. And he also, he’s a big Stros fan. The Astros and the Phillies going to duke it out in the World Series. Greg, if you had to pick really quick, who’s winning?

Greg White (00:05:25):

Phillies.

Scott Luton (00:05:25):

Ooh, Julio.

Greg White (00:05:27):

Sorry. I mean, first of all, I hate the Astros because they’re cheaters, but maybe not this season or else we just haven’t found out yet. But the Phillies, look, I mean, I mean, San Diego came into that series hot, hot, hot, and they absolutely crushed them. Now, Astros did the same with the Yankees. I mean, even the judge had to leave the courtroom.

Scott Luton (00:05:54):

All right, finally, Gene Pledger. Great to have you back with us, GP. Tuned in via LinkedIn. “Hello from Pack Expo Chicago.” Hey, he’s got something in common with our esteemed guests here today. And finally, Tafara is tuned in from Zimbabwe, via LinkedIn. Great to have you here. Looking forward to your perspective as we work our way through a lot of interesting stories here today. Okay. So, Greg, are you ready to dive into – we got a jampacked episode. You ready to dive into the first story here today?

Greg White (00:06:23):

Yes. Let’s dive.

Scott Luton (00:06:25):

All right. Let’s dive.

Greg White (00:06:26):

Wow.

Scott Luton (00:06:27):

So, you are starting with a, a tough topic, right?

Greg White (00:06:29):

Yep.

Scott Luton (00:06:30):

So, the Korean automaker Hyundai is looking into claims of child labor in its U.S. supply chain. So, Greg, according to Reuters, Hyundai is expecting the sever ties with at least one of its suppliers in Alabama, and that would be Smart Alabama in Luverne. And an investigative report documented kids there working as young as 12 years old in that plant. Now, those findings led the Alabama Department of Labor to get involved, and they found kids as young as 13 working at a second Hyundai supplier. This one called SL Alabama in Alexander City. Greg, your thoughts?

Greg White (00:07:09):

Well, I read not just this article but also some related articles. And this is a long – of the latest in a string of arguable offenses by these Korean companies operating in Alabama. Smart and SL, both Korean based companies or divisions of them. And, very often strangely, Latin – Central and South American, migrants as the underage workers, right? And in fact, in one case, one parent had three kids working in one plant, and that’s not all of it. So, the Department of Labor has been investigating these companies and the combination of companies since at least 2009 for health, OSHA violations, amputations and other issues that have occurred in these plants. Scott, you’re really familiar with metal stamping as it occurs, and that’s what Smart does. And it’s a dangerous business. It’s definitely not any place for kids. Obviously, there are laws against that. And Alabama specifically has a law that no one under 18, even though the legal working age is 16, no one under 18 can work in a mental stamping facility – metal stamping facility in Alabama. So, I’m not saying, not saying it’s impossible for Hyundai to have not known about this. I’m just saying it’s impossible for me to believe that Hyundai didn’t know about this after over 10 years of discussions with the Department of Labor of the U.S. and the various states.

Scott Luton (00:08:56):

Right. Yeah, we’re going to keep our fingers on the pulse of this story. So, we’ll see if they do indeed sever ties. And, of course, Greg, as you mentioned, it is a dangerous – it can be really dangerous. Lot of moving in parts, a lot of big presses. Of course, not a place, not a place for kids. So, moving right along on a little bit of a lighter story, not really light, but this is interesting, Greg. So, get this, NATO, as we all know, NATO members have donated tons of military weaponry and supplies to Ukraine to support the country’s brave efforts at repelling the Russian invasion. Greg, anyone that knows us and follow Supply Chain Now knows of our efforts to volunteer with our friends at Vector Global Logistics, who have sent over 500,000 pounds of humanitarian supplies to folks from Ukraine and Poland. So, maybe we can drop a link to that in the chat.

Scott Luton (00:09:50):

But, hey, now, NATO members are looking at more closely aligning their procurement efforts to not only replace all of that inventory, but also to streamline procurement and supply needs for any future contingencies. So, this effort, right, it’s been at work for quite some time was recently boosted in September when NATO’s 30 members and 20 allied countries set up working groups to “define multinational strategies to mitigate supply chain constraints” as well as ramp up production and help make equipment more interchangeable, which of course is, it can be a challenge when you’re talking about basically 50 different militaries from 50 different countries. Greg, your thoughts here?

Greg White (00:10:32):

I mean, I think in some cases it’s a good idea; in some cases, not. I mean, you know, it’s not as many people from the military have said it’s not what – it’s not what we have in terms of military technology that’s really secret. We know that’s already been stolen in a lot of cases. It’s what we know that causes us to build certain mechanisms about our enemies, or whatever you want to call them. Russia is unquestionably an enemy. And sometimes that can be, with the wavering politics in Europe, it can be dangerous to share some of that information. So, I think, you know, there’s a lot of benefit in standardizing a goodly number of the products so that when you put a weapon in a Swedish guy’s hands, it’s the same as the weapon in the American soldier’s hands as well. Things like that, maybe even just some of the supplies, right? I mean, I don’t know how much, how well they like Taco Bell in Sweden or in Poland or other NATO countries, but, you know, we actually have Taco Bells on site. Scott, I don’t know if you ever had that when you were deployed, but even in moving camps, we have those. And I think that’s a huge benefit to the world.

Scott Luton (00:11:55):

Well, it’s interesting. You know, along – going back a second ago, you know, all NATO members agreed to boost military funding. I’m not sure the timeframe. It was a couple years ago, but what the data shows is, it wasn’t until Russia invaded Ukraine that there was action behind or the deeds behind those words. So, it’s interesting, you know. We learn a lot from the military, right? The global business does, and I think in this case, perhaps, the global military ecosystem might be learning something from global supply chain. We’ll see.

Greg White (00:12:28):

Well, anything those countries can do to contribute is helpful because the U.S. funds, a huge, huge portion of NATO. Right?

Scott Luton (00:12:37):

That’s right. That’s right.

Greg White (00:12:39):

It has been, let’s say, encouraging, in some cases, demanding, depending on who’s in office, that those countries participate in their own protection. So, if that can happen, that’s a huge burden off of the US’ shoulders as well.

Scott Luton (00:12:56):

That’s right. And before I get any texts, let me just – of course, the military basically invented logistics, right? I’m not taking anything away from that. This is more about the planning and the collaboration amongst many different systems and entities and countries and leadership structures. This is a big deal. So, we’ll see how it plays out, and most importantly what the outcomes are. Not business outcomes, maybe in this case, Greg, although of course there’s a bunch of private and public companies that are going to be making and delivering the supplies that we’re talking about. But a lot of government outcomes and military outcomes as well. Okay. So, Greg, we got a little time. I can’t believe it. We’re actually a couple minutes ahead of schedule.

Greg White (00:13:37):

Let’s go back to Monday. I’m just kidding.

Scott Luton (00:13:39):

Yeah, no kidding. That’s a tough story on a Monday morning.

Greg White (00:13:43):

That definitely deserves a revisit. And they’re going to get a substantial revisit on that.

Scott Luton (00:13:49):

Yep. No doubt. No doubt. PseudoScientist is in the cheap seats and he says, “I’m always in the cheap seats.” Well, hey, let us know what you’re thinking on these stories. We’d love to share y’all’s perspective here today. Clay Phillips, the diesel, because his engine’s always running here as well. “Happy Buzz Day,” he says. Let’s see here.

Greg White (00:14:07):

Glad he said that. I’ve been forgetting that the last couple weeks, right? Happy Buzz Day. The term that Clay invented.

Scott Luton (00:14:13):

That’s right. That’s right. Now, get this, Peter Bolle, all night and all day, he’s checking us out on Facebook. Peter, great to have you back. Good old PB.

Greg White (00:14:21):

I think maybe LinkedIn might be being blocked in Canada.

Scott Luton (00:14:24):

Is it?

Greg White (00:14:25):

I don’t know. He seems to be having problems with it.

Scott Luton (00:14:27):

“Well, YouTube,” he says, “even better here.” So, cheers to you as well, Peter. Hope this finds you well. Katherine appreciates your comments and perspective on her sense of humor. Very real Julio, not a fan of your Astros comments. Bob –

Greg White (00:14:44):

I actually hope not.

Scott Luton (00:14:45):

We asked Bob where he – so he’s in the Nashville area, which is a great city. Lots of great food and people there in Nashville. And, probably a lot of happy football fans. Although they got a big test coming up, I think, in a couple weeks as Georgia and Tennessee get together. Right? That’d be a good game.

Greg White (00:15:04):

I’m sorry. I thought you were talking about the Titans. Yes. Yeah, they got a big test coming.

Scott Luton (00:15:10):

All right. So, Greg, now we’re getting to move to some lighter, some lighter news, right? Those first two stories. Of course, never going to make light of what’s taking place in Ukraine. It’s heartbreaking to see some of the latest attempts, latest actions that are going on there. But all that aside, moving to a much lighter note, Halloween here in the States, and probably many other places, is right around the corner. But, Greg, I’ll tell you, the inflation, nothing – inflation, inflation touches everything, right? And it’s going to be touching our wallets when it comes to inflation fueled candy prices. So, get this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, candy here in the States is generally going to be 13.1% more expensive than last year. But I got some specific examples for you, Greg. Let me see if I can pull this up. Do you like Skittles, Gregory?

Greg White (00:16:06):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:16:09):

Forty-two percent more than what they cost as last year and I wonder –

Greg White (00:16:12):

And that really hits me. Hard.

Scott Luton (00:16:15):

Well, yeah. So, Skittles up 42% more than last year. Starburst, at least according to Axios, prices are up 35% more than last year. And, I’m curious, I wonder if you’re getting the same amount of candies. You know, this, what shrinkflation, I think that some folks have coined that where you’re not only paying more but you’re getting less. Greg, are there going to be some tears in your household? Are you going to be a – here’s a better question. Are you going to be a full candy bar or a full candy package household this Halloween?

Greg White (00:16:49):

You know, our neighborhood is fairly small and it’s like kids have forgotten that it’s here. But we have a bunch of doctors in the neighborhood, and instead of giving out healthy treats, they love to give out full-size candy bars. Makes them feel important, I think. And so, it’s kind of a – it’s kind of an arms race when it comes to candy. So yes, full-size packs of Starburst, definitely Skittles. I mean, everybody loves Skittles.

Scott Luton (00:17:18):

Everybody loves Skittles.

Greg White (00:17:18):

And, and you know, what’s interesting about these statistics, Scott? 13.1% increase in prices this year, 2.5% since August. The amount of time that it took candy prices to rise previously, 13%, was between 1997 and 2006, 19 years ago.

Scott Luton (00:17:41):

Wow.

Greg White (00:17:42):

13%. And it’s gone up 13% in this year. So, just to give you some perspective of how overrun this nation and the world is with inflation, a 2% inflation rate, which is what we had before all the stimulus and everything causes prices to double every 36 years. An 8.2% inflation rate causes prices to double every eight and three quarters years. So, we have over four times the inflation rate that we had. And, you know, the value of everything doubling three times as fast, at least three times as fast.

Scott Luton (00:18:26):

Well, I tell you, I sure am glad I brushed up on my multiplication and my fractions this morning, Greg, ‘cause you just threw a lot of math at our listeners there. But the point is, man, the prices and how fast, it’s remarkable. So, this is what we did. First off, I see special guests, my mom, Leah Luton, tuned in from Aiken, South Carolina.

Greg White (00:18:46):

What about [inaudible]?

Scott Luton (00:18:46):

She wants to know – right. She wants to know about these commodities known as Milk Duds. Mom, we’ll get our research team on that ASAP and I’ll get back to you soon.

Greg White (00:18:55):

Yeah. That’s a good question. And I would imagine because Milk Duds their shelf life isn’t as long as some other candy. They get kind of chalky and hard.

Scott Luton (00:19:04):

Yeah. That’s a good point, Greg. Well, let me tell you what we did here in Luton household, Greg.

Greg White (00:19:08):

Yes, Scott.

Scott Luton (00:19:08):

As we had to cut the middle man out and we went straight to the stores. Yeah. We’re getting – we’re getting our pallets of candy Airheads ‘cause I’m a little bit partial to. They work great for motivating your kids in different ways, at least when they’re still young like mine are. In fact, we barter. Our Luton economy is based on Airheads here and within our four walls.

Greg White (00:19:28):

Is that right?

Scott Luton (00:19:30):

So yeah. Cut out the middle man and go straight to the source.

Greg White (00:19:34):

So, you’re buying it wholesale. There you go, people. The consumer will find a way. Right?

Scott Luton (00:19:39):

That’s right. Because as Greg always says, the consumer is the beginning and the end of supply chain, right, Greg?

Greg White (00:19:47):

Indeed.

Scott Luton (00:19:48):

Indeed.

Greg White (00:19:48):

Indeed. And if we haven’t seen that before, we are sure seeing it now because we continue to spend money, even though everything has gone up in some cases, 30, 40%. Right?

Scott Luton (00:19:59):

Man, unbelievable.

Greg White (00:20:00):

It is incredible. I don’t know. I hope we don’t run out kind of all at once. Right?

Scott Luton (00:20:06):

Well, I saw, – and I’m going to share a couple of quick comments here in just a second, but I saw over the weekend, I think it was a Whirlpool CEO, right? They’re doing some big things to try to attack their inventory there. And he was quoted, I’m going to paraphrase it, basically, you know, typically when demand starts to really decrease, you know, prices can go with it in conjunction moving in the same direction, but they’re seeing demand not crash, but really dropped dramatically. But prices and costs are increasing in many ways. So, it’s a very unique time. Of course, Halloween, anything consumer-related, all of life is going to be impacted, right, with what’s going on in supply chain. But I tell you, we’re going to be writing a book about this in 20 years from now and look back at these times and learn a lot from it from a global business standpoint. Greg, your final comment for it, share a couple.

Greg White (00:20:57):

Yeah. There are a ton of people learning a lot about it now. I think I saw Mike Rowe, from Dirty Jobs fame, now Mike Rowe Works, which is a great – it’s a great philanthropy, I think, whatever initiative to put people to work in skilled, but not college jobs. And he said there are 7 million, and he’s just talking about men here, 7 million, what he calls able bodied men who are not in the workforce in any manner. They have in fact stopped looking for work. And that’s why – you know, this is the question I think a lot of us have been asking for months, is how can there be so many open positions when so many people aren’t working? And it’s because many, many people have stopped looking, right? They’ve got a YouTube channel or a side hustle that’s now their front hustle or whatever.

Greg White (00:21:47):

So, I think, and also remember the 3.6 million more baby boomers retired last year than were expected to, and they were already retiring at a rate of 10,000 a day. So, I think a lot of people have just kind of hung it up, at least for now, what could happen is this inflationary, you know, stagflation, I guess we ought to call it at this point like they did in the ‘70s, where it’s inflationary but demand is falling. I think that could bring some people back into the workforce. And we know that labor is what we need in a lot of cases. Labor is what put us in this position. You know, as demand rose and people couldn’t work, right, we saw the impact. We’re going to talk a lot about in just a few minutes –

Scott Luton (00:22:39):

That’s right.

Greg White (00:22:40):

How you can offset that because some of those changes, I believe, are permanent in terms of workforce.

Scott Luton (00:22:47):

Yeah. So much spend – a lot of what you brought out there so much we could talk about over, you know, the next six hours. But we are going to talk a good bit about warehousing and workforce here in just a second. Some great ideas coming from our guests. I want to share a couple of quick comments here. Folks, we’re trying to make it easy. So, some of the articles we’ve talked about on the front end here, we’ve dropped those links so y’all can check them out and develop your own take. So, y’all do that. Hello to this person from Lisbon, Portugal. Sometimes, if your profile shows up like this, especially on LinkedIn, it’s just a security setting on your profile. You can change it. That way we can see who you are. But greetings to you there in a beautiful Portugal.

Greg White (00:23:28):

Scott’s side hustle is LinkedIn support.

Scott Luton (00:23:30):

Greg is completely kidding.

Greg White (00:23:34):

[Inaudible] for LinkedIn support, you could make millions.

Scott Luton (00:23:36):

Oh, gosh. Jose. That is Jose. So, Jose, welcome, welcome. Let’s see here. I also wanted to recognize, we mentioned Tennessee coming up that big – they’re having a big year, right? Big year. And they got Georgia in a few weeks. And Todd clearly big old Vols fan. So, congrats on a great season thus far. And let’s see here.

Greg White (00:23:57):

What barn burner, I’m still going back to that Alabama game [inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:24:01):

Right. It sure was. Great game. Julio talks about the port of LA. “I saw the lowest loaded import containers in September since 2009.” How about that?

Greg White (00:24:12):

Yeah. That’s incredible. You know, I haven’t paid much attention sadly to what the backup is there. You know, I have my own East Coast index that for the last couple weeks I’ve been failing to check up on which I’m going to do right now. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:24:31):

Yeah. Do that.

Greg White (00:24:33):

But it’s interesting. I wonder what the state of LBC in LA are.

Scott Luton (00:24:39):

Well, the Wall Street journalists –

Greg White (00:24:41):

If anyone knows.

Scott Luton (00:24:42):

Yeah.

Greg White (00:24:43):

I like that Julio knows.

Scott Luton (00:24:45):

Many, many folks believe the bottleneck. Wall Street Journal over the weekend was talking about the bottlenecks really has been addressed. Now, some of that of course could – you know, we talked last week, Greg, about imports to all U.S. ports, seaports, is dropping second half the year. But probably a number of factors compiling to resolve what was an ongoing bottleneck for the last couple years, right?

Greg White (00:25:09):

Yeah. I can tell you, Port of Savannah still jammed up and looks like there’s some building traffic outside of Charleston. Let’s take a look. Let’s take a look at [inaudible] here.

Scott Luton (00:25:16):

Real time updates. Real time updates.

Greg White (00:25:21):

It’s in real time, folks, so forgive me [inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:25:25):

While you look up to Port of LA.

Greg White (00:25:27):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:25:27):

All right. This is probably – Amanda says, “Kids are gonna be eating Skattles, Skattles, and Sunburst candies, Snookers and Twinx chocolate bars in our neighborhood.” I think she’s talking about maybe knockoff candies instead of [inaudible]. Sometimes those are typos and I always hit those typos. But I think I get your point, Amanda. So, great point too.

Greg White (00:25:50):

Wow. It does look like – it does look like, I mean, the log jam offshore has largely broken. I mean, at least right this moment. I don’t see a lot of ships at anchor within 150 miles of LA, so.

Scott Luton (00:26:03):

And that is our Greg White, global shipping and transportation logistics freight, both coasts, index has compiled by.

Greg White (00:26:10):

Just like now, right?

Scott Luton (00:26:12):

That’s right. And good morning to you, Glorimar. She’s on a training break, didn’t want to miss The Buzz. Hey, we appreciate you being here with us and all we can share.

Greg White (00:26:20):

No training break.

Scott Luton (00:26:22):

Yes, training break. But didn’t want to miss The Buzz.

Greg White (00:26:25):

Oh, yeah. I thought you said on a train. Sorry.

Scott Luton (00:26:28):

So, Glorimar, great to see you. And, hey, we got the powerful duo here, mom and dad. So, hey, dad.

Greg White (00:26:37):

All right. What’s dad’s favorite candy? That’s what I’m – probably Swedish Fish, don’t you think? As much as he likes fishing.

Scott Luton (00:26:43):

Could be, could be. If Fudge Rounds were a candy, that would be – that would be on that short list, dad. But we’ll see. We’ll see what candy he wants to ask about.

Greg White (00:26:53):

What’s yours, Scott?

Scott Luton (00:26:55):

Well, so, Airheads has become –

Greg White (00:26:57):

Really.

Scott Luton (00:26:58):

I think after stealing them from my kids’ candy bags for quite some time, they, you know, developed a little craving. But hey, Snickers, Twix, you know, chocolate-covered shares are good around the holidays. But I’ll stop there ‘cause I try to – all good things in moderation, right, Greg? All good things –

Greg White (00:27:18):

I have come back around to my favorite from my high school days, a candy bar that was introduced when I was in high school called the Whatchamachella – Whatchamacallit.

Scott Luton (00:27:28):

Okay.

Greg White (00:27:29):

Watchamacallit.

Scott Luton (00:27:29):

That was good. Yeah, I remember those commercials back in today, but, so I digress – so we digress –

Greg White (00:27:35):

No, I digress. I just got you to –

Scott Luton (00:27:38):

So I’m going to take one comment and then we’re going to bring on a great guess here today because as Emmett Rogers says, yes, we are excited for Ryan Kitchie, the legendary Chicago icon.

Greg White (00:27:49):

Why do I guess [inaudible] works for Ryan?

Scott Luton (00:27:52):

Maybe, I don’t know. But Gary says, “Cub Scouts are selling one bag of popcorn yesterday in Naperville, Illinois for 23 bucks for one little bag.” Gary says, “How will he explain to the Den Leader while sales are down?” It’s an excellent question, Gary, excellent question.

Greg White (00:28:11):

He should bring you back to their next Den meeting, Gary, and maybe you can help.

Scott Luton (00:28:17):

We’ll have an S&OP meeting. That’s right. All right.

Greg White (00:28:20):

Here is supply and demand [inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:28:17):

Right. Okay. We got to get back. We’re going to rein it back, Greg, ‘cause we got a great guest here today. We really enjoyed our pre-show conversations. And I want to introduce – Greg, you ready to go?

Greg White (00:28:35):

I am now. Yes, I am.

Scott Luton (00:28:36):

Buckle up.

Greg White (00:28:37):

I think I have spilled all my excess energy. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:28:40):

All right. Well, here we go. I want to welcome in special guest, Ryan Kitchie, Solutions Executive with 6 River Systems. Hey, hey, Kitchie, how you doing?

Ryan Kitchie (00:28:54):

Good afternoon, Scott. Good to see you, sir.

Scott Luton (00:28:56):

You as well. Greg, we enjoyed chatting with Ryan pre-show today, didn’t we?

Greg White (00:29:01):

Yeah. Welcome aboard. Can we call you Kitchie? Did we know each other well enough to do that?

Ryan Kitchie (00:29:05):

Absolutely, absolutely.

Greg White (00:29:06):

Okay. I love it when –

Ryan Kitchie (00:29:06):

When it feels right, let it be.

Greg White (00:29:07):

Yeah. I love it when people just, they just go with one name. I like that. Kitchie. It’s also a definition, right?

Scott Luton (00:29:15):

Well, so, folks, just to clarify, Ryan goes by his last name very often, maybe his closest friends. So, he is granted me and Greg OG status. So, it is going to be Kitchie throughout the next 30 minutes or so. And, hey, who is – so Emmett is really – Kitchie, Emmett’s really ready to hear what you got, huh?

Ryan Kitchie (00:29:37):

Yep. This is where you guys are seeing some of my friends and family join in and watch me take the stage today. So, appreciate the love there, Emmett. Much, much love for you too, sir.

Greg White (00:29:46):

Emmett Rogers sounds like a great name for an NFL running back, doesn’t it? I mean, it could be.

Ryan Kitchie (00:29:50):

It does. It absolutely does.

Scott Luton (00:29:51):

It does. Great, great comment. And by the way, closing the loop. Mom says, “Dad’s candy is salt caramel chocolate.”

Greg White (00:29:59):

Oh, that’s one taste. Yeah.

Ryan Kitchie (00:30:01):

That’s a good pick. That is a good pick.

Scott Luton (00:30:03):

That’s right. We will check on – we’ll get our research team on that. But, Ryan, before we move into, especially topics on warehouse and workforce and some creative things going on there, we’re going to keep the Halloween conversation going ‘cause, Kitchie, we want to know one of your favorite Halloween moments or memories, or one of your favorite costumes of all time. Kitchie.

Ryan Kitchie (00:30:28):

I got you here, Scott. So, I had two come to mind. One was the four years in a row that I had addressed as a Power Ranger, the Red Power Ranger to be specific. And then, the second was stimulated by your conversation with Greg about the king size candy bars. Growing up, I remember chasing after one house that had two liters of soda that me and my siblings and my friends, we would just sprint to and come home and have, you know, 10, 12 different things of two liters soda that [inaudible] –

Greg White (00:30:55):

Every kid got a two liter?

Ryan Kitchie (00:30:56):

Every kid got a two liter until they’re [inaudible]. Right? They could only have so many in the house, you know?

Greg White (00:31:01):

Wow.

Scott Luton (00:31:02):

Goodness gracious.

Ryan Kitchie (00:31:02):

A little different. It’s a little different approach to candy giving, I’d say.

Greg White (00:31:05):

Man.

Scott Luton (00:31:07):

All right, so Kitchie, that is – I like the four years. At least you were consistent. Four years, your parents knew what to plan for, always the Red Power Ranger. Greg, that’s going to be tough to top, but what’s one of your favorite Halloween moments?

Greg White (00:31:19):

Well, Halloween is my wife’s favorite holiday. So it’s always big around our house. And one year, we had just bought a new house and we had a haunted house warming. And to see a bunch of grownups come in and it was kind of during recession, so everybody, they really needed it, right? And to see a bunch of grownups must have spent hundreds of hours or dollars on their costumes. One of my buddies came as a pirate. I mean, he sold me. I was sure he was actually a pirate. No, I mean, that was a really great memory and a lot of people had a lot of fun and got a lot of people who didn’t know together and warmed the house at Halloween.

Scott Luton (00:32:08):

Love it. Love it. If Philip Jordan is tuned in here today, one year as I was sharing pre-show, we both got scrubs and I believe I was Dr. Pepper and he was Dr. Scholls, I believe is how that worked. And we had a lot of fun with that. Okay. Todd’s given us a 11-point, 11.3-day delay in Savannah. Thank you for that factoid. Todd, also says Kitchie –

Greg White (00:32:33):

That’s great to know.

Scott Luton (00:32:34):

It is great to know. Todd says, “Kitchie is both a verb and a noun.” Hey, we’re learning some –

Ryan Kitchie (00:32:39):

There we go.

Scott Luton (00:32:40):

It’s English diagramming, best practice here today. Guatam, hey, thank you. Happy Diwala to you as well, we were talking out in the front end. All the best to you and your family. Thank you for sharing. And then, finally, we’re talking costumes, right? The Halloween moments. Amanda says that her mom had crayon costumes made for the whole family one year. Her dad was a green crayon and walked her and her brother around, the red and purple crayons, puffing on a cigar and drinking at Jack Daniels. And that’s even funnier if you know Fred McGuff. So, Fred, hope this finds you well. Okay. So, with that backdrop, now we got to get into, you know, some of the issues of our day. And I want to pop this story up here ‘cause this is where we want to start. So, Ryan, you’ve been tracking this story here in the warehousing industry, as I mentioned, especially on the topic of workforce, this interesting article from our friends at ID Logistics, which really speaks to the real cost of how warehouse turnover rates. So, Ryan, tell us more here.

Ryan Kitchie (00:33:42):

Yeah, absolutely, Scott. So, this article does a really nice job of outlining some of the apparent costs of warehouse turnover, but what a lot of organizations don’t think about, or some of those non-topical or non-top of mind costs that are associated to it. So, the easy ones are well lost productivity, right? If I have 10 people that are fulfilling 10,000 units a day, two people don’t show up, I’m 2000 units short against my goal for that day. Well, outside of those 2000 units that weren’t shipped, what else am I getting hit with in my bottom line that’s going to impact my business for the future? Right? So, we think about HR costs. We think about hiring and training costs, background vetting costs, and then we think about customer acquisition costs, especially if you’re in a direct-to-consumer environment, Scott, you think about if I said I was going to get my order yesterday and it still hasn’t showed up, why am I going to go back and buy Scott Luton’s shirt and pants again when I can go buy Greg White shirt and pants and he delivers on his promise? So, I think –

Greg White (00:34:35):

Darn skippy [inaudible].

Ryan Kitchie (00:34:38):

Darn skippy, exactly. But it’s those very present costs that are top of mind for operators. But then there’s those hidden costs that come together. And, you know, ID logistics talks about $8500 and this was something that came out in Q1 of this year as we know inflation and where the economy’s going that’s really the basement of the floor costs that I’m seeing for warehouse turnover in the marketplace today.

Scott Luton (00:35:01):

So Kitchie, well, one thing you’re sharing is turnover is costing us all a lot more than what we may think and assume. Greg, your thoughts on this article and Ryan’s take here today?

Greg White (00:35:13):

Yeah. It’s interesting not tied directly to labor. But, you know, today I’ve published one of my commentaries on Revlon who is swirling the drain for a lot of reasons. But also one of the costs that they’re incurring is penalties from their retailers by not delivering on time and in full. And that is a brutal, really hardcore costs. There’s also expediting costs and various and sundry things that you have to absorb when you get behind, right? So, I mean, there’s so much that you don’t think about. And I think this is sort of the key of the risk management mix or balance of supply chain is we need to put numbers around these things. We need to understand the impact of these things because to date we have focused mostly on the cost of the product and the cost of freight, right? Cost of delivery, cost of induction, all of that sort of thing. But there are so many more costs, including as in the case of Revlon, the long term and probably permanent cost to your brand esteem. This is literally a company that’s being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because their performance has been so poor that their valuation has declined. They will now be an OTC stock. So, the Wolf of Wall Street is coming for Revlon.

Scott Luton (00:36:36):

Well, really interesting. And, Greg, on your final point, that’s kind of what Kitchie was saying on the front end. Folks, because of picking errors and turnover, folks aren’t going to buy shirts from me.

Greg White (00:35:48):

Right.

Scott Luton (00:36:48):

Right. No more plaid shirts. They want the cool shirts from Greg White and incorporated white, is that right Kitchie?

Greg White (00:36:53):

Tee-shirts mostly. They’re buying from me.

Scott Luton (00:36:58):

So, I’m going to take a couple of quick comments here ‘cause we’re going back to the ports. A lot of folks are talking about the ports here today. Glorimar says that she can see the Port of LA from where she is and it’s empty. And her husband, who I think works at the port, port there in LA, is struggling to get loads. Man. Now on a different note –

Greg White (00:37:18):

Tell him to move to Mississippi Basin. He can start going green down downstream.

Scott Luton (00:37:25):

Man. It’s heartbreaking to see what’s going on there. Now, Tom says, back to Halloween, “We should be all giving away Stuckey’s pecan rolls for Halloween. Probably thanks to our friend Stephanie Stuckey.

Greg White (00:37:36):

Not everybody is a pecan fan. I mean –

Scott Luton (00:37:40):

All right.

Greg White (00:37:39):

I mean, they’re delicious and we all love [inaudible], of course. But, man, just imagine getting that in your – I’m going to take a Whatchamacallit every single time.

Scott Luton (00:37:51):

So, Kitchie, we’re just going to the Halloween theme of The Buzz, what we’re going to use a week from now. But Kitchie, what was one of your favorite candies you would get when you’d knocking on doors back in the day, aside from like two-liter Cokes and sodas?

Greg White (00:38:06):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:38:06):

I’ve never even heard of that. But, Kitchie, what’s one – what candy that you loved?

Ryan Kitchie (00:38:10):

So I would say I’m a big Kitka fanatic. Anytime, I can get my hands on a Kitkat, it doesn’t stand a chance. It’s going to be gone in an instant.

Scott Luton (00:38:19):

Man, I’m with you. I am with ya.

Greg White (00:38:21):

Okay. I’m with – you have to forgive me. KitKats are the ones you break apart, right?

Ryan Kitchie (00:38:24):

Correct. Break me off a piece.

Greg White (00:38:26):

Cookie in the middle. Yeah.

Ryan Kitchie (00:38:29):

Wafer cookie. Yeah. Exactly.

Greg White (00:38:30):

I always get them confused with Twix, but –

Ryan Kitchie (00:38:33):

I would also give [inaudible] mention to Whoppers, my mom’s favorite Halloween candy, and she turned me on those as well.

Greg White (00:38:39):

[Inaudible]. You don’t like [inaudible], Scott?

Scott Luton (00:38:41):

No. As my mom pointed out here, we’re always great to have mom and dad with us, right? Milk Duds. Even though they’re terrible for your teeth. Man, I want to eat through those. Okay.

Greg White (00:38:53):

[Inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:38:55):

They were terrible. Right? All right, so we got to get back to work, folks. We were just talking about the real cost of high warehouse turnover rates. Loved your perspective there, Kitchie and Greg. So, let’s shift gears up ‘cause this is an interesting perspective here. Christian Dow with MHI writes in this article that “you can’t afford not to automate.” And I would submit that he’s probably not wrong. But, Kitchie, your thoughts here.

Ryan Kitchie (00:39:22):

Yeah, Scott, this article really jumped out at me for a couple of reasons. If we think about the supply chain space and how companies have been differentiating themselves, people have looked at automation in the past two to five years as a way to differentiate their position in the supply chain and how they’re moving their goods between facilities to customers, et cetera. And that was the last two to five years. He makes it very clear for a lot of reasons that this article where it’s going to be table stakes if not expected, from organizations to have some baseline level of automation going into the next two or five years. And some of those reasons are going to be right. Changing consumer purchasing behavior is one of those biggest drivers but it also goes back to that labor and retention element that we talked about on the previous article, right?

Ryan Kitchie (00:40:02):

If you’re not automating and you have a linear relationship to labor, if you have 20% of your staff not show up, there’s 20% of your business that you’re losing that day, right? So, if you find ways to automate with pieces of your supply chain, right, you become less dependent on that labor in a linear manner. And if someone doesn’t show up, maybe it’s not a thousand units, maybe it’s only 200 units, right, for either that B2B or direct-to-consumer case that Greg and I were kind of bouncing back and forth there. And then, also when we think about RFPs from a third-party perspective, right, customers who are entering into RFPs for service providers are going to start to make this a requirement moving forward. Because if they want futureproof their business, wouldn’t they want their service provider be future proofing theirs?

Scott Luton (00:40:41):

I love that. And by the way, folks, y’all should know that Scott’s plaid shirt company, we’re investing heavily in automation. No more letdowns in 2023. But kidding aside, Greg, speak to what Kitchie was just sharing in automation in general.

Greg White (00:40:55):

Yeah, well, white tee-shirts we have been automated for a decade, so just letting you know.

Ryan Kitchie (00:41:01):

I love it.

Greg White (00:41:02):

But, I mean, but I think that’s a really good kind of maybe, maybe segue. Look, get them to show up for work. Hell, you can’t even get them to show up to apply for work. That’s the foundational problem, right? The outgoing generations were the physical workers in warehouses, and you used to have to fight a battle against automation to be able to automate your facilities. Now, these incoming generations, they fully expect those mundane, those dark, dirty, dangerous and dull jobs to be automated so they don’t have to do them. And they are staying away from those jobs in droves, in manufacturing, in warehousing, in transportation, right? So, it’s not even just that you risk productivity when your staff doesn’t show up, you risk productivity by even having a staff because in a lot of cases, there’s not enough people to fill those jobs, those 7 million able-bodied men who are not applying for those jobs and have the ability to work them, is just one example, right?

Greg White (00:42:06):

So, let’s think about this and shift the narrative on automation from apologizing for it to recognizing that it is an absolute must because there are jobs that human beings shouldn’t be doing, including 12-year-olds doing metal stamping. It doesn’t even have to be that dangerous. It just has to be that dissatisfying for people to not want to do that job and because they want to apply their intellect, not their brute force to work these days. So, the world has changed and we have to recognize it. And that’s why not only can you not afford it, you can’t even expect to be able to do it, much less do it affordably.

Scott Luton (00:42:49):

That’s right. China is investing. They were the number one –

Greg White (00:42:53):

The largest labor force on the planet. Right.

Scott Luton (00:42:55):

Right, right. And they’re trying to get out in front of some of their population demographics, every country, every, every workforce. Bill is a big fan of some knowledge dropping here today, as are we, Kitchie. TSquared says, “Looks like the mantra of connect and develop with a bit of collaboration never sleeps.” How about that? It’s like poetic.

Ryan Kitchie (00:43:15):

I love it.

Scott Luton (00:43:17):

This LinkedIn user –

Greg White (00:43:18):

I want to know if [inaudible] is an NFL fan. I’m curious if he’s an NFL fan, who his team is.

Scott Luton (00:43:22):

Let us know. Let us know who your NFL team is. This may be Jose, I believe. “Automation also attracts talent. People want to work at companies that invests in technology.” I completely agree.

Greg White (00:43:34):

Excellent point. I mean, it really becomes a big part of your identity as a corporation.

Scott Luton (00:43:39):

Yep. Before I – I’m going to grab Julio’s comment in just a minute. I’m going to make an observation on Walgreens and the automation they’ve got. But, Kitchie, I’m going to give you the last word. You know, kind of playing on, I think it was Jose’s point here, you know, about traction. I think not only we’re making – when automation’s applied successfully, right, and with the business goals in mind, we’re also making it easier for our team, right? Making their life easier to do more fulfilling work. But, Kitchie, your final comment here around automation.

Ryan Kitchie (00:44:11):

Yeah, Scott, thank you. So, to that point, really, both of the articles that we touched on, they talked about the importance of retention and how businesses should be tracking that as a top KPI. And when we think about automation attracting labor, it also keeps them in the building, right? If we think about the saturation of warehouses in any industrial park, users have the ability to go from a Walmart to an Amazon to a Walgreens, to whomever right down the road. And they’re jumping for less than a dollar of incremental change to their salary. But if you are able to create an environment and a culture that makes their job easier, makes them less stressed out or less tired at the end of the day, and you’re paying them a comparable fair wage, you’re going to see retention increase. And, again, it’s a platform or a mechanism to make this, you know, not appealing job, more appealing to people and making sure that we can support the business around us.

Scott Luton (00:45:02):

Well said, very – and let me correct myself. This was Ryan that mentioned automation also attracts talent, people in a work at companies that invest in technology. So, Ryan, thank you for that. All right. So, Greg and Kitchie, I want to do a couple things here. I want to share just a couple quick comments here, ask and they shall deliver. TSquared’s a big Ravens fan. That’s his home team. And a big fan of – who’s EAP? Is that an acronym for a player? All right, so TSquared, you stumped us here.

Greg White (00:45:33):

[Inaudible]. I’m trying to –

Scott Lutton (00:45:34):

Oh, here we go.

Ryan Kitchie (00:45:34):

Yeah, I should know that.

Scott Lutton (00:45:36):

Edgar Allan Poe, [inaudible] player.

Greg White (00:45:39):

Oh, of course. Yeah. Boy, you can see that the way he writes, this sort of cryptic kind poems.

Scott Lutton (00:45:47):

That’s right.

Greg White (00:45:47):

We can that, too.

Scott Luton (00:45:49):

That’s good point.

Greg White (00:45:49):

We need to have – we need to sit down and have a discussion someday, Tyrone, about Edgar Allen Poe. We’ll go to Charleston and learn a lot about where he was deployed in the Army, by the way.

Scott Luton (00:46:00):

Okay. All right. So, Jose says, “In Portugal, 3 PLS have the same problem with labor force shortages. No doubt it’s an issue. And warehouse automation looks like one of the solutions.” Gary Miller says, “The competition for talent automation is fierce. If you’re an engineer that can design, program or implement an automated system in manufacturing or warehousing, you will be in demand for a very long time.” And I like Bill’s comment here, “Workers won’t AC. Given the choice from hot and AC, they will choose work in the AC.”

Greg White (00:46:32):

Excellent point. I mean that’s –

Ryan Kitchie (00:46:32):

That’s really is.

Greg White (00:46:34):

It’s really, really foundational, but it is a great point.

Scott Luton (00:46:37):

That’s right.

Ryan Kitchie (00:46:37):

I didn’t. Picking orders in a warehouse in Atlanta during June and July, holy cow.

Greg White (00:46:42):

Right. Can you imagine it?

Scott Luton (00:46:44):

Okay. So what I want to do here, I got 12:46, so we got some bonus time with Ryan Kitchie here. So, Ryan, as we talked about pre-show, Greg and I have really enjoyed kind of an army of 6 River Systems folks that have been with us on livestreams and webinars, you name it this year, really have enjoyed their perspective. But for the three people that missed some of those maybe, Kitchie, you know, what does 6 River Systems do?

Ryan Kitchie (00:47:10):

Sure. So 6 River Systems, Scott, we’re the warehouse automation division of Shopify. We work with 3 PLS, retailers, wholesale parts distributors, to really help them mitigate the macro labor challenge, increase performance in their warehouse, and eliminate the amount of missed picks and errors that are leaving the building. We work with large companies and a good proof point for us would be Walgreens, Scott, that you mentioned earlier, right? We help them increase the flow of goods within their facility, lower training times to nearly 15% or 15 minutes per new associate, and helping them skate it off, moving into a new building and signing a new lease on that square footage that they currently have, which is a pretty penny.

Scott Luton (00:47:49):

Okay. I’m glad you picked back up on that ‘cause I want, I’m going to speak about Walgreens in just a second. Julio’s talking about Walmart. Julio says, “I read a very interesting article about Walmart’s implementation of automation and augmented reality technology and inventory management. A hundred percent adoption rate across 4500 stores and significant improvements.” Julio, that’s good stuff. We’ll look for that. Also, I had a great interview with Mike Prince, a senior executive with Walmart. Y’all can check that out in our Supply Chain Now library that just dropped a week or two ago. Speaking of Walgreens, I read, on the last few four or five days that, you know, we’re talking a lot about warehousing talent, right, and supply chain talent. Well, of course Walgreens leans on pharmacy, pharmacist talent and evidently there’s a big dearth of talent in that space too.

Greg White (00:48:37):

Has been for a while, yeah.

Scott Luton (00:48:40):

Well, this is new to me. But one of the things, and, 6 River Systems may be involved, I’m not sure. Kitchie and I didn’t plan this. But Walgreens is a developing like city block-sized automation centers that’s going to take a lot of mundane work off their current staff of pharmacists, right? And allow them to spend their time on more, more involved work, right? And it’s going to save Walgreens, at least Wall Street Journal said, a billion dollars a year. Holy cow. How about that? So, Kitchie, do you think –

Greg White (00:49:15):

[Inaudible] I’m just kidding.

Scott Luton (00:49:17):

That’s right. But, I mean, really what I love about, you know, and I don’t have the full case study, it was a pretty brief article. But, yeah, I love how it was evident to me at least. They’ve identified that business objective, right? And they’re not going to bridge that talent gap anytime soon. So, let’s get the mundane and the stuff that the blocking and tackling off that valuable talent, you know, staff’s plate and figure out a way to practically automate it. And not only are you going to have happier – I would argue – happier team members, right? They can spend their time in more fulfilling work. But, man, how about those bottom-line results, Kitchie?

Ryan Kitchie (00:49:58):

I love it. And, if you think about it, look at Walgreens, right? A hundred-year company that they often, if not all the time, have to stay ahead of these trends and these curves in order to create the brand and achieve what they’ve done over the past hundred plus years. So, I don’t know about this story personally, Scott, but it doesn’t make – it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest to hear this. And I’m excited to read more about the article that you’re referencing.

Scott Luton (00:50:19):

Wonderful. Okay. Greg, I’m get your take, just automation in general, retail, you know, Walgreens, Walmart, you name it, your thoughts.

Greg White (00:50:28):

Yeah. Well, I’m just only slightly off topic, but I have been going through security quite a bit as I’ve been traveling over the football season. And, the last time I went through security, I didn’t show my ID or my boarding pass to a human being. I slipped it into a little card reader, your driver’s license and then you put the, your boarding pass, which is now electronic, on another reader and they sit behind a screen just to make sure that you’ve done it. And we are not far from even at airport security, that role being largely or completely automated with only supervisors bouncing around for exceptions. Likewise, think about the fact that we are now scanning our own groceries. Yes, we are the employer, employees of our own suppliers. We should get free labor [inaudible], right?

Ryan Kitchie (00:51:18):

Free labor. Free labor.

Greg White (00:51:21):

‘Cause it takes me about an hour even to use one of those. So, I should save like 19 bucks. But, you know, we’re going to see more and more of this automation because people, you know, I think our generation, generation X and beyond, recognize that certain tasks should be automated. And it’s been a bit unnatural that we’ve kept some of them manual for so many years. And now, as that generation that required those manual jobs as they leave the workforce, it’s much, much more natural to automate those to see those being automated now, as I say, very often, Scott, we can quit apologizing for automation, right? It is an absolute necessity. We’re not putting anyone, not anyone, at least not in industrialized countries, we’re not putting anyone out of work because as we’ve proven, at least in the U.S. and a lot of the European countries, people again are staying away from these jobs and drove. They don’t want them, aren’t going to take them.

Scott Luton (00:52:19):

So, human, big human labor in mundane tasks, quote of the Raven, never more, never more.

Greg White (00:52:27):

Oh, my god. That is beautiful.

Ryan Kitchie (00:52:31):

Wonderful. Truly outstanding.

Scott Luton (00:52:34):

I can see, I can feel in the forest my 13-year-old daughter, the massive eye roll after I shared that, but we’ll save that for later.

Greg White (00:52:39):

No, that was brilliant.

Scott Luton (00:52:41):

Todd says, “Robotics companies are truly software companies in disguise.” Todd says, “He really likes to follow me technology of 6 River Systems.” I like that. Follow me technology.

Greg White (00:52:52):

Come on, [inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:52:55):

Tom says, “We are seeing more demand for incremental automation where it makes sense for small to mid and larger companies, but they’re open to larger scope of integration of automation.” And Tom notes, old TV notes.

Greg White (00:53:08):

Yeah. And I could see that, Tom. I can see that accelerating in those industries really rapidly because it’s even harder for small, SMBs to get staff than the big companies. Right?

Scott Luton (00:53:20):

Good point. Kitchie?

Ryan Kitchie (00:53:22):

I was just going to say, and it’s the responsibility of the marketplace to provide those solutions at an economical price point so that those small and medium-sized businesses can lean into automation. How are they going to curb this demand curve? How are they going to change the way their consumers are purchasing? They need to have access to the tools to be able to fight the big juggernaut that is Amazon or Walmart to compete. So, I think that’s a really great point.

Greg White (00:53:43):

Agreed.

Scott Luton (00:53:43):

That’s right. Heads up to our production team. I got 12:53. We’re going to keep Ryan Kitchie with us through the end of the show here today. We’ve a couple of resources –

Greg White (00:53:51):

Oh, man, you’re closing out with us. Thanks.

Ryan Kitchie (00:53:52):

I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky.

Scott Luton (00:53:54):

Well, hey, before we –

Greg White (00:53:56):

[Inaudible] rookie in the field, right to the end of the game. We want to get 100 yards.

Scott Luton (00:54:01):

I think Kitchie is more like a – he’s like a five or six-year veteran. He’s already learned the ropes and he’s out there making the big sack or catching the big touchdown pass or whatever you’re –

Greg White (00:54:12):

Yeah. I would say touchdown pass. I’m thinking Ryan Kitchie, that sounds so tight end like [inaudible]. Definitely tight end.

Ryan Kitchie (00:54:22):

I grew up with the tight end.

Greg White (00:54:22):

Wide open over the middle and shoves that Mike linebacker off to get open.

Ryan Kitchie (00:54:27):

Exactly. The Heisman. Yeah. I love it.

Scott Luton (00:54:30):

All right. So, let’s talk about some great resources. I love the – Greg and I both like all the events and kind of how y’all build them at 6 River Systems, right? It’s never, never pitchy. It’s more about networking –

Greg White (00:54:42):

[Inaudible].

Scott Luton (00:54:43):

And new ideas. That’s right. Well, nice Greg. Nice.

Ryan Kitchie (00:54:47):

There it is.

Scott Luton (00:54:48):

Networking new ideas, being able to, you know, kick the tires on things. And this upcoming event, Ryan, we can see Chuck in action out in LA. Tell us more about this.

Ryan Kitchie (00:54:58):

Yeah, so this is one of our open house events. So, we are doing these on a monthly or bi-monthly basis with our current install base. And really the intent of these sessions is to make the first introduction to automation easier for people, right? This is completely free of charge. All you have to do is register, give us your name and your information and show up at the slotted time. You’ll get the opportunity to see Chuck moving. You’ll get the opportunity to actually use and pick on Chuck and see how easy it is to implement this within your own supply chain. So, really just trying to break down the barrier for people to actually see different forms of automation in person. And, if they’re not in the Los Angeles area and you don’t want to travel, we’ll have more coming later this year and early next. So, definitely a lot of opportunities to see Chuck roaming around in action here soon.

Scott Luton (00:55:43):

I love that. And, evidently as I share this graphic, again, these are popular because even a few weeks out you’ve got one of the three sessions already full. So, folks are taking advantage of this offering, huh?

Ryan Kitchie (00:55:56):

Absolutely. Availability is limited, so please get on there and register. We’d love to have you. And if there’s any questions, you can point those my way.

Scott Luton (00:56:05):

All right. And he’s got more gifts.

Greg White (00:56:08):

There is an In-N-Out Burger.

Ryan Kitchie (00:56:10):

Yes.

Greg White (00:56:10):

Conveniently located nearby.

Ryan Kitchie (00:56:13):

That there is. Good call.

Scott Luton (00:56:16):

All right. So, Greg, we’ll have to book our flight soon and check your boarding pass technology that you’re seeing out there.

Greg White (00:56:23):

Crazy.

Scott Luton (00:56:24):

Okay. Let’s move right along to this white paper, so the fun stuff, with meeting Chuck, and the networking and the conversations. And then here’s, you know, taking a deeper dive on 8 Reasons Why Autonomous Mobile Robots Beat Traditional Automation. So, Kitchie, your thoughts here. Why should folks check this out?

Ryan Kitchie (00:56:43):

Yeah. This is a really good piece of material for people to leverage. And I’ll tell you why is when we think about warehouse, warehouse automation, we think about the traditional highly mechanized, caged auto stores, goods to persons, the Amazon-like systems, and that’s not necessarily what it needs to be. So, for 6 River Systems and AMR provider in the marketplace today, we provide 80% of that value that you get from these large, highly mechanized systems at 20% of the cost. And when I talk about the responsibility or onus on the providers to make things accessible for those small and medium-sized businesses, AMRs is a really at this point, you know, five or six years into being an organization at large, that we are at 6 River Systems a great way for people to kind of dip that toe into automation and not have to make a 5 or $10 million capital expenditure in order to see a lift in their business. So, that’s a good piece of material. I highly encourage people to give it a read.

Scott Luton (00:57:35):

Wonderful. Greg, I’m going to share a couple comments here in just a second. Well, let me go ahead and share it. Bob says, “He’s had great success with 6 Rivers just as you describe.”And this is Bob in Nashville. So, Bob, thank you for sharing.

Greg White (00:57:49):

What’s Bob’s business?

Scott Luton (00:57:51):

Yeah, Bob, feel free, drop it in there.

Ryan Kitchie (00:57:53):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:57:56):

This is.

Greg White (00:57:55):

Do you know, Kitchie?

Scott Luton (00:57:55):

Do you know, Kitchie?

Ryan Kitchie (00:57:56):

Yeah, no, Bob Klunk is a current customer of ours. He is the Chief operating Officer at one of our installs. But great, great – I’m really happy to see him join. And I appreciate this support, Bob.

Scott Luton (00:58:06):

Okay. How about that? Man, the customers show up on a livestream singing the praises. That ain’t even bad.

Greg White (00:58:11):

That’s practically testimonial.

Ryan Kitchie (00:58:12):

That’s a good sign.

Scott Luton (00:58:14):

This is from Ryan again. Ryan says, “Small to mid-sized companies need more flexible automation that is less capital intensive but can adapt as a company grows.”

Ryan Kitchie (00:58:25):

I can take that one again, Scott.

Scott Luton (00:58:27):

Sure.

Ryan Kitchie (00:58:27):

It’s Ryan Robertson from MD Logistics, one of other installs of ours. So, just him preaching really what we’ve talked about today. And, Ryan, appreciate the support and I know that you’ve been able to actualize a lot of the benefits that we’ve talked about today for your business.

Scott Luton (00:58:41):

Okay. Man, how about that? All right, so we got to leave it there. But before we start to sign off, Greg, I’m going to give you the last word here in just a second. I want to make sure – so Kitchie, of course, folks can – you’ll be at a lot of these open house events where they can come meet Chuck, you and the rest of the team, so they can maybe meet you at one of those. You can, of course, download the white paper. Where else can folks connect with you and the team, Kitchie?

Ryan Kitchie (00:59:08):

So, great question, Scott. You can reach me on LinkedIn. The Supply Chain Now team will make sure that my LinkedIn information is available for you. Go to 6river.com to just see the latest and greatest that we have on our website. Or you can email me at ryan.kitchie@6river.com, or if you don’t want to talk to me, you can email info@6river.com and we’d be happy to help and assist in any way possible.

Scott Luton (00:59:30):

Who wouldn’t want to talk with a Hall of Fame building NFL tight end Ryan Kitchie, Greg, huh? All right. Before I get Greg’s last, final takeaway –

Greg White (00:59:40):

People are going to be buying those rookie card. [Inaudible] I’ll tell you, Google is looking for his rookie card.

Scott Luton (00:59:44):

That’s right. TSquared says, “The ‘RUDI’ partnership needs to be more abundant in the warehouse space.” Agreed with that and really appreciate all of your inputs here today, TSquared, who holds down the fort for us, by the way, on YouTube. Again, we dropped Ryan’s LinkedIn profile there. We dropped the link to the white paper and the Meet Chuck event in LA and I’m not talking lower Alabama, but the real LA on November 2nd. So y’all check that out. Okay. Greg. Ryan Kitchie, with 6 River Systems, great guest here today on The Buzz. What was one of your favorite things that you gleaned from this hour-long conversation here today, Greg?

Greg White (01:00:23):

Yeah, I think the – I think the combination of Shopify and 6 Rivers makes a whole lot of sense for small businesses, right? You know, I have this whole file folder full of companies that I call ABA, anyone but Amazon, that are giving small businesses the opportunity to compete in marketplaces all over the world. And Shopify is one of those that has – you know, they’ve brought out all kinds of capabilities, even sourcing of goods, all kinds of things that help small businesses have a chance against Amazon and in marketplaces where they don’t have to pay the exorbitant fees and risk the intellectual property of their company as you do with Amazon. So, I love what 6 Rivers is doing to contribute to that. And, as Ryan said, this is the part that I love the most, 80% of the value at 20% of the cost.

Greg White (01:01:22):

That’s an – the return on investment in that is incredible. It literally makes it acc accessible to any size business who wants to explore automation. And because in a lot of cases, this follow me technology, it allows you to augment the work of a human being. It allows you to keep your staff engaged in the parts they need to be engaged in and support them with the technology that can increase your efficiency and timing and really truly your brand esteem to your customers. Remember, we talked about that. Even your brand’s reputation is what you deliver through supply chain.

Scott Luton (01:02:03):

Excellent final word there. Hey, we’re going to break the rules ‘cause this is our show. Kim Winter, great to see you here today. And, a question, I think this is Jose, is 6 River Systems in Europe, Kitchie?

Ryan Kitchie (01:02:14):

We sure are, Jose. We are in the UK and Europe, so would be happy to have a conversation. Just find me through the means that we shared earlier.

Scott Luton (01:02:24):

Great. It’s just that easy. Great question. Okay. Big thanks to Ryan Kitchie with 6 River Systems. Thank you, Ryan.

Greg White (01:02:30):

Yeah. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Kitchie (01:02:31):

Thank you for having me on the show, guys, a real hi-mom-and-dad moment for me. I know Scott’s parents are in the crowd as well, but thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed the time.

Scott Luton (01:02:41):

Hey, you bet. We’ll have you back, I’m sure. Everyone that showed up, really appreciate all the comments and we couldn’t get some of them, but y’all keep them coming. I love that aspect of The Buzz. Big thanks to our production team, right? Amanda, Chantelle, Katherine and Clay for helping to keep these shows humming right along. Greg, always a pleasure to knock out these shows with you. And big thanks. Thank you, Kitchie. Big thanks to mom and dad who showed up on The Buzz. I love when they find a way to plug in and pose their perspective and questions as well. Folks, whatever you do, hey deeds not words. Clearly, it’s opportunities right there, but it’s not going to do it for you. You got to reach out and connect with Kitchie and make things happen. But whatever you do, deeds not words. Scott Luton, Greg White, our entire Supply Chain Now team challenging you to do good, give forward and be the change. We’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain now. Thanks, everybody.

Intro/Outro (01:03:40):

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain Now Community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.