The thing that lean does most in my experience is it brings structure. It brings a structured approach to answering very difficult questions. A root cause analysis. How do we map a complex process and remove waste and inefficiencies? How do we go about change management with a structured approach? To me, those lean tools, lean methodologies, and a lean approach are very powerful.
-Dale McClung
Episode Summary
In this episode of Supply Chain Now, host Scott W. Luton welcomes Dale McClung, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at CLX Logistics, to the show. Listen in as Scott and Dale discuss the future of data-driven supply chains and CLX’s focus on providing the best in supply chain services for their global audience.
Scott and Dale’s conversation highlights:
- the importance of understanding and working with probability in forecasting and planning for change
- the unique challenges and opportunities in the chemical industry, emphasizing the importance of data-driven decision making
- CLX’s LaneLogix program, which combines rate and service benchmarking with procurement to help clients save money and improve efficiency
- Supply chain disruption predictions for 2024
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (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 (00:33):
Hey. Hey. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton here with you on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s show. We have an outstanding conversation teed up as we’re gonna be talking with a business leader doing big things out in the industry, especially in the chemicals industry. So, with that said, we’re gonna dive right in. I’m gonna introduce our featured guest here today. Our guest has a deep background in chemical and biochemical engineering, well above my pay grade, lemme tell you, as well as over 20 years of experience in strategic supply chain innovation. He specializes in global supply chain network design amongst many other things. And what Mike just talked about, what he does when he puts his inventor hat on, that he wears from time to time. So, with that said, let’s welcome in the Vice President of Supply Chain Services at CLX Logistics Dale McClung. Dale, how you doing?
Dale McClung (01:23):
Hey Scott. I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.
Scott Luton (01:26):
You bet. And I gotta go back to your chemical and biochemical engineering background. Sure. I knew and when I was in college, that was too much math amongst other things for my intellect. So you’ve put it to work in across the global business landscape, huh?
Dale McClung (01:44):
Yeah, yeah. I’ve been in the chemical industry, my whole professional, uh, career.
Scott Luton (01:48):
Really. Okay, we’re gonna dive into that. We’re gonna dive into why, what really makes chemical supply chain logistics, the chemical industry unique and and challenging at times. So you gotta look for those good partners. But where I wanna start with Dale, we’re talking pre-show a little bit because you’ve got two degrees from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology. So I’m assuming, is it right that you grew up in that part of the world?
Dale McClung (02:15):
Yeah, I sure did. I grew up in Southern West Virginia on a horse farm.
Scott Luton (02:20):
Really? What’s the name of the town?
Dale McClung (02:24):
The small town is named Wynnwood. The town down the street is a little more popular is Rainelle. And yeah, it’s a very, very small town. Okay.
Scott Luton (02:33):
Wynwood and a horse farm, no less, I guess. Were you working long days as a kid on a horse farm?
Dale McClung (02:39):
You do everything on the farm. Right. And we had Tennessee walkers. So between the horses, the upkeep, the hayfield and everything else, it, it consumed a biggest r of your day yet?
Scott Luton (02:50):
Oh, it’s a lot of work. When I was a kid, once or twice, my uncle had a couple of horses. And folks may think that since hay is so light, they may think like hay, hay bales are light. But you stack up, you know, you stack a bunch of hay bales in a barn. You’re good to sleep for a few days, huh?
Dale McClung (03:09):
You sure are. And we never could afford those big round bailers. So we were, we were working with the short square bear bales and no, they’re not light. Mm.
Scott Luton (03:18):
Quinn wood, West Virginia. All right. One more question about where you grew up. Food. I love talking food, especially regionally. What’s one food dish that may be more prevalent in that, you know, in your hometown that you really miss these days?
Dale McClung (03:32):
Yeah. Um, I, I’ll give you two. One on the farm, the prevalent food on the farm is brown beans and cornbread.
Scott Luton (03:39):
Okay. Right. Brown beans and cornbread.
Dale McClung (03:42):
That’s it. Maybe you had it for lunch and then you had it, had it for dinner and it tasted good. Mom knew how to fix it. Now, if we got a special treat, there was a small lack of better term, a beer joint, a tavern down the road, and they made the best hot dogs I have ever tasted. They were so greasy, they had to, you got two paper bags and a piece of wax paper and you were lucky to get home before the grease got all the way through all of that. And on the car seat,
Scott Luton (04:14):
oh, those sound like world class hotdog to me.
Dale McClung (04:16):
They were,
Scott Luton (04:17):
you had me at hot, you had me at hot. And I’ll tell you what. Alright, so let’s talk about this. I hate to leave the food subject because I think there’s so much more we can talk about, but we got a lot more to get to. And I wanna start with patent, this big patent Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that you have pending that I think is gonna be helpful in terms of improving forecasting. What can you share with us about that?
Dale McClung (04:38):
Yeah, yeah. So it is a, a pretty novel approach to demand forecasting. And it uses a couple of things. Spectral analysis. So in the optics, real and waveform analysis in the sound waveform,
Scott Luton (04:53):
yeah.
Dale McClung (04:53):
So the idea is that you map data to acoustic and optical realms, and then you use the tools that they use every day in those two areas. You know, noise cancellation, image clarification to forecast, to basically create a better forecasting engine. And what we’ve found is you’re not really forecasting the data as so much as you’re forecasting the person creating the data. That is, that’s the interesting part.
Scott Luton (05:27):
That’s fascinating. I cannot wait. So is there a timeframe associated where you’ll be able to really lay it out to our audience? When will it be official?
Dale McClung (05:35):
Yeah, so we’re, we’re hoping to, to make some pretty big strides next year in the development. It’s still pretty embryonic, but promising, very promising. And start to get a little bit more of a real world application later in next year.
Scott Luton (05:50):
Okay. Spectral analysis and waveform analysis in terms of you leveraging those to improve demand forecasting. And I love how you put it beyond the numbers, really forecasting the people behind the data. I love that.
Dale McClung (06:03):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (06:04):
All right. We’re gonna stay tuned on that, on the edge of our chair. ’cause I wanna bring y’all back and we’ll talk more when it becomes official, perhaps next year. So as we’ve established, you’ve been in industry for quite some time, Dale, if you’ve listened to any of our shows, we’ve got this two decade where we try not to break, right? So we don’t age ourselves <laugh>. But n needless to say, you’ve seen a ton of change and evolution during your time in industry. So I want to ask you this because we do, we know like everything else, you know, the craft supply chain management continues to evolve. You know, I would argue not only is it here in 2023, not what it was 10 years ago, but it’s hardly what it was maybe even two years ago. So what is one skillset in your view that the modern supply chain practitioner must embrace?
Dale McClung (06:51):
I think the skillset that confines data and communications. So you have to be a good analyst that it can’t stop there. You have to communicate well with the people you’re working with, and you have to apply a real world aspect to the analysis. In our world, the analysis is the easy first step. The work comes in the so what now, what question that comes out of that analysis,
Scott Luton (07:21):
Dale? Well, well said. The, and I like how you put the analysis is the easy part. The tougher part is convincing the hearts and minds of folks across the board, on the team and the c-suite of what the analysis is really telling us and what we should do based on what it’s telling us. Would you agree?
Dale McClung (07:39):
Exactly.
Scott Luton (07:39):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. So another thing I wanna ask you about, uh, before we get into some of the cool things you’re doing at CLX logistics is you and I both, who knows, we could be third cousins. We’ve established some of the things that we love. We both love like good hotdog, but <laugh> we’re also big, very passionate, I think both of us about the lean mindset, right?
Dale McClung (08:01):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Scott Luton (08:02):
and the lean continuous improvement methodology. So throughout much of your career, based on the homework we’ve done, be it at Bayer Material Science or now at CLX, you know, tried and true improvement mindsets like lean, have been a big part of your work. And it goes without saying, of course, many of these things have been around, like lean’s been around for decades. But would you think, would you agree rather that they’re more relevant today than perhaps ever before due to how we’re all trying to manage change and complexity and surprises and a lot more, so much so here today?
Dale McClung (08:35):
Yeah, I, I totally agree with you. And then the, the thing that Lean does most for me and the team here and in my experience is it brings structure. It brings a structured approach to, uh, answering very difficult questions most of the time. A root cause analysis. How do we map a complex process and even attempt to look at removing waste and inefficiencies, and how do we go about change management and, you know, what’s a structured approach to that? To me, those lean tools, lean methodologies, and a lean approach or our very powerful in those areas. Yeah, well said. And the, the structure, I mean, when I think when I’m thinking through as you’re, you are sharing as we are all going through some degree based on where you are, some degree of uncertainty, right? And when you’re doing that, especially when the stakes are so big, you really look for that structure, that foundation that you can anchor yourself to as you deal with everything else.
Scott Luton (09:36):
That’s so fluid. So that’s very, very well put. And I love how you dropped like a lean guru would, you know, root cause analysis, the values, re mapping the waste, because, you know, one last thought here, this just came up in, in a couple of shows in the last few weeks, lean really has gotten a bad rap because it’s been misused and mislabeled and misapplied through so many different organizations who’ve wanted to do things that were not true lean things to do, but they kind of put that banner over it. Have you seen some of that, Dale?
Dale McClung (10:06):
Yeah. Yeah. In my experience, there’s hardly ever one silver bullet. Lean is not a silver bullet. It’s a very powerful tool that if combined with other tools, it could be a silver bullet. But, you know, there’s not one software package, it’s a silver bullet. So people I think put too much stock in silver bullets and then they get disappointed. It’s the people matching the, you know, the talent of the people and the experience matching the tool sets that brings the most value.
Scott Luton (10:37):
Dale, well said. And folks out there listening or watching, that’s what you want to hear from the guru’s nest. It means you turn to, if anyone’s sitting you down to a one singular option, kick the tires on that. ’cause it, it, it, it’s gotta fit. Options are a great thing. And there’s all, you think about the continuous improvement or the technology or the supply chain management tool, belt Dell, there’s lots of things in there, so, very well said. All right. So let’s do this. I bet if some of our folks tuned into, uh, a great interview we had with, uh, Mike Skinner, your colleague at COLX logistics, we had a lot of fun. He brought a lot to the table and it’s great to have you here. But for the folks that may have missed that first one or may not be paying attention to the movers and shakers out there in industry, in a nutshell, what does CLX logistics do, Dale?
Dale McClung (11:27):
Yeah, well, you know, Scott, we’re a, we’re a global third party logistics provider. We have specialized in transportation management systems, but we do, we have a core competency in managed services and obviously in supply chain consulting and continuous improvement and benchmarking. And we serve customers globally. Most of our customers are in the chemical industry and we have offices in the US and in Europe now. Just opened a new office in Houston, by the way.
Scott Luton (11:56):
Really?
Dale McClung (11:57):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (11:58):
Okay. I bet there’s some disappointed Astros fans, uh, down there in Houston, but Houston’s was such a getting aside, Houston’s such a, an outstanding market, so that’s pretty exciting.
Dale McClung (12:07):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We’re excited about it too.
Scott Luton (12:10):
And you can find all kinds of delicious food dishes on your first visit down to New Houston Branch Dale.
Dale McClung (12:16):
Absolutely. Yeah. <laugh>,
Scott Luton (12:18):
before I ask you about what makes the chemicals industry more unique than others, anything else you wanna add about, uh, as you were describing what CLX logistics does? I didn’t mean to cut you off there.
Dale McClung (12:28):
No, no, I think that’s, uh, at the core, that’s who we are. Yep.
Scott Luton (12:33):
So let’s talk about the chemicals industry. And I know y’all do a ton of work globally, and while you do a lot of work, as you mentioned in the chemical space, you also do a lot of other work. And we’ve also established your background, your highfalutin background, if I may, highly technical term. So let’s, let’s, in your view, what makes a chemicals industry, if you were speaking to a room full of folks that never had, you know, set foot in the chemical space, what makes it so more unique than many other sectors in the, in the, in industry,
Dale McClung (13:03):
We know it’s got, one of the unique aspects of the chemical industry is it touches everybody. There’s no de denying that even though you’re not buying a, a drone of chemicals, your life is impacted significantly by the chemical industry, from packaging to health, to food on the table to your home. It’s all being impacted by the chemical network, chemical manufacturing network. And another thing that makes it unique is that chemical manufacturing network in the US is core to the financial health of our economy. And third way that it’s unique is in transportation of the cargo itself. You know, in our world, we may talk to customer one about handling a cargo of, you know, rocket fuel and how to safely transport it. What’s the, the cost involved and how, what to expect in terms of service and hang up the phone and talk to another customer about, uh, a coating that’s coated on undercoats ships that’s completely different. And then another customer, we might be talking about tomato saw <laugh> with the stuff. It’s really a unique industry from that standpoint.
Scott Luton (14:19):
Well, you can, you can solve a lot of world’s ills between rocket fuel and tomato sauce. Just saying Dale. And it’s also so funny, you know, a lot of folks talk about rocket fuel, whether they’re referencing the book or they’re referencing, um, you know, what’s behind growth or whatever. You’re literally talking about moving rocket fuel. That is fascinating.
Dale McClung (14:38):
Yeah, yeah, no jokes.
Scott Luton (14:41):
One other thing I, I’ve kind of picked up from previous conversations is the special tanks that are involved due to global standards when you’re moving stuff like rocket fuel. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And when I was on y’all’s website the other day, I came across, y’all offer like a ISO tank capacity guide right over@clxlogistics.com that a bunch of folks may find helpful. So do you, do you feel like a big part of y’all’s role is educating not just your customers, but really the market?
Dale McClung (15:07):
Yeah, absolutely. The crosspollination of knowledge is something that is of core competency for us. You know, some customers may be getting into a new market with their products and don’t quite understand what’s required or how to safety or even how to budget for the transportation part, we’re, we’re there to help other customers may be just the opposite. They’ve been knowing this for a long time, they have a lot of experience and they’re looking at how do we improve, how do we make it better? And so, yeah, it’s, this best way to describe it is, you know, cross pollination of knowledge and, and learning.
Scott Luton (15:46):
I love that. One of the phrases that comes to my mind is you shared that, and I can’t remember who shared this with me, but uninformed people make uninformed decisions and that’s when you really can get in trouble as an organization. Alright, I wanna ask you something else about the CLX kind of portfolio of things y’all do. Tell me about Lean Logics. What does the CLX Lean Logics do?
Dale McClung (16:07):
Yeah. Lane Logics is a program that we offer clients that combines rate and service benchmarking with procurement and how to buy transportation procurement. You know, if you think of a benchmark, it’s knowing the answers to the test before you go to the market. And in procurement it’s how do you buy using best practices? But then a third step is, okay, after you got the new contracts and implemented, how do you make sure that you’re using the new contracts and you’re leveraging all the benefits you got from that procurement event throughout the year? Things change, customers are added, customers are take away volumes change. And as that’s happening, this is a continuous look at, okay, here’s a lane that’s tripled in volume.
Dale McClung (17:03):
It didn’t have enough volume to be contracted in the beginning, but it’s a long haul and, uh, now it’s a very expensive lane if you’re paying tariffs for rates for that. So being able to tell the client, Hey, you, you know, you’ve got an opportunity here to save some money on contracting this lane, you have to take everything out. So it’s that continuous cycle of execution, buying, measuring yourself to the market process that really defines is at the heart of Lane Logics.
Scott Luton (17:35):
Dale, I I, I appreciate you sharing that, uh, about all the different advantages that Lane Logics brings to the table from the team at CLX. And one of the things that you mentioned, two, two of the things in particular you mentioned that speak to me is not only the ability to save money through the benchmarking and procurement tools and, and expertise and whatever, but it helps create a better and easier day for the people out there that are in the seats that are in the trenches. Do you see that time and time again?
Dale McClung (18:04):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Scott Luton (18:06):
And it’s so important. I mean, we need to make as much as we can leadership across organizations, we’ve gotta put them and our people in position to win and succeed and overcome all these challenges we were talking about a little earlier. Right?
Dale McClung (18:21):
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a lot of change management, the goods into helping our customers understand how to do things better, not only cheaper, but also more efficiently.
Scott Luton (18:32):
Right. And I like how you put it with benchmarking, knowing the answers before you get in to have to take the test.
Dale McClung (18:38):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (18:39):
I really wish I had a lot of that in earlier my academic career. Maybe I could’ve done a biochemical engineering and I probably not. Probably not, yeah. Wasn’t in the cards for me. Okay. I wanna, if, if we can, based on what you shared about Lane Logics, I wanna get into just a couple of examples in terms of where you’ve seen it really make powerful done some powerful things for some of your customers. Can you share a story or two?
Dale McClung (19:02):
Yeah, yeah. You know, uh, one story, we were doing a Lane Logics, uh, benchmarking event and we were looking at line haul and accessorial charges, and we noticed the ratio of accessorial, the total cost was way off for this client. And when we started getting into the data and looking, we found that there was a provider, a series of providers that was charging them an address change fee to the tune of like 20, $30,000 a month.
Scott Luton (19:32):
Wow.
Dale McClung (19:33):
And they knew where to go, but the address, the customer address and SAP several addresses were raw. So they kept charging them these fees and not telling them. So that was, that was an aha moment for the client and, and for us as well. And at first we thought it was a glitch in the data, but then, you know, more we looked, the more we saw it was real. That was one example of Lane Logic. The other example of Lane Logic is not necessarily cost savings, but knowing what you’re paying for the service you’re getting. So a very specialty chemical company who were at the top of the top of the scale in terms of cost, but that was a differentiator for them from their competitors, is the ability to offer expedited shipments, rush shipments. And so when we showed them that, we said, this isn’t a bad thing based on your business model, this is just the reality of your business model and the cost of operating this way. And so for them, it was good to see what the cost of service was for them and to make a rational decision based on that. So $30,000 a month, going back to your first example off a needless address change fee, I bet you made the team, but the CFO’s day in particular, and then secondly, and probably if not more powerful than the savings, is what I heard you share there in that second example, allowing for teams and leaders and managers to be in the know, so they know their business better.
Scott Luton (21:12):
Yeah. They make better decisions and ultimately they can optimize service levels and give their customers options. That’s, that’s some powerful rocket fuel in my book.
Dale McClung (21:20):
Yeah, exactly. And it’s all about these findings are, are based on the data and the information. So when you bring something like we, you’re, there’s really something broken here and here’s the data to prove it, it’s really important from a confidence level for the client that they’re able to see that data and truly understand that this isn’t conjectural, this is like, this is based on fact, here are the facts, here are the invoices. And, uh, that really helps in the change management and the emotion part of what you’re dealing with here. Well, people work hard and, and in generally people are very smart, but asking them to change or do something different without data is pretty dangerous.
Scott Luton (22:02):
Agreed. You, so what you’re saying is you can take it to the bank, it’s rooted in data, it’s not gut or instinct or hunches or assumptions, but you can take it to the bank and lean on it. I love that. And because the other thing that we’ve talked a ton about in recent years is when you can truly depend on the information and the data you’re getting and knowing that it’s rooted there in the numbers, you can make not only better decisions, but more confident decisions quicker. And that is so powerful on a variety of different levels and it’s truly a force multiplier when you’re trying to maximize the performance of any team, but certainly your your supply chain organization. Alright, so I wanna uh, shift gears here. We were just talking about some of the teams that you and, and the CLX logistics team has been helping, uh, this year. Uh, a variety of places from a geography standpoint, a variety of sectors, of course a lot in the chemicals industry. But when you think about and reflect on the year that 2023 was goodness gracious, what is one eureka moment that you might’ve had, especially as it pertains to leadership or innovation?
Dale McClung (23:11):
Yeah, yeah. We work a lot with descriptive analytics with customers, which is looking at historical data and then in predicting it, predictive analytics is what it sounds like, forecasting and everything. The aha moment was the need to understand and work with probability. When you’re talking about the future, this is going to happen and there’s an 85% probability that it’s going to happen, not a hundred percent. So the aha moment was for us, was explaining that our predictions in the context of probability with the customers and having them understand that aspect of, of this forecasting system. And oddly enough, <laugh>, you talk about probability man, every time 63% shows up, what do you do with a 63% probability that this is gonna happen? And he said, so having worked through that, the post aha moment is okay, how do we deal with the 63% probability? What do we tell customers?
Scott Luton (24:17):
Your thoughts bring a lot of thoughts to my mind. And I think one of them is, despite what everyone’s saying, no one truly knows with a hundred percent certainty what the future holds, whether in the micro or the macro. So that’s where these data-driven probability conversations are so important. And then a second thought that comes my mind, Dale, is I want you to accompany me on my next visit to Las Vegas and I want to <laugh>, I wanna apply your smarts and your probability, your data-driven probability to my poor betting. Alright, good stuff. I love it. So let’s also, speaking of the future, we’re gonna blink in just a moment and it’s gonna be 2024. It’s amazing. This phrase that I’ve said a thousand times goes something like, the days are long, but the years are short. And I bet a lot of our, a lot of parents out there or practitioners can probably relate to that. So when you think about 2024, Dale, what is one bold prediction in global supply chain that your crystal ball, which I bet is more accurate than many others, what’s it telling you?
Dale McClung (25:25):
I’ll, I’ll start it off with a warning and uh, that warning would be beware the bull whip.
Scott Luton (25:32):
Okay.
Dale McClung (25:33):
Uh, bullwhip has haunted us as supply chain professionals ever since somebody named it Bull Whipp <laugh>, everybody knew it. Somebody put a name in it, process behind it. But the bull whipp now we saw what happened to the transportation enter industry and when Covid hit, and so as a community, we demonstrated the capability of creating a giant bull whipp. And well, I don’t think that is going to be re that level is gonna be repeated in 2024. There could be a pretty good possibility as inventories somebody realize a lot of industries realize their inventories are too low, that we create another bullwhip in transportation industry. And one thing, a bold prediction is don’t expect to pay next year what you’re paying this year for transportation.
Scott Luton (26:26):
Hmm. So buyer beware, it’s gonna be a different market in the months ahead, Dale, is that right?
Dale McClung (26:34):
Yeah, yeah. I’m not saying stock apple on toilet paper, but I’m saying beware of how quickly we can snap back in the industry and the repercussions I could have on spend,
Scott Luton (26:48):
Dale. Well said. One thought that that kind of brings to my mind is after all we’ve been through in recent years, right. Especially the pandemic, right. ’cause the pandemic was probably a once in a lifetime, hopefully goodness notes Yeah. Experience for all of us. So many of us as humans really were just hoping and praying that once you get into the post pandemic environment, everything will go back to what it was, what it has been or what the good old days for lack of better phrased. But that’s just not the case. And I think what you’re speaking to there is whatever shred of normalcy that you may have, you and your organizations may have found today, it’s not permanent. And we’ve gotta bake that mindset and that that truth into how we’re planning for the months and the years ahead. Would you agree, Dale?
Dale McClung (27:40):
Yeah. Yeah. If you’re not planning for change, then you’re gonna fail.
Scott Luton (27:46):
without a doubt. A hundred percent probability on that. Uh, I really appreciate your perspective and you, one of my favorite things I like talking about, especially for our listeners that may still be in school right? And they’re still kind of figuring out this global supply chain world is, I think you’re a good testimony to that. Our global supply chain industry needs people from all walks of life.
Dale McClung (28:08):
Absolutely.
Scott Luton (28:08):
Whether they’re from high biochemical engineering, right. Highly technical, or whether they’re artists, whether they’re communicators, whatever. And that’s how the industry is gonna be better and, and, and be better prepared for the change and the disruption that certainly lies ahead. Would you agree with that, Dale?
Dale McClung (28:29):
Absolutely. A hundred percent. It, it takes the, the collaboration of people and the combination of different skills and aptitudes creates the strength. You know, you don’t get superpowers from an all the, all a group of chemical engineers sitting in a room trying to solve out problems. You know, because they, they only look at things in an analytical way. But when you sit back and you bring in, actually did this for Penn State, okay, we brought in mathematicians, music majors and together to start solving some problems. When you do that, then these perspectives, you’re just amazed at the ideas that come to the surface and it’s real exciting stuff. So yeah.
Dale McClung (29:12):
Dale it is. Next time we have you back, we’re gonna talk about your patent. We’ll probably talk about brown beans and hopefully savory cornbread, not sweet cornbread, but I’d love to learn more about, sounds like some real powerful experiments at Penn State with the power of diversity is kind of what I heard you exactly. Uh, just speak to. Okay Dale, I bet you’re gonna have some folks that wanna sit down with you and talk about some of these topics we have worked through. Congrats again to your team over at CLX Logistics. Y’all have been on quite a role helping groups and, and organizations and folks across the globe. How can folks connect with you and the CLX logistics team?
Dale McClung (29:49):
Yeah, yeah. They can head on over to clx logistics.com and write on that front page is a way that you can reach out to us and you can get me on LinkedIn as well too. Says send me a message on LinkedIn. I’ll be good.
Scott Luton (30:03):
Perfect. And folks, of course, we’re gonna include those two links in the show notes. So you’re one click away. We’re trying to make it really easy to connect with Dell and the team. And then also check out all those resources I mentioned over@clxlogistics.com. Okay. Dale McClung, vice president of Supply Chain Services at CLX Logistics. Dell, pleasure to get to know you here today.
Dale McClung (30:25):
Yeah, thanks Scott. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Scott Luton (30:28):
I look forward to doing it again soon. All right. To our listeners, hopefully you enjoyed this episode as much as I have. I wish I had three or four more hours to spend with Dale because we had to talk, we got a lot more talk about in supply chain and I’d love to get his data-driven. Thoughts on who’s gonna win the big game at the end of the National Football League season. But we’ll save that for another episode. Folks, take something. Dale dropped a truckload of good stuff here today. Take something he talked about. Take something they’re doing at CLX and put it in action. It’s all about deeds, not words. Your team, your people, your customers, your suppliers will all be grateful and thankful that you did. So with that said, Scott Luton here from Supply Chain now challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the chain just needed. And we’ll see next time right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (31:17):
Thanks for being a part of our supply chain now community. Check out all of our programming@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.
Featured Guests
Dale McClung, With a background in chemical and biochemical engineering and over 20 years of experience in strategic supply chain innovation, Dale McClung specializes in global supply chain network design and leads the Design Solutions team at CLX Logistics. Delivering innovative and disruptive design solutions for the most complex global supply chain challenges is what we do best. By using a unique blend of descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics coupled with trajectory forecasting we give clients remarkable insight into the performance of their supply chains as it relates to their financial bottom line, their customers, and suppliers. We use the latest stochastic and multi-variant modeling techniques coupled with fundamental Lean Six Sigma principles to drive comprehensive and sustainable solutions. Connect with Dale on LinkedIn.
Hosts
Additional Links & Resources
Check Out Our Sponsors
