Join us today for the Digital Transformers edition of The Buzz, Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream! Held at 12 noon ET each week, The Buzz focuses on some of the leading stories from global business and global supply chain, always featuring special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

In this week’s episode of The Buzz, hosts Scott Luton, Kevin L. Jackson, and Mary Kate Love discussed a variety of news stories and topics including:

• The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chains
• The importance of digital transformation in business to business (B2B) companies
• The reduction of veteran homelessness

Listen in as the hosts highlight the benefits of AI in improving global visibility, reporting, and forecasting accuracy in supply chains, the need for B2B companies to adapt to digital transformation to enhance customer retention and satisfaction, and the significance of the decrease in veteran homelessness, attributing the success to collaboration among local, state, and national entities, and the simple approach of prioritizing stable housing.

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 (00:32):

Hey. Hey. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Kevin L. Jackson, Mary Kate, love with you here on Supply Chain Now. Oh, and by the way, my name’s Scott Luton. Great to see everybody. Welcome to today’s live stream. Hey, Kevin, how you doing?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:46):

What’s your name again? I’m doing great. I’m up here. I was up here with my fingers crossed because as we talked before the show, I’m blasting my audience this morning on LinkedIn and X for the first time with the Buzz, so we’re buzzing all over the place this morning. Looks like it’s doing well. Hello everyone.

Scott Luton (01:10):

It’s doing well, and it’s great to have you back as always, on the second Monday each month. And hey, we’re joined today by a special co-host, A Dynamo in her own right, Mary Kate. Love Mary Kate, how you doing?

Mary Kate Love (01:23):

Hey, it’s doing great. I also think today is a good day because it’s my son’s first birthday, so

Kevin L. Jackson (01:30):

Happy birthday.

Mary Kate Love (01:31):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:32):

And what is your son’s nickname you shared with me over the weekend?

Mary Kate Love (01:36):

His name is Maddox, but we call him Boots, so I don’t really know why this stuck. I mean, everybody is calling him Boots, so happy first. His birthday to Boots.

Scott Luton (01:45):

Love it.

Kevin L. Jackson (01:46):

He is going to hate you. I

Mary Kate Love (01:48):

Know. Everyone says it. Everyone says it.

Scott Luton (01:52):

Oh, awesome. Okay. We got so much to get to here today. Today we’re going to be discussing, of course, a variety of news and developments across global business and with an extra helping of all things technology today, because on the second Monday of each month, it’s the digital Transformers edition of the Buzz, right? So folks, we’d love to hear from you as all these folks are in the comments. We’ll bring those in throughout the hour. So give us your take in the comments. And if you’re listening to the podcast replay, hello, please consider joining us on Live On LinkedIn, YouTube, or some other social media channel of your choosing on Mondays at 12 noon Eastern time. And one last thing, if you enjoy the show today, we’d love for you to share it with your friends, your network. You name it. They’ll be glad you did. Okay, Mary Kate and Kevin, we got a ton to get into, but we got to start with one important best wish here because we want to wish everybody that celebrates very special holiday, we wish you peace, joy, love Ramadan Mubarak, from all of our team here, Mary Kate, special holiday across the world, really, right?

Mary Kate Love (02:56):

Yeah, this is great. I was actually just watching a Netflix special where they dove a little bit deeper into this holiday and it was super interesting to learn more.

Scott Luton (03:05):

Agreed. Mary Kay, we should lean into these holidays are so fascinating, whether they’re religious oriented or you name it. Kevin, I bet in your world travels that you sat down and leaned in and had some very interesting conversations around holidays like Ramadan, huh? Yeah,

Kevin L. Jackson (03:20):

It’s amazing how much your culture links with holidays and how they affect each other. And the fact is, I was just thinking like Mother’s Day, they just had Mother’s Day in the uk. Beverly was just joining and she’s in London. And the thing about it is that your friendship, the people you work with, just understanding them and being, I guess being a friend and being part of the global community is important to understand the holidays and the culture and where people are coming from.

Scott Luton (03:55):

Well said.

Kevin L. Jackson (03:56):

So Happy Mother’s Day. I think it was last week.

Scott Luton (04:01):

Well, so if I’m not mistaken, I think it was yesterday because someone at the Oscars gave a shout out to their mother in the UK from the stage.

Mary Kate Love (04:10):

You’re right. I did. Yeah.

Scott Luton (04:11):

Again, Ramadan Maar to all of our friends out there that observed this Holy month and very special holiday. Okay, we’d love to give resources around here, right? Make these days easier for practitioners around the globe. And to that end, Mary, Kate and Kevin, we have got with that said, which published over the weekend, right? Usually it’s our almost weekly newsletter. They gives us a little bit of wiggle room in case our weekend played too heavy. Maybe we included a variety of stories here related to the US freight market, grocery wars here in the States. A lot of folks may not know that Walmart is the grocery king in the US with 23.6% of the market. How about that To the global manufacturing industry? I had a great read from Bob Ferrari Output in the manufacturing sector is on the rise recently in China, India, and Brazil.

(04:58):

So if you’re in one of those countries, let us know what you’re seeing in the manufacturing sector. Plus you’ll always find all of our live events for the upcoming week there. And with that said, give it a read and please let us know what you’re thinking. One final twist, one final twist. Mary Kate and Kevin, not a big twist, A new twist. If you subscribe to our email list, then you’re going to receive with that said, on Tuesday mornings, new perks. New perks. So Kevin, what was your favorite part? Pop quiz? What was your favorite part? With that said, did you catch it already?

Kevin L. Jackson (05:31):

No, no, I did. I’m really looking at the manufacturing areas of the world and how they are really interacting and morphing. The brick countries are really changing the whole face of international trade, and it’s critical. It’s important for every country to understand how things are shifting. They used to say that the United States really drove the global economy, but a lot of things are driving the economy from China right now, and the real estate crisis in China is actually affecting all of the industry sectors there. So I’m wondering how that’s going to affect manufacturing it as we move forward.

Scott Luton (06:19):

Thanks, man. That’s like a whole show right there, Kevin, in that perspective so much I want to dive into Mary Kay as I turn over to you and get your thoughts really quick. I think a lot of folks may not understand one of Kevin’s points there, manufacturing is such an economic engine, no matter what country. It creates so many jobs, so much economic wealth that it’s really important for it to be vibrant, really globally. But your thoughts, Mary Kate, and with that said, any topic within with that said,

Mary Kate Love (06:46):

Yeah, Kevin, who was way deeper than mine,

(06:50):

Like Scott said, that could be a whole nother show. Totally agree with it. I love newsletters. With that said, is one of my favorite newsletters, both as an industry practitioner, but also just as a consumer. The grocery wars news story, really? That makes me think. I used to work at a grocery store when I was younger in Chicago. Right now I’m not loyal to any grocery store because based on what I need or how quick I want to be in and out, I’m in the grocery store all the time. But I like putting on a different lens with that said, because it’s both business oriented, but also it’s news that affects your personal life too.

Scott Luton (07:25):

Yes, thank you, Mary Kate and Kevin. Outstanding perspective. And I had grocery retail experience as a kid as well. Mary Kay, no way. Bagging groceries, taking ’em out, getting quarter tips back in the day.

Mary Kate Love (07:41):

See Scott, I was just a facer. I face everything forward and I still, when I go into the stores, I still, if I take something out, I push the next thing forward because

Scott Luton (07:51):

I like that I have

Kevin L. Jackson (07:52):

To. I didn’t even know that was a title. Face.

Mary Kate Love (07:56):

Yeah, face. That’s what it was called. And it’s like keeping the aisles intact, keeping it all,

Scott Luton (08:02):

We called it blocking too. I think it was blocking and facing blocking mainly as I recall. A little bit of bringing things forward, making sure things are straight.

Mary Kate Love (08:10):

The barcodes line up. Yeah.

Scott Luton (08:11):

Yes. Wow.

Kevin L. Jackson (08:13):

Educational show.

Scott Luton (08:15):

That’s right. Whole new show. Yeah, paper or plastic. Back in the day, Alison, I packed more brown grocery bags than I would like to admit. That’s a sign of perhaps my age, but great to see you. And also Alison talks about global manufacturing. The EU is implementing a 1.5 plus billion euro plan to become less reliant on US weapons. We in the US may not see an immediate impact, but this will be an interesting thing to watch if you’re in aerospace defense manufacturing. That is a great call out, Allison. And it’s probably maybe counterintuitive to what Allison, maybe how we’re interpreting that news. I think that’s a great thing for the US military and a great thing for security and peace and freedom really around the globe. So thank you for adding that. Yeah, I

Kevin L. Jackson (08:58):

Think it’s really important. There’s probably linked to the increase of spending in nato, to be honest. A lot of the countries are increasing their spend to 3% of GDP and the US basically won’t be able to supply if that happens across all of the countries. Plus it actually improves manufacturing jobs and economy and the economy in the eu. I see it as a win-win win.

Scott Luton (09:27):

Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Okay. Mary Kate and Kevin, we got a lot to get into here today, right? A lot to get into today work. I’m going to pop up our first story here. I think we’ve got about five stories of work through here today, and we’re five minutes behind. That never happens. But hey, we’ve got so much great comments in the cheap seats, and of course Mary Kate is here with us. So we’ve got a lot to get into here today. So I want to start with a few specific examples as to how global supply chains are leveraging digital transformation to enhance resilience. And I like a better definition of that word, anti fragility. Our friends at technology record here point out several examples such as leveraging AI with ERP systems to improve global visibility reporting and forecasting accuracy. Man, imagine if we could get a whole bunch more of that. Also, combining manufacturing execution systems, MES new acronym for some of y’all out there. And generative AI to do things such as being able to maintain lean inventories while still meeting customer demand. Lean is not a bad word, folks. It’s not a bad word. So Kevin, tell us more here and then we’ll get Mary Kate’s take as well.

Kevin L. Jackson (10:33):

Yeah. Well first of all, I just want to highlight last night we had the Oscars right, and not too long ago there was a strike that was focused on ai. A lot of the actors were upset that AI would steal their jobs or replace them. So people are really getting afraid of AI that they’re going to replace humans. That’s not true, right? You can’t have AI without humans. And AI positively affects every industry, including the entertainment industry and in supply chain, it improves resilience. With ERP, AI users can get cross departmental insights so they can understand what’s happening over the wall. It creates more efficient processes, improves cost savings, and optimizes operations, these global operations to improve forecasting accuracy and using these insights from real time data. Now, MES, the manufacturing execution systems, this is really important for regulatory compliance to keep us safe and make sure our products and services are at the level that they should be.

(11:49):

Industries like pharmaceuticals, food and beverages and medical devices. You want the regulatory enforcement there, right? And AI really helps because it can drive industrial automation, lower the cost of production, while ensuring regulatory compliance and operational visibility. Generative AI can help employees surface information and raise alarms much faster as well as help them track and manage these lean inventories. Now, predictive maintenance AI jumps in there by allowing them to avoid unplanned downtime by predicting when maintenance needs to be done. And with respect to logistics, AI helps with automation. Firms are able to order, track and deliver materials that are needed for production on time and on schedule without tying up other valuable resources. They can also link identified supplier risks to the real time supply chain data to gain deeper insights and improve responsiveness when it comes to outages and disruption. So I mean, AI can really help in a lot of facets.

Scott Luton (13:12):

I was going to say, is that all Kevin? Is that all AI can do?

Mary Kate Love (13:16):

Yeah. What else?

Scott Luton (13:18):

Yeah, Mary Kay, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I want to pull something out that Kevin said there because I think tremendous advantages are already being found and a lot more to come when it comes to limiting the learning curve for our team members out there and really making training so much more effective. Who can remember the days of weeks and weeks of training based on new program rollouts? Well, I think AI is going to really help make that much more effective and shorter, which is a good thing. Mary Kate, your thoughts back to this article and how we’re finding digital transformation and all that involves powering anti fragility across global supply chain?

Mary Kate Love (13:51):

Yeah, I mean, I think plus one to everything Kevin said about what AI can do, and I’m thinking about the step before that. I was on a project, a huge ERP overhaul that took our systems. I think we had 75 unique systems and we went down to 12 to manage, I think it was 13 facilities. And putting AI on top of that, making sure all those systems are connected and the AI is receiving the correct data, adding real time will allow you to reap those benefits that Kevin just listed out. So it’s hard work getting everything lined up, but obviously with the benefits Kevin went through, you can’t deny that. Right?

Scott Luton (14:28):

Agreed. Man, if I heard you correctly, there going from 75 disparate technology systems to 12.

Mary Kate Love (14:37):

Yeah, I can still picture that slide in my head that had all the systems and I’m not going to act like it was fun. It was not fun

Scott Luton (14:45):

Still, but I bet worth it. Yeah. Oh, so worth it. I can only imagine how much easier and streamlined life was for your team members.

Mary Kate Love (14:55):

Yeah, trying to report when you had so many disparate systems reporting became much, much easier. And we could actually use the data now.

Scott Luton (15:04):

Yes, but Kevin, great point, Mary Kay. That’s such a great example I think to leverage here. Kevin, we’ve talked about on previous shows to do things like these massive powerful projects that Mary Kate just described. The technology platform’s ability to play nice in a sandbox and integrate is really, really important. Kevin, your quick thoughts before we move to the next story?

Kevin L. Jackson (15:24):

It highlights the importance of things like industry standards for using ai. I mean, if you have 75 different systems or even 12 different systems that talk in different languages, could really hurt you in the short term. So it’s important for industries to understand ai, learn ai, and also have standard implementations. So these systems can leverage AI in a consistent manner. I think that’s where you’re going to really see the acceleration of benefits.

Mary Kate Love (15:59):

Complete noise. Yeah, totally agree with that.

Scott Luton (16:01):

Okay, awesome. Alright man. I knew that it was going to be great bringing y’all two together on the show, but we’ve got a lot to get into. This might be a three hour buzz. We’ll see. Hey, that’s not a bad thing. Moving right along. We got a lot more to get into here today on the March 11th, 2024 edition of the Buzz, we’re going to move over to how can business to business companies really adapt to take advantage of all the things that digital transformation offers. So moving right along. Interesting read here from our friends at Bingos, I think I got that right. Bingos, which starts with referencing Deloitte digital survey from last year. Check this out. So in 2023, Deloitte Digital, try to say that three times fast or two times fast, surveyed over 500 executives at B2B companies each had 1000 or more employees at each of their organizations.

(16:54):

77% of the respondents said digital transformation is critical to their business. No surprise there, except maybe why it’s not maybe a little bit higher, but leave that aside for now. But 71% of the same group said their company’s business processes were moderately to extremely manual. Kind of hard to take advantage of digital transformation if you’re highly manual using the elbow grease. Now, Deloitte identified a portion of survey respondents as what they deemed front runners. Those companies that were well down the digital transformation path and offered an enhanced digital commerce experience, they were about 16% of the companies that responded to the survey. Now, of that 16%, they had a 70% customer retention rate versus 49% tremendous value because we all know how expensive it is to get a new customer and it’s more expensive to keep your current customers perhaps or think vice versa,

Kevin L. Jackson (17:51):

Less

Scott Luton (17:51):

Expensive, vice versa. It’s more expensive to get new customers. There we go. Check out this quote from the report and then I’m going to get Kevin and Mary Kate to weigh in. So this is from the Deloitte digital report. Today, customers want real-time access to inventory data and interactive product images. They expect transparent and personalized pricing quotes within minutes, not hours or days. And they prefer to track product delivery status on their own timetables rather than relying on contacting a service rep during specific working hours. Now we’re saying they, I raise my hand. I want all that stuff that quote just shared. So Kevin, let’s get your thoughts here on this. Read that survey, how you see folks adapting to digital transformation. Your thoughts,

Kevin L. Jackson (18:35):

The number one question. Where’s my stuff? Everyone every time has that question. Yeah, where’s my stuff? I want to know where my stuff is right now and I don’t want to use a phone or talk to a robot or talk to somebody anywhere in the world. I want my stuff dropped on my porch by a drone now

Scott Luton (19:02):

Waiting so much of the 1980s. Who wants to wait these days? Right? Nobody.

Kevin L. Jackson (19:07):

Right? So B2B companies really can automate many of these processes including order management, invoicing, inventory management, and delivery management. This frees up resources so that people can focus on higher value activities. You can really should embrace automation to a position your company for long-term success. This includes moving to the cloud. Businesses can reduce costs associated with maintaining that physical I infrastructure. You’re going to enhance visibility across your supply chain and improve collaboration between the people you still need to rely on these cloud-based applications give you the agility and the scalability needed for companies to adapt to different market changes, tools like CRM and data analytics and getting that customer feedback. If you don’t hear that where my stuff is from your customer, then you don’t know that your customer is waiting. You don’t know they’re satisfied. You can’t take proactive actions to satisfy that customer. So B2B customers really need to prioritize collecting, analyzing and leveraging data to improve their decision-making across all aspects of their businesses. And this is where automation comes really into play.

Scott Luton (20:42):

Well said Kevin, Mary, Kate, your thoughts?

Mary Kate Love (20:46):

Yeah, I was just thinking as Kevin was talking about visibility. So Scott, you and I talked last week, not from this article, but there was a stat that stood out to us about how 6% of companies say that they have visibility across their operations and supply chain. And we all felt like that was a really low number. But then we started to think about how incredibly hard it is to have visibility on your internal operations, but definitely across your supply chain. And so I think pulling in that data using the right service providers is so, so important for that visibility because as consumers, as our experience, as consumers gets easier and easier to press by and then like Kevin said, it literally have a drone, drop it on your doorstep. Our business expectations increase too. So I think we’re going to continue to see these companies that provide visibility set apart from companies that don’t.

Scott Luton (21:41):

Well said. Here’s what I was thinking as I was reading through the article and then of course hearing you and Kevin share your perspective. I think about my experiences on the web as a consumer years ago, especially in the manufacturing space as I was sourcing new providers, right? New suppliers, inevitably not just a couple years ago, is common practice I’d send in Myres what I needed, my specs, and then it was like, we’ll be in touch. And how often did you do business with folks that said we’ll be in touch? You don’t wait. You find your answers

Kevin L. Jackson (22:12):

Well someplace else.

Scott Luton (22:14):

That’s right. And I think whether they’re in kind of in industry and manufacturing or as a consumer going to buy stuff, you want to get that information and make that transaction right then. And on the company side, you don’t want to lose those folks. You want to create that transaction opportunity right then. So this is really, I think, a timely read and I really enjoyed y’all both of your perspectives kind of from different angles. Kevin, you’re about to add something.

Kevin L. Jackson (22:37):

Yeah, one thing you have to realize, this article is sort of focused on b2b, but you realize the people that work in b2b, they were consumers first. They are used to the B2C services and they expect that level of service from their B2B partner. So that’s why it’s so important to automate. And the companies really are building these ecosystems so that they can deliver that B2C field in the B2B space.

Scott Luton (23:14):

Look, when I say the Amazon effect, everybody might roll their eyes. That term has been around for 20 years. But the reason it has and the reason it’s real is to your point, Kevin, as consumers, we all interacted and we marveled years ago and still to a large degree today of what it’s like doing business with Amazon. And we want to take that same experience and carry it over to the B2B space. That’s why we call it the Amazon effect. Mary Kay, you’re nodding your head your quick thoughts before we move on.

Mary Kate Love (23:42):

Yeah, like I’ve said on a few shows, right? I’m like the return queen. I do a lot of online shopping. I’m head of procurement in my households pretty much. So I do a lot of that. And you’re right, this Amazon effect carries over into business, but it also carries over into who I’m going to shop with as a consumer as well.

Scott Luton (24:04):

Alright, excellent points. We’re at a halfway home point folks. We’ve got so much more to get to here today. Really enjoy Kevin and Mary Kate’s perspective. Y’all weigh in. Let us know what you’re thinking here, especially of this parallels between B2C, B2B, what Mary Kate was just sharing there about the trusting nature of who we do business with. That’s really, really important as well. Moving right along to our third big topic here today, folks, as you may know, March is Women’s History month, really important all year long, but certainly in March to celebrate the tremendous mountain moving impacts that women have had in our journey and elsewhere around the globe last Friday. Many of y’all may know March 8th always is International Women’s Day. So it’s really, really important I think of what’s up close and personal. Mary Kate and Kevin and all the incredible women and female leaders that make up the team here at Supply Chain now both on series and behind the scenes. Big thanks to Amanda and Catherine behind the scenes today, make it happen. But Mary Kate, when you think of the global supply chain industry, I think you’ve got some factoids that most of us might find interesting.

Mary Kate Love (25:03):

Yeah, so interesting when thinking about and supply chain as an industry is typically under manufacturing. So when I say manufacturing industry, I’m including supply chain, but there was an interesting stat that said 47% of the workforce is women, so close to 50%, but in the manufacturing industry, women only make up 29% of the workforce. And so to be honest, that number was a little bit higher than what I had thought just based on tidbits over the year. If you’ve ever gone to a manufacturer or supply chain conference, we always laugh because the line out of the men’s bathroom is typically triple times line out of the women’s bathroom. But I feel like little steps like mentorship, so people taking on more mentorship opportunities or exposing young women to these careers that maybe they hadn’t heard about before, which is a lot of the effort in National Supply Chain Day coming up on April 29th plugin for that. But these efforts of visibility and mentorship are only going to continue to shift that number up in manufacturing and supply chain, which is really, really encouraging to see.

Scott Luton (26:11):

Excellent comments there, Kevin, your thoughts?

Kevin L. Jackson (26:15):

Yeah, I want to highlight that this is International Women’s Day, not just National Women’s Day. I was talking to somebody the other day and they was saying, who makes up these things? I dunno, but it’s really important to understand that is a global phenomenon that all of society really focused on understanding, appreciating, and recognizing the value that women deliver to our entire society. It’s critical. Yeah, let’s all embrace the international woman.

Scott Luton (26:48):

Well said. And as Larry Klein says, yes, there is room for everyone. There should be room for everyone, right? Opportunities for all. I think it’s really important to acknowledge that as much progress that we have made in this area nationally and internationally, Kevin, to your points, there are still lots of heavy lifting. It still needs to be done. And it takes my mind to Theodore Lao, which Mary Kate and Kevin we both are familiar with.

Kevin L. Jackson (27:10):

Oh yeah, Theo.

Scott Luton (27:11):

Yeah. Yeah, Theo, we included a great read from one of her articles in the most recent edition of With that said, that really speaks to with data of just how much more work that we have to do to truly create opportunities for all. But without these focused months and holidays such as Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, I think that’s helpful to bring focus. And whether we’re acknowledging how far we’ve come or we’re really admitting and keeping it real of what we still need to do, I think it’s really important. That’s where these holidays I think really help us out here. Yeah. Alright. So Mary Kate, you mentioned National Supply Chain Day. Yes. And that is exciting. Coming up on April 29th, we’re fortunate Kevin to have the founder right here on our team.

Mary Kate Love (28:03):

I love that. I’ll take it.

Scott Luton (28:05):

You asked how those days get made.

Kevin L. Jackson (28:09):

It’s

Mary Kate Love (28:10):

Literally just apply it’s crazy

Kevin L. Jackson (28:13):

Vision.

Scott Luton (28:14):

Well, we’re going to power this global day of celebration and recognition to entirely new heights. And we’ve got an event set up April 29th, national Supply Chain, day 12 and Eastern Time, and in conjunction with our incredible friends at Vector Global Logistics and many others. Mary Kate, please tell us more.

Mary Kate Love (28:33):

Yeah, so we’re super excited. Fun fact. We did a live stream together in 2020, which was the first national supply chain day on April 29th. And we’re kind of bringing it back, reinvigorating it, and so we’re excited to host this live stream. We’ll be spotlighting people this year. So it’s really about the people in supply chain. And back to our point about visibility into careers that you didn’t know existed, that is a huge undertone of the celebration on Monday the 29th. So it’ll be definitely fun. There’s going to be some pictures, videos, people will talk about stories we’ll tell. And yeah, please register an easy if you go to supply chain now.com/ you’ll find everything you need to know. National Supply Chain Day is what that stands for.

Scott Luton (29:22):

Everything you need to know. And thank you Mary Kate, because I’m a little bit slower and we’ve got a billion acronyms, right? I know. NSCD, national Supply Chain Day, our team is dropping the link where there’s a lot more information. We welcome you joining us to celebrate and lift up not just coast to coast, but really the profession around the world. And Mary Kate, I’m so proud to serve alongside you and I’m proud that you’re part of our team and I’m really proud of what you’ve done to get the snowball effect. You got to start somewhere and eventually we’ve got an army of folks recognizing this industry. Kevin, I know you’re itching to talk about National Supply Chain Day, your thoughts? Well,

Kevin L. Jackson (30:03):

I want an upgrade. I want to to meet international supply chain day

Scott Luton (30:10):

Soon. Soon

Kevin L. Jackson (30:12):

Coming soon.

Scott Luton (30:16):

But for now, you can check out this link for more information of how to jump in and join our efforts to really celebrate and recognize a day that’s long overdue. Now Kevin and Eric, Kate, to add to this, let’s see, last Friday I was at King Plow. Me and Clay and Tyler, shout out to them. We had a great time. Well, we were waiting on a shipment to get there and stuff was on a pallet, right? So it was being brought to us by our friends at Southeastern Freight lines. And the driver shows up, knocks on the door. His name’s LA and I love that. I didn’t ask him if it was Los before Los, Los Angeles or Lower Alabama. I didn’t ask him. I should have Mary Kay. But folks, it’s amazing. Cobra Kai was shooting at King Plow that day. So they had an army of trucks, people, equipment everywhere. Didn’t phase la. He put that truck in gear, pulled up by the dock door, backed that 28 foot trailer in no time, right? Wow. I’m just sitting there with my mouth open. He didn’t even, most of us if we’re backing up our small little car, we take, I don’t know, we pull forward five times in tight spaces, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (31:20):

Exactly.

Scott Luton (31:22):

Shot. And it was perfect. And Mary Kate, in that moment, it was like for the billionth time, it was like, okay, we celebrate national supply chain day for global people just like la they get no recognition and amazing things happen just like that every single day. Mary Kate, your quick response. Yeah,

Mary Kate Love (31:42):

I think that’s what’s so cool about supply chain is it’s connects so many different types of people and types of careers. There’s just an endless amount and there’s probably new jobs popping up that I don’t even know about. And certainly there’ll be new jobs in AI and supply chain that we’ll be talking about next year. So I just love how it connects so many different types of people,

Scott Luton (32:03):

Right? Kevin? Kevin, Kevin. Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (32:06):

Optimizing routes, you have these deliveries, you got to be at certain place at a certain time and that’s another way that AI can actually help real time optimization of routing. And that improves your supply chain and it helps you answer that question, where is my stuff? Yeah,

Scott Luton (32:25):

Excellent point. Because it’s not just as easy these days as planning enough for nothing but right turns. It’s not nearly that easy, especially through cities like Atlanta, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (32:35):

Right. Exactly.

Scott Luton (32:36):

Couple quick points here. So again, folks, check National supply chain day. We got the link there. You one click away from learning how you can join our efforts. Also T squared, as he said before, supply chain management is no longer an optional appetizer. It’s a must have entree. I love that

Kevin L. Jackson (32:56):

Every business has a supply chain or supply mesh, right? That’s because it’s an ecosystem.

Scott Luton (33:02):

That’s an ecosystem. That is the word of the day for sure. Here is Jeremy, great to have you here. He is tuned in via Twitter. He talks about some things we should be looking into Dibles again, blimps folks, blimps. Have we improved our material sciences though, to do that? Can we better produce store manage hydrogen? Jeremy, that’s an excellent point, an excellent point to make. And I think if I’m not mistaken

Kevin L. Jackson (33:25):

Or helium

Scott Luton (33:26):

Or helium, I can’t Google it, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (33:28):

Hydrogen, I got the flash of that. Deer in lake New Jersey. Yeah,

Scott Luton (33:35):

Hindenburg terrible. But Kevin and Mary Kate, to Jeremy’s point, I’m almost positive, I was reading a white paper not too long ago that they are looking at blimps again on a grand new scale, which be used for everything from moving stuff to moving people and then some. So great to have you here, Jeremy. Great to see you. Okay,

Kevin L. Jackson (33:55):

Yeah, I was looking at the comments there and there’s a reference to the national Digi Foundry.

Scott Luton (34:00):

This is this Cringle, I think Kevin, if I got that name right. K Cringle.

Kevin L. Jackson (34:07):

Yes.

Scott Luton (34:08):

The NDF, the National Digi Foundry has a

Kevin L. Jackson (34:11):

Group

Scott Luton (34:12):

For climate change disaster response, Kevin, that we’re leveraging technology for climate change change as well, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (34:19):

It’s a little bit different than where how it reads is actually how to improve the economics of a region. So it’s more resilient to disasters that may be caused by climate change. So we’re looking at how to leverage technologies to improve the information economy in a region to improve communications and using what’s called a DO distributor autonomous organization so that the people there can better collaborate with first responders, should a disaster hit. And also to enable the economy to recover much faster because it’s a virtual infrastructure that’s communicating and interacting with a global economy. So all of this is I guess the information supply chain. So all of that’s critical.

Scott Luton (35:13):

Completely agreed.

Kevin L. Jackson (35:14):

So thank you very much for that. Shout

Scott Luton (35:17):

Out, agreed. The information exchange, timely, complete, accurate, trusted information exchange. I mean this is what makes up global supply chain, certainly global business even. Yes, Mary Kate, your quick response before we move into our final topic of the day.

Mary Kate Love (35:31):

Yeah, no, I mean I’m agreeing. I’m nodding along with you guys. I don’t think I have an extra bit on that one, but yes, it’s

Scott Luton (35:38):

Tough. You get it. Bit or bites bit. I didn’t miss that Mary Kate. That was

Mary Kate Love (35:43):

Pretty good marketing.

Kevin L. Jackson (35:46):

Alright, Mary,

Scott Luton (35:51):

Mary Kate is a great addition. Any buzz, but certainly the digital Transformers edition of the buzz as well. And a lot of times we can’t get to here today, man. They keep coming in fast and furious. It’s great to have everybody. Alright, so Kevin and Mary Kate, we’re going to finish on a different story here today in our final note here. So for many of our longtime listeners, you know that we’re actively, actively giving forward to the veteran community. I consider that to be one of our biggest callings in this life. Veteran homelessness unfortunately has been an ongoing challenge. I’ve seen it firsthand as I participated in a variety of initiatives that met and engaged our veterans that live on the streets. I think this article that we’re pulling up here in a second references, the point in time annual initiative, and I’ve done that on the streets of Atlanta, I think between the hours of 12 and 4:00 AM and saw some things that you can’t forget.

(36:39):

You just can’t forget people that are existing in ways that you can’t even think about. But there’s good news folks, and thankfully there is, according to the War Horse here, which is a new publication on my radar. Thank you Mary Kate. According to the warhorse and data from the US Department of Veteran Affairs, the population of homeless veterans folks, it dropped by over 50% from 2010 to 2022. In fact, the states of Connecticut, Delaware, and Virginia, well they say they have essentially ended homelessness among veterans. So Mary Kate, this is welcome news. Welcome news. Kevin and I are both veterans and we’ve got our gear to the ground and many of the initiatives that have been put into place for years trying to address this and many other veteran challenges. But I understand from reading this article and the associated VA data that there are some transferable lessons to be learned here as it applies to ending homelessness in other areas. Is that right, Mary Kay?

Mary Kate Love (37:32):

Yeah, definitely. Two things stick out to me that I loved about this article and this approach. Number one is the simplicity of the approach to be housing first. And so when you think about servicing veterans or any group, you might get overwhelmed with, Hey, where do we start? How do we start? And really their philosophy is if everyone has a house that is stable, other things will follow, such as employment, such as mental health services, such as being connected with family. So I love the simplicity of the approach about having stable housing, focusing on that. And secondly, what I love about this is really one of those, dare I say, few instances in which we see collaboration amongst local, state and national working out really well. It’s very much a bipartisan effort. So that’s pretty cool to see that We unfortunately don’t see that a lot, but you need the local services, the shelters, the people that know who to service to be able to deliver these initiatives coming down from the national level. So I love seeing the partnership with different entities to service these veterans in this scenario.

Scott Luton (38:36):

Yeah, well said Mary Kate. Good stuff there, Kevin, your thoughts?

Kevin L. Jackson (38:40):

Well, I mean, it’s kind of interesting that this came up right at this point because actually with the ND F1 of our members is looking at providing affordable housing by leveraging digital assets. So what they’re actually doing are buying apartments and then the residents can pay rent, but a portion of that rent would go to ownership of the apartment and you can do as little as 1% down and they’re just writing up a use case of an apartment building in Missouri, I believe it was where they proved this out. It could become basically a legacy to your family so that everyone in your family will always have a place to live. And this is a great way for ending homelessness, not just fewer veterans, but for anyone looking for ways to extend that model to other regions across the nation.

Scott Luton (39:43):

Man, we’re going to talk a lot more about that, Kevin. I love that initiative. And Mary Kate, thank you so much for finding this article that is real interesting, folks. We dropped the link to it in the chat from our friends over at the Warhorse, which I believe Mary Kate is a nonprofit news organization

Mary Kate Love (39:58):

Nonprofit. And I follow a newsletter called Nice News, and you can see why this is, I think sometimes we get bogged down in the headline news and it’s nice to have too.

Kevin L. Jackson (40:09):

Yeah,

Scott Luton (40:09):

Completely agree. Completely agree. Alright, veteran related folks, and I bring these things up not to say, Hey, look at us. Not at all. I bring this up because with the explosion of podcasts and live streams and webinars and all this digital media, there’s a ton of lip service leadership around things like this, right? There’s lots of folks that say, Hey, someone should do this, someone should do that. Well folks, I’m really proud that working alongside Kevin and Mary Kate and Amanda and Catherine, that we are doing stuff about these issues this month actually in April in Atlanta, but timely conversation with Seth Deman, he leads the Tillman Honor run, Mary Kate and Kevin. So that is named in honor of Pat Tillman, former NFL player that volunteered to serve his country in Afghanistan, died in combat. And they have established a nonprofit in his name, in his tremendous honor to help send military families and veterans help pay for school and other needs that they have. We are honored to do some small measure to support Tillman Honor run. Y’all check that out, Google it because there are Tillman Honor runs in I think a dozen different cities, coast to coast, maybe more. We’re participating in the one in Atlanta. And then on a different note, Kevin and Mary Kate, Kevin, you’ll get a kick out of this in particular as a former naval aviator,

(41:24):

Our fleet of aircraft. Well, the unheralded maintenance folks are the folks that keep these fleets moving ahead. Aircraft trucks, ocean vessels, you name it. And we are delighted to help support the knuckle busters at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, where I spent a couple years to support, recognize, and lift up those incredible maintainers that I’m telling you that miracles they perform on a weekly basis are remarkable. So folks, check out your neck of the woods where you might can plug in, whether you’re helping solve big problems like veteran homelessness or supporting things like the Tillman Honor Run or knuckle Busters or you name it. There are tremendous needs that can use not only your dollars, but your know-how and other resources. So check it out. And thank you all, Mary, Kate and Kevin for allowing me to make that plug. I think it’s really important because the need is ongoing.

(42:17):

We’ve been at war for many, many years and the needs only going to get bigger, right? The need’s going to get bigger based on the changing, shifting demographics of our veteran community. So Mary Kate, we have covered a ton of topics and takes perspectives, POV points of view here today between you and Kevin, all the folks in the comments, of course, the articles that we covered. I’m going to ask y’all both your favorite point, either y’all made here today or you heard here today or you saw in the comments, you name it. And I’m going to start with Mary Kate and Kevin, you’re going to be the cleanup hitter. So Mary Kate, what was one of your favorite things that we covered here today on the buzz?

Mary Kate Love (42:55):

I just love that we’re continuously highlighting, but especially today, how connected supply chain is, how much supply chain connects the world truly. And that’s, we highlighted a lot of different technologies today. We’ve highlighted a lot of different career opportunities. So I just love seeing that and I think we really showcase that here today.

Scott Luton (43:17):

Well said. Well said Mary Kate. It serves the world. It also brings the world together, for sure. Kevin, always a pleasure. Let me plug you first. The bestselling author, Kevin L. Jackson, the Dynamo. He appears with us every second Monday of the month. We’re going to have to pull you and Mary Kate together. Y’all are quite one, two punches,

Kevin L. Jackson (43:36):

Man. Fun. Wow. Catalyst. She’s a catalyst,

Scott Luton (43:41):

I tell you. But Kevin, what was one of your favorite things we talked about here today on the digital Transformers edition of the bus?

Kevin L. Jackson (43:49):

Yeah, it seems like we’re talking about how our entire society is digitally transforming. And when you looked at it from business point of view, leveraging artificial intelligence, our way to veteran homelessness, I think this is great. This is the way you look at an integrated society. I love this. I love what we’re doing. So anyone out there who likes this, don’t forget, digital Transformers, my video podcast where we focus on the people that are leveraging technology to improve the global society. And as I talked a bit about how digital assets are being used to help homelessness provide affordable homes, I’ve actually, hopefully we can put that in the stream here in link to the team that’s putting that together.

Scott Luton (44:36):

Yeah, I’m going to try to do that right this second. This URL here that Kevin’s talking about, I think we just dropped it there. Yeah,

Kevin L. Jackson (44:44):

It is. It’s in there. Okay.

Scott Luton (44:45):

Yes. The OPT labs. I said that right.com. The opt labs com. Is that right, Kevin? Yes,

Kevin L. Jackson (44:51):

Yes.

Scott Luton (44:52):

Okay. So folks, you want to explore that one solution, that one initiative that Kevin was saying earlier, check out that link and be sure to connect and listen to and lean in and engage digital Transformers wherever you get your podcast. But Mary Kate, it’s to only one with the Kevin L. Jackson, right? Yes. There may be others.

Mary Kate Love (45:11):

Yes,

Scott Luton (45:14):

The front runner as Deloitte put it. Well, this has been great. Mary Kate and Kevin, what a great, well-rounded, very holistic episode of the Buzz. Really enjoyed both of y’all being here and more importantly, your perspective here. Mary Kate, if folks want to connect with you the cool things you’re doing here at Supply Chain now, the cool things you’re doing at National Supply Chain Day, how can I do that?

Mary Kate Love (45:33):

Yeah, LinkedIn, Mary Kate, love, easiest name ever, right? That’s easy. And then, or on Twitter, MK Love too. So either way, I’m always on those two platforms.

Scott Luton (45:42):

Awesome. And the one and only Kevin L. Jackson, fearless Leader of Digital Transformers. How can folks connect with you?

Kevin L. Jackson (45:48):

Yes, hopefully they’re connecting right now on LinkedIn or Kevin Jackson on the X where we’re streaming live today. This is great. I like this.

Mary Kate Love (46:00):

Awesome.

Kevin L. Jackson (46:00):

And also wherever you get your podcasts, digital Transformers. Thank you. Thank you very much to your audience.

Scott Luton (46:07):

Awesome time here today, folks. Hey, on behalf of our entire team here, Mary, Kate, Kevin, Catherine, Amanda, the whole team here at Supply Chain, now we challenge you. Take one thing that Mary, Kate and Kevin dropped here today. Put it into action. These not words, improve your team, improve your performance. Hey, your colleague’s going to be happy you did. But whatever you do and challenge you to do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (46:37):

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.