The Buzz is Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream, held at 12 noon ET each week. This show focuses on some of the leading stories from global supply chain and global business, always with special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

In this Digital Transformers edition of the Buzz, hosts Scott Luton and Kevin L. Jackson discussed some of the top news stories and trends in supply chain and digital transformation today. Listen in and learn more about:

• Mattel’s milestone year
• How to drive ROI in your digital transformation
• Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and his elephant hunt as he looks to raise between 5 and 7 TRILLION dollars
• The answer to the age-old question: what do we need all of these super chips for anyway?
• And more!

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, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be, Scott Luton and Kevin O. Jackson with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Kevin. How you doing today?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:43):

You know what? I’m doing pretty, pretty good, even though it’s raining outside, it’s not snow and the flowers are starting to come up in my front yard, so maybe we we’re through the winter. Hey,

Scott Luton (00:58):

I love that we haven’t gotten much snow down here, but I know you’ve had snow up your way and yes, it’s been raining cats and dogs for like two days down here. I’ll have to share a little story with you after our live show here today because I really stepped into it this morning as a Amanda to know, but I digress.

(01:15):

Hey folks, today’s show, it’s a special edition of The Buzz. It’s a digital Transformers edition, which takes place every second Monday each month. Now, Kevin, we’re going to be discussing a variety of news and developments today across global business with an extra helping of all things technology. And hey folks, we want to hear from you. Give us your take in the comments throughout the show. And Kevin, one last thing. If folks are listening to the podcast replay, which we usually drop on Fridays, hey, consider joining us live on LinkedIn or YouTube or some other social media channel of your choosing. We’d love to hear from you. And if you’d love today’s show, Kevin, it’d be great for folks to share it with a friend or their network. Did I cover all our bases there, Kevin?

Kevin L. Jackson (01:55):

Yes, I think so. It’s the live show is where you can really interact with this global audience. I mean, I get so much from the back and forth on the chat, so I learned so much about what everyone is doing and that interaction invigorates me.

Scott Luton (02:13):

Yes, I’m with you man. And that’s a great word. That’s like a 25 cent, maybe a 50 cent word with inflation these days. Invigorates all of us. Alright, so on the front end. So folks, today we’re going to go through four new stories and we’re going to get my take and Kevin’s take and probably your take as well. But before we go there, we’d love sharing resources around here and powerful information that we can act on. And we’re going to lead today with the US Bank Freight Payment Index for Q4 2023. It was just released last week and it covers all the inner workings of the US domestic freight market, especially from a shipment and a spin volume and with lots of economic industry things going on that impacted the freight market. So it’s a free resource, it’s released each quarter chockfull of things that will help you view the market and view everything going on there with context and give you information to make decisions for the next quarter. So check it out freight.us bank.com, and we include the link in the chat as well. I

Kevin L. Jackson (03:16):

Really like that bank index information because you get all this competing information about what the economy is doing and this is really sort of ground truth that you can use to make decisions about what you’re going to spend, what you’re going to do, how you’re going to run your, that’s what makes it so important.

Scott Luton (03:36):

Well said Kevin. Last week we had a live stream with Eric from Total Quality Logistics and of course Bobby Holland with US Bank and we dove in to the Q4 2023 US Bank Freight Payment Index and what it means per region, which is one of my favorite parts of it. You get the national view and then you get a regionalized view. We’ll include a link to that show, y’all check that out. But most importantly, check out the free and powerful resource that is the Freight Payment Index. Alright, so moving right along, Kevin, let’s talk about, want to recognize, of course it’s Black History Month, so dive in, lean into stories old and new that celebrates the enormous contributions globally from blacks and African-Americans. And Kevin, we’ve had a variety of shows focused on Black History Month and other special times of the calendar. I was talking about this with Greg last week, he’s on assignment out there covering the big game.

Kevin L. Jackson (04:29):

But

Scott Luton (04:30):

Kevin, one quick question. When you think about Black History month throughout the month of February and a lot of stories and legacies that we celebrate every year probably since we were in grade school, but when you think of maybe a story that isn’t as heard and doesn’t get as much amplification in terms of someone that made a deep impact across business or society or you name it, what’s one figure maybe Kevin, that comes to your mind?

Kevin L. Jackson (04:55):

That’s kind of an interesting question because I have sort of a contrarian view on that. I feel that history, especially black history is made every day by ordinary people that aren’t in the books or aren’t on television. And I think it’s important to note that everyone can make history that’s important to the nation. So when you are thinking about Black History Month, think about how you can contribute to the world, how you can contribute to the nation and how you can make black history every day. I think that’s even more important.

Scott Luton (05:40):

I love that. And I think last time you were with us, I think last month we were celebrating Martin Luther King Jr Day and one of the things that I love that I took with me, and I think it comes from the King Center, is this quote, it starts with me, right? It starts with each of us in terms of whether or we choose to make history each and every day or make the world better or you name it. So Kevin, I love that and I don’t think that’s too contrarian. Black history is made every day, Kevin. I love that Black

Kevin L. Jackson (06:08):

History is made every day.

Scott Luton (06:10):

Alright folks, let’s move right along. We want to make sure we wish a prosperous and healthy and happy lunar New Year to all of our friends around the world that may be celebrating that over the next week and a half, two weeks or so. So let’s know how you celebrate Kevin over the weekend. I was reading, I think it came from NPR customary dishes around the world and a variety of countries that folks lift up and make and enjoy during the happy lunar New Year festivities. And all of them sounded so delicious and sheer violations of my diet, Kevin, so

Kevin L. Jackson (06:45):

I couldn’t do it, couldn’t do it. About three years ago,

(06:49):

Just before Covid, I guess it was, I happened to be in San Francisco during UNA New Year and I could have this big parade down in the financial district and it was just crowded and was just so much fun and was eating all kinds of food and it was just so joyous. I think that’s one of the things, all the firecrackers going on and big dragons going down the street, very, very festive. And I enjoyed the Lunar New Year celebration much more than the running the mill real New Year celebration because it’s not all about waiting for midnight and then going to bed. It was really the celebration of life and everybody was enjoying everyone else. I think that’s more important and wishing and sharing stories and really appreciating what the New Year promise is. So that’s just sort of a little side note, I guess.

Scott Luton (07:51):

I love it. It’s a big side note. And you know what, I would like it a lot more because it’s like two weeks versus we get one night. Yeah,

Kevin L. Jackson (07:58):

Right, exactly.

Scott Luton (07:59):

Let’s clean in and celebrate.

(08:02):

Okay, so Kevin, one more thing to share with folks about resources. It’s with that said, so our almost weekly newsletter we dropped over the weekend, we included news and fact toys related to the Super Bowl, the food industry. By the way, did you know pork Demand is way down and pork Supply is way up here in the states r and d tax credits coming back perhaps for US manufacturers and a whole lot more. Plus we always include the live events for the week ahead. So y’all check out, we’re going to drop the link in the chat or with that said newsletter jam packed for information you can use. Kevin, are you ready to get into our first article here today?

Kevin L. Jackson (08:44):

I think so. I want to get my notepad ready. I know you always bring a lot of information so I have to, oh man, I got to make sure I write it down. Okay one,

Scott Luton (08:55):

Kevin, you made my day. If Kevin L. Jackson takes notes after a conversation from you. You just made my day, Kevin. I

Kevin L. Jackson (09:04):

Listen, I’ll listen to you, I’ll listen to you. Alright,

Scott Luton (09:08):

We were talking in the Preshow about Best Week Ever. I think that was like an old VH one TV show that was on for years back in the day. Well, I want to start with a company who had the best year ever in 2023, and I bet Mattel is certainly on the shortlist now, Kevin, according to Retail Dive, the brand behind Barbie and Hot Wheels and Fisher Price, there’s plenty of others. It just smashed fourth quarter financials with a ninefold increase in net income for that period when compared to the previous year. We’re not talking small potatoes, we’re talking $147 million this year in fourth quarter or last year in fourth quarter versus only 16 million in fourth quarter 2022. Right?

Kevin L. Jackson (09:47):

Had anything to do with the Barbie movie?

Scott Luton (09:49):

Well, you just beat me through it. Barbie, Kevin. I knew it was big, but get this, Barbie was the highest grossing movie in Warner Brothers history. And the WB has been around for a while with some law cuts matches, but shifting over because operationally Mattel has been impacted more than others by the Red Sea shipping disruptions as an estimated almost 24% of the company’s sales are in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And last week Mattel announced that is now targeting about 200 million bucks in cost savings by 2026. And to no one’s surprise, they’re going to be looking at cutting costs in their global supply chain organization. They expect toy sales to cool in 2024. So that makes maybe one of their choices easier because Mattel says they’re going to start saving money by closing a plant in China as they kick off this big cost savings initiative. So Kevin, your thoughts with what Mattel has going on over there?

Kevin L. Jackson (10:48):

Well, they say that things you can’t avoid death and taxes. We can’t avoid toys either, right? This is one of the industries that as long as you’re going to have children, you’re going to have toys. So I hope they always in business and I think Mattel is one of those giants that will never go away and they know how to read the business and they know how to read people. They’re going to continue to be strong.

Scott Luton (11:16):

Well said. The CEO, as I recall, as we were reading through the story from Retail Dive and a few of other places, they’ve turned company around in many ways and they were talking about how their financials are in the strongest position in years. So rather than sit on their laurels like a lot of companies can do after a good quarter or a good year, they’re putting it to work and find more efficiencies and we’ll see maybe position their company for a lot of new smashingly successful projects like Barbie. Goodness gracious, what an incredible, incredible film that was. Everyone I have run into that has checked out that movie absolutely loves it. How about you?

Kevin L. Jackson (11:51):

That’s really a lesson on transformation, right? They’ve looked at the marketplace, looked at how people are interacting with one another and they pick the multimedia channel to actually reinvigorate their core business. So I think that’s smart. That’s brilliant.

Scott Luton (12:14):

It is. And there’s that invigorate word, reinvigorating this, Tom. It’s going to appear again and again and again throughout today’s show. Alright, but for now, we were just talking about a transformation, right? Yes, Kevin, you gave me such a great segue and I missed it by going a different direction. But I want to circle back because we want to talk about this article via Forbes about how to achieve better, stronger return on investment in your digital transformation. And I bet Mattel is going to be deploying some of these ideas here. This is a great read via our friends at Forbes. Kevin, before I toss it to you and you unpack some things from driving ROI when it comes to your digital transformation, I want to share five particular components of successful returns producing digital transformation strategies that were named specifically in this read one, product development excellence two, manufacturing optimization, three, supply chain integration, four outbound logistics streamlining, and five innovation with low code solutions. I’m going to add a little blurb on that fifth one here in a minute. But first, Kevin, tell us more about this. And you’ve been a part of these out industry, what do we need to know here?

Kevin L. Jackson (13:25):

Well, first of all, you were talking about Mattel and how they were going to cut costs. Well actually digital transformation can cut costs in three particular areas. The essential components are things like product lifecycle management, understanding what your customer knows and delivering that enterprise resource planning, understand your supply chain, what you need and optimizing that. And then manufacturing execution systems and how those systems link with the rest of your enterprise business system. This is where a focus or strategic use of low code solutions really bring it because they catalyze transformative success in your business. Because with software you say, if you can think of it, you can do it with software, but as often is the case, it’s the people that’s the challenge. So throughout this process, you may encounter resistance to change complexities with integrating different processes and data flows and data security concern and privacy, which always needs to be at the forefront of your thinking.

(14:48):

But to overcome this, you have to have proactive communication with your team about the benefits of digital transformation. This is vital. You also have to have in place a change management framework that can create your culture that embraces innovation and help mitigate that resistance. And this is really where those five items come in that you mentioned at the top of this, you can actually have product development excellence by centralizing collaboration, your data management and your version control using PLM, you integrate your systems to optimize processes to optimize your manufacturing in order to provide that real time visibility and within your collaborative hubs make better decisions. Incorporate ERP and digital tools and your supply chain integration. This gives you that seamless connection between your supply chain processes and your other business functions. Outbound logistics, and we always talk about it’s no longer a supply chain, but it’s supply web. You need to address those outbound logistics by leveraging cloud computing and cloud solutions. And finally, as I mentioned before, low-code solutions. Software can do a lot, but sometimes the barrier is having that technical skillset on your team to write the software. Now today with low-code solutions, you don’t have to have that skillset. So these low-code platforms actually provide faster and more rapid innovation without compromising the quality.

Scott Luton (16:46):

A lot of good stuff there, Kevin. A lot of good stuff by someone that has been there and done it as you’ve been involved in all kinds of those projects in a variety of sectors in your career. But two quick thoughts I want to share, and I love your focus here on a couple of times, low code. Now, I had a great conversation with some folks we’re going to be doing a show with here soon, Tom and Jake and their teams last week. And we were talking, frankly, just one of those pre-show calls that you’re exchanging kind of practitioner expertise and thoughts. And it can be a passionate discussion, right? Ideas and experiences and you name it. Well, you know me, I’m always focused on the people of industry. That’s one of my passions. The people of global supply chain, the people involved in transformation, you name it, right?

(17:29):

Yeah. So as we were talking about the gap that exists often between planning and execution, right? It’s a timeless challenge. And I made a remark that hey, people are how you can bridge and make it happen thinking of empowering. But Tom came back and said, it’s technology. Technology is the only way you can get it done. And I stopped for a second. It’s a simplistic point, but it’s a really important point because as we know, as you and I both know, technology these days can do things in minutes that would take humans years millennium to do, right? And it’s really important, I mean, it still puts the onus on leadership to invest in technology or first off, to your point, tell people why we’re doing what we’re doing and then help make sure we’re investing in training so that adoption’s there so that results will be there. But that was such a great point in that conversation for me last week with Tom and Jake and their team. We got to, there’s no getting around it. We got to lean in to technologies otherwise we could die like the dinosaurs. Kevin, your quick response to that. Yes.

Kevin L. Jackson (18:32):

Well, we can’t be afraid of technologies. And what sort of jumped in my mind is the pre-show discussion we were having, and Amanda was piping up about this new tool that leverages artificial intelligence and AI to put complex things into more simple terms. Now think about that. So this advanced technology is an enabling or helping humans communicate better. Alright? So technology helps human, it’s not an either or, right?

Scott Luton (19:07):

That’s such an interesting point. I want to add one other thing too about low-code. Low-code movement is not new. Organizations have been trying that out for a while, but it’s grown. It’s grown. Tons of momentum, Kevin. Many companies out there working on initiatives that will empower those non technologists or non-technical team members to better successfully use tech like AI and drive results more and more often without having to lean solely on those IT teams that probably have kind of full plates. And this whole concept, this whole industry trends. One thing I spoke about in a recent conversation with Mike Griswold from Gartner that be dropping soon, but Kevin, I love the notion of that, again, it’s common sense, but it allows your whole team to take advantage of technology and not just the folks that are really adept at leveraging tech. That’s a great movement,

Kevin L. Jackson (19:59):

Right? And also it’s all about collaboration. I mean, technology is important and it’s critical, but technology can be used to help collaborate as well. Yes. Look at what we do today, how we collaborate across thousands and thousands of miles with virtual tools and webinars and briefings and I mean, this is amazing. This is technology that’s enabling people to communicate better.

Scott Luton (20:27):

That’s right. Execute better, make better decisions, have more success. And that’s certainly a lot of the good news in my ears in today’s environment, folks, let us know what you’re seeing out there. Let us know examples in your own organization or out there, what you’re seeing out in the market, maybe with suppliers or customers or whatever where you’re seeing companies make it easier for the non-tech folks amongst us, including me. I raised my hand and enabled them to be successful. I think it’s such an important trend. Okay folks, as always, we’ll drop the links to all of these reads in the chat so you can check ’em out later. Let us know your take later as well. Maybe even next week, you can catch the buzz every Monday at 12 noon eastern time almost without fail. Alright, so Kevin, moving right along to our third story here today. Now this features some eye popping numbers. I mean eye popping numbers.

Kevin L. Jackson (21:20):

I was looking at that. Yes,

Scott Luton (21:23):

This comes from CNBC, Sam Altman, the open AI CEO is on an elephant hunt, at least I’ll call it that as he looks to raise between five and $7 trillion tea trillions. Now, Altman has grown tired of the supply and demand challenges that have dragged on and dragged on and dragged on related to AI chips and how it’s been limiting, frankly open AI’s growth. So clearly he’s on a mission to overhaul the industry and dramatically scale up global chip building capacity. Now, Kevin, folks, many of you out there, maybe you don’t like Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, but you can still see some great stuff. And one of the great quotes here came from what Altman dropped on X. He says, quote, we believe the world needs more AI infrastructure, meaning fab capacity, energy data centers, et cetera than people are currently planning to build. Building massive scale AI infrastructure and a resilient supply chain is crucial to economic competitiveness. Now, Nvidia is a big player now it holds about 80% of the AI chip market. Man Altman is probably looking to turn that on its head and is reportedly seeking investors globally, including the government of the United Arab Emirates. Alright, Kevin, your thoughts,

Kevin L. Jackson (22:42):

You say the number, he’s looking to raise five, $7 trillion, but how many people really understand what you say? I’m going to put it in perspective. Everyone knows the country of Germany, it’s one of the largest countries from an economic point of view in the world, the gross domestic product, the amount of goods, the value of all the goods that Germany created in 2022 was 4.4 trillion. That

Scott Luton (23:26):

Is unbelievable.

Kevin L. Jackson (23:28):

Now, Germany is the third largest country in the world. Were measured by GDP, the only two countries that are higher of China at 17.7 trillion and the United States at 26.9 trillion. So he’s looking to raise more money than the third largest economy on the globe.

Scott Luton (23:59):

It’s mind aching, the best word I can use to describe it. And I’ll also tell you, Kevin, so as we’re looking to raise either a little bit more money than Germany’s GDP or about the average contract of a major league baseball star, 7 trillion, trillion dollars, goodness gracious. And Gino says Nvidia value is greater than the China stock market about that. So Kevin, before we move on to our fourth and final story, have you ever been, I have not been to a chip foundry yet. That’s on my bucket list. Have you ever visited one? If you have anything you can share with us what it’s like.

Kevin L. Jackson (24:37):

Yes, I’ve been to a couple of them. I went to a Chinese one, Huawei and Wang J. And actually here in Manasas, there’s a MD chip manufacturing location. I had the opportunity to do a touring. And the thing that really jumps out at you is the technology is ancient,

Scott Luton (25:01):

Really.

Kevin L. Jackson (25:02):

They use lithography printing, got the technology. You have these huge silicon wafers, right? And you print the circuits on these chips. So think about it, leading edge microchips use ancient technology printing. It’s basically a printing press.

Scott Luton (25:30):

It’s a bit of a conundrum it seems. Yeah. And maybe it’s due that industry is due. Maybe this is part of Altman’s plans to innovate and create new ways of making these super chips that are powering AI and all the other cutting edge technologies out there. I wonder if that’s part of his plan then Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (25:47):

I think maybe so, because what’s happening is creating these chips, you’re putting multiple layers on these chips and the capability just mind boggling. They are. We all know that. Yeah.

Scott Luton (26:01):

All right. This is going to be an interesting discussion. This fourth and final article, this is going to be an interesting one to wrap this show on. It’s all about quantum computing. So what’s one of the things we need all these super chips for? Well, I would argue

Kevin L. Jackson (26:15):

To fuel

Scott Luton (26:16):

Quantum computing, which I promise you it’s going to leave a big mark on global business, the world supply chain, and much more. I want to level set here first. So this article here from our friends at EY ey,

Kevin L. Jackson (26:27):

Ernest Young, yeah,

Scott Luton (26:28):

Focuses on the TMT supply chains. That might be a new acronym for many folks out there. TNT, technology, media and Entertainment and Telecommunications. So that’s level set, number one. Number two, Kevin, so you’re our resident technologist here at supply chain. Now you’ve been out in industry for quite some time, including one of my favorite. I’m a big old space nerd. We’ll have to get some of your NASA stories later.

Kevin L. Jackson (26:52):

Yeah, tell

Scott Luton (26:53):

Us if you can level set, especially for folks out there that don’t have a technology degree or engineering degree. What we’re talking about when we say quantum computing, Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (27:02):

So this may be a challenge, something as complex as quantum computing. Simple to understand. I think I’m up to the challenge, but the first thing I’m going to do is link it to supply chain. We are talking about the information supply chain here because movies, music, entertainment is really about delivering information in different way. Okay? Those are the bits that you transmit ideas into. Visuals, transmit feelings into music. So it’s really the information supply chain we’re talking about. And classic computing uses ones and zeros, but quantum computing uses something that’s called a cubit. It can actually represent four different states, and it uses what’s known as quantum mechanics, which is the branch of physics that explains how electrons interact with each other to solve complex problems much faster than traditional computers. So as I said, these classic computers use ones and zeros, two states to do computations, and they have to do these computations in a serial or step by step fashion,

Scott Luton (28:30):

Like a linear fashion,

Kevin L. Jackson (28:31):

Right? Very linear. You got to do step one, then step two, then step three, step four, and so forth. The value though is that they can do it very, very fast. They can do millions of steps with these microchips in micro quantum computers, on the other hand, use these cubits or quantum bits to do computations in parallel. So instead of doing one, then two, then three, then four. It can do 1, 2, 3, and four all at the same time in parallel, which that’s mind blowing. But you can use these computers to simulate very complex things like chemical reactions, which can be used to develop new drugs and materials. You can also optimize complex systems like traffic flow or financial trading. And it solves problems in cryptography like cracking encryption codes. And that’s what we’re really afraid of right now. So I hope that gives you a good idea of what quantum computing

Scott Luton (29:48):

Is. That makes tons of sense. And I’m amongst Lewis in our audience here. I remember back in the day in the eighties at Aiken Elementary in little Aiken, South Carolina, I took a extracurricular class, computers 1 0 1, and I was all excited and all excited and we spent days on end just diving into ones and zeroes and I was like, oh man, that might be one reason I didn’t get into computer engineering or something. Who knows? But Kevin, that’s very helpful. So as you apply that quantum computing then to supply chains or TMT supply chains or business, what are you between this read and your expertise, what are you expecting?

Kevin L. Jackson (30:27):

Well, so I started off by saying this is about information, right? It’s about the information supply chain. So these supply chains in technology, media and entertainment and the telecommunication sector are very nuanced and they form very distinctive ecosystems that operate in parallel. It also has global reach. What good would it be if you had a movie and you could only show that movie to one person at a time in a serial fashion? You got to out to everybody at the same time. And this is across the entire globe. So this creates dependencies that require very careful management and you got to manage them at the same time. So the impact on this web of information supply chains, the use of quantum is just profound. So these information supply chains are becoming even more complex with Web3 0.0 and technology 4.0, manufacturing, advanced manufacturing. So you need this advanced solution to optimize supply chain and operations management. So quantum computing may be just what we need.

Scott Luton (32:00):

Yeah, excellent. I really appreciate your perspective here today throughout all, but especially in this last one. And there’s always common threads that emerge on any of our shows. It just happens. It must be a rule out there in life or physics or whatever and

Kevin L. Jackson (32:13):

Quantum world. Yes,

Scott Luton (32:14):

Yes. And quantum world and folks, if you’re catching us late and you missed Kevin l Jackson’s explanation of quantum computing, you can also maybe get a certification by tuning into Quantum Leap and Dr. Sam Becker, which is a great show. I watched the reboot.

(32:30):

But it is fascinating because it really goes back to illustrating that point we made in the previous story or two about we’ve got to technology, whether quantum computing or anything else is not a nice to have. More and more it’s becoming table stakes because of sheer demand. The challenges, what we’re trying to do, like Kevin, use that simple example, which reminded me of Blockbuster when you said it Blockbuster back in a day, if you weren’t around folks when Blockbuster was in its heyday, you’d go into a physical store, they had X amount of copies of a particular movie or new release. So think about maybe when Batman in 1989 dropped with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, it was a massive, massive movie, right? Well, if you miss that in the movie offices, you’d go into a blockbuster and they would have say 20 copies. And Kevin, to your point, if 20 people had rented out all 20 copies, guess what? You’re out of luck. And guess what else we would put up with it as customers those 30 or 40 years ago?

Kevin L. Jackson (33:27):

Yeah,

Scott Luton (33:28):

Kevin’s laughing because customers don’t put up with that anymore. And I think not

Kevin L. Jackson (33:32):

Anymore.

Scott Luton (33:34):

It’s TMT supply chains and how we manage information supply chains and streaming. We’re all going to learn a lot more both about this particular aspect of global supply chain management, but also things like quantum computing and other technologies we’ve got to lean on. We have to make it happen and to keep our customers coming back. Kevin, I’ll give you the final word before I point out a couple other factoids and start to wrap.

Kevin L. Jackson (33:59):

So you have to always be learning. And so don’t be an ostrich and put your head in the hole.

Scott Luton (34:11):

Those are words to live by.

Kevin L. Jackson (34:13):

Yeah, don’t be afraid of quantum computing.

Scott Luton (34:15):

Don’t be an ostrich is what I was. I love that.

(34:19):

Lemme write that down. Don’t be an ostrich. All right, so folks, hey for a wrap. A couple of things I want to share related, again, back to computing and the supply chain, physical supply chain that fuels that word. We can’t talk enough about fragility in our global supply chains. So how about these two factoids, which were actually pointed out in this EY story, Kevin, 98% of all sub five nanometer semiconductor chip production capacity in the globe resides in Taiwan and South Korea. And did you know that Ukrainian companies produce about 54% of the global supply of sym reductor grade neon? Now of course, we all know these regions are either impacted by sadly current conflicts or they’re faced with potential new conflicts. So it kind of puts things in powerful perspective, at least from where I sit. Alright, so moving right along, Kevin, moving right along. I want to make sure folks know how to connect with the one and only Kevin L. Jackson Really enjoyed all the great work you’re doing over at Digital Transformers. We got a couple new shows coming up soon. Yes, Kevin, how can folks connect with you

Kevin L. Jackson (35:29):

Always by going to supply chain now.com, the Digital Transformers tab right there, just click on it. Or LinkedIn. Kevin Jackson, I’m there. And on the Big X, Kevin Jackson. Love it. Always follow Digital transformer, click and subscribe.

Scott Luton (35:48):

Don’t be an ostrich. Get out and learn new things, right? Lean into challenging new lessons that we all need to learn like quantum computing, right? You’ll be glad and better off that you did Kevin, really enjoy our shows here together. And I want to go back to something you shared. I’ve got maybe 17 different Kevin L. Jackson ISS I took today, but one that I don’t think is contrarian at all, and that’s kind of how you prefaced it. But here during February where every year we celebrate Black History Month, I love what you said, folks, black history is made every day and it is so true, and we all can celebrate that and be thankful and grateful that it is. So Kevin L. Jackson, always a pleasure. Thanks for being here today.

Kevin L. Jackson (36:33):

Well back to, this is fun. I look forward to this every month. We’ve got to do it more often.

Scott Luton (36:38):

That’s right, that’s right. And we got so much more work to do. But folks, you can check out the buzz every Monday at 12 in Eastern time. You can check out the Digital Transformers edition of the Buzz on the second Monday of each month. Like the mail, like taxes. Well toys, let’s get toys like Kevin said earlier about

Kevin L. Jackson (36:57):

Taxes.

Scott Luton (37:00):

But folks, the onus is on you. We’re going to keep bringing you content and bringing you expertise and perspectives, tools and resources all day long, all week, all year. But you got to take something, put it into action. It’s not good enough to talk about it. It’s all about deeds, not words, your teams. We’ll be grateful. And with that said, on behalf our entire team here at Supply Chain now, Scott Luton challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time, right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (37:33):

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.