Let the National Supply Chain Day celebrations continue! On Monday, April 29th, Supply Chain Now celebrated National Supply Chain Day with a very special live stream. Hosts Scott Luton and Mary Kate Love were joined by Enrique Alvarez from Vector Global Logistics, and discussed the importance of celebrating the people of the supply chain industry, highlighting the various roles and responsibilities that keep the global supply chain running.

Listen in as they also discussed trends in the industry, including the rise of AI, sustainability, and cybersecurity, and highlighted the creation of new jobs and career opportunities in the industry, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation.

Join us for this episode and help us continue to show gratitude and empathy to our incredible supply chain professionals and stay tuned for more programming for National Supply Chain Day in the future!

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 everybody. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. It’s Scott Luton and your friend Mary Kate. Love with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s special live stream. As of course we celebrate National Supply Chain Day. Mary Kate. Really big day today, huh?

Mary Kate Love (00:49):

Big day. We’ve been looking forward to this day for a while because we’re kind of bringing back national Supply chain Day. We celebrate together in 2020, which was a crazy year, April, 2020 when we celebrated, but today is really going to be a fun show because we’re taking a step back and we’re really celebrating the people of supply chain, right? So we’re going to see some snapshots of teams across the country. We’re going to have Enrique Alvarez from Vector Global Logistics join us, who’s always great, has great perspective, and then we’ll even talk about some trends in the industry and what’s in the future for supply chain. So this will be a fun show with lots of banter back and forth.

Scott Luton (01:31):

It sure will folks, and watch out because we’re just getting started with taking National Supply Chain day and celebrating this global industry that it is to all new heights. I’m really excited about what Mary Kate love and whole team is doing here. By the way, Enrique Alvarez is almost as cool as the John Wayne and Global supply chain going on. Jake Barr, Jake, great to have you here. Looking forward to your comments as well. Alright, so folks, let’s do this. Two quick reminders. First off, Scott, remember when you go live, right? Don’t depend on the music. That’s not a dependable signal, but kidding aside, let us know what you think. Share your comments throughout this live discussion. And of course, if you enjoy today’s show, we’re really celebrating our industry folks and all the wonderful people, be sure to share it with a friend or your network.

(02:18):

So I want to get to work. I want to start with a little bit about our purpose and vision collectively, Mary Kay, us and the whole team here, including what is our why? This is easy for us. I think National Supply Chain Day, well, it’s a celebration, a real celebration, and a big old spotlight on the industry professionals of supply chain, the people that connect the world and make it happen from Mary Kay. You and I have talked a lot about this from the folks that drive all the intricate and complex logistics that allow you to drink your morning coffee every day to the Highline networks that ensure critical medical supplies reach their destinations. We’re all consumers there, right? To the supply chain professionals that are driving trucks, driving forklifts, picking and packing, planning, you name it, leading, doing, making it all happen, right? These folks are the backbones of our connected world.

(03:07):

So upfront, folks, as we mentioned a second ago, join us every single year, April 29th as we delve into the stories of breakthroughs, the technologies, the topics, the people of global supply chain and folks, you can learn more@supplychainnow.com slash and we’re going to drop that link to the chat so you’re one click away from learning more and stay tuned. That would be updated regularly. Mary Kate, what I get wrong, and more importantly, you founded, as you mentioned, you founded the Stay of celebration a couple of years back. Why don’t you share your vision with the audience?

Mary Kate Love (03:39):

Yeah, so when I think about this day, I can’t not mention National Manufacturing Day because I was personally inspired by National Manufacturing Day, which is in October, I believe it’s October 4th every year. And what National Manufacturing Day set out to do was really highlight manufacturing and the careers in manufacturing, and that’s really similar to what we want to do with National Supply Chain Day. We have this vision that, hey, if we celebrate the people of supply chain, that will allow people early in their career, maybe students to say, Hey, supply chain’s got really cool jobs, really cool projects that people work on. Maybe I should choose that industry. Maybe I should get connected with someone in supply chain. And really kind of bringing that all together and getting people excited about supply chain and talking about supply chain we feel will help the future of supply chain.

Scott Luton (04:31):

Yes, well said. Mary Kate, I’ll tell you I admire your vision and your leadership and your action oriented leadership by the truckload where we’re going next here. We’ve got a wonderful guest coming up, Mary Kate, a dear friend, a distinguished global supply chain leader, and a very special guest. I want to welcome in Enrique Alvarez, co-founder and managing director with Vector Global Logistics. Hey. Hey Enrique, how you doing? Hey guys,

Enrique Alvarez (04:58):

How are you doing? And happy Supply Chain Day. This is amazing.

Mary Kate Love (05:01):

Yes,

Scott Luton (05:02):

It’s Enrique en Mary, Kate, Enrique, I want to start with you on this day of celebration for our industry. Really appreciate your big time support of National Supply Chain Day and a lot of things we’re doing here. Why is it important to you and the Vector team to support this special day, all these wonderful people and the greater supply chain industry? Your thoughts, Enrique?

Enrique Alvarez (05:21):

Well, it’s massively important to us, and I think for everyone that shares this industry, for one, some of all the supply chain now professionals out there working in this industry is a very intense job. So we sometimes spend more time with the people we work with, our own family. So this is a huge family for us from all over the world. And so kind of having the celebration one day of celebrating this kind of partnership, friendship, and sometime even that family connections is important. And then on the other hand, everything we use and has a logistics component to it, right? Everything has a supply chain component, and so it’s critical that we celebrate, have one day dedicated fully to this amazing industry.

Scott Luton (06:00):

Well said Enrique, I’m Mary Kate. I know you appreciate, we all do appreciate Enrique’s leadership, the whole team Nuria Christie, the massive rock and roll team over at Vector Global Logistics, huh?

Mary Kate Love (06:11):

Yeah, we love your team and actually Enrique, for the people toing in, can you tell us a little bit about what you all do over there at Vector Global Logistics?

Enrique Alvarez (06:20):

Of course. And well once again, thank you for having me here. It’s an honor to be with both. Vector is a boutique international logistics company. We do everything that has to do with the shipping and supply chain from Ocean Air Truck. We’re warehousing, we have presence in the us, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. And the best way to contact me is probably by LinkedIn. You’ll look for my name, Enrique Alvarez and Vector Global Logistics on LinkedIn. I think that’s probably the easiest way to finding me.

Scott Luton (06:48):

Well said. Or as the international man of mystery, you’re at events around the globe keynote and shaking hands, making it happen. I bet you’ll see Enrique in your neck of the world soon. I can only imagine Mary Kate Enrique’s frequent flyer miles. I bet he is. Got like a billion of ’em, huh?

Mary Kate Love (07:03):

Yeah, you got to add ’em up. We got to have a show where we follow Enrique. I think

Scott Luton (07:08):

There’s got to be an AI play for that, Enrique. Alright, so this is what we’re going to do next. Mary, Kate and Enrique, our team worked hard to get out and get submissions from across industry. We got some submitted and then we went out and hunting for some other things and we got some of those favorite snapshots from across global supply chain here. And I’m going to share my screen and we’re going to walk through these a little bit here. I love celebrating with teams out in plants and factories and warehouses everywhere, right? This is Linda Rendel, the CEO of the Clorox company, celebrating a big milestone with one of their factory teams. Big thanks to Rick McDonald and Beverly over there. Here’s another one from the Clorox team. This is a Clorox plant getting together down in Mexico, celebrating a big win, and then a little closer to home, we got Win Tech Inc. A manufacturing company based in metro Atlanta. Our dear friend and co-host, Alison Giddens. And the team was celebrating 25 years. Mary Kate Enrique, 25 years of manufacturing.

Mary Kate Love (08:04):

Yeah, that’s at least what a million problems solved every single day.

Scott Luton (08:08):

No kidding. Let’s see here. Oh, Enrique

Enrique Alvarez (08:13):

Recognize some of those faces. Yes,

Scott Luton (08:15):

I hope you do. Great forwarders and some other professionals from Vector Global Logistics making it happen. Now, here’s an interesting story. This is Cleve Francis. I think I said that right? Cleve UPS driver over 55 years of driving excellence under his belt. Wow, how about that? That is remarkable.

Mary Kate Love (08:34):

Impressive.

Scott Luton (08:35):

Yes. Round of applause, Mary Kate. I mean 55 years of driving the highways and byways, whether it’s in Atlanta or elsewhere. I mean, these are the people that make it happen every day, huh?

Mary Kate Love (08:46):

Exactly. They’re the people that connects our world, as we said.

Scott Luton (08:49):

Absolutely.

Enrique Alvarez (08:50):

Someone was saying that this is for unsung heroes and that’s just a picture one of them. Many, many people like that, but we owe them so much and I think it’s just amazing that we can celebrate with them in this supply chain day.

Scott Luton (09:03):

Well said. Now here is LA from Southeastern Freight. Now Enrique, this looks familiar because on the day at King Plow where our studio is, whenever we’re doing in-person content in Atlanta, they were filming that day. Hollywood supply chain was everywhere. You had a thousand different trucks. We had a loading dock that Ellie had to squeeze into. And Enrique, I’m going to tell you, I sat there and watched and all he could do it with his eyes shut. It was perfect, all in one perfect take. Enrique. That is awesome in my book. All right, how about this? We got a mix of volunteers and warehouse professionals from our friends at Books for Africa now, Mary Kate and Enrique, y’all may be familiar. Books for Africa is a powerful nonprofit, shipped more than 60 million books to all 55 countries on the African continent since 1988. Folks, you can learn more@booksforafrica.org.

(09:53):

Of course, our warehousing pros are incredibly important. Here’s some more. Getting ready to make it happen at Books for Africa. And then one last thing, and folks, we could spend three hours, 30 hours doing this and still be scratching the tip of a global holistic supply chain, but we’ve been amplifying the voice of reverse logistics and returns management for years. Be our friends, Tony Sheroda and the Reverse Logistics Association. These professionals here, I believe are with DB Schenker and I think they’re processing returned smart devices, remanufacturing, and getting them back out into the Ree economy. Now that space is only going to get more important in the years ahead. Incredible professionals across the reverse space. It doesn’t get enough attention. So Mary Kate, I don’t know about y’all, but I’m a very visual learner and just seeing all those snapshots, I wish we had time for a million others. It just brings to mind just all the incredible work that the people across global supply chain do every single day.

Mary Kate Love (10:52):

Yeah, and I think to Enrique’s point, when he opened up and talked about how this is teams and partnerships, those pictures really painted that whole picture, right? Of all these teams that work together every single day. So I’d love to see those and see teams having fun and celebrating too.

Scott Luton (11:09):

Agreed. Agreed. Hey, really quick aside, Enrique, a little curve ball. Before we get into some of the trends shaping our industry, what’s one of the coolest ways that you and the Vector team have celebrated some of y’all’s big accomplishments? I know y’all been throwing axes during a few adult beverages. What’s one of your favorite things to do, Enrique, with the team?

Enrique Alvarez (11:26):

We like experiences. We like to try new things. We once won to curling here in Atlanta and for both us, I didn’t know what curling was. It’s the little brooms and you’re having little rocks and you vice, and it’s a lot of fun. The point is, it’s just part of the celebration and it’s part of what we are celebrating here today with everyone around the world. And we just hope that next year people continue to send us as many pictures as they did to you, Scott, this time. And it’s a big family. That’s the way I perceive supply chain and the way that I see logistics and given all the hours and hours that the drivers and warehouse people and everyone dedicates to this industry for making our lives better. It’s just a very little thing we can do in return to just make sure they’re welcomed and celebrated.

Scott Luton (12:11):

Well said. We’re going to touch on next year and between now and next year, April 29th, 2025. It’s hard to even say that coming up what you can do because we’re going to take this to new heights and celebrating all the professionals. Okay, Mary Kate, we’re rocking and rolling right along. Let’s dive in to trends, huh?

Mary Kate Love (12:28):

Yeah, trends. So this will be fun. Please reply in the comments, trends you’re seeing too, because obviously we can’t cover every single trend. But we’ll kick off with Enrique to cover your top one to two trends that you’re seeing in supply chain. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (12:42):

Thinking about this before the show, I actually came up with a lot. This is a fast growing industry, fast growing in every single aspects of supply chain, but AI is one of the ones that we’ll continue to see, not only making predictions, managing inventories, production schedules, but just in general. AI will be applied to every single step of the supply chain. Some others, and one of that I particularly like is sustainability. I start to see how companies are moving quickly into sustainability and how important that will be. And that’s something very exciting to me personally. And as we continue to manage extreme weather patterns and ESG regulations and trends, that should be another good one. But there’s really plenty cybersecurity, last miles of service deck, electric vehicles, you name it. It’s an exciting industry to be a part of. It’s just going to continue to grow quicker and quicker every year.

Mary Kate Love (13:36):

Yeah, totally agree. Like you said, it’s changing every year, every day, every month. You have to keep on top of all these new trends and new technologies. Scott, how about your thoughts?

Scott Luton (13:47):

I’m going to steal this one thought here from Will Quinn Nearshoring. Yes. As Enrique, you and I and Mary Kay have talked about what’s going on in Mexico right now. Just as one example of nearshoring. It is a rock and roll economy and market down there from all the nearshoring and shoring opportunities. I’m going to talk about cybersecurity. It’s one of the two I want to mention because as Enrique mentioned, this technology revolution that we’re in AI and plenty otherwise, machine learning is still making greater impact. Don’t sleep on blockchain. Blockchains back. In fact, according to some research, it is the second biggest technology that executives are looking to invest in through 2024. But cybersecurity attacks unfortunately, are going to continue to multiply and become more complex, more diverse and more impactful. IBM says that the average cost, get this Enrique and Mary Kate Enrique, I know you got your little black book there.

(14:37):

So write this number in it when I share this. Okay, IBM says, the average cost of a data breach has grown to almost $4.5 million in 2023, man. Now, data theorem reports that 91% of organizations were hit with a software supply chain attack over the last 12 months. I’m surprised that number is not a hundred percent by now, and I bet it’ll be a hundred percent in the next 12 months. So obvious questions, Mary Kate, Enrique, that come to my mind. What is our cybersecurity plan, right? And does it take into account your entire ecosystem, your cloud providers, all of your suppliers, as we all know, it’s cliche now, but that weakest link, that’s the one, right? That’s the one. Really quickly. Number two, one of the reasons beyond all the people that make up global supply chain, of course, that we’re focusing on here today.

(15:23):

The second biggest reason I think is so exciting right now to be in supply chains is ongoing technology revolution, but it’s a must. It’s required. Global supply chain leaders and teams must embrace new innovative technology to keep up and advance, right? We hear a lot about operational velocity and just how much faster we’ve got to move to keep up with the demands from our customers, from our suppliers, from the whole ecosystem. All of that’s common sense in many circles in global supply chain. But I love this. I love how Jen McKean puts it, Mary Kate and Enrique, y’all know our friend, senior supply chain leader at Walmart, they have this mantra, they use people led and tech powered people, led tech powered. The human factor is what leads digital transformation. But for that to happen, Enrique and Mary Kate, business leaders must first figure out what business challenge we’re trying to solve and then select the right tool, be it technology or something else. And then if it is technology, successful human adoption starts with understanding the why. What are we trying to do as a team? And of course, without adoption of any new process, certainly any new technology, what do we really have in Mary Kay and Mary Kate, right? So cybersecurity a big bucket of technology stuff.

Mary Kate Love (16:38):

I totally agree with that. We’re both nodding our heads along especially about adoption, right? I think that’s critical. And you have to be realistic when you’re building new technology and how it’ll be adopted in the marketplace. So when I was thinking about trends, I’m going a little bit of a different direction to say, one of the trends that I’ve seen and that researched is that in venture capital investments, it’s actually increasing when it comes to supply chain technology. So where we’ve seen a lot of other industries maybe pull back on investments just given the market, that’s not the case with supply chain, right? The funding’s actually increasing, which would allow me to think at least that it’s outperforming other investments in other industries, which is just really interesting. And it feels probably to us about time that supply chain gets these investments, gets this attention because we really understand the power of supply chain.

Scott Luton (17:31):

Yes, yes. The power of supply chain much more powerful than the power of grace goal back in the eighties. For anyone that may have been watched the cartoons of the eighties, Enrique, He-Man, please tell me you were a big yes. I’m not a

Enrique Alvarez (17:46):

Huge fan, but I watched it for sure.

Scott Luton (17:50):

We watched a lot of Heman, Mary Kate, and Enrique in the Lutton household. Alright, so before we keep on driving here, because we’re going to get into some of the, we just talked about some of the technology and everyone knows the automation that’s taking place across the globe, and there’s a lot of concern about it replacing folks. I would argue that it’s creating a lot more opportunities and a lot more jobs than it’s eliminating. So stay tuned and yeah, maybe I’m a bit optimistic there, but it’s in my bones, it’s in my DNA, Mary, Kate and Enrique. Let’s take a couple comments. Hey, this is Fred Tolbert, the one and only Fred Tolbert. Fred. He had a nickname. He appeared with us forever ago.

Mary Kate Love (18:27):

Fred is great.

Scott Luton (18:28):

Yes, Fred is wonderful people. And now he’s turning on light bulbs there at UGA teaching classes. Now Fred says, if you’ve eaten a meal, worn some clothes, or driven a car today, thank an inventory planner for making the products available to you. Thank the warehousing and transportation pros for moving the products to your local store or delivery truck. Mary Kate, you are a rock star for your vision in starting national supply chain today. Mary Kate, your response there

Mary Kate Love (18:53):

That was almost poetic. I think that was a really great way to sum it up and to bring it down to what you experience every day is connected to supply chain.

Scott Luton (19:02):

Yes, absolutely, Fred, great to have you. Now, his nickname, do you remember the doc holiday of Global supply Chain? That was Fred Tolbert, it’s nickname that Greg and I gave him a couple of years ago, and Fred, it’s been too long. We got to break bread soon. Alfredo says, congratulations to all the members of this community and a hug to all of us who battle day by day in the supply chain process. Alfredo, well said there. Well said. Let’s see here. Jake says, while nearshoring is a physical infrastructure trend, let’s not forget the technology integration task to create a streamlined supply chain planning process, integrating those new partners, those code manufacturers, co-packers, et cetera. Well said there, Jake, Enrique, any comment there on he’s calling out. Of course, the integration has got to take place as we’re building an ecosystem that can truly move mountains.

Enrique Alvarez (19:52):

Yeah, there’s no doubt that the world’s getting smaller and smaller despite what we see in the media sometimes. And yeah, it’s going to be critical. And as you pointed out, Scott, I think that this is a big opportunity to create more jobs despite what we also here. The world’s going to continue shrinking.

Scott Luton (20:09):

Alright, speaking of CA from Delaware, great to see you via LinkedIn. See Ham, always enjoy your perspective as well. Let’s see here. Now, speaking of some of these jobs and positions and professions that are all being created with the global supply chain, tidal wave of innovation and change and a lot of exciting new things there, a variety of really cool new jobs and career opportunities that Enrique, you just mentioned. They’re getting made, created, born, left and right, and as we talked about, there’s lots of folks talking about jobs being eliminated, but man, I’m of the ilk, Mary Kate, Enrique, that if you raise your hand and volunteer and you are willing to learn something new every day and you’re willing to take on new responsibility and learn new forward-looking technology, right? And willing to deal with change, man doors of opportunity. Is it doors or windows? Both doors or windows of opportunity?

Enrique Alvarez (21:01):

Both at this point. Yeah,

Scott Luton (21:03):

They’re going to be a flung open left. Right? So I want to start with this. Mary Kate, when we talk about all these new jobs, what is one cool newer job that’s on your radar? Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (21:13):

So this one’s interesting because I was thinking about high level at first, but then to go for an actual example, I saw weirdly at Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation, there was a really cool new job posted that spoke. It’s basically at the intersection of city planning, supply chain and sustainability. So think optimal route planning how to service citizens better and more efficiently and how to do that all sustainably. And it’s calling for this kind of supply chain experience background, which made me think about how cool that city planning is also now supply chain too. So that one really stuck out to me as something I hadn’t thought about before.

Scott Luton (21:54):

Yes. And folks, if you’re out there and not in global supply chain and you need to plan anything, is there any greater expertise to tap into then the supply chain world, right? Enrique first respond to that role. Mary Kate was talking about that kind of intersection of city planning and supply chain. And then what’s one cool job that you’ve got on your radar that we’re seeing more and more of here lately?

Enrique Alvarez (22:15):

Yeah. Well, first city planning’s going to be key, especially as again, technology continues to expand and sustainability is some of the things that Mary Kay mentioned too. And I think sustainability is something that it’s going to be incredibly important in the future. Before answering my question with my, I guess, cool job to the future I read, and depending on the different companies that are doing this research, is there’s 20 to 30% employment growth projected for the next six years. So that’s a huge number considering all the people that already work in supply chain. And so it is an optimistic outlook out there, as you said, Scott, it’s just a matter of making sure that you keep your mind open to all those new possibilities. With that said, and I have a bunch, there’s really a lot of different ones, but the one that I would personally apply to bionic operators, have you guys watched all these robots? Did you put all this bionic implants? And you can lift all this massive

Scott Luton (23:09):

Traits, really like an exoskeleton? Yes.

Enrique Alvarez (23:11):

Just like, oh, I love it.

Scott Luton (23:13):

Yes. I wish I had one in high school.

Enrique Alvarez (23:15):

That could be a cool one.

Scott Luton (23:16):

Yeah. Yes. You put on these exoskeletons lift cars, make things happen. You’re like a super pro at that point. All

Enrique Alvarez (23:23):

The drones also kind of exciting and cool as well. Disruptor directors. There’s going to be so many, many different things out there. Yes. That it’ll be fun to be a supply chain professional.

Scott Luton (23:34):

Well, and Enrique, I was kind of kidding a little bit with the superhero component of the exoskeleton opportunities, but kidding aside, safety and eliminating repetitive injuries and just changing the day in and day out of that component of our workforce and making it easier for them to be successful, safer, to be successful, and to be more productive. So I love that. Great. Call out, Enrique. Alright, I guess it’s my time to share. Huh?

Mary Kate Love (24:00):

You’re up.

Scott Luton (24:01):

I am up. So I’m going to revert back to, I saw something the other day. LinkedIn published some research, I think it was back in January that showed what it considered to be, and gosh, how many other groups could have the position of LinkedIn. I mean that really put their finger on the pulse of this. So what they identified some of the fastest growing roles, at least in the us, a few of those were chief growth officer, which is probably, it sounds like an older role that they just kind of retweaked the title sustainability analyst, vice president and Chiefs, presidents of diversity and inclusion. So that’s great to see AI engineer, which I think you mentioned that Enrique and shouldn’t surprise anybody, but one I’ve seen more and more that I think we will continue to see more and more chief data officer, a c-suite role that isn’t just focused on the successful capture and utilization of enterprise data. That’s only part of it, but also focused on establishing the risk management approach. Overall governance, that’s not a bad word, despite how some parties attempt at making it a bad word due to their failure perhaps to govern effectively. But I’ll leave that for another conversation. Risk management, governance, capture utilization, all of that. I think we’re going to see a lot more formal senior leadership data roles in the future for global supply chain. Do y’all agree, disagree, Mary Kate, what you think?

Mary Kate Love (25:17):

Yeah, we always talk about especially that data piece that just being crucial to making any updates, improvements in supply chain. So I’m not surprised to hear that,

Scott Luton (25:28):

Enrique. I feel

Enrique Alvarez (25:29):

Like we’re just scratching the surface here. You also can dive into the packaging world and then you have all this amazing new materials that they’re testing and trying and carbon CO2 experts maybe, right? Someone that makes sure that you not only count how many CO2 you’re utilizing, but doing something about it as well. So

Scott Luton (25:47):

Well said. I think we are just scratching a service. It’s too much global supply chain. Even on today being national supply chain day. It is just too much to cover it all in an hour. It’s too much to cover it all in a day in a week. I mean, we’d have to eliminate sleep. We might make some progress in a year. I mean, it’s where we are. It’s really exciting. Let’s see what other folks are saying. Will moving your ERP and other solutions to the clouds a great first step to adding security redundancy and scalability? This also moves your data to a data lake to take advantage of AI and machine learning. Good stuff there Will, Jake says one of the trends emerging is the upskilling of the workforce due to tech requirements, a reshaping of the old school apprentice programs. Yeah, Jake, it’s a great call out.

(26:33):

I was just reading, I think PetSmart was a company that was bringing folks in, putting ’em into a rotational program and it was leading to a boost in their supply chain talent. So that’s a great approach there. Let’s see here. Alejandra says, happy national supply chain Day at Plan it together, advanced planning and scheduling to help businesses achieve greater agility and efficiency. Hey, it’s great to see you there and great to have you here, Alejandra. Okay, so I’ll try to make some more of these comments in here in just a minute, but I want to pulse y’all’s ability to predict the future. Mary Kate, Enrique, are y’all game for that? I’m in. We’re live. So I guess,

Mary Kate Love (27:09):

Yeah, we have no choice. Yeah,

Scott Luton (27:12):

So, so Enrique, I want to start with you. Let’s put our shades on, talk about the bright future of what lies ahead. Take a minute and paint us a picture of where and what the future looks like for global supply chain. Where are we headed in Rade?

Enrique Alvarez (27:26):

Well, one of our people that are listening to us today mentioned Nearshoring, and that’s very important. But if we talked about earlier about the technology and some of the cool trends in our industry, and then we talk about some of the new job positions that are going to be created. So you put those two things together and it really can go in many different ways. And I think it will go in many different ways. At the same time, it’ll go technology and AI on one end, robotics, machine learning, cybersecurity. So I feel like it’s just pushing the technological boundaries across the different careers and services that supply chain professionals provide right now.

Scott Luton (28:04):

Yes. Well said. Enrique and Mary Kate, you’re going to get a little different question here. Feel free to comment on that bold path ahead for the industry. And Mary Kate, I’d welcome any comments you have there, but in particular, what lies ahead for national supply chain day? And of course, how can folks plug in and make sure they know how to participate in the months ahead? Your thoughts, Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (28:24):

Yeah. National supply chain day, like we said in the beginning, is really a celebration of the people and supply chain. And really with this focus and this eye towards how can we shape the future of supply chain, and we can only do that through the participation of everybody. And so in the future next year, we might see, hey, people posting supply chain day events on this day and maybe tuning in live or maybe doing a tour with students or connecting with us on different programs that we’ve got set up too. So you can expect to see, I would say more events, more ways for you to participate. But my, I guess call to action would be we really want ideas from you on how to celebrate this day and you can connect with us. This easiest way is supply chain now.com/nscd, national supply chain day. And you can follow us on all of our social there, reach out on social, but we’re shaping national supply chain day. And so we’re open to any and all ideas from this community.

Scott Luton (29:24):

Well said Mary Kate and Catherine and Amanda, first off, thanks for what you do behind the scenes, the power of production, incredible team. But if you could put on the crawler, I think that’s what it’s called at the bottom, if y’all would drop that URL, that Mary Kate just mentioned, and make sure folks know exactly the central repository, the central landing page so folks can plug in and like Mary Kate said, give us your ideas. Enrique, you ever hear the phrase, we are flying the plane while building it? You ever hear that Enrique flying

Enrique Alvarez (29:54):

The plane while building

Scott Luton (29:55):

It? Yes. Well, you know what, Mary Kate and Enrique, that’s a little bit here, right? We know the overarching objective and part of the vision that Mary Kate laid out is we want to lift up an entire industry, especially recognizing, celebrating the people. And I love some of those ideas you mentioned having gatherings or meetups across the globe. How can we bring people into our facilities, really create more awareness. Hands-on awareness for folks, students, you name it. Who knows? We might be out in schools, right? Really helping light bulbs go off. No telling, but we’d welcome your ideas and what y’all want to see out there. Alright, a couple quick comments here before we move on here. Let’s see here. So Tyrone says, it is windows of opportunity, not doors. Kate and Mary Kate. So I’m not trying to alienate any of our construction folks out there.

(30:40):

Let’s see here. Gino says integration is going to happen. No turning back. Now in my old age, Gino says, I witnessed new tech come and go, but this is advanced technology and change is still change. Good stuff there. Tyrone says, I’m hoping for increased reverse logistics to minimize landfill impacts. Asset recapture is too often lost due to no reverse logistics. That’s an excellent comment. Tyrone, Mary Kate and Rick Kate. One of the trends I should have mentioned, especially being a big proponent for the reverse logistics space in our friends, there is the Ree economy. I’m not sure what the latest number is. I think the last time that I shared anything kind of dove into this Ree economy. I think Remanufactured, recycled Rewar, all that stuff, it was like $60 billion was the size of the Ree economy. Have y’all heard anything? Y’all have been tracking this at all. Do you lean into the Ree economy? Do y’all buy remanufactured stuff? Mary Kate,

Mary Kate Love (31:34):

I buy and used clothes. So there’s a lot of clothes that you can rent for a period of time and reuse them and it makes so much more sense than buying a dress for something you wear to a wedding one time. I’m

Scott Luton (31:46):

With you,

Mary Kate Love (31:47):

Small example. But I think a lot of people are doing that now,

Scott Luton (31:50):

A small example. But if millions of people do that and take advantage of opportunity, man, that is powerful. Enrique, this Ree economy. Well, I

Enrique Alvarez (31:58):

Think that’s more than a trend and I see it in my children. I mean, maybe we’re not like the right generation to materialize this fully, but it’s very clear to me and I think for everyone else out there that new generations are really going to just buy products from companies that are embracing this recon and sustainability and good people and good companies. So there’s no doubt about

Scott Luton (32:21):

It. Yes, no doubt about it. Going off on different tangent here, she says she worries a lot about how people rate or interpret supply chain. It’s a serious and difficult field requiring lots of math and stats. Now see him, I don’t disagree somehow I don’t know how they let me into global supply chain given my awful math and stats, statistics, skill sets. But kidding aside, Mary Kate put you on the spot. If you had one thing, one way to dispel any kind of misconception about global supply chain, if you were talking to a class of fifth graders, right? What’s one thing that you might share? Mary Kate?

Mary Kate Love (32:57):

I think the supply chain industry is for anyone who likes to solve problems. I think that’s a really, there’s so many different ways you can go with that, but it’s for anyone who likes to solve problems.

Scott Luton (33:08):

Yes, well said. I think at its very core, I might add planning and solve problems at its very core, but well said. Enrique, what would you add?

Enrique Alvarez (33:16):

Well, I love the international component to it. If you like to meet people from all over the world sharing same culture and values and supply chain, I think that’s an amazing industry. That’s the one thing that I really cherish the most.

Scott Luton (33:30):

Agreed, agreed. And again, the human factors is not going anywhere. It’ll be reimagined in many ways, but again, human led tech powered. So I probably owed Jen McKeen and our friends at Walmart some rights or some licenses for their mantra there, but I really enjoy that. Take Malinga happy national supply chain day. He’s glad to be part of the program. From Luaka what? Zambia, Southern Africa. Great to have you here. Malinga. Enrique, I’m going to put you on the spot perhaps with Pat Lansky’s question. I’m going to read it to you and this might be something you want to take offline with Pat. We’ll do this, but hey folks, we want to be here and bring all of your input as much as we can fit into this hour. Pat is asking about any thoughts about recent trends and consolidating warehousing in one key location with a large warehouse versus multiple smaller warehousing in different locations. This seems to be an ongoing transition in strategies. Enrique, do you want to grab Pat a beer and talk after the session or is there something that comes to mind really quick to address this question? Well,

Enrique Alvarez (34:31):

Both because Pat is the person you want to grab a beer with. He’s an interesting person, but I think it really depends on the geography. Some countries you see a bit more of what Pat is describing and some others you see a bit more of the approach of stored and some of the other warehouse big warehouse companies are doing. So it’s just a matter of being more efficient, being closer to your clients, reducing all those last mile distribution costs and being efficient. And that can look very, very differently depending on what industry you’re in. And then also what geographical location you

Scott Luton (35:02):

Are. Yes, really quick, Mary, I’ll get you to comment here, but Pat Lansky, wonderful leader, wonderful person, and if you’re ever in Minneapolis, make sure you get him to take you to the Monte Carlo Steakhouse. It is a legend up in that neck of the woods and enjoyed our conversation and a stake there. Mary Kate, anything to add? Warehousing? One thing that Enrique touched on, getting closer to customers, of course I’ve really found an interesting study with these urban fulfillment centers and just not only the automation and the technology, but the predictive analytics that allows effective positioning and placement of product. But your thoughts, Mary Kate, anything on Pat’s question?

Mary Kate Love (35:39):

No, I think it’s one of those things where you need a lot of data to make the decisions around what’s the best strategy for you, right? Because I don’t think, like Enrique said, there’s a lot of factors that depend on what might be the best for you.

Scott Luton (35:51):

Yes. Let’s see here. Jake says, Hey Pat, we’ve seen that this depends upon the vertical in question and importantly, the reaction time to either the consumer or patient, et cetera being served. Good stuff there. Let’s see here. And Jake’s also making a prediction. I would suggest you’ll see citizen developers morph into place replacing traditional planner roles, leveraging with a new role that leverages AI to jumpstart both interventions at the execution level, but also plan out probabilities and scenarios of things expected. That’s why he’s the John Wayne of global supply chain. Mary Kate and Enrique. Let’s see here. Adrian’s making a prediction, more mergers and acquisitions at the same time, more spinoffs. Mary Kate, you got your finger on the pulse of the m and a and the VC world. Would you agree with Adrian’s production there?

Mary Kate Love (36:39):

Yeah, I think as people are realizing they can be connected more and more and share inventory, share different things like that, I think merger and acquisitions will continue to be on the rise.

Scott Luton (36:51):

Yes, and Enrique, you’re not foreign to that space. Yeah, I

Enrique Alvarez (36:55):

Agree. A lot of consolidation still available. A lot of really smaller patient, nice companies out there. So yeah, that makes sense.

Scott Luton (37:02):

Alright, lots more comments here. I’m going to try to get a couple more before we start to wrap. I hate that even say that. Mary Kate Love and Enrique Alvarez own national supply chain day. Let’s see, Malinga says the future of supply chains is dynamic and strategic adaption is essential. Well said. Now that’s almost poetic malinga, just direct to the point. Succinct. See hims like, hey, that’s where the math and stats comes in optimization, that problem solving that you were talking about earlier. Alright, Tyrone’s picking up on the steakhouse reference. Let’s not forget. Supply chain management is no longer the optional appetizer. It’s the must have entree, table stakes as he said there. Oh, Tyrone, I love that. One more thing here, Jose says, while in the topic of problem solving, I’m back to Mary Kate there. Any companies working with technologies to streamline the manufacturing and exporting process between the us, Mexico and Canada.

(37:52):

I think Jose is looking for a connection or resource there. That’s what we’re here for. Mary Kate Enrique. Right, exactly. If y’all can help out, Jose, y’all do that please. Alright, so Mary, Kate and Enrique are, Tom has gone past way too fast. I cannot wait to see where we take this. I cannot wait. I really appreciate your vision, Mary Kate, and your passion for this global industry that powers everything and we all benefit because while the three of us are practitioners, the three of us are consumers just like everyone else. Yeah. We all benefit from the same industry we serve in. That’s a bit circular. So I want to ask y’all one thing before we leave, and that’s one of your favorite key takeaways from this conversation, whether it’s something we all said here, comments mentioned. If you want to throw in one more prediction, I’m going to give both of y’all a chance to weigh in one more time before I close this out here today on National Supply Chain Day April 29th every year. Big thanks of course to Enrique and the Vector global logistics team for helping to make it happen. Our inaugural sponsor, big time supporter. So Mary Kate, actually, no, no, we’re going Enrique first. Mary Kate, you’re, no offense Enrique, but Mary Kate, she’s close house. A founder. She’s cleanup hitter. She’s a cleanup hitter. There we go. Enrique, if you had to leave one thing with folks out there, whether it’s a key takeaway, a challenge, a prediction, you name it, what would that one thing be? Enrique. So

Enrique Alvarez (39:15):

For me, it will be a big, big thank you to everyone working in this industry. Again, we couldn’t really do what we do in the world, no matter what you do actually without supply chain. So big. Thank you. Happy, happy supply chain day. Yeah, keep it up. Well said. We need every single professional in this industry to keep doing what he’s doing. So thank you.

Scott Luton (39:36):

That’s right. And I think you almost created a new national day almost, which we’re going to get on the calendar soon. National supply chain, now day, that will sound, that might pop up, down. That’s farther

Enrique Alvarez (39:45):

Down the rest.

Mary Kate Love (39:46):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (39:46):

But Enrique, I love that simple way of rapping, showing gratitude. It’s so powerful. No one does it enough. Mary, Kate, what about you? What do you want to challenge folks with or make sure they keep front and center? One final thought you want to leave with folks out here.

Mary Kate Love (40:02):

I think to build on what Enrique said, I would say thinking about the future of supply chain. And we know that we need top tier talent to choose supply chain as the industry they want to spend their career in. So maybe we can all mentor one to two people or look for those opportunities to bring new younger people early in their career, students into the fold for supply chain. I think that’s extremely important. And Fred is doing that and I know other people are doing that too. Yes. And continue to invest in supply chain. I have to put that in there. We are seeing a lot of investments happen in supply chain and VCs like Venture 53 that are focused on transportation and logistics. Those are popping up everywhere and I think that’s an extremely important call to action is keep investing in supply chain.

Scott Luton (40:49):

That’s right. Especially the people of supply chain, right? Enrique and Mary Kate. We’ve got to invest in our people, continue to find ways of not only creating more fulfilling roles and careers, but helping them find the new skill sets they’re looking to gain. Right? Very, very powerful. Alright, and by the way, venture 53, shout out, I think we’ll be with the team there in Atlanta a couple months here. So look for key takeaways and great discussions to be had there. Alright, I’m going to add just a couple here. Mary Kate and Enrique. Enrique. So folks, if you don’t know Enrique Alvarez or if you do know him, he’s got a black top secret book where he captures all the market intel. I’m telling you, you could sell it on Amazon and make billions of dollars that way. But Enrique, how many pages did you fill up here today?

Enrique Alvarez (41:32):

I had a couple really good notes, great comments from the audience.

Scott Luton (41:36):

Wonderful. A lot we couldn’t get to here today. Yeah. Alright folks, couple things I want to wrap on as we wrap up. Just the live stream, right? Just the live stream national supply chain day, really, while we had to pick a date, Mary Kate and Enrique National Supply Chain Day can be truly celebrated year round and wherever across the globe. Really, it is a global industry. It’ll always be a global industry and it’s really important mindset. Keep it going, make it sustainable, make it sustaining and durable. But what can you do today or this week or this year even? Well, I would say Mary Kate and Enrique, picking up on what kind of themes both of y’all have shared. Hey, show some gratitude. Show some gratitude to all the supply chain professionals that you come across. All of us get packages all the time. By the way, minimize those returns. Do your homework. Let’s not add to the tidal wave of returns headed to oftentimes, unfortunately, the landfills everywhere. Do your homework, but show gratitude. Hey, Enrique and Mary Kate, do things ever go wrong as a consumer with your orders or your deliveries or just stuff you won’t look for? Of course they do, right? Enrique showed hesitation. Do you have always perfect orders all the time, Enrique? No,

Enrique Alvarez (42:42):

Not at all. There’s some issues from time to time for sure,

Scott Luton (42:46):

Of course, right? People aren’t perfect as we’ve established today. People power global supply chain. So when things inevitably go wrong, Mary Kate, how about folks showing some empathy? How about that, right? Alright, so show some gratitude, show some empathy. And lastly, buckle up folks. We got a lot more to come in the months ahead as we build out new, exciting programming for National Supply Chain Day. Once again, thanks to everybody for being here. But thanks to Mary Kate. Love your leadership, your passion, your vision. I’m honored to collaborate with you every day. Mary Kate, thank you both. This was super fun, completely agree, and big thanks Enrique Alvarez whole team over Vector global Logistics, not just for their sponsorship and support, but for truly making the world a little better place every single day. And what I mean by that, y’all should see the great and the endless nonprofit and good works they do beyond the great business.

(43:39):

Y’all check it out. As I’ve said this before, Enrique and Mary Kate, when I first met Enrique, the second sentence out of his mouth, Mary Kate, was, I’m going to change the world. We’re going to change the world. We are going to change the world. Love that. And I hear that a lot, but in the years since, I mean, I swear Enrique jumps out of bed every day to figure out how to make the world a better place. And Enrique high praise. But it comes from a very genuine place and I’m honored to collaborate with you every day as well.

Enrique Alvarez (44:03):

Thank you so much. And we all are in an industry where changing the world is a very realistic thing and most people do it every day. So thank you so much. It’s great to be here with you and Mary Kate. And again, congratulations to everyone out there working hard to get things done.

Scott Luton (44:19):

That’s right. Every day. Folks, thanks for being here today. More importantly, thank you for all you just thought Enrique was saying, you stole my line, Enrique, thanks for all that you do to make things happen across the globe. Solving those problems. Mary Kate touched on planning proactively, reactively, putting out fires, moving mountains, changing how business is done, man, that’s the human factor, powering all of that. So really appreciate that. And finally, with all of that said on Bath, the entire team here at Supply Chain now, thanks for being here. First off for National Supply Chain Day, but more importantly, hey, do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed, and we’ll see you next time. Right back here on Supply Chain. Now. Happy National Supply Chain. They are.

Intro/Outro (44:58):

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.