“Without having automated serialization and connection to the VIN, what typically happens is you have to overestimate the amount of vehicles that may need service [in a recall]. Having them can have a positive impact on the OEM as well as the consumer.”

Robert Fink is an Executive Vice President with Surgere

There are multiple levels and layers of inventory tracking needs that have to be addressed in the supply chain – especially in the automotive supply chain. Knowing where parts are, either on the road, in a plant, or in a customer’s vehicle, is absolutely critical.

Surgere began as a team of packaging consultants focused on reusable containers. The lack of supply chain visibility they faced eventually led them down the road towards software and digital transformation. Today they provide advanced asset visibility, data analytics and control through each segment of the supply chain and across industries.

Robert Fink is an Executive Vice President with Surgere and Katie Lewis is an Marketing & Events Associate. This episode is part of Supply Chain Now’s coverage of the 2020 AIAG Virtual Supply Chain Summit, which is taking place on November 5th.

In this conversation, Rob and Katie provide Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton with insight into:

• Yet another business task – asset/inventory tracking – that we shouldn’t be managing via spreadsheets
• What trends and changes they are focused on the OEM automotive supply chain
• Why companies often need just as much help locating products and materials within their own warehouses and storage facilities as they do in the supply chain

The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) is excited to be in the final stages of preparing for the virtual Supply Chain Summit event on November 5th.  The Supply Chain Summit is a not-to-be-missed annual production, and has long been considered the hallmark event of AIAG’s Automotive Supply Chain portfolio. Additional Supply Chain Now podcast episodes will be featured alongside a blockbuster lineup of Automotive OEM, Tier I, and 3rd party service provider presenters for the Supply Chain Summit.

Register for the AIAG Supply Chain Summit Today: https://tinyurl.com/y8axeflc

Intro (00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things, supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:28):

Hey, good morning, Scott Luton and Greg white with the here on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s show Greg, how are you doing? I’m doing great. It was a very good this, uh, I’m always, uh, looking forward to these AIG events, right? They kind of kicked off the virtual world for us. You’re right. And we were just talking about that. Pre-show because of some of the great moves that AIG made and enabling people to connect during an incredibly challenging year. So, but you’re still in my thunder. So for starters, for starters, on this episode, we’re gonna be talking with leaders from an organization that is helping to create much more visibility in the world. Supply chain, using science sensor based science, Greg, my least favorite subject in school. So I’m gonna lean heavily on your expertise and work through this episode, but you mentioned AIG.

Scott Luton (01:21):

So this episode here kicks off our coverage of the 20, 20 AIAG supply chain summit, right. Which is taking place on November 5th. AIAG, you know, we love our acronyms here in supply chain, automotive industry action group, and a lot of thought leadership, as you might imagine in the automotive world. And, you know, we encourage our listeners to sign up for that event. A link is in the show notes and in particular, we’re thankful for these guests here, which we’re going to introduce momentarily, that’s sponsoring the podcast series associated with this blockchain summit. Um, so one final programming, uh, if you enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to check us out and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. Alright, so now Greg, you ready to dive in now? I’m ready. All right. Fully prepped. Ready to go? All right. Yes, let’s do this with no further ado.

Scott Luton (02:13):

Let’s bring in our featured guests. We’re talking with Katie Lewis, marketing and events associate and Rob [inaudible] executive vice president, both with sir Jair. Katie Rob. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, welcome aboard. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And we really appreciate your company’s support of AIG programming. And of course the podcast series here affiliate with the supply chain summit. So thanks so much. You’re very welcome. Delighted to be part of it. All right. And we’ve got an excellent, uh, lineup, uh, that our listeners will be hearing from over the next few weeks. So stay tuned for that, but we’re going to dive into both of y’all for today’s episode, really looking forward to learning a lot more. And with that in mind, Greg, let’s see, you know, Katie, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from and give us, give us a Eureka from

Rob Fink (03:00):

Your upbringing. Same,

Katie Lewis (03:01):

Uh, I’m from Northeastern, Ohio. I grew up in the Canton area. So for those that might not know it’s the homo football hall of fame, 10 a day, small liberal arts university, just outside of Cleveland, uh, called Baldwin Wallace for my undergraduate degree. And then I went on to the university of Akron for my master’s degree. Oh, yes. Goes it. Um, my professional background is in government and higher education. Um, personally I’m happily married with one son and one daughter.

Rob Fink (03:34):

And what’d you major in, in school?

Katie Lewis (03:36):

Uh, sure. So my bachelor’s degree is in marketing and then my master’s degree is higher education administration.

Rob Fink (03:42):

Then applying that to industry, I bet industry folks can learn a lot from that background.

Katie Lewis (03:49):

Yes, absolutely.

Rob Fink (03:50):

So what was, you know, as, um, I was still in L a glance at your, your professional journey via LinkedIn interesting roles. What was a Eureka moment you had as you kind of wind through your, your professional journey here?

Katie Lewis (04:06):

Um, I don’t know if I would say there’s specifically one Eureka moment. Um, I would definitely say that I have often focused on being extremely productive and always putting others first. Um, I, and as you can see from my LinkedIn profile, that’s, um, a lot of my roles have been focused on helping and supporting other people. Um, and I think that’s something that I learned from my parents

Rob Fink (04:29):

Love that we need a lot more of that servant leadership. Yes. Yep. Uh, is music in my ears, Katie, and I appreciate you sharing that. Let’s switch over now. Let’s get a feel for Rob’s a POV, if you will, before we dive into all the good things that surge is up to. So Rob, tell us where are you from? And we’re going to find a Eureka moment with you too. I think. Yeah. Uh, so also from the Cleveland Ohio area, born in Boston, moved to Ohio, grew up in Ohio. Then here ever since a happily married father of two young girls like to play a lot of golf, don’t really score well, but hasn’t deterred me yet. Still get out there from a Eureka moment standpoint. I still try to embrace this, you know, throughout my career is that you’re never done evolving and learning as a person, uh, mentally, physically, that journey never stops.

Rob Fink (05:18):

And, um, you know, saying that you don’t know something or you’re unsure of something is really not a weakness, but a strength. So I try to embrace that constructive criticism throughout my life and, uh, tend to make my wife really happy when I can admit that yet. You know what? I was wrong on that one. And I can do better. You make your life a lot better when you admit you’re wrong as well. Well, I’ve learned that to you, you, you learn a lot and things seem to be just a little bit easier. Green. One of my, uh, favorite philosophers is a okay, admittedly fictional philosopher, big Tom Callahan from Callaghan auto parts, Tommy boy, you’re either growing or you’re dying there

Scott Luton (05:58):

Ain’t no third direction, right? I mean that, you know, and in its own way, that is a really great philosophy. You should always be thinking about growing, always trying to improve yourself. Uh, and that that’s the only way to continue to even maintain much less grow. Katie. Rob, if you can’t tell we, we subscribed to the classical, uh, classical philosophers. We keep it very enlightened here at supply chain now, but I agree completely that sentiment and Katie and Rob, I really appreciate what you both share on a human level. You know, we see oftentimes since we interview folks, it can be, it can be kind of a, um, a front, right. There’s an interview side and maybe a real side. And I really appreciate where both of y’all came from in, in that little extra tidbit about yourselves. Alright. So, um, let me ask one more question.

Scott Luton (06:52):

Uh, Greg, before we dive into the company, so Rob, why do you still have family in Boston? I do not. Okay. Uh, while I was going to ask, you know, uh, I’m not sure when you move from Boston, uh, but you know, living there right by the sea, all the seafood and, and of course, uh, an outstanding America world-class city. Uh, and if you ever went back very often and what’d you miss about it? I do get back from time to time. We moved, you know, when I was pretty young, so I didn’t have too many deep memories. Um, but yeah, do get back time to time and you kind of hit the nail on the head. I really missed the food. You really can’t get seafood like can get in Boston and Cleveland. It’s hard as you try, you just can’t find it. Yep. Agreed. Okay. Good stuff, Greg. Let’s, let’s get the work on the, uh, the business side. Well, I, you know, we kind of hyped it a little bit, right? So there’s, there’s a whole lot of, uh, sensors and science involved, but I’m interested for our audience to learn about what Sergio does. So, so Katie, can you and Rob share a little bit about that and then maybe each of you share a little bit about your roles in the company.

Katie Lewis (07:58):

So I’ll just give a high level overview that we’re, we are a supply chain management company focused on working with our clients. Um, our mission is to save the supply chain. Um, and we plan to do this through high fidelity data, advanced analytics using IOT and the surgery solution suites. So that’s our software suite. Um, my role within the company is, um, as Scott said previously, the marketing and events associate. So I plan a lot of our engagement with partner organizations like AIG, um, any major sponsorships that we have. Um, currently we have one with Andretti, Autosport, um, and road to Indy because of the relationship with the data and the analytics. Also, I, um, assist in a lot of our marketing and communications with our clients and potential clients.

Scott Luton (08:45):

So Rob, I mean is what you do, is it on board in vehicle analytics as well as a, whatever we would call it static analytics? No. So nothing as far as

Rob Fink (08:59):

Onboard as the is concerned, but really everything that has to do with assembling a vehicle is where we add value to our customers. So whether it be managing reusable containers, whether that be, uh, identifying and localizing where parts are either on premises, within the plant or the warehouse, um, better helping them visualize their transportation velocity data. We’re really here to enable them to do better, to achieve more, uh, through the provision of really high fidelity and accurate data to Katie’s point.

Scott Luton (09:29):

So it’s, it’s the inventory on site and in motion, I mean, being shipped to, or delivered to it’s

Rob Fink (09:37):

End to end. Yeah. Um, you know, we really started out as an organization with a focus on, uh, reusable containers, uh, and in RFID technology, but we’ve grown so much from there to whereby we’re really looking at supply chain management holistically, we’re using a variety of different sensor-based technology in addition, RFID, such as ultra wide band or low energy Bluetooth. So we’re, uh, we’re a use case driven organization bring, we make sure we bring the right tools to solve the problem based on the client’s use case and in ROI needs.

Scott Luton (10:09):

So can you give us a quick example of what a part or, or a component or, or, um, construction that you guys track, or I imagine people running around the, you keeping people from running around the facilities going, where is that X? What is X?

Rob Fink (10:30):

Yeah, you’re, you’re exactly right. I mean, what you find when you work with a lot of supply chain professionals is that there’s a lot of management that’s still occurring and very inefficient manners. You know, Excel is very highly leveraged, probably probably more leverage than it should be a lot of stuff happening in Excel, um, that shouldn’t, but to give you a high case level, uh, example, I’ll pick on return will container management, um, large OEMs have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in returnable containers that they manage that ensured that the parts that their suppliers produce get to their sites and get to their sites, you know, free of damage. So it’s important for them to understand where all that material is, especially at the supplier side, to make sure they have adequate inventory to pack and ship what they need to the OEM to not impact production negatively, and to make sure that they’re not receiving parts and, you know, cardboard that they’re not intended to be shipped in. So we tag and track that material as it travels throughout the supply chain. But additionally, we give our customers, customers the ability to associate what part is being transported in that returnable container. So when it, when it gets to their location, it’s being stored in a warehouse, for example, we have technology that can help localize it. So when they’re looking for a part and have, you know, 15 minutes before there’s going to be aligned side impact, and the lion’s going to go down, they can see exactly where that part is. They can

Scott Luton (11:54):

Go get it. Wow. You know, Greg, um, I used one of my earliest roles in the manufacturing arena was shipping out pallets of construction equipment to construction sites. And boy, do I wish we had sensors back then. I probably spent half my time, uh, because these pallets get lost all the time. And a lot of times they get destroyed and we were trying to mitigate our, our, our damage. Right. And for that matter our time, I sure wish I had access to surgery about 15 years ago, the too bad. We didn’t have the sensory technology at the time, but what, uh, that level of visibility that Rob just described. I mean, Greg, how powerful is that? Well, it is, uh, you know, I actually had a technology company that started the concept started as a spreadsheet where the cells represented shelf units in a room or something like that.

Scott Luton (12:49):

And I remember the, or it kind of replaced it in an application like that. And I just remember how frustrating that was. And Rob he’s kindred spirit with us is less needs to be done on, on Xcel and more using the kind of technologies that are available today. But that IOT technology is so powerful. And that is a great practical application of it. I’m glad you, and I appreciate you explaining that Rob, because as you are probably well aware, so many people are going, what do we use IOT or AI or blockchain or whatever for, and there are so many practical applications and so many of them already employed, like you’re doing that. I think as people hear more about those, they’ll start to see more and more where they can be used. And that’s just such a practical right. Point application for right. Hey, before we go broader Greg, if I can interject because Katie, Katie, as you were describing your role and your background, it seems like the surgery team really values building that sense of community amongst your users and your client base and, and, and your niche. Is that accurate?

Katie Lewis (14:00):

Uh, yes. Um, we often ascribed to the philosophy that we want to build raving fans within not only our clients, but also, um, our employees. So, um, we try to build that relationship with each of our individual suppliers, um, clients and within our team

Scott Luton (14:18):

Love that. And I love the emphasis on both, both customers and employees. We dove into the story behind Publix, uh, here recently. And it’s fascinating to see their, um, focus on both as well and how powerful that can be foundational philosophy to just by the use of terms, raving fans. So, um, you can see that you all are being guided by good foundational principles. I’m sure there’s a stack of books whenever you joined the company that you have to read through to write, to make sure you understand the culture of the company.

Katie Lewis (14:48):

Absolutely smiling, because yeah, you

Scott Luton (14:52):

Nailed it. Um, there is a pile of books that you do get upon your onboarding and, uh, yeah, we’re, we’re very much focused on creating culture, maintaining culture here at Sergio. Very important to us. Yeah. That’s, that’s clear. Um, all right. So let’s talk a little bit about the broader supply chain. So, um, you know, when you, when you take a look at what’s going, particularly in automotive and OEM, and there’s been, of course has been so much disruption, but particularly I think with transportation and we’re talking a lot about a lot of different, uh, approaches and changes in, uh, in transportation these days, tell us what has really got your attention, you know, an issue or an opportunity or a challenge or, or a news item or, or whatever. That’s really got your attention right now, Katie, you want to share,

Katie Lewis (15:48):

Um, I’m kinda going to tie back to Rob’s point about the returnable containers, even though we have the ability to associate them for our clients. Uh, it seems like they, the loss edge in that aspect is very large. It’s about 16, 18% that they lose those containers. Um, so it’s a financial issue for the suppliers and the OEMs, but it’s also supply chain management issue because they can’t find the right containers to go back to the right OEM, as Rob explained, we’re using the associations within the surgery solutions to help alleviate that problem. And we keep trying to investigate further to solve that issue.

Scott Luton (16:31):

Yeah. I could see that being a really expense because as you said, Rob, their purpose bill, right. To protect or contain certain types of parts or products or assemblies and, and when they’re purpose built that that spells dollar signs to me. So yes, and, and Greg also along those lines is the more we can optimize and, and, uh, drive shrinkage, shrinkage and loss out of the equation, more companies will really embrace. Those were usable containers and that that’d be good for everybody. Yeah. We, I mean, we, we know a company in the grocery industry who does that eggs just imagine shipping eggs, right. I mean, some of the products that you all track are probably equally as, as fragile in a lot of cases. So, uh, well, all right. So Rob, tell us a little bit about, um, what you’re seeing out there and what you think that means, or how that impacts, uh, your business. W w we’re a little bit different here at sir, Jerry, you know, we engage with a client. We don’t really look at that client as a client. We look at that client as a partner and our goal is to have a transformative impact with that client. So what we’re seeing as we’re talking to our clients in terms of how we can help them going forward is that there’s really a need for greater at the item level.

Rob Fink (17:50):

And I touched on that earlier. So whether it be, I know I’ve had this, I know I’ve received this item and I simply can’t find it in my, in my planner, my warehouse, that’s a big issue. We’re starting to focus on that. We we’re hearing throughout the industry, uh, help, help us find our product more quickly, but then secondarily on the item level, um, having the ability to serialize and automate the connection of a part specific VIN number of the vehicle from a recall management perspective, um, we’re looking at as again, having the possibility to have a very transformative impact as far as how warranty issues are handled, how recalls are handled, we’re seeing the, the ability for that impact to be, to be extremely large.

Scott Luton (18:32):

You don’t even think about recalls, right? I think from the layman’s perspective, you don’t think about things like that, but being able to trace and track and trace that back, uh, becomes really important because lot numbers become a big portion of the, uh, tracing methodology for recalls, correct?

Rob Fink (18:53):

Yeah. Very, very much correct. And, you know, without having that automated serialization and connection to the VIN, what typically happens is you have to overestimate the amount of vehicles that may need service. So this can have a positive impact to the OEM as well as the company.

Scott Luton (19:07):

Yeah. No doubt that there is nothing like that. I’ve actually had that occur. You take your vehicle back because it’s supposed to have a bad taillight or whatever. Um, and you probably know what brand that is. Um, and, and you take it back and they go, Oh no, you don’t have the problem. Right. So you feel, um, yeah. Irritation is understatement who had to do that on the flip side, you know, you’re kind of speaking to it from a consumer side, Greg, on the flip side, on the employee side, having led a manual traceability project where I didn’t have systems that, that Rob’s referring to. I mean, two weeks, if that a ton of lost time going back to track paperwork and sign offs, I mean, Holy cow. So I love what Katie and Robert both speaking to, and, and I can only imagine the resources and the time that it saves and what it adds to the bottom line.

Scott Luton (20:07):

Yeah. I mean, it’s exponential, right? It’s, you know, if you think about, because we’re talking about OEMs and, and automotive brands, I mean, it’s not just in the factory that it impacts, it impacts distribution. It impacts the dealer and the consumer and that, you know, those are a lot of extended portions of the ecosystem that really don’t want to be bothered with those things. And it creates a sort of exponential effect in terms of inefficiency as it goes out. So there’s a lot of benefit here other than from other than within the factory or within the supplier network. And there’s a lot of brand equity that can gained here as well. I would think because if you don’t have those erroneous situations like that, then you impact fewer and fewer people. Right. Well, put, as always, I knew I should have paid a lot more attention to study more in science class, be doing cool things like Katie and Rob, but yeah, that’s more Katie’s angle.

Scott Luton (21:07):

That’s more, you know, making sure that customer partnership remains strong right then than science, but there is science to that for sure, really appreciate what you share. But, you know, I knew that we had a variety of kindred spirits coming into today’s podcast interview with Katie and rod, because we’re all big fans of what AIG is doing to serve industry. And, and not only help connect people we touched on earlier, but also help, uh, disseminate and proliferate best practices amongst industry and appreciate what the surgery team has helped, how they’re helping to make that happen. So with that, as a backdrop and Katie let’s start with you and then we’ll get Rob chime in. I know that y’all have been a part of the AIG community, at least for several years, going back a few years, what’s been your, you know, one of your favorite, um, aspects of that involvement and engagement.

Katie Lewis (21:58):

My interaction with AAG is pretty new this year. Um, I’ve been working with them the last couple of months, um, somewhat in preparation for this, um, virtual conference. And I know that surge air has had a long standing partnership with them like you referenced, but I just really appreciate their constant support and their unbiased, willingness to give us education and resources of information.

Scott Luton (22:23):

Tony, we saw that early on in dealing with them. So Katie probably don’t know this, but, uh, we it’s our belief that AIG was the first company to go from physical events to virtual events. And they already had that in motion and they were able to pivot really, Oh my gosh. I said it, I’m sorry really quickly. Right around the time that, uh, around that March 13th timeframe, when all the lockdowns started, they were ready to go, uh, with, uh, with a summit that they had already had planned. So we were really impressed with the agility. And I think the important thing for us was that action in the name automotive industry action group is, is a clear initiative from their standpoint, uh, completely agree. And, and the people behind it I can to you’re kind of referencing. I mean, that’s been a great rewarding part of our journey to partner with passionate people like Jim and Tanya and the rest of the team, because it, you know, these are no small feats for sure to put on the types of events and, and the programs they do. So it’s been really neat to observe and of course be a part of it. And frankly, learn from a team is great. Put that we’re we’re trailblazers in this massive wave shifting from in-person to, yeah. So far ahead of the game. That’s right. Alright. Rob, same, same question to you. What have you enjoyed the most about, uh, engaging in the AIG programming and community?

Rob Fink (23:56):

Well, I think from my perspective, the fact that there’s really not an agenda other than getting to the right answer and doing the best thing and the interest of the community, um, I found there to be no bias, no politics everybody’s out and just to get, get to the right answer for the, for the, for the group. And that’s refreshing, you don’t find that very often. Um, while simultaneously I also think there, while there could be a significant amount of bureaucracy, there’s not, you know, things get done and things get done in a timely fashion with AIG. So again,

Scott Luton (24:25):

They use the same word refreshing. All right. I’m going to completely steal that from Rob the focus of just getting to the right answer. I mean, that, that’s real clear, isn’t it, Greg? Yeah, it is, uh, you know, in working with Tonya and Jim and the whole team, we we’ve seen it in coordinating this. Right. Um, so yeah, I’m, I’m really impressed with what they do. And, uh, I think they put together a really, really well, I mean the last event that we participated in was fantastic. They opened it up to instead of hundreds, thousands of people. And you could tell that the need and the desire was there because those thousands of people showed for us. Right. So, um, as we moved into wanting to interview down here, we’re going to make sure our listeners know how to connect with a surgery or here momentarily, but you know, this next event, the supply chain summit is when we focused on understanding the future of supply chain with a really big focus on the next five years.

Scott Luton (25:29):

Right? So, um, a variety of technologies, I think you’re going to break out sessions zone, and I think there’s going to be immense value, especially at the price point. I think it’s like $25 for folks to join in and be a part of that and connect with the community. So again, we’re gonna make it really easy for folks to do that by the show notes, the link in the show notes, and we’d invite you to do just that. So you can meet people like Katie and rod was her Jair that are doing great things, not just in automotive, but across industry as they touch on here today. All right. So the train now, the question Katie let’s let’s, uh, let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you in the surgery team.

Rob Fink (26:10):

Uh, they can catch us on, they can check us out on our LinkedIn page, LinkedIn slash search air, and that’s S U R G E R E

Scott Luton (26:19):

Uh, really have enjoyed our time, Greg. This is what a great start to the podcast series. That’s gonna be associated with this blockchain summit. Yeah. I’m, you know, I never cease to be amazed at where there is a business, right. I think that’s, that’s probably one of the most fun things we get to discover is that, and you know, this problem needs to be solved everywhere, but certainly in automotive where the parts are X are high costs and high value and, and impact the safety and wellbeing of people as well. Agreed. Okay. Well big, thanks to Katie Lewis and Rob think both with sir Jair really appreciate your sponsorship of this series affiliated with the 2020 AIAG supply chain summit. We’re going to see y’all on November 5th and again, appreciate your thought leadership and how you give back to make sure that folks in industry find solutions to problems.

Scott Luton (27:15):

Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. All right. Thanks Greg. Great, great lead off episode. A really have enjoyed this looking forward to the November 5th event. I mean, we had such a great time at the last event focused more on owned corporate sustainability, but you know, as much as we love that topic, of course, we’re just a bit partial of that overall supply chain, right. Maybe a little bit. Um, and I want to encourage the listeners to this particular show to ask Katie and Rob about that stack of books. I have my own guests. I don’t want to give it away here, but I want them to, I want people to understand what that stack of books is that drives the culture at Sergio, because it’s clear that, uh, from a standpoint of pleasing, pleasing the customer and meeting them where they are.

Scott Luton (28:03):

And, and also from a standpoint of servant leadership, that that’s a big part of how they exist. That’s an important part of being a successful company. That’s not standing call out and that’s outstanding wrap up for this episode because we, you and I both picked up on that early on in this conversation with Katie and Rob. So admire that certainly the Mark companies that take care of their employees as much say they spend time focusing on the customer. So it really important. Okay. So, uh, to our listeners, thanks for joining us for this episode. Of course, you can find a lot more episodes like this by searching for supply chain. Now, wherever you get your podcasts from, you can also visit supply chain that radio.com and we invite you to tune in next time on behalf of our entire team here, including Greg white and Scott Luton. Thanks so much for tuning in, Hey, do good give forward and be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see, next time here.