In this episode of the Supply Chain Buzz on Supply Chain Now, Scott and Greg discuss the top news in supply chain this week and welcome special guest, Bob Bova, with AccuSpeechMobile.

Intro/Outro (00:00:05):

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 (00:00:41):

Hey, good morning, Scott Luton, Greg White, here with you on supply chain. Now. Welcome to today’s live stream, Greg. Good morning or good afternoon. How are you doing? I’m doing very well. Scott, how are you doing? Doing fantastic. It’s a gorgeous day here in Georgia is crisp. I like that word. The sunshine is everywhere and it’s just a great day to be alive. I’ve got a great show teed up by the way. We’ve got awesome news, uh, of really informative news stories. And one of our favorite guests. Yes, the madman. I’m not going to give them away. No, I am a, we’re going to be featuring big show. Bob Bova, present CEO of Accu speech mobile. He’s going to join us about 1225. He’s got some big news to share with all of you. Cool announcements. Yeah. I’m pretty excited myself. Yes. And he’s quite a character.

Scott Luton (00:01:34):

I think our, our community is going to remember him from his appearance back at X and, and enjoy what he has to say. But Hey, the rest of the show is all about the supply chain butts and that’s where we’re tackling some of the leading developments across global supply chain. So let’s say hello to a few folks. And then Greg, we’re going to dive right in. Okay. Yeah. A lot of folks, ton of folks. So want to say Loda Kayvon is back with us. Come on. Great questions last week on sustainability. Jeff Miller. Jeff. Congrats. You got some big news. Can’t wait to connect with you and get a new series launch with you. Jeff hope this finds you. Well, Mike Guevara is back at it, Nick. Uh, it’s probably Nick Raymer I think is how we pronounce his last name. Nick, correct me if I’m wrong or Romer check us on that, Nick.

Scott Luton (00:02:20):

Yeah. Um, but love man, Nick, I don’t think gets any sleep at night. He is a beast on social, love it. Tag team, hashtag tag team, uh, Daria clay. The dog Phillips of course is with us. Along with Amanda, we have Sophia is back after her. She made an appearance last week, talking mirror golds. Uh Yunez is from Paris Felicia with the RLA is back. And she says it’s a beautiful day in Sacramento. Francoise. Great to have you back. Uh, let’s see here. Great article. You post about DHL passing the buck the other day, Greg. I think that was you. Yeah.

Greg White (00:03:00):

Uh, not, uh, not solely focused on them Francoise. Uh, but they were the target of the moment. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:03:08):

Gary Smith is back with us. He’s going to make an appearance on a couple of our shows coming up. Uh, dr. Michelle VAs is back with us and Nick says it’s rumor Nick rumor. I think you’re not both heading back

Greg White (00:03:21):

Wrong, Nick. Yeah. Thank you. Right. He says, rumor has it. I love it.

Scott Luton (00:03:26):

Chris jolly, Hey Chris, how you doing? Hopefully you and the, uh, the freight podcast is doing well. Uh, great to have you here with us. Okay. So we need to quick programming it before we get started to hear if you enjoy today’s live stream, be sure to check this out wherever you get your podcasts from Greg today on the main channel supply chain is a supply chain is now supply chain. Now, uh, we published one of my favorite recent episodes, really inspiring with Steve Sterling of map international and big nonprofit serving, uh, millions of people and people in need families need, especially with healthcare supplies and medicines and stuff like that. Yeah. Steve has one of the most inspiring stories you you’d ever meet. So, um, and we opened for the first time in 500 plus episodes, we opened the podcast episode with prayer and just really, yeah, the whole, the whole shebang was a powerful episode with Steve Sterling. Very inspirational. So look for that in the main feed and be sure to subscribe don’t miss conversations, just like that.

Greg White (00:04:28):

Yeah. So I’m going to get to hear that one, just like a guest. I, I think I had a board meeting when we were recording that. So, uh, I can’t wait to hear that one. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:04:38):

Uh, Matilda, Adrian and [inaudible]. So it was a great episode. Hey, really quick. Are, uh, IOT focused webinars coming up this Thursday, November 19th, we’ll be welcoming in Bob Slevin with open text, all about the new ways, powerful ways out he is being leveraged to join us for that. We’ve got links in the show notes and Greg hashtag trivia’s back looking forward to participating in the 2020 st picks virtual conference, which takes place next week and beyond us leading the trivia session. We’re also, you and I are going to be sharing some of our key takeaways from talking with over 300, uh, gosh, probably approaching 400, uh, supply chain leaders, uh, in 2020. So looking forward to that.

Greg White (00:05:26):

So I’m going to do that with a tuxedo. T-shirt on to say, you know, I’m formal and knowledgeable, but a lock to party. All right.

Scott Luton (00:05:38):

I love it. Great. I’ll hold you to it. If we don’t see a tuxedo shirt folks on,

Greg White (00:05:46):

Can you still get those

Scott Luton (00:05:48):

You bet. You know, you can, uh, and hello, D we’re catching up on a few folks here, Dave, and, uh, great to have you back near five. Uh, let’s see here, uh, AA is back with us. Uh, great to have all of y’all Mervin is back. Uh, so great to have everybody. All right. So let’s dive into a couple of headlines here, Greg. So first up in this report from the South China morning, post Stanley black and Decker abruptly shuts down its shins in factory. So Greg, after 25 years of operations, the us tool and hardware manufacturer, Stanley black and Decker shut down the plant on October 26. I think if I’ve got that date right, laying off a thousand people amongst the reasons, and there are several for the shutdown, this report points to how the industrial landscape is changing in, in, from a strong manufacturing base to a technology hub.

Scott Luton (00:06:41):

I think article even talked about how Shinzen is trying to rival Silicon Valley here in the States. But here’s the interesting, this is probably one of the more telling tidbits in this article. So, you know, we talk about the wage disparity between the markets a lot. And we’ve also talked about how, uh, good for Chinese workers there, that those wages are increasing, but for context. So one of the plant’s employees was quoted in this story about how in recent months, even with regular overtime, they were, they were, they were kind of proud of this. I mean, they, they embraced it as a good thing. They made about 5,001 or that’s about 746 us dollars in a month. And they were kind of touting you showing that as a sign of how busy they were. Holy cow, that doesn’t add some incredible context, the differences in the two markets.

Greg White (00:07:34):

Right. I think we knew, I think the average is something like 10 to $13,000 us a year. Cause we’ve talked a lot about reassuring and all of that, right. Near shoring, all of that became a topic as COVID hit. And one of the challenges that we have with that is the fact that that’s what we’re up against. Yeah. But interesting that they see that as costs soaring, right?

Scott Luton (00:08:00):

Yeah. It’s, it’s such a different mindset. And I had to reread that about five times as I was working my way through it. And we are, you know, that’s not unbeknownst to us, but just the start reality,

Greg White (00:08:12):

Is it logistics costs that caused them to shut it down? Or is it the labor costs?

Scott Luton (00:08:17):

I think labor’s big, especially with the evolving nature of the skillsets that are prevalent in chins. In in fact, um, they were talking about as the plant, as the word got out, the plant was shutting down within moments. There were swarms of HR leaders from other plants own at their front door, trying to recruit every single worker as a wrapped up so strong, uh, competition for labor amongst other reasons,

Greg White (00:08:42):

Maybe they’re going to try and use monkeys like the do for coconut milk.

Scott Luton (00:08:45):

Speaking of which, uh, Greg Nearpod, along those lines says Stanley black and Decker moving to Greenland for cheaper labor awaiting confirmation of penguins are allowed to work under Peter, right? England’s are socialists, Oh gosh, Benjamin gold. Claying his bat with us? Benjamin hope. This finds you. Well, my friend Jeff Miller says Asia times ran a story late last year, that housing and the cost of living in Shinzen has become higher than Hong Kong. Wow. A Murray her says that the disparity between pay and China and us is one of the key reasons. A lot of jobs will never come back here. Yeah. Great. All right. So moving right along our second story here today, this is a really cool one. A fast company is one of my favorite, uh, publications is not focused on supply chain. It’s focused on a variety of things. So in this article from Lara Sera, um, let’s see here. [inaudible]

Scott Luton (00:09:41):

I think I’ve got that right with fast company. Uh, the Clorox company shares some of the things they’ve been doing to meet unprecedented demand for its products. Now, Greg, one of our favorites here in the, uh, in, in, uh, folks we’ve interviewed from the Clorox has written McDonald, right? Best hair in supply chain. And it’s super talented operations guy. Yes. For baseball player at Georgia tech, uh, incredibly talent loves the workforce. One of the best things that he loves about, um, uh, getting out in his plants and tastic leader. Yes. And we’ve got an upcoming episode with SAP. We’re going to be releasing here soon, but regardless, let’s talk about this. So, so Lara interviewed Andy Maori, chief product supply officer at Clorox and Andy mentions of course, something we’ve talked about, historic demand for wipes in particular, uh, 500% and how, uh, production became complex due to social distancing.

Scott Luton (00:10:33):

We’ve talked about that, but here, here, uh, there are about four or five things in particular, as he kind of laid out how they were meeting in and as best they could to ramp up production. And so check this out first, they educated their employees on the virus and implemented safety programs. And at the same time also worked internally to streamline the focus, to really get behind about 15 skews. Second, they got with our supply chain partners behind each component. So think about wipes. You’ve got the canister, you’ve got the lid, the label, the substrate, the fragrance fragrances. And of course you’ve got supply chains behind each of those items, right? Uh, they invest the time into those supply chain partners to understand constraints and to share the best practices they are rolling out in their plants and their operations with their supply chain partners.

Scott Luton (00:11:26):

Third, they added more than 10 external manufacturers to supplement production. And then fourth, they leaned more and more. They’re already had some smart factory technologies already in the works, but they had to lean on those more heavily portable wearables, smart glasses in particular because they couldn’t pop engineers on planes to go, you know, fix things or develop work arounds or, or innovate, you know, on the, on the factory floor. So they use these, um, um, uh, different communication tools so that engineers could really troubleshoot it remotely. So really interesting. You know, we’ve seen that, we’ve seen a lot, of course Clorox thought leadership and some of the things they’ve done in the news a lot, and I really liked this interview and we’re going to have to get Andy Murray on the show with it.

Greg White (00:12:15):

Yeah, I think so. I think, um, I doubt his hair is as good, but he’s got a different perspective on being in the sourcing end. He’s got a little bit different perspective on that aspect of the supply chain. Whereas Rick is more focused on getting it through the facilities. Right. I agree. It’d be interesting to get them both on. Wonderful. Wonder if they’re nice to one another,

Scott Luton (00:12:37):

The new CEO, uh, we will get them all on.

Greg White (00:12:40):

Well, let’s just get the whole company, the Clorox hour. All right. So in the forties, right? Like a radio show Clorox. Oh gosh. So moving right along clean comedy

Scott Luton (00:12:56):

Moving right along. Interesting take here in our deep dive segment here on the buzz, this was a Newsweek opinion piece on rebuilding tech manufacturing here in the States. And Greg, I can’t wait to get your take on their tech. So tell us more,

Greg White (00:13:11):

I have a feeling you’re going to get a little bit more than you bargained for Scott. I may have made a few notes here. Uh, so let me just give you a quick run through of what this is about. This is two authors, dr. Henry Kressel and David P Goldman, who are a really established, studied, highly accredited and involved deeply in the, in the manufacturing industry, particularly for electronics and telecommunications and semiconductors. Right. I can’t really speak to all of the, uh, complexities of economics here, but after, I don’t know, 20 minutes of reading through this a couple of times and 40 minutes of, of, of note making in terms of analysis, it appears to me that this, this is where they’re at. They either pined for the world where of physical things, um, and consider that as what makes the economy go around. Uh, that’s probably their paradigm from their days at bell labs and RCA industries.

Greg White (00:14:20):

For those of you who don’t know RCA used to make televisions and radios and that sort of thing. In fact, I believe they invented the, or is that right? Invented or were one of the first producers of the phonograph? Their logo was a dog, whether it’s ear to a big prize phonograph speaker. Um, I’m not even sure if they’re still in business anymore, but, um, in any way, considering all of that, they opine on the dangers of supporting inefficient us producers yet in the very next paragraph, they lean toward government intervention. They’re touting in industrial policy, I’m doing air quotes here to promote and protect us manufacturing and providing subsidies to us manufacturing in response to Chinese subsidies for similar manufacturing. And as, as an example, they suggest that the application of subsidies could have say the U S solar panel industry. So for those of you who don’t know the frown Hofer Institute at Georgia tech invented solar panels, um, and in, in the early production was done by us and German companies until China reduced prices by 67%, the cost to produce and subsequently prices by 67%. So in making their argument for subsidies, they S they kind of ignore actually, they explicitly ignore the, in, in the economic inefficiency of costly labor in Western societies, they ignore, uh, customer sentiment. Um, and rather than encouraging greater efficiency in us firms, they promote more subsidies, but then they state with an exception. So subsidies should not be universal because they can create cronyism and, um, the well, the supporting of inefficient producers, right?

Scott Luton (00:16:22):

And the government getting behind, you know, picking the winners and losers are afraid,

Greg White (00:16:26):

Right? But they note as an exception, um, semiconductors and telecommunications should be that exception and should get subsidies even in the face of potential cronyism. And look, the argument that they use is national security and, and the economy I can assure you that the government military industrial complex recognizes the risk of having semiconductors and telecommunications created outside of the U S and that they’ve provisioned for that. Um, you know, they clearly have some awareness also of the economic implications as well. So even though they don’t announce that properly, you can bet that the government has provisioned for that precisely that risk off shore chip and telecom production.

Scott Luton (00:17:18):

You know, it was interesting, uh, speaking to the key semiconductors that mentioned an article F uh, the U S invented the semiconductor, it’s now $400 billion global industry. And the U S has only been able to maintain a 10% share is according to the article. I thought it was,

Greg White (00:17:36):

I think that what we have to acknowledge is that the production of things is economically too expensive in the States, especially considering, and I’m going to get to that part of their argument as well here. But, um, you know, my thought is if this were really an altruistic on America, first kind of campaign campaign that Warburg painted Pincus, dr. Cresol his private equity firm could easily invest enough of their $53 billion fund to help support and revive the industry. If they felt it were economically viable, which clearly if they’re not, and they are not, they don’t think that it is economically viable to do so. The subsidy of these industries, by the way, will not substantially change the workforce, the opportunities for the workforce, because even in China, where it is a large portion of the production, the production requires highly, highly skilled labor and intensive automation for the precision that’s required to, to produce, um, the, the semiconductors and that sort of thing.

Greg White (00:18:44):

So this article to me seems to be based on either, well, it look like they exposed their bias when they announced that the exception should be semiconductors and telecommunications and industry, that both of them have worked pretty substantially in right miss, uh, dr. Uh, KES Kessel is, or Kressel sorry, dr. Kressel is, is a senior managing partner at Warburg Pincus. Again, affirm with adequate means to facilitate this if they felt like it. So here’s what I think they really want. It seems to be an appeal based on either clinging to this agent concept that physical manufacturing is the stronghold of America. And this presumption that physical goods are the only way we can elicit an exchange of value and currency, or more likely here’s what they’re, after more likely the potential of the mentioned investment possibilities, they mentioned friendly, friendly, uh, firms and friendly nations, Ericsson, and Nokia, and an appeal to the masses to incite them, to compel the government, to do as these experts suggest.

Greg White (00:20:01):

So this is really a covert cash grab by opportunistic investors in this article, in my wow clearly with $53 billion under fit that’s B as in Bezos kids, um, under management, they could instigate a solution today, again, if they felt like it, it was really, that was really the goals. So look, this is a manipulation of public sentiment to try and get us, to get government, to subsidize using the raw America American worker thing, which is a complete farce, because most of, of the development and production here is either highly skilled, not average wage workers or automation. So just, this is my, this is my notification to you remember, particularly with op-ed pieces, you are always being manipulated always. And this is the manipulation that is in my opinion, is underway here. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:21:02):

Excellent sound analysis as always. And it really, we all, I think in this day and age, when, when you’ve got pieces like this, that are proliferating out throughout traditional media, new media, you name it. It’s not always about what’s in it. It’s about the objective behind it. And Greg, you always can see through that with such clarity. So, um, regardless an interesting conversation to be had, uh, uh, conversation provoking piece. And we’re going to talk a lot more about, uh, rebuilding the manufacturing industry here and what that will look like in the years to come so good stuff there. I mean, there are legitimate

Greg White (00:21:42):

Reasons to, to consider, um, subsidies in the short term for these industries, but frankly, if they’re not sustainable without them, it’s too much of a burden on, on an already overburdened government with an incredible amount of debt. A lot of which is owned by guests who China, and we really afford to go into further debt when, um, you know, our biggest, our biggest competitors in terms of production, Japan and China own a huge, huge portion of our national debt, right? It’s a dangerous play. And knowing that little bit about economics helps you see right through what their real goal is with this article.

Scott Luton (00:22:28):

Um, moving right along, speaking of John, of course, a big development over the weekend, 15 countries, including China signed a major trade deal called the regional comprehensive economic partnership, our sip new acronym, uh, acronym number 3 million, 297,000 blockchain. But we’ve got a secret weapon. That’s going to come in and break this down, not today, but, uh, we’ve got a trade secret weapon. Greg, you may remember the speaker at the Georgia logistics summit a couple of years back. Uh he’s he’s gonna come in and he’s going to cut through no, no, we’ve got, we’re keep it under wraps, but it’s coming. So that’s big news. Of course, gentlemen motors, cutting production at two plants, Arlington, Texas, which is a big SU SUV plant and bowling green Kentucky, which is Greg,

Greg White (00:23:13):

That is, is that the vet plant

Scott Luton (00:23:16):

Corvette plant. Uh, but there are, um, a lot of the reporting here is that they’re really Todd while there’s a pandemic concerns. It’s more about their Mexican, uh, uh, supply chain partners and some of the things going on there. Uh, massive container shortage continues. Uh, Nick, Nick rumor, we’re talking about this and social, uh, it continues to impact global trade, especially on the 40 foot containers. It’s interesting. Yup. And grocery stores in the U S hence the Clorox article earlier are starting to reinstate purchase limits. So we’ll kind of see how that goes. Hopefully we’ve learned a few tricks up our sleeve from the last go round, but, uh, just, you know, maybe not expect it, but it’s starting to take place here. All right. So no shortage as always have things to talk about in global supply chain, Greg, but in this next segment, you and I both are looking forward to getting a Frank take, but also a lot of good news from the one and only Bob Bova, president and CEO of Accu speech

Bob Bova (00:24:20):

Mobile.

Scott Luton (00:24:23):

Hey, Hey Bob, good afternoon. How are you doing?

Bob Bova (00:24:26):

Not bad, not bad at all. How are you guys doing

Scott Luton (00:24:32):

That’s right. Uh, Bob, last time we connected, we were in person that mode X had a wonderful well received episode, took a deep dive on kind of your background and what act speech mobile’s up to. But one of the things that didn’t come out in that interview, Bob, I didn’t realize you’re a Syracuse.

Bob Bova (00:24:49):

Yeah, I’m a fan. I’m a new mom. Um, you know, I just found out today that, uh, our beloved coach beehive has tested positive for COVID where I’m like my love coach. Hopefully you’re going to be okay. Um, but yes, I’m a proud Orangemen. I’m sorry, orange. Can’t see orange when I went there. It was no, no offense, man. Um, but, uh, no, I I’m, uh, very involved with the university. It’s a great place for school. I have, um, uh, friends of mine, uh, youngsters would go there and, uh, yeah, I’d try to help out. I mentor kids who are from Southern California that go there and, and, uh, it’s a great school. I love that side. I’m just pleased that they still allow me to tell people that I went there.

Scott Luton (00:25:38):

Well, Bob you’re in demand around, around these parks. Uh, so great to have you back, Greg, where are we going to start with Bob here today?

Bob Bova (00:25:45):

I have no idea. Scott really doesn’t matter where we start with Bob, because he’s going to go work. We got, let me just get started then. Okay. So tell us a little bit about, about Accu speech mobile. Tell us a little bit about what you do there since, uh, we’ve met, um, at Onex, um, obviously, you know, the world changed and I would say probably from, uh, April and may, it was, it was just crickets, right? Because no one knew it was impossible to understand what was happening. It was impossible to understand, um, what the supply chain was going to go through. Um, you know, all the different things that occurred. And then right around June 15th, the phones start ringing. We need it, we need, we need productivity. We gotta get more people in here and we need, you know, so since about June 15th to right now, we have been probably doing two installations all the time.

Bob Bova (00:26:53):

Um, and it has been, uh, challenging for many reasons because we, you know, when we go on site right now, there’s, there’s a lot of, um, the precautions that need to be taken. And we follow them to the letter, whatever company that we’re going into, funding a voice automation, you know? And, and, but I, let me just say this, I have never been as impressed as I’ve been with the supply chain during this, the people that are in our industry, who basically said, you know what, that’s just a fricking put on the helmet and let’s go, and they have worked tirelessly to try to put things on the shelves tirelessly to make sure that every, every thing that is needed gets to where it needs to be. I mean, last mile delivery up to like say containers and everything else. I mean, I, I have never seen a group of people work so diligently and intelligently to get everything over the line. And, and we’re proud to be a part of it because never have I seen anything like it my whole life. Never unbelievable.

Scott Luton (00:27:56):

I agree. And, and you know, it really has been one of the silver lining. We talk about all the time because we should talk about it all the time, the respect and the awareness that the consumers globally have for all the folks in global supply chain that have been protecting our psyche by keeping things, moving, these folks deserve capes and, and all of our respect. So hopefully that sticks around Bob, if I can back up for a second, I want to make sure folks know when you’re talking about installations and voice picking in a, in a nutshell, tell us what Accu speech mobile does. Just, just to level level set a bit,

Bob Bova (00:28:28):

Not a problem. I actually smell. We voiced automate workflows in the warehouse, also outside the four walls, but, but right now we’re, we’re, we’re, uh, an essential provider of a critical service, uh, in the warehouse and distribution. Uh, we’ve voiced automated applications, um, with picking obviously, which is a very high density voice, but also receiving cyclic count at anything that people want to voice enable, uh, on their mobile devices in their warehouses. And what we’ve done is by being able to automate voice, automate these applications, the productivity increases, and this is the Supreme challenge of, uh, of employees and workers. I mean, there’s so much turnover. People are staying home because they’re ill. And they’re like, how do we get these folks trained up fast? How do we get them to rate in a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks and all the features and benefits of what we do for companies where just all of a sudden, the light shown on it and say, Hey, let’s just get this in and let’s get our folks using it. And we’re, you know, like I said, we’ve been very blessed, um, just working all across the country, installing as much as we can, as fast as we can so that it helps people move stuff from a to B. And I don’t care if it’s a manufacturer or a three PL everything.

Greg White (00:29:48):

So I’m curious, Bob, is it, is there a segment of products that people typically use it for? Is it using at retail each picking level, or is it pallet or case or just

Bob Bova (00:30:02):

Everything right now we’ve got, Oh, you bet. We’ve got some customers that do do primarily case picking, uh, the implementation implementation for a very large three PL that we’re installing right now is all eaches. Um, uh, and also a tote consolidations. Um, any, any PR workflow process that they’re utilizing, um, in a warehouse to move goods, um, can, can benefit. And I mean, the, the reason that I’m here today besides, you know, seeing you guys again is, you know, we, we have a big announcement today with zebra technologies, um, that, that even takes this another step further. And, uh, okay. So, uh, today, uh, the zebra and can speech were very, very, uh, very proud to announce, uh, the full functionality and, um, voice automation capability of the new zebra HD 4,000. So their new heads up display now is fully capable and functional with the standard act.

Bob Bova (00:31:04):

You speech runtime and the standard IQ speech, um, shopper developers kit. So anything that heads up display can do, we can actually voice enable it. We can push the applications to it. It can be integrated with anything that the WMS can do. It is a seamless integration of, for users, for training, for looking at, uh, looking at images, any capability that those classes have now is fully functional with our voice capability. And when you combine that with the automation that we can put on, like say the TC sevens, all of a sudden you have a fully functional and operational ability to have visual learning and laudatory learning. And you can, what does this look like? And you can see a visual of it, or where am I he’ll tell you, you know, exactly where you need to go in. You get to hear it. I mean, the combination is incredibly compelling.

Greg White (00:32:03):

The last for the warehouse, right? I mean, does it have a little, uh, visual, um, frame?

Bob Bova (00:32:12):

Oh, no. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what I say. We, we, uh, we have a, a go to URL capability that, that can show any type of image, uh, and it can be tied to a barcode that was scanned, so you can see exactly what you’re supposed to pick. Um, it’s, it’s pretty amazing. And the really neat thing about it is, um, it does not require a battery they’re extremely light safety glasses. Uh, they don’t get had that and everything is connected right to the zebra device. So it’s really, really functional. I w I mean, basically what they’ve done is they’ve taken that promise, you know, from three years ago, and, you know, combined with our active speech technology, the sky’s the limit for this stuff now, and, you know, zebra, they will continue to add, I would say, you know, salient, uh, features to this so that we can go, you know, even more, uh, in terms of its capability. So, um,

Scott Luton (00:33:05):

I want to go back to a key point, cause I’m hearing, I’m hearing two big advantages here. I’m nimble one, uh, even before the big announcement, it’s about shortening that learning curve and getting folks, uh, up and running and being productive as quickly as possible, which is great for everybody. Right. Right. We all, we all, as, as worker bees, we all want to feel like we’re being productive. Right. Uh, it’s good for the company, you name it, but now it sounds like with this big announcement and, and some of these enhancements, it’s really increasing, uh, productivity levels,

Bob Bova (00:33:36):

Right. I think so. And accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. And so now wherever you go, and as these glasses evolve, you know, you’ll have the ability to utilize other capability where you’ll be able to scan over a location and it’ll highlight a location. I mean, where are these glasses are going? And the ability to be able to control anything in the application that you’re using or any of that functionality together. So that again, we’re automating everything, the glasses, the application, I mean, it’s all one thing so that now, you know, users can say, Hey, you know, this is exactly what I want this to do. Um, it’s, it’s, I mean, it’s a lot for like say visual cues, auditory cues. Um, but the real, I mean, when we talk to customers now, w there’s still this move from Microsoft to Android, as you guys know. Right. And, but now we’re saying, look, no, you there’s, there’s so much functionality with the HD 4,000.

Bob Bova (00:34:39):

This is a platform for the next 10 years. You’re going to be able to, now you have, you know, the ability to have an intelligent wearable plus, you know, an Android based app, you know, device, which runs all kinds of wonderful applications, you know, the flexibility to, you know, upgrade, update your WMS and all the applications on it. I mean, this is a big deal. And we have been just bombarded with requests for proof of concepts, for, uh, you know, onsite online demos. I mean, we do three a day. And if people know this is, this is what people have been waiting for. A lot of companies see it. Yup. Yup. It’s like, as long as it’s safe, right. You can see right through the glasses you have, but it’s still improved safety. They’re real safety glasses. And I, I am just so impressed with the job.

Bob Bova (00:35:26):

Zebra did on his, on his own to get excited about not unlike this, where we were talking about pallets and IOT pallets and things like that. And we got everyone got really jacked up about that, but I totally get the value of this. I mean, imagine it has speak back capability as well. Right? You said, you can ask for a URL or a visual or whatever. Right. Well, what we’ve done is what we’ve integrated into our standard, um, tool kit is by integrating with the glasses. Now you can, if you’re going through like your stamp, we’ve automated the picking application, for instance. And now all of a sudden you’re also wearing the glasses. If you scan a location or scan a product, we now have the ability within that grammar set to say, you know, show a chosen it. And then, then the capability we have in our, you know, in our software, it says, okay, click got to go to URL.

Bob Bova (00:36:23):

This is the barcode scan. Now that can, that image can reside on the WMS server. It can reside on the internet. It can reside in front end. It doesn’t matter. Just go to this URL and this part number and click on it. And it’s bam, there it is. And by the way, pick six. And then when you get to a point where if you come to that and all of a sudden, you know, you say, well, gosh, there’s like six cases are damaged. Well, then we usually have to go out and do that with our stuff. Just say, damage six. It does it all in the background. And you just keep going. You just, you just go and go and go. And, and you know, you can continue to do what you want to do with all, you know, using robotic process automation, all that other stuff in the background gets done automatically. And it just, it’s, it’s a real exciting time. And it’s amazing how, you know, necessity is the mother of invention, right? So here we are in these very challenging times, and here’s a text that says, Hey, let’s just move this forward. And you know, we’re working with our channel partners saying, Hey, let’s move these con you know, these customers from windows to Android, that’s going to mean devices. Let’s, let’s port their stuff over. Let’s add voice tone. And, Oh, by the way, if you want some glasses, you can add it whenever you want.

Scott Luton (00:37:40):

I’m going to get some sets for my kids. And maybe we improve the efficiency of chores and

Bob Bova (00:37:45):

Fixing up their room.

Scott Luton (00:37:50):

It’s here. Uh, so Jayman says, Hey, Bob, Boba your neighbor, just down the road here in Newport beach, grateful for another. So cow Frendo own here, we have to get y’all two hooked up Jamie, a heads up our logistics and beyond podcast. So, uh, warehouses fulfillment centers, you name it, um, a lot of conversations around that. Also want to share it. Of course, uh, Kayvon says supply chain 4.0, I mean this one, a great example of the industry moving forward. Uh, let’s see here. Oh, comments are we’re coming

Bob Bova (00:38:22):

In. Larry Klein. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:38:24):

Uh, David says I can see a lot of useful applications for that. Larry Klein says this could be in an inventory application or for a service tech speak with a system subject matter expert to God, the technician.

Bob Bova (00:38:36):

That’s, that’s an excellent point. Actually, the, the, the real penetration that Google glasses may, um, is in mobile inspection, maintenance and repair, but it’s primarily just to make a call and either, you know, go have someone look at what you’re looking at, or to look at a, how to video. And what we want to do is we want to take that to the next level where, what you’re actually doing data collection, where you’re looking at, um, you know, you’re looking at, you’re looking at method and, um, you know, if it’s damaged or, you know, and that’s another step that we’re going to take, that we’ve already been working with two companies on that already. Um, but you know, from the usage outside, the four walls is very different than the usage inside the four walls, right. And right now inside the four walls is, you know, how do I get all this stuff from a to Z?

Bob Bova (00:39:24):

And that’s us being able to help that delivering 25, 30, 45% more productivity and eliminating errors, and again, training people up faster. That’s what it is. I mean, you guys had talked about, you know, bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U S these big companies. They can’t find enough people to work in the warehouse. There’s just not enough boats. And, you know, so, you know, let’s, there’s ways that we can, you know, provide, uh, economies of scale of efficiencies so that they don’t need to worry about 35% turnover every 90 to 120 days. Uh, but also once you give people the best tools to work with the chances of them staying increase, that stickiness really important,

Scott Luton (00:40:16):

Russ says it’s an outstanding job, making a key piece of safety, a functioning job assistant. That’s a great comment, Mike. And by the way, Mike aver keep the, keep the articles coming. Uh, I can’t respond to all of them, but you’ve got some great analysis on what’s out there.

Bob Bova (00:40:31):

When you say heads up display, it’s like making fighter pilots out of, right out of pickers because they can speak, they can speak to the technology and the technology can speak to them, right? Go pick six. I picked six damaged six because those are damaged, as you said. And, and the interaction is instantaneous that way. And it’s a natural, I mean, it’s just such a natural way to learn and, and engage in the job. There’s no question. And the fact that we automate the application as much as we can automate it anyway, the fact that we can add all the benefits of this with a visual component. I mean, as you guys know everywhere else you go in is different. I don’t care if they all use the same warehouse management system, all those applications are customized and optimized to do the work that they do.

Bob Bova (00:41:25):

Like. So when you can take this component and go another step and say, Hey, this is what we can do for this. And I can, I say help, and you can put a little, okay, what can I say here? And you hear where the, what the location is, and you can see the location at the same time. Again, you’re increasing the safety for the, you know, for the user. But I mean, there’s so much capability. Uh, it’s, it’s really pretty amazing moving to the stores. If you think about it, not, not just because the stores are starting to become fulfillment facilities, but because the stores are so lightly staffed these days. And Bob, I mean, if you I’ve worked in retail, I know we’ve all been in a retail store. How many times have you asked where X is? And it’s here, they’re everywhere right.

Bob Bova (00:42:19):

Everywhere, but where you are. And imagine the glasses being able to identify, Hey, show me where X is. And, and it shows all the spots in the store where you might be able to do it. Well, I think you’re absolutely right. And I think that, you know, again, as benefits get added to this technology, there will be an RFID component. Where is this? You know? And like I say, and if you’re in a warehouse, you can look over and it’ll scan and look and say, this is the location you’re going to go to, and then you can see it. But then all of a sudden it lights it up for it because of an RFID tech. I’m sorry, go ahead, Bob. No, we’re getting Jetsons on this, right? I mean, so, and, and again, one of the things about the zebra HD 4,000 that I love is that it is so it’s like wearing a regular pair of glasses.

Bob Bova (00:43:09):

Yeah. They look like regular safety glasses. They are, they are regular safety glasses. And I mean, some of the bigger, you know, the Google glasses, smart glasses stuff, they’re big, they’re heavy. Um, and, and the, you know, they have zebra kind of went at it from a different angle. I think, you know, instead of trying to put, you know, the whole house in these glasses, zebra said, Hey, we’re just going to be able to take all the functionality that’s on our devices and anything that you want to utilize on the glasses you can. And I know that they’re very excited about where the future is going to be in terms of the features that there’s going to extend to. But it’s nice that they didn’t try to boil the ocean. Right. It’s like here, we’re going to offer this and, and use your customers are going. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s a great way to start. You know, here you go, let’s go

Scott Luton (00:43:59):

Excitement. And we’re getting into comments. Let me share a few more comments. Also, clay and Amanda, I just forwarded you. I think the official press release, we got, um, own this new partnership. You could drop that in the comments please. So David says, Hey, this is fantastic for inventory control layer says would’ve been invaluable when he worked for Salinas. Uh, Mike Avis has an interesting comment, uh, that could change the whole technology could change audit process as a lot of auditors have not been able to travel due to COVID and I’ve had to rely on secondhand info, pictures, et cetera, complete an audit. That’s really interesting. And Gary, Gary, great, great comment here. This technology makes unskilled workers skilled almost immediately, and there’s a lot of folks agreeing to gear in the comments.

Bob Bova (00:44:45):

All of these companies are hiring hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers, right? Yep. A lot of these companies, a lot of these people are they’re nomads. They’re. I mean, if you look at, at certain Amazon facilities, they have an RV park outside several of their Amazon facilities and our grandparents are going and stay in there and working for the holidays and then moving to another town and working at another Amazon facility. So as Bob said, even in the, the same segment of facility to Amazon, I’ve seen multiple variations because of the configuration of the exact real estate that it’s contained in. So this cuts that learning curve down to little or nothing. Well, the ability to be able to hand someone, a headset and the glasses, you know, the four thousands and say here, just put this on. You can say help at any time you can say, what can I say in any time you can say, can you show it to me at any time?

Bob Bova (00:45:43):

Now, all of a sudden, all your critical thinkers, your workers can change to do their job. And let’s say these folks come up to rate in a week, you know, and they’re like, I don’t need the glasses anymore. I know I’m going to keep them, I want to have on. And then even from a managerial perspective, you will have the ability, you know, like, especially if they’re doing callbacks or, you know, whatever managers can wear the glasses and do checks on callbacks and do checks on all different kinds of things, you know, what’s this supposed to look like, what am I supposed to have here? There’s I mean, the ability to have the fact that the, the functionally really worked well, all of a sudden opens it up to all kinds of opportunity because we’ve been dealing with, Oh yeah, this is going to be great glasses and gray, you know, virtual reality.

Bob Bova (00:46:28):

Okay. Well, you know, at a hundred thousand feet, sure. It makes sense. But now all of a sudden it works right. And you take it. Okay. I’m using this in my warehouse where, and, and I know one of the things that we’re working with, zebras product development team, they are very interested in feedback right now. They want to know. And I, and I think, um, and, and we had just a terrific experience working with them and having this, uh, you know, having this validated, they were, they were as excited as we were. So it’s been a good partnership so far,

Scott Luton (00:47:01):

And you make a great point because it can’t be up in the a hundred thousand, um, uh, altitude. It’s gotta be opera, it’s gotta be executable operationally. And it empowers the workforce in a real meaningful and practical way. And what I’m hearing is, is, is that’s exactly what, um, this technology has enabled. And it’s not something that takes, you know, six months to implement and then figure out how to use it. But I mean, cutting down on that, on that, um, standup time to where it’s really impacting the bottom line and impacting workforce in a very meaningful way very quickly is what I mean.

Bob Bova (00:47:37):

Well, th the, the thing that’s very compelling, first of all, in the age of COVID the, the fact is that the people are, you know, really working very, very hard to try to get everything where it needs to go. But with our technology, since we are a device based technology, you can deploy one unit at a time. You don’t, this is not one of those great big, you know, you pull the big, you know, what do you call it? The young Frankenstein switch and everybody switches over, right? You can be having our technology already in, um, you know, on like it’s seven series or a 6,000 series. And all of a sudden you can buy a couple of pairs and say, Hey, let’s, let’s try this. You know, when you plug it in and you see how it works, just like people deploy our standard, you know, voice the tech.

Bob Bova (00:48:26):

Um, it can be one at a time, 10 at a time, one warehouse at a time it’s entirely up to management and that’s a benefit where they can say, okay, yeah, this is great, but you know, if we want to use it here in here, no, I had no idea we could do this. And so once you see that functional capability on your floor, right, once you plug it into your device and we show you what you can do, then, you know, that’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful, just, you know, from our standard tech is that, you know, we optimize your existing stuff one at a time on a device. If you want to deploy that way, this is exactly the same type of scenario. So it’s a strategic, it can be a strategic ad. Not necessarily, everybody’s got to have one ad, which I think makes it very compelling. So,

Scott Luton (00:49:10):

So we’ve got a great question. Uh, Kyle Garcia, Kyle hope this finds you well, they’re on the West coast up in the Pacific Northwest. It’s been a, it’s been a while. Um, Kyle says, do you foresee these unlocking productivity efficiencies by tracking the pickers foot traffic? And he goes on to say in adjusting, picking locations, employees, and Marie mentioned something along these lines. Speak to that a little bit, if you would.

Bob Bova (00:49:36):

I think that, um, there are wonderful, uh, software applications now that run, especially in high density warehouses, where they do route optimization. Um, I also think that there is an opportunity, uh, to collect more focused, additional data, um, on trends, like say, Oh, uh, routes, um, all different kinds of things. And, uh, we’ll be making an announcement about that in the first quarter of next year. So the, the, as we become more Kyle Garcia, Bob that’s actually, we went to different high schools, a little bit like a softball they’re in different high schools together. Now, I don’t know mr. Garcia at all. But, um, the, one of the things that we noticed was as continue to, um, really get into workflow analysis and we automate these workflows and we see how companies are doing what they’re doing, you know, the ability to, again, beat per device and get down to a very granular level, that information can be captured real time.

Bob Bova (00:50:48):

Right. And, and some of our customers are going well, you know, that’s actually kind of cool if I could see that. So we’re, we will affect the, uh, you know, that’s something that we’re looking at very, very closely now. And it just like, um, mr. Garcia was saying the fact that it would be interesting to see how many times this image was asked for how many times was this, you know what I mean? And also you can start to track if there are errors, you know, clearly not systemic, but is there any reasonable reputation? I mean, why is that happening? You know, so we’re, uh, my, uh, my real smart guys came to me about three months ago and said, you know, boss, we touch every single one of those transactions and that data, we know exactly where those objects lie. And I thought, okay, well, you know,

Scott Luton (00:51:37):

That’s a Tom rapper makes a great point here for, for contact tracing how these, this, this application could be utilized for that. So kind of a, a different advantage in a different direction. Uh, so th that, that’s a great comment.

Bob Bova (00:51:50):

Yup. I think, you know, the, the challenges right now that everybody from the floor manager to the users to the VPs of operations are, are challenged with right now, or are just amazing. Everyone’s full from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. We’re all just to doing the very best we can, but I think that there will continue to be a systemic forward move towards, um, automation, whether it’s voice automation and user automation, whether, you know, when robotics makes sense that kind of automation, uh, robotic process automation. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s gotten to a point now where if I can make my workers better, faster, you know, it’s going to help because now that we’ve had COVID, you know, and, and God blessed that, you know, everything happens and the vaccines come out and, you know, everything works, but now, you know, history repeats itself. So if this were God forbid ever to happen again at any, you know, even at a smaller concentration level, you know, we need to make sure that, you know, we can move forward. Cause this was a contingency that no one planned for nobody expected demand, spikes like this, nobody expected, you know, the supply chain to, you know, to have to just go at a a thousand percent. Um, and I think it’s given everybody a chance to kind of sit back, go, okay, you know, I guess anything is possible. And it’s true. So this is a whole new thing to have to plan for outside. And for all those four operates,

Scott Luton (00:53:26):

Kevin Garnette, any, anything is possible as he, as he shared after we won the championship. But, you know, Greg speaking of that, I shared with you over the weekend, kind of a replay from a, um, an end of 2019 kind of a look forward into what 2020 is gonna be about. And Greg and I got a lot of good chuckles out of our lack of foresight, but we’ve all, all we’re caught up in that. But Greg, I think you want to comment on what, what Bob has.

Bob Bova (00:53:50):

Yeah. Just real quick on that point, someone just asked me for what, what do you think a 2021 is going to look like strangely enough, that I reflected on what you had just sent this weekend? And I’m thinking, I’m not sure I want to do that. Let me, let me, let me check my magic eight ball here. So keep it, keep it handy because that’s my question. I mean, I love hearing about what you guys are doing. And I think, I think we all get the incredible value that it presents. I mean, just the number of ideas that have been presented here in, in the stream. I’m sure you’ve thought of them like, like Kyle’s, but, um, I think we all see what the possibility is, but as long as we are about to go into 2021, Bob, and, and as much as you’ve got your magic eight ball handy, bef I would hate to let you go without asking you what else you see out there, whether it regards what you guys are doing at Accu speech or, or something totally else.

Bob Bova (00:54:52):

What are you seeing in supply chain that has your mind share right now? The paradigm has changed. Um, people talk about shifting paradigms all the time. This was a seismic break. People who have been conservative in their approach to adopting, uh, technology’s evolution, migration, um, changing their WMS, uh, as they’re, as they’ve gone to, I mean, e-commerce has exploded, right? So now you’re shipping everything to everyone’s home. So this seismic paradigm shift, um, is forcing people, uh, in our industry to finally say, okay, nothing’s on the back burner anymore, nothing. Okay. We need to make sure that if anything, like this happens again, now we have the right tools in place for at least we know we’re moving and evolving in a direction that at some point it’s going to be taken care of. And that’s where I get back to a platform for the next 10 years.

Bob Bova (00:55:58):

And this is not waiting for a new Android operating system. Like we used to for wind to like used to wait for windows dishes. And about this is now an operating system that you’re going to be able to develop and utilize for however long you want to utilize it. It’s an operating system that you can exploit, uh, maybe a WMS upgrade, a WMS change, where you can say, look, here’s where we need to go. And by embracing that there is going to continue to be, um, technologies like the HD 4,000 and other things that are going to come along that are going to be empowered by Android. That’s going to change the way we do our job. And that was absolutely critical during this whole period, because we had to move instead of moving 400 things a day, we had to move 400,000 things. Right.

Bob Bova (00:56:51):

So it’s like, okay, so this could happen. Okay. Well, yeah. So now all of a sudden it’s like, okay, so what I see is the continued proliferation of micro fulfillment centers. I think we’re, I think we’re going to see more of that specifically in urban areas, because again, e-commerce has exploded. I want it at apartment four C in a story of, you know, on 12th, 12th, and that’s where I want it. Okay. And by the way, I want it now. Okay. I need it now. So as that continues to proliferate, and it will, there’s going to be a need for, uh, automation technologies in smaller warehouses, which will, which will of course lead to an evolution of the, some of the robotics, because they need to get smaller and work in smaller spaces. And we’re seeing some of that now. I mean, it’s going to happen, but for, uh, for, you know, human employees, being able to put something on their head and in their ear, that base and being hands free and saying, okay, Jim, I’ll go get him. You know, it’s like, you know, go, go ahead and do what you gotta do. Right. And being able to do multiple things at the same time update, you know, you’re doing cycle counting, you’re doing everything happening real time and having dashboards, you know, if you’re the floor manager saying, okay, I see this, I see this, I see this it’s. I mean, you can’t wait anymore. You just can’t, you have to have a plan. You’ve got to invest the money. And, and, and you really now is the time, if not now, right?

Scott Luton (00:58:28):

Not a flavor of the month. This is like the e-commerce shifts. It’s like the Ford pass being introduced to football. I mean, it’s here to stay and, and it’s only, we’ve got to figure out how to, how to react to this, this new permanent, uh, buying patterns consume consumption patterns, you name it. So love this, uh, uh, this technology, this big announcement that Accu speech mobile has rolled out with great books over it. And zebra technologies. I want to share a couple of comments and then circle back to Bob, Bob, uh, in a minute, we’ll make sure we get you connected with our audience, but got a slew of articles of comments from Sophia wants to know when they can schedule a free trial.

Bob Bova (00:59:08):

Just go to the website, just go to the website and click on the, you know, want to say it. Um, I’d like either an on-site field. Sarah, I want to see the, I mean, the demo online is great, you know? Yeah, absolutely love it. And we’ll make sure spell that out. Cause we

Scott Luton (00:59:22):

Do have it in the show notes too, but bourbon says, Hey, this is similar to what Greg had mentioned about box lock. If applied in freight containers to track the number of items and where they’re being removed. Excellent point there Mervyn, uh, Kayvon says plan for resilience. Gary says resiliency. Plus agility equals adapt, adapt, um, adaptability, the new supply chain paradigm. Cavon agrees with that. Here’s one, one final question. And then we’re going to make sure our folks can connect with the AA, says and hope this finds you well in the air capital of the world, Wichita, Kansas, is it foreseeable that the system could collect enough data to prescribe optimized workflow and warehouse utilization in the near future? And Bob what’s your reader’s digest answer to that.

Bob Bova (01:00:12):

Stay tuned. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it certainly CA collects the data. It’s just Bob. I think it’s just a matter of choice, whether you decide to do the optimization or you, whether you decide to enable other optimization with data, right? So when you have, when you have a real-time true measurement per hour, per day, per shift, per division per, and all of a sudden you can look at things, you know, you get an opportunity to look at something in the short term, if there’s a wound open, right. And you really got to, it’s like, Oh gosh, you know, we can do this, but it also, there’s an opportunity because we touch all this data to look at something that might not be critically systemic by this systemic. And then all of a sudden say, you know, if we tweak this workflow a little bit, we changed segregation a little bit. Maybe we could, you know, we could fix this or again, you know, the way folks pick the workflows that they use with the con, I mean, everything’s evolving. Everything is evolving. Real-time, it’s changing every single day.

Scott Luton (01:01:16):

See it says the blockchain turning a black mirror episode into real life applications folks, great points, Chris Barnes, by the way, Chris Barnes, by the way, a host of our supply chain is boring podcast series here in supply chain. Now he commented when we promoted your appearance here today, Bob, he commented at Bob Bova is an icon in the voice hands-free flow industry. So, uh, I know that you’re a nice tip of the hat to Chris, but Chris,

Bob Bova (01:01:46):

He’s a warehouse WMS pro I mean, he’s the guy that you go see on the top of the mountain. When you have a question, I am, I am, I am humbled by that. And he’s a good man. He certainly knows what he’s talking about. Well, maybe not when it comes through, but I mean, we’ve, we’ve come. I mean, our customers drive our development and the ability be able to voice Naples just about anything just about anywhere for just about anybody in any language you want. Um, you know, people, many times, it takes a little bit for folks to understand that it actually does do exactly what we say it does. But now with, again, with our increased partnership with zebra on the 4,000 and other things, um, you know, w what we’ll do is we will in fact continue to deliver, uh, new products, new services, new information, and so that our customers can exploit real-time data to their, um, you know, to their benefit and like, say, Q1, we’ll have a whole lot more to shape up this. Awesome.

Scott Luton (01:02:59):

Y w we’ve dropped the press release into the comments. Uh, the team’s been on it. They also dropped the demo request, a direct URL in the comments, got your LinkedIn profile on the show notes. But Bob, as we wrap here with you, as much as Greg and I hate to do it, how can folks connect with you and Accu speech mobile,

Bob Bova (01:03:18):

Again, just go to the website, mobile.com. You can request a demo. You can get in contact with us. You can send me an email, uh, beat Bova at X speech, mobile.com. And I’m happy to talk to anybody who wants to chat about it, talk about our successes and what we’re doing and where we’re growing. Um, please let us know, cause we we’re, we’re proud to help. And I know a lot of you out there are just busting your butts, trying to make good things happen. And you know, we’re, we’re here to help. So well said,

Scott Luton (01:03:48):

That’s a great place to, Hey

Bob Bova (01:03:50):

You, my dad said to say hi. Oh, awesome, fantastic. Big Bob, big vibes. He listened to it. And he’s like Bobby, when he talked to those two fellows, tell him I said, hello. All right.

Scott Luton (01:04:04):

That is awesome. We gotta bring him on we’ll, we’ll figure that out. But, uh, really that, that really, that really is special.

Bob Bova (01:04:10):

You know what a time. Well, we appreciate it.

Scott Luton (01:04:15):

That’s right. Baba, president and CEO at Accu speech mobile, congrats on all the big news, congrats on, on moving and shaking and, and shaping the industry forward. And we look forward to it,

Bob Bova (01:04:28):

Reconnecting with you soon. Hey, keep doing what you guys do. All right. I’ll say we certainly will. Thanks so much. Bye now.

Scott Luton (01:04:38):

Wow. That is, you know, he’s one of our favorites and, and hopefully our audience,

Bob Bova (01:04:43):

Well, everybody sees why. I mean, they are really changing things. And clearly Bob just cares about, about serving the industry. I got to tell you, there’s a couple of takeaways there. One is when he said we prioritize what our customers ask us for. That is a lesson, no matter what kind of solution provider you are, that the market is telling you what your solution ought to be. If you’ll just listen. You know, I was thinking about tequila, sunrise, and some of the advice we give to two founders on market

Greg White (01:05:18):

Research. And, and that’s exactly the kind of market research that more companies ought to be doing rather than saying, how can this help you? This thing that I’ve built, how can it help you? You should go to the market with an open mind and open hands and say, what can I give you that can solve the problems that you have, right.

Scott Luton (01:05:41):

Uh, big fans of Bob and Therese and whole team over at accurate speech mobile. Y’all check them out, make sure you get connected to them. Uh, with the links we put in the stream and in the show notes, speaking of tequila, sunrise, Greg, you’ve got a big interview this afternoon.

Greg White (01:05:57):

Big. Yeah. I better not be late because I’m interviewing the CEO of Kanaxis John Soccard. Um, what we did, uh, uh, just a real quick discussion. Mostly, mostly he’s not, he’s like Bob in a way, basically he’ll say anything in front of his marketing people. So there’ll be off his back so that when we do the recording, he can say whatever he wants and he and I are. Um, I’m gonna, I’m gonna just give a little bit of a spoiler here. He and I are in violent, violent agreement as to what happened, needs to happen with supply chain forecasting and planning, and, um, some of the technologies that are delivered to the supply chain space. So it is going to be a fun discussion.

Scott Luton (01:06:40):

Wait, so here’s your moment to the audience. Hey, check out tequila, sunrise, T E C H Keela, sunrise, and subscribe. So you don’t miss that episode. We’ve got some great comments here. So T T square hope this finds you well via YouTube and he’s enjoying the nourishment so far. You’ve got, Sophia’s dropping in a zebra HD 4,000 links. Mervyn really enjoys the work that, um, uh, Bob and the team are doing. Uh, David, uh, completely great. David says his passion shines through in spades, right? Greg?

Greg White (01:07:14):

Yeah. I mean, this is all he does. It feels like it’s all he’s ever done. I’m sure it’s not, but it’s all he does. And that is it right there. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:07:23):

Come on. Good, great. Call-out we love featuring folks that are really driving change, whether it’s, whether it’s, you know, technology, innovation change and industry, and that empowers the workforce and that enables them to be more successful or alter the change. We all have to, um, you know, acknowledge it that the heavy lifting has got to take place a great call out there. All right. So Greg looks like we’re dropping in the subscribed note to cue, to tequila, sunrise to so their own. Yeah,

Greg White (01:07:52):

No, because this week is not John’s episode. We’re recording it today at two o’clock, as a matter of fact, Eastern time. So everybody make sure I don’t say something stupid. Um, and then, and then we’ll drop it next a week from Thursday. Hey, one quick thing, Scott, before we go here, you said, um, you said supply chain, the way that supply chain has changed is like the, the forward pass being introduced to American football. And all I could think is it’s like the forward pass being introduced to American football with Patrick Holmes, being the very first quarterback, OBJ being one of the first wide receivers. Right. And, and, uh, the screen pass being discovered at the same time. I mean, it’s that kind of disruption, isn’t it? You’re right. It’s just like all the evolution that could have taken in would have, we know, would have taken decades to change. Supply chain literally happened overnight list.

Scott Luton (01:08:58):

And the, the in continuing that, that analogy you threw, you threw out there. It’s also like when they introduced the Ford pass, you know, back then, I can only imagine that the audience, the fans, ah, what is this? And they were probably on the fence for awhile. This is like, we’re there immediately want that and only want that and want a lot more of it and continue that analogy. So it’s, it’s a fascinating time to study it industry in a, such a, um, it’s so rewarding and fulfilling to be able to do that with all these folks in the community that, that always show up and comment and post questions and pose their POV. So hopefully all of y’all enjoyed this episode of the buzz, this bonus episode of the buzzer, as much as we did, um, you know, Greg, uh, pleasure to do it with you lo always love reconnecting with Bob Bova and the team. Uh, we’ve got a variety of, of resources that we covered on the front end, in the show notes, making it really easy. One click is all we’re after. Uh, Greg, the only last thing I want to share with our audience before we sign off is we drop the new episode.

Greg White (01:10:04):

What’s that? Yeah, no, no, go ahead. Go ahead. Let’s see here

Scott Luton (01:10:07):

A new episode of this week in business history, and if you’re a big business history nerd, like I am, I think you’re really going to dig it. It’s uncovered a story over the weekend. That was completely new to me. It was a story of Rose knocks and Rose knocks was one of believe it or not. You probably, you may not have heard of her. She’s one of the leading business women business, people of the 20th century. And what, in a small nutshell, you have check out this week in business history for the, for the rest of the story as par, we would say, um, so powerful husband and wife team, right? The Knox’s they, they purchase a gelatin factory a few years in of it being really successful. The husband passes away unexpectedly despite the pressures of the day of all the folks, the circle of friends and, and, um, the network that surrounded Rose knocks, all of them pressured her to sell everything and told her that a woman should not be running business. This is again, back in 1908, I believe she said, Nope. The fight of all took over the reins and built that into mover and shaker still the largest gelatin manufacturing company in the world. Wow. Yes. Yeah, that’s right. Um, and Greg, she introduced a five day work week, 13 years before Henry Ford did and, and decades before unions clamored for it. She instituted a two week, two weeks of vacation and paid sick leave. And we’re talking in the early 20th century back when workforces were taken advantage of and abused

Greg White (01:11:41):

So many towns, seven days a week. Yeah,

Scott Luton (01:11:45):

She is just amazing. And one last thing I’ll leave with you is at the time, again, this is, this is early 20th century when there were so many injustices, well at the factory, a four-story factory up in, um, I think Johnstown New York, the back door was kept open because certain members of the workforce were forced to enter the factory through that back door. And the day she took over, one of the first things she did is closed that back door. And she had told the workforce, we’re all men and women that work here, and we’re all gonna enter through the front door. That is what I’m talking about. That’s the change, the bold change from folks that don’t give a dang what folks think, but they’re going to do the right thing. And, and, and they’re going to change industry for the better. So check out Rose Knox and that story you’ll be as invigorated as I am. I hope hopefully I, I did it.

Greg White (01:12:38):

You’ve been at right pretty effectively. Yeah. Seriously. That’s big change. Oh, huge. What an inspiring story. So it’s hard to overstate how revolutionary that was. First of all, a woman running an American company, especially of that size in that day and age, that was earth shattering in and of itself. But then to Institute all of those things in the face of tradition, business tradition, and you got to remember the robber barons, the Carnegies and the Rockefellers, and all of them had to have been actively trying to kill those efforts back then because they made a fortune. They literally made their fortune off of the oppression of the human of the American worker. So she had to have been a pariah at the club. She somehow seems like somebody who was not a member of the club. Right. Right. I mean, the, the hardship that she must have gone through to do all of that, it’s hard to overstate that

Scott Luton (01:13:41):

Yeah. They made it through the great depression without laying off a single employee. And I mean, just the more you, yeah. The more you dive into that story, the more I wanted to know more and one of the shout it from the mountaintop. So y’all check that out. There’s, there’s probably a lot more that I couldn’t get into a, you know, 15, 20 minute podcast, but this week in business history. Uh, and I appreciate all the con comments from Gary and Tom and, and, uh, Cindy and others about that story. But Hey, that’s Rose knocks the story. I just had the great opportunity of uncovering it and then finding, so Greg, you make jello shots, you Rose knots jello, but Hey, own that note, um, uh, on that high note, we all need great news and stories and inspiration like that. Uh, on behalf of our entire team, first off, check out, uh, for more interviews and live streams and more resources. Check us out@supplychainnow.com. Be sure to check out tequila, sunrise, and subscribes. It’s gonna be great interview that we’re, uh, Greg’s recording this afternoon. And most importantly on behalf of Greg and me and the whole team, man, and clay here, and the whole rest of the team, Hey, do good give forward and be the change. Be a row. Be like Rose Knox, be like Rose Knox. And on that note, we’ll see you next time here on supply chain now. Hey, thanks Greg. And thanks everyone.