“The world is changing, and supply chain should be in front of it, not behind it.”

– Greg White, Host, TECHquila Sunrise on Supply Chain Now

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

In this episode of The Buzz, powered by OpenText, Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton are joined by Kevin L. Jackson, the host of Digital Transformers on Supply Chain Now. They share and discuss a number of key news and option stories making the rounds and crossing the desks and screens of supply chain professionals the world over. Each of these stories needs to be considered in-depth for the insight – both opportunistic and cautionary – it offers.

Kevin, Greg, and Scott engage in real time with a live audience to talk about:

· Lockheed Martin’s use of a blockchain-based platform to streamline their ability to identify and track OEM suppliers across the entire country, improving supply chain visibility and protecting against counterfeit parts

· An impending clash of trends as supply chains slow down at the same time pent-up consumer demand surges (Read more from Dan Yergin at CNBC)

· Why companies need to become more resilient in a meaningful way, through simultaneous digital transformation and human transformation

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now. Hey, good

Scott Luton (00:00:32):

Afternoon, Scott Luton, Greg White, and Kevin L. Jackson with you here today. Hello, Kevin, how are you doing? Hey, I’m doing great. So Monday I’m on a bus again. Yeah, it could be better. I’m sorry. No, you’re not wrong. You’re not wrong. I’m good. A great weekend. I’m sorry. We were talking a little before the show. Kevin got rain. We only got beautiful, amazing weather here. Right. But rain is better than snow. I imagine, right Kevin. Oh yeah, absolutely. I know up in Boston or Minnesota, you got snow. I mean, it’s too late for snow. Yeah. My brother lives in Boston. He had a three word post on Instagram and the first two words were what the, I bet y’all have fun when the families get back together, Greg, and we’ll be doing that very, very soon. Okay. But today it’s all about the supply chain buds where, uh, Greg and sometimes a wonderful guest host like Kevin L. Jackson joins us.

Scott Luton (00:01:43):

And we talk about some of the, some of the leading stories across global business, certainly across global supply chain. So y’all stay tuned. We’ve got five dandies teed up that we’re going to be diving into and offering highlights and hot takes on. Yeah, here we go. No kidding. But first but first. Um, and, and of course we go live every Monday at 12 noon and every Thursday at 12 noon and probably shouldn’t be a third day in the, uh, in the, um, uh, plan moving forward too much to cover too little time. So, but let’s cover some programming notes first. Let’s, let’s see here. I want to share to today the main channel Greg and Kevin, we dropped an episode with Colton Griffin, founder and CEO of flourish. And Greg would talk about on four 19 the day before four 20. Um, yeah, we’re going to let Colton share a little bit about what flourish does. They’re a seed to sale technology provider and, and talk a little bit about the likelihood that cannabis is a test bed for the supply chain of the future. So not going to give too much away there, but suffice to say there is,

Greg White (00:03:00):

There are a lot of dynamics in that industry that mirror the same challenges that we have, and because they’re starting with newer technologies, not having to revamp old technologies and approaches, they are actually ahead of the broader supply chain in a lot of ways.

Scott Luton (00:03:17):

Agreed could be the model for modern supply chain. Kevin, you’re going to add

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:22):

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, you know, cannabis for medicinal purposes, uh, because they have to have end to end visibility’s um, is, is really accelerating the use of technology across the entire supply chain in cannabis.

Scott Luton (00:03:39):

Excellent point. So you’re saying there they’re pioneering digital transformers,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:43):

Kevin. Yeah. They absolutely are providing that visibility from, from seed to what do you say seed see the sale. Yeah, love it.

Scott Luton (00:03:55):

Love it. And Colton gives a great interview Tuesday off. Y’all check that out in the main channel. And then, uh, you know, every Monday we published this week in business history today. So last week, Kelly Barner, uh, guest hosted did a great show on Napster versus Metallica. They, we talked about 10 things you didn’t know about the Suez canal. And the reason we did is because this week in history, uh, and I don’t have the year in front of me is when ground was first broken on the Suez isthmus, uh, version of the canal and a French diplomat used the pickax to be the first one to break ground. So you have to tune in to this week in business history, wherever you get podcasts from to get the rest of the story, including what role did Napoleon Bonaparte have in the Suez canal is fascinating stuff.

Greg White (00:04:45):

Well, Merry Christmas.

Scott Luton (00:04:49):

And that one of the things I didn’t know as we were, you know, we’re on constant research, these stories is, uh, 15 ships were trapped in the Suez canal for almost eight years. And you’ll have to learn why about tuning into the podcast. Wow.

Greg White (00:05:04):

Fascinating that

Scott Luton (00:05:07):

And moving right along. So Greg and Kevin, we’ve got a really cool webinar coming up. We’ve been, we’ve been talking about this quite a bit, all about securing the supply chains, especially from a ICT standpoint. So Kevin, give us the latest on this. We got some late breaking news, I think on this April 27th webinar.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:05:24):

Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m excited to announce that, uh, Carlos LRE of secure G, which is the digital trust broker, um, he’s going to be on a panel along with Jim McConnell, but rosin wonder largest telecommunications company. What they do. Kevin, can you hear me now? Uh, yeah, so, uh, big names, big names. So this must be important, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:05:58):

The ICG supply chain, you have a cell phone, smart device computer.

Scott Luton (00:06:07):

Uh, well, Hey, check it out. It’s free to register. We’ve got link in the show notes. You got some big names. We’re going to be updating the graphic with the latest additions. Kevin, look forward to you leading the discussion, not only big names, but a big topic, a big vital critical topic. So, all right. So Greg, um, and Kevin, we’ve got, uh, uh, before we say loads of some folks, uh, we’ve got a neat little segment we’re going to kick off today is called your weekend update with Natalie Dutton. And we’re going to bring Natalie in and we’re going to see what her highlights were from last weekend. Hey, Natalie,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:06:47):

I love the question we ask every Friday at the team call. What do you have going on for the weekend, Natalie? And we’ve been threatening to put you on the show on Monday and have you report back on your weekend. You’re welcome. Kicked it off on a good weekend. So I actually had something to talk about really quick,

Scott Luton (00:07:17):

The Natalie really quick. So you’re, uh, an incredibly talented member of our associates team. You’ll be graduating with your undergraduate degree from the university of Georgia, right around the corner, right. Uh, and we we’ve loved your production and marketing help, uh, going back for, uh, just about a year now. So wanted to kind of set the stage and make sure folks know the connection there. So Natalie’s with us just about every week here on the buzz, kind of behind the scenes with Amanda and clay making it happen. So Natalie, tell, tell us about what the highlights were from your weekend.

Natalie Dutton (00:07:51):

So this weekend I went to the UGA football game G day, which is a scrimmage between UGA and UGA. Um, really exciting game, the red team one, just to clarify with spreadsheet black team. And it was so awesome. I was super excited to go to my first and last football game of the year, but yeah, they gave us, he’ll be graduated by the time the season kicks off, won’t you? Yeah, I didn’t get to go football game in the fall, but being able to go to at least the one this year, I was super grateful for. So, and I got to enjoy a snow cone while I watched the game that, uh, I was telling y’all earlier, turned my mouth completely red, just like an eight year old at a football game. What did y’all talk chain on the breaks between quarters and stuff? Of course, when our report on that is right. Well, Natalie really appreciate all that. You do hope you had. It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend and we look forward to having you back with us next month to give us a couple of other highlights of your weekend. We’ve got to keep it fun around here. Fun and refreshing. So Natalie, thanks so much. And we’ll talk with you very soon weekends with Natalie.

Scott Luton (00:09:25):

All right. So

Scott Luton (00:09:25):

One last programming note, uh, and, and we love, we’re all big fans of all of our associates around here. I’ll tell you, Natalie has been a great, a wonderful leader and contributor. So, uh, two final programming notes, Kevin and Greg, first off the important one today is national garlic day. Did you know that? Oh, and did you know also that as opposed to 10 or so years ago, when, when most of the garlic here in the States came from California, now China supplies up to 80%, depending on what number you look at of the world’s garlic word. Oh, no, it’s going to turn on this though. Right?

Scott Luton (00:10:05):

So Kevin is Kevin’s referencing,

Greg White (00:10:11):

How could garlic be something that hasn’t, I mean, really, we know it’s really interesting because, uh, I was watching some YouTube over the weekend, including ones that show where all the, the majority of different fruits are from, and you’d be amazed at fruits and vegetables and how many, uh, China leads the world in. So, but nevertheless, one other program in that really important one is that today’s supply chain buzz is powered by our friends at open text, uh, the world’s information company. Now they’ve got a big event coming up in June that we’re going to be sharing, uh, probably start next week. And Mark Morley, who, some of you all may recall him peering in a few appearances a few months back, pretty sharp guy, Greg, right? Yeah. I mean, he is a, well, first of all, it’s interesting because he’s got, he’s got a unique accent, right.

Greg White (00:11:06):

So that makes him sound ever so much smarter, which he is. Um, so yeah, it’s, it’s great sitting down and talk with them and we’re going to spend some time with them, um, at an event at this event. So that’ll be fun. And Hey, one more thing, Scott, cause I, uh, I did a, uh, overview on an article that talked about, and this is something that OpenText is contributing to talk about this notion of a digital backbone of a unified integration, right? So one of the challenges that we have in supply chain is how do we connect all our data, right? Internally as hard enough, how do you collect, how do you connect your ERP to Salesforce, to your OMS, your TMS, your WMS, all your MSS and all of your other products internally, but then you to do that externally to create that, create that visibility and transparency and accountability that you want in your supply chain, utterly impossible.

Greg White (00:12:01):

So this notion of a digital backbone of a unified integration, you just kind of drop this thing in there and, and all the connectors exist for the systems internal to your company and external to your company to allow you to do it in one place and have that data available to you. So that’s really powerful. And of course, it’s critical as we talk about things like eliminating slavery and sustainability and provenance and you know, and all of those things that visibility and transparency that we want in supply chain. So it was a pretty cool article. If you D if you can’t find it, you can hit me up on LinkedIn and I’ll, I’ll get you the link.

Scott Luton (00:12:41):

Awesome. Kevin, would you like to weigh in? That’s all I saw you nodding your head

Kevin L. Jackson (00:12:45):

Quite a bit. Well, one of the things you were talking about is having those APRs, I guess, sort of connect all this information together in today’s world, the business world, it’s all about your business ecosystem. You have to not only get information from your internal business processes, but all of your external partners that support your goods or your services to your customers, and even more important, be able to interact with the content that your customers are creating across multiple channels. So this is really, this is critical to critical, to any business as they build, identify, build, and interact with their entire ecosystem. Yeah,

Scott Luton (00:13:32):

Well said, so y’all check out. We might can drop the link to Greg’s LinkedIn article or post in the comments if, uh, Amanda Clay or Natalie.

Greg White (00:13:41):

Yeah. Technology too, regardless. Great team over there and look forward. That’s our integration. All right. So I want to

Scott Luton (00:13:53):

Really quick to a few folks, and then we’re going to dive into the first story that Kevin’s going to walk us through related to blockchain. We hadn’t talked about blocks

Greg White (00:14:00):

We’re on the bus, so,

Scott Luton (00:14:02):

Or says, uh, he’s got his convertible roof down,

Greg White (00:14:08):

Peter share what the fix was ultimately. Cause he and I went back and forth over what might fix it. So I’m interested to see what it, what got it done. Please share,

Scott Luton (00:14:18):

Uh, Peter Mihir is with us via LinkedIn. Great to see you here today. I think Mihir, if I mispronounced that, please let me know. We don’t. We hate getting names wrong around here. Mohib is with us go morning. First. Our good morning, first powered flight in another planet has been achieved today.

Greg White (00:14:36):

Wow. Yeah, I saw that video to have NASA has the video online

Scott Luton (00:14:41):

15:00 AM Eastern time, three 15 Pacific time. And we’re looking for all the videos. I think they had some cameras, manually things to look forward to a lot imagery, but, well, well, so I was on Facebook earlier today and a buddy of mine said we’ve got powered flight on a different planet and not just want constant cell phone coverage across Simon. Simon says thumbs up. That is right. Simon congrats on the new role as well. So out of the best Tom’s with us here today, the master of several podcasts out there, Tom, keep it coming. AZA. Leah is with, I was Lee is with us and, and, and welcome back. I think we missed you last week. We’ll miss all the goodness you always drop in this channel. So hope this finds you well, wherever you are David, of course is with us here today, Dave and great to see a Felicia with the reverse logistics association.

Scott Luton (00:15:41):

We’ve got a big guest coming up on that series. Reversal, just six series, I think is the last Friday of this month. Next week, I think, uh, with a, is it eight OSR Acer? How do we pronounce that computer company? Uh, Greg, Hey sir. Hey sir, we’ve got there. One of their fearless supply chain leaders joining us next week on a live stream. See, I’ll look for that. So welcome everybody. And one final. Hello, Peter stung Alon is where this here. Do they all possible do the E Schenker system globally customers linked with EDI and API? Hey, Peter does not miss an opportunity to Desi grant the sustainability Viking, lots that video because his H he looks so buttoned up in his, in his, uh, Lincoln

Greg White (00:16:26):

Then profile picture, but he looks a little bit like Ragnar Ragnar son.

Scott Luton (00:16:33):

All right. So with that being said, the sustainability Viking, uh, that we’ll have to register that trademark. Um, but Greg and Kevin, we’ve got some wonderful stories and conversations to drop through to here today are y’all buckled up and ready to go to it. All right, let’s go all. All right. Great. So in the first story we are talking about this report from coin Telegraph. So Lockheed Martin is embracing blockchain specifically in Switzerland. So Kevin tell us,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:17:04):

So, you know, a lot of people are looking at using blockchain for supply chain management, but there’s, you know, some people are kind of slow even though last year with the pandemic, there’s been a great acceleration and an adoption of, of blockchain where Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense manufacturers is using blockchain for supply chain management and Switzerland, and working with company called CINCPAC that. And they’re when disagreement, uh, they are streamlining the ability to identify and track all suppliers across the entire country. So there’s going to be access to all the parts procurement using this, uh, supply chain platform, which is built on top of blockchain. And it, it connects all of the OEMs, uh, to, to the, this a group called Swiss man, which allows all to match suppliers across the entire country. So you can identify the product you want track it and make sure it comes from the right manufacturer. It’s not counterfeit. And, uh, you know, this is where the world is going. Well, you know, we also have, go ahead, Greg. I was just gonna say, you’d be hard pressed to find an industry where it’s more important to verify the quality and the provenance of a product than an air flight, right? Maybe medical, maybe that’s more important, olive oil, maybe what is a big problem with counterfeit product parts in the aerospace industry.

Scott Luton (00:18:50):

And, uh, you know, uh, a little known fact here is we’re talking air aircraft and flying and whatnot. Kevin, you may or may not know Kevin L. Jackson was a former Naval aviator and flew the,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:19:04):

To eat, to eat, to see Hawkeye and to see to a Greyhound.

Scott Luton (00:19:10):

I may not know that. So he, Kevin knows, and we’ve got a snapshot here, breaking news, Greg, it looks like it comes from us on that book. That right there is a digital transformer mobile, right there, capture flying through the air. So

Greg White (00:19:25):

I’m assuming he’s going to have his own, his own cartoon, like,

Scott Luton (00:19:31):

So a lot of, a lot of cool stuff. And, and that, that’s just the latest, right? One of the latest developments with blockchain, a lot more to come as it continues to find more practical and practical and practical and bottom line results producing, uh, applications. Yeah. Alright, so let’s move right along. We’re going to move from Switzerland to the African continent where the African continental free trade area agreement is showing some positive signs. So Kevin tell us more

Kevin L. Jackson (00:19:57):

Well, you know, uh, Africa as a continent is historically has been sort of behind the rest of the world, but over a five-year period, all of the African union actually negotiated a free trade agreement. So 54 of the 55 African union nations have all signed to, uh, eliminate trade barriers within the African continent. Um, and on January 1st, it operationally came into existence. So it’s the, it is the largest, uh, pre trade area in a world in terms of the number of countries since the formation of the world trade organization. Now, this is a huge market. It’s 1.2 billion people, combined economies of over 2.5 trillion us dollars. So this is, I mean, talk about a, uh, a huge customer. And one of the main reasons why this is, is so important to all the countries in the continent is actually the lessons they learned from COVID. Um, it was, uh, trying to deal with supply chain, the exchange, there are 34 different currencies on the continent and just being able to trade, uh, when they need it to produce more masks.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:21:42):

For instance, one country were to have a lot of masks, another country. What, how would they trade? So, um, the other thing that’s really important about this is there are, uh, the digital economy in Africa is, is, is becoming huge. Many of the countries are leapfrogging technologies, the AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle of all, all building tier four data centers and Africa, there’s a huge, uh, underwater cable that Google is paying for that go from the United States to Africa. And then there is a, uh, uh, uh, communications, uh, lawn fiber optic line, that’s going across the outside of the entire continent. So, um, they are becoming wired as you wouldn’t believe. Um, so Greg, I know we’ve talked about, about this quite a bit. Uh, one of our, um, African supply chain series with our friends that say picks, but what are some thoughts you’ve got here related to this development?

Greg White (00:22:57):

I think what, you know, what gives African advantage is that they are going from literally no infrastructure in some countries to the most up-to-date and they don’t have the baggage of the existing infrastructure. One of the things that jumped out to me three, four or five years ago was 80% of the people, Oh, maybe higher than that. But 80 plus percent of the people in Africa were unbanked. They did not have bank accounts. And, um, so there came a lot of solutions that allowed them to use their cell phones and they never had banks. So while we in the United States, you still have to sign, still have to sign a ticket. Now we can finally tap and pay, which I could do 10 years ago in Europe. Um, and while we continue to proliferate banks on every

Greg White (00:23:46):

Street corner in America, it seems like for absolutely no reason, I have no idea why we’re still doing that. They are far ahead of us in terms of banking and, and some of these things that Kevin is talking about, we’ll put them farther yet ahead in certain areas, right? In terms of broadband bandwidth and, you know, just access to data capabilities. There are a lot of other issues of course, to overcome there, but this at least gives them better than equal footing in some of these technology areas. And when you think about the banking, they are rapidly adopting cryptocurrency. Awesome. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:24:24):

So as, as I think Kim winter, our friend Kim winter has stated the future is East Greg and Kevin Kim shares that quite a bit. Uh, Kim, if you’re watching, I hope this finds you will. All right. So I gotta, I gotta pose this question to you from Tom, Greg. Cause I know we talked about this quite a bit. What is the world’s most counterfeited fitted product?

Greg White (00:24:45):

So it’s not as clear as, as one would hope. My favorite most counterfeited product is olive oil. Very often. It is a luxury brands and shoes and clothing and things like that. Um, in terms of volume, if you accumulate all of those items, they are far more counterfeited, but the single most counterfeited item type of single category product is all of oil. So chances are good. You’ve got Palm oil or something else in there anyway. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:25:21):

Our fish messing up my black and fish here. Hey, uh,

Greg White (00:25:24):

So, and you know, I mean, olive oil is good for you. What they put in olive oil is not good for you, right? I mean, it can be, I mean, it’s not just a, it’s just not a culinary. Isn’t the proper product. It’s whether that product goes from being good to you for being to being bad for you, serious issue.

Scott Luton (00:25:45):

So, uh, who is this last country across the African nations? Who’s the holdout. Kevin do, you know,

Greg White (00:25:52):

Gotta be South Africa, Congo, maybe

Scott Luton (00:26:04):

Jenny Froome is with us and, and Jenny leads, uh, the safe pigs organization, our partners there.

Greg White (00:26:10):

I bet she can tell us right there. Um, Jen tells us, so, uh, um, they’re called a water independent.

Scott Luton (00:26:27):

Well, we’ll have to get the trade team making piglet phone, making phone calls and making it happen. So we get all 55 African nations signed, but it sounds like a wonderful development. And, uh, Kevin, you mentioned this one, the largest, if not the largest free trade zone, it sounds like it competes with NAFTA. In that regard. We’ve heard a lot about, um, the unique trade, uh, dynamics we have here across Canada, Canada, Mexico, and the U S so great news. I love that the here countries coming together to make trade and commerce happen for all. Okay. Let’s keep driving. We’ve got a couple other big stories here. Let’s see the next one. All right. So Kevin and Greg, we’re going to go a little bit broader with this next door here. This is a, I thought it was a really cool article. This is an opinion piece warning.

Scott Luton (00:27:15):

This is an opinion piece from Dan Yergin at CNBC, but I still like the article. So we’re going to share some up. I’m going to share some of the main points, uh, some of the warning signs that he’s pointing to, where that are leading in global supply chain slowdowns now, and how they’re going to get worse. So I’m gonna walk through this and I cannot wait. I cannot wait capital C. They get Greg and Kevin’s take on this. So a couple of highlights here. So first Dan points to the world economy is Grebing back up, which is a great thing. Governments are stimulating those economies, which is a good thing. And then as we’re seeing here, especially in the States and consumers are getting back out of lockdowns and they have pinup demands, despite all the e-commerce purchases that we’ve been having. Right. So second, so with that as a backdrop, right?

Scott Luton (00:28:02):

Secondly, three disruptions that Dan pointed out specifically that, that are nothing new here. We’ve talked about these quite a bit, right? Perfect storm shipping, you got backlogs congestion. And of course where’s all the containers. Where’s all the containers, uh, chips between plant fires, droughts, including in Taiwan. And of course the penetration of chips and everything. I think my toothbrush has a computer chip in it. Um, you know, a ton of demand right on, on ships. In fact, for the automotive market, I H S market says a shortage in the auto industry from a chip standpoint is going to last into 2022. And it’s already shutting as we, as we know the slowing and shutting down production lines already across different brands. And then finally, this, this was kind of new news to me, just me. I maybe I’m slow in here. So plastics, I had no idea I didn’t connect it to the Texas freeze and the massive problems they caused shut down, which we knew that shut down the petrochemical industry.

Scott Luton (00:29:05):

I didn’t realize just how much the world depends on the petrochemicals produced right there in Texas, especially when it comes to plastics. So the plastic supplies, uh, folks are trying to resource, and as, as everything gets, get back on the line and it kinda, they played play catch up. So a good bit of a perfect storm in many ways. And, and the whole backdrop of this article, it started with, you know, why is it taking months to get your couch? And then he walked through all of these issues and then kind of, kind of wraps with, so that’s why you’re not getting your couch for

Greg White (00:29:42):

Three months or whatever. So, so Greg, I know you are dying. I start with you and we’ll get Kevin. So Greg, what say you, uh, all of these are legitimate disruptions. Of course. Uh, only one really is one. We don’t face every single year. I mean, if you think about it, hurricanes hit Texas winter hits a freeze hits, Texas weather hits everywhere somewhere, all year long. So supply chain professionals are used to that. What this really reflects on is the absolute hard stop that we put on the supply chain about a year ago and the response of companies to that by also some ceasing to produce. And the precision precision would be a nice way of saying it, the weakness of their, of their, uh, sourcing methodology is particularly in the auto industry with their, um, varied light back. Uh, what do I want to say?

Greg White (00:30:40):

Backstock of products, right? So that when the supply chain stopped and then they immediately started producing cars, they did not start up their supply chain fast enough. And so many of these industries, as we’ve talked about for so long manufacturers can afford to be sloppy, and they have been, they have been very, very loose with their management of their supply chain because it doesn’t hurt them enough or hasn’t hurt them enough till now, because their margins are so exorbitant. What you don’t see is you don’t see a lot of problems in retail and in distribution, like at the same scale scope that you see it in manufacturing because they have very tight margins and they’ve had to be very precise with their both ability to fulfill the customer and their ability to do it in economic fashion. So they have been a bit more bold in carrying back stocks and safety stocks and that sort of thing to support it.

Greg White (00:31:35):

But, you know, this is exactly what I’d expect from somebody who’s selling and analysis, by the way, he’s, he’s worked at IHS market. Um, so you know, what he’s seeing is he’s seeing disruptions now that we seen all the time in this industry and, and they are more, Oh, there’s more awareness and there’s more press around them, which by the way, we asked for that seat at the table, right? So you’re welcome. Here’s your seat at the table. And that means when, when supply chain performance dips just like when sales or profit performance dips in a company, you can expect to be at the top of the front page. So what I see is much, much more great awareness of these things. Then, then I see a significant number of uniquenesses and disruptions, but certainly there are uniquenesses in disruptions, mostly caused by the hard stop and the response to that hard stop last year. So, so go ahead, Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:32:41):

Yeah. I have a, maybe a different view. What you say is true, but from a macro economic point of view, I think there’s three things that are operating here. First of all, the transition to e-commerce has really accelerated the, um, requirements for supply chain, you that it has to be the velocity of delivering products and services has to be reduced tremendously because people are expecting to order something today this morning and have it dropped by a drone this afternoon. So that’s supply chain, velocity is coming really important, and that leads to the supply chain be extremely sensitive to any disruption. These are three major disruptions, but any disruption will affect the supply chain. This is very sensitive. And the third important aspect of that is globalization, or we just talked about the fact that Africa is now going to be entering the market as a, uh, the entire continent, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:33:54):

So the competition between North America, as a trading block, your Europe as a trade and block Africa as a trading block, China as a trading block, okay. And a Pacific grim as a trading block, the only thing that’s not there is South America. Uh, I’m assuming we want to get a South American, uh, trade area also, but this global competition is, is, is heating up. Um, so this all droughts constant change, okay. Everyone always say, well, you have to be prepared for change. You have to prepare for constant and consistent change from every area. So, um, this is the, this is the new normal.

Greg White (00:34:46):

I would argue that if, if, uh, folks stopped burning couches, when their team won in the playoffs, we wouldn’t have so many couches, excellent point, Scott, hard hitting analysis. Uh, I want to add a Stephanie’s comment here. So Stephanie, welcome to the live stream. The biggest struggle right now, she says with increasing safety stocks is that you’re still dealing with 52 week lead times on the safety stock themselves. So good point there a step that depends on the industry, but yeah, certainly. I mean, and that’s the point is some industries are just increasing to having safety stock, right. This just in time inventory is what is harming the automotive industry. Excellent point. Um, and, uh, yeah, and I agree the big change in any commerce made the supply chain move much more rapidly, but that’s been 25 years coming. And if we did not see that coming, I mean, first of all, two day, two day delivery has been around for over six years now. And in fact, I worked with a company in 2000 that was trying to facilitate same day delivery so that we didn’t see that coming. It’s sort of the point it’s we as supply chain professionals have to not be laggards in our own industry, which has set us back so much. Right.

Scott Luton (00:36:11):

Excellent point. And, and, you know, as we all know, the automotive industry has, has used, uh, they’ve been the 800 pound gorilla in the room using that leverage, uh, to beat up their suppliers, generally speaking, uh, uh, I’ve been beat up on by automotive companies in my earlier life. Uh, and, and you know, that leverage that’s right, and that leverage is shifting so naturally. Uh, and in addition, all these other dynamics there, there’s gonna be some, a heavy price to pay with how we’ve got to shift how business is done to what Greg is kind of speaking to. So let’s, um, we’ve got a comment here from Nore and nor welcome to today’s live stream. He’s asking about reverse logistics. Hey, we’re going to dive in deep to reverse logistics on April 30th at 12 noon, nor it’s our reverse logistics series. We do it once a month with our friends at the reverse logistics association. So tuned in the, uh, on that date, 12, 12 noon Eastern time on the 30th. And we’re going to dive in deep and talk all about reverse logistics. Okay. So let’s, uh, is okay. It’s all clear to move, move along to our next topic, Greg and Kevin. Yeah.

Greg White (00:37:19):

Yeah. I mean, I think to Kevin’s point, the world is changing and supply chain should be in front of it, not behind it. Right. And, and the other is that I think if there’s anything else we need to take away, it’s that we did ask for this level of, of seat at the table of awareness in the marketplace and we got it. So we better be ready to step up.

Scott Luton (00:37:42):

Excellent point. Hey, before we move on to our next story, number four, I want to pose as a lay as, uh, as Leah’s comments to you, sorry, it’s Monday. Um, a tongue is tied here today. So she says, as we reshape in the future to compensate for these changes, e-commerce global expansion, et cetera, where do companies focus, dense data, dense data and tech rewired, global networks increased domestic production. What are y’all’s thoughts there? And, um, who would like to go first, Kevin or Greg?

Greg White (00:38:15):

Wow. Where do they focus? Initial thoughts? What my initial thought is actually the article where KPMG actually did an interview of CEOs specifically on this, on this point. Well then

Scott Luton (00:38:36):

We’ll use as a lay, as comment as a segue, then how about that? Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:38:41):

Yeah, but this was, was revert referred to as the COVID 19 special edition, where they survey 1300 CEOs in January and February before the market really reacted and felt the full impact of all the lockdowns. And then they, um, re-interviewed them in July and early August to understand how their thinking had evolved and how it was going to affect the future. What was pretty interesting is 71% of them said that they wanted to lock in the climate change gains, which is kind of mind-boggling right. They said that they needed to manage climate related risks that played a part in whether they can even keep their jobs over the next five years, 65% of them. And then it was the future of work, this digital collaboration and using collaboration tools as a result of the, of the pandemic. It that 73% of them believed that remote working had wide their available talent pool.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:40:05):

So they weren’t really looking for people locally anymore because they could now rely on digital collaboration. And the third is that 67% of them had their rethink their global supply chain approach given the disruptive impact of the pandemic. So they want to become more agile in response to changing customer needs. So, uh, that, that tells me that you’re right supply chain is right there to ahead of the table and technology, the ability to allow people to communicate and collaborate, uh, immediately over a much broader geographic area. And these, these executives are now widening their scope, uh, of what they can do to take in, into account everything around a world, including climate change, which is kind of, you know, that came out of left field to me.

Scott Luton (00:41:15):

So, um, Greg, any, you know, what would you add to Kevin’s some of the key takeaways from this updated KPMG 2020 CEO outlook? Well, I think, um, first of all, it is, it’s an acceleration of things they planned arguably plan to do over the next five to 20 years.

Greg White (00:41:34):

Um, and it was a start. What, what COVID to me really addresses is it, it is that punch in the face that the great philosopher Mike Tyson always talks about, right? Which is everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face. And until, until COVID supply chain was not a big enough pain, it was not enough, a big, a big enough exposure. It was not enough, a big, not a big enough brand risk and revenue risk to these companies, for them to focus on it. And it was one of those as much as we like to talk about having our seat at the table, we still didn’t really have our seat at the table until this happened, because they could not ignore it anymore of the rest of the C-suite executives could not ignore it anymore. Let’s face it. Most companies are driven by their sales.

Greg White (00:42:23):

There are a handful of few that are really strongly driven by their supply chain Johnson and Johnson is one company I worked with in the early two thousands, Henry Schein, not only did their supply chain transform, but the approach they took to their supply chain, more, more, data-driven more disciplined, more rigorous. They, they actually projected that out into their sales and marketing and other organizations in the company because they saw so much success with it. And yet companies had not written many, many companies, the vast majority, nearly all companies had not applied that kind of attention, that kind of rigor and detail and management to their supply chain. And they got caught off, off guard. Right. This could have been avoided if we hadn’t shut down the entire economy of the entire planet in a matter of weeks. Right. I mean that, it really took something of that magnitude to cause this to happen. If that hadn’t happened, we would have continued to sort of linger in, in half growth and half a seat at the table, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, I think Kevin you’re squarely on, on point. And of course that’s reflected by what you’re relaying from this study. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:43:39):

So I think one of the key findings from this report was how the CEO’s stated that talent risk is the number one threat towards their company growth, even ahead of supply chain risk and what they call a return to territorialism territorialism, say that five times fast. Yeah. And it really goes to a Mohib point in here where it says all these, all these disruptions are bound to spring innovation and build resiliency and supply chain. Good to see technology is not only redesigning processes, but empowering people. That is such an excellent point because it is opening doors. And, and Kevin has been talked about quite a bit. I’ve talked about it, uh, over the last. Uh, and I, I interviewed a, were Admiral from the Navy that led there, the Navy cyber cyber command. And, uh, Nadia is that she shared with us Kevin on a previous episode of digital transformers that, you know, paraphrasing, everyone thinks that digital transformation is about machines, but humans are driving digital transformation.

Scott Luton (00:44:44):

So human transformation. So I love that. And Mohib such a great point. It is about empowering, uh, and, uh, enhancing and augmenting in many ways. So, um, I’ll share a couple of quick points here that you are going to get a kick out of. Uh, Peter Peter says everyone’s taking the easy way out and blaming it on this pandemic, but, uh, that’s not the real reason, but I agree with you, uh, as Leah asked about, uh, do you see six Sigma agile lean practices become even more valuable following this pandemic specifically the risk management, my quick take and love to get, uh, Greg and Kevin to weigh in. I think risk management, as we’ve seen for months now, for months and months, you know, going back 18 months, if not longer. Cause it certainly predated dependent age is, is companies are getting really serious about their, their overall risk strategy, right?

Scott Luton (00:45:39):

Yeah. I think secondly, um, you know, regardless of what school of thought that you subscribed to when it comes to continuous improvement, whatever it is, I think to really, uh, tackle digital transformation and really compete in this, this forever now global economy, you’re gonna have to get really serious about the continuous improvement journey, your own, regardless of what, what philosophy that you and your leadership subscribed to so that you can compete. You can be more resilient in a meaningful way, not a cliche, not because that’s a hot word, but w we, we’ve got to be more prepared now for the curve balls that we know are coming and they may, they may indeed come more often. So a big part of what builds that inner core strength for organizations is a meaningful, practical results oriented, continuous improvement philosophy. So that’s my take, uh, Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:46:36):

Yeah, I really like as a lady as approach here, because we’re seeing all the connections between all the business processes being really more important than any one business process. And that’s where your risk off there, windows connections break on their effect, multiple processes simultaneously. Um, and so risk management has always been important in like finance. You know, you have our entire department organization focused on risk management, but other industries really have to take that to heart.

Scott Luton (00:47:18):

Excellent point. Uh, Greg

Greg White (00:47:20):

Supply chain management is a risk management industry, right? The risk of excess costs, the risk of running out of stock, the risk of disappointing

Greg White (00:47:30):

Your customers, the disk risk of that damaging your brand, the risk of co of contributing to non-sustainable unfair, illegal, or immoral practices. All of those are the risks that you manage when you are managing a supply chain. And instead of looking at the supply chain as a cost reduction exercise, which it has been and was when it was the necessary evil in the, in the C-suite right, you have to look at it the same way that you look at sales and marketing as a value as a brand equity management tool, as a customer experience tool for your company. And when you do that, you’ve taken the right perspective. And then you do things as a lay it’s like apply lean principles appropriately. I think some people didn’t study lean, they just saw the word lean and thought let’s cut inventory, because if you lean, it is the least practical, the leap, the lowest practical cost that you can, you can apply foundationally to meet the goals of the corporation, the goals of the corporation being the important statement there. So, um, you know, it, it’s not that the practices, it’s not even that to the point earlier that the technology hasn’t been there to, you know, Mohib point technology is far ahead of the, of the willingness to adopt advanced technology in the supply chain industry. And some of these companies could have adopted technologies literally 25 years ago that would have put them in a much better place at the start of, of this pandemic or as a result of this pandemic. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:49:11):

Excellent point. Just one additional point to that. I think when it comes to lean in particular, the definition of waste is going to evolve, right? Because excess inventory and how you define that there are going to be fine tuning that definition, which of course will dictate what you carry and waste in all of its forms, not just inventory, but all, all moods. Right? So, um, but we need that. We need to, we need to have an ongoing conversation, Greg and Kevin, specifically about continuous improvement. We gotta find the right partner for that. I do want to point out before we, gosh, it’s 10 till the top of our Holy cow. Um, I want to add David’s point here. He views that, um, a hundred percent, these philosophies will be more valuable going forward. However, he says, I think that a lot of focus is going to shift from lean to safe, lean worked well until multiple issues, cropped up like shipping container shortages, birth support on, on and on. I think that is causing many to look at changing from a true lean program to a hybrid of lean, but agile, excellent point there, David. And then finally, Jeff Leroy is with us here today. So Jeff bleeds the ASC and chapter down in Savannah, Georgia home to one of the busiest ports in North America. And he says, absolutely, we had we’ve identified gap for emissions and areas that minimized our supply chain resiliency during the pandemic. So assuming we’ve got, we’ve got to tackle them identifying as is only right.

Greg White (00:50:36):

Not even half the battle, right? 10%, maybe that’s just the first of the 12 steps. Isn’t it recognizing that you have a problem

Scott Luton (00:50:47):

Be lean, but not mean words to live by, uh, as Leah. Yes. They really emphasize how the practices can be incorrectly, applaud, yielding, no benefits. So excellent point. And if you get no benefits, it’s just, it’s just extra work. Um, okay. We’ve got to, as much as, as we’re enjoying this conversation, we’ve got to get just last story. This is a really neat story. And it really, if, if Greg hasn’t already been inspired, actually Kevin and Greg, this is, uh, uh, learned a lot from both of you. But, uh, this article in particular resonated with Greg and this story, Greg is about a mainly a us manufacturer that really, uh, has done well competing against, and even beating Chinese manufacturing and now courtesy of a dis this great Forbes interview. He’s kind of sharing the, the formula right

Greg White (00:51:37):

After last week. I think people are going to find it difficult to believe that I don’t think the main point here is that he is beating China. It is an important point and he’s pounding the hell out of them by the way. So it is an important point, but, um, the fellow’s name is Dean Salone. He’s worth $2.2 billion. If you’ve ever read the book, the millionaire next door, this, this guy is like the billionaire next door. Okay. He gets his ideas for his business from Sesame street, from Disney, from, from some of the most simple Garanimals, some of the most simple places that, that you can think of. Um, and the name of his company is called schul technologies. It’s in, it’s in the, the technology Mecca, the solar technology Mecca of Portland, Tennessee.

Greg White (00:52:30):

The company does about $176 million a year. And between, um, deans share the company and some other investments he’s worth over $2 billion. Now, when you read the story, which I’m going to strongly strongly to desk, that you do, you’ve got to realize that this cat was an overachiever from a very early age, obviously learned from his father. He could clearly sell, attach a Popsicle to a woman in white gloves. And, and, uh, and aside from that, he just has a very distinct capability to do, to, to create what I call frictionless processes. His presumption is that if he has humans doing the work and what they do is they, they create a lot of the componentry that are the guts for solar, um, for solar energy capture and transmission, right? So he’s done things like color code, his peoples work shirts by the company that they work for.

Greg White (00:53:33):

If they work for this company, they wear red. Um, if they worked for that company, they were big bird yellow. They worked for another company, or if they’re doing the parts, I should say for a company, they were cookie monster blue. So, well, you know, all of the destiny is really witty. She had a witty something earlier as well, but I mean, so it’s things like that. It’s also this presumption that if a human has failed at their job than in fact management has failed to make that job effective enough. And, um, he’s done things that I would not have expected. There is, there is a video board or advice on every single machine that shows them how to run the machine, how to operate it, how to clear it in case of a failure and that sort of thing. And then they have lights that let them know that they’re on or off pace.

Greg White (00:54:31):

And if they’re off pace, it starts flashing faster and then someone can come help them and get them back on pace. He encourages people to not worry about making mistakes, because it is his opinion that if they make a mistake, it as the process and how they’ve constructed and enabled their work that has failed them, not that they have failed. So there’s a whole lot more that you can talk about there, including the fact that he’s only five to 10% higher than Chinese, the same, uh, Chinese goods. Well, probably literally the same. You can bet they’re knocking them off. Um, and that his, the reason that he gets business is because his products are perceived to be safer and higher quality saving downtime and, and repair labor, and that sort of thing for people in the solar industry. So, great, great life about what he’s doing though, is, um, he’s leveraging and enhancing communication between humans. Okay. It’s, it’s not the technology, it’s the goal to make sure that humans can communicate better and more precisely. Yeah. And I think that’s important. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:55:44):

I agree. There’s so much love about the story. Yeah. Go check it out at Forbes. It’s entitled billionaire reveals his secret to beating China as manufacturing, but to Greg’s point, it’s not just about beating. China’s about running a well old organization that provides opportunity for, for his, his, all of his team’s organization. And you’ll see, he loves Disney. He’s been going, he’s been taking his family to Disney world twice a year for decades. And I love this quote, uh, as they kind of dive deeper into why so fascinated, he says, quote, Dean salon says, quote, waltz, creativity was all over it. The ride is all about innovating and moving into the future with hope and optimism. We need more of that in quote, and you talk about the carousel of progress, rod at Disney. Love that. And then secondly, what I found fascinating really quick little tidbit, uh, Greg gives you the important stuff Greg gave, give me the port stuff I had the factoids in, but this is really, this is fascinating to me.

Scott Luton (00:56:43):

Cause I’ll, I’ll be the first tell you I’m not a solar power expert. And, and, uh, in, you know, we’re seeing more of it, which is a wonderful thing I think, but this, this really is fact toward kind of lays out the challenge we have. So, uh, or just energy runs a 270 acre installation, uh, uh, sun farm that generates 60 megawatts on sunny days, which is enough to provide about a quarter of the magic kingdom’s power needs 270 acres. So that, that was, uh, that was, that was pretty intriguing context. And just scale, at least in my mind, but fascinating, fascinating journal, uh, interview. So you’ll check that out, uh, via Forbes. Okay. So business book in an article is what it is agreed. Excellent way of putting it. Uh, Greg, um, okay, so it looks like Sylvia joined us late here today. Hey Sylvia, we sure did. Misha. We miss, uh, sharing your, your jokes and your observations arrange your lunchtime

Kevin L. Jackson (00:57:46):

Tomorrow. Sylvia.

Scott Luton (00:57:51):

We’re just saying don’t believe time. Isn’t too long. Uh, as Leah says, Hey, if he’s found the secret sauce, going back to the interview, we must protect this man. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Okay. So we’ve got 1258. We’re right up against it. I know we covered a ton of ground today. Kevin, it’s always a pleasure to bring you into the supply chain buzz. I’ll tell you though, when you and Greg you two intellectuals,

Scott Luton (00:58:16):

You know, you double all my note-taking

Scott Luton (00:58:19):

20 all too. So, um, let’s make sure, uh, folks know how to connect with you, Kevin. So tell, talk, tell us about digital transformers and other things you’ve got cooking right now, including the new book.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:58:31):

Yeah. So, um, first of all, the third, Monday of every month, right, I’m right here. You can catch me when I’m on the bus. And, um, also the fourth week, we also released, um, digital transformers. So, uh, this week, uh, we have a great, um, uh, interview with, uh, trust your supplier. Uh, they leverage blockchain to help, uh, buyers and suppliers have more verifiable information so they can enhance that trade. And, uh, yes, my, my latest book, uh, quick list, it hit number four on the

Kevin L. Jackson (00:59:23):

Bestseller is, uh, a book list at a wall street journal. So I’m actually a business. People are reading my book. That’s great. So, um, it’s, it’s, it’s been a, it’s been a great week. We were we’re at 78 and a USA today, uh, uh, bestsellers list. So, uh, that’s not too shabby either. I’m really, really happy about that. Um,

Scott Luton (00:59:50):

And that’s Q U I T L E S S. I heard that wrong the first couple of times we chatted about it, Kevin, but you can,

Greg White (00:59:58):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:00:01):

Um, you can find that, uh, wherever the, all the business books are from Amazon to your local bookseller to I think Barnes and noble it’s also that yeah.

Greg White (01:00:10):

All right. Hit the list on Barnes and noble actually. Yes. And it’s number one on multiple lists on Amazon. Okay.

Scott Luton (01:00:16):

Excellent. Excellent. Um, all right. So love what you’re doing, uh, across different, a multitude of different paths, uh, Kevin, but we love the digital transformer series here, which, um, really, it’s not just about supply chains. We’ve talked about plenty of times that every, every business is going through its own digital transformation. Of course, some are opting not to.

Greg White (01:00:45):

That’s what I’ve heard.

Scott Luton (01:00:48):

Always a pleasure. And Greg tequila, sunrise just keeps on rocking. You dropped a very popular int uh, episode into the channel last week with, with the sustainability Viking, Mr. Don Golan. Hopefully, hopefully he likes that phrase cause he looks like a really big guy and I don’t want to make you mad. So hopefully he’s okay.

Greg White (01:01:07):

Moniker. Well, his wife is really the tough one of the family, Lorna and also a supply. I call them a supply chain power couple because I actually met her before him. And she is a powerful force. So we’re going to be interviewing her in the next few weeks and you’ll get to hear from her, uh, what she’s doing now for one of the biggest technology providers resellers in the world is just amazing. And what she’s done up until now is really impressive. But this week, this week is a favorite. I almost didn’t get this one done in time, but Andrew Vaughn who’s the chief technology officer at Verisign just went on on the, make a pre-announcement here, just went on paternity leave. By the time you’re able to listen to that episode tomorrow on tequila, sunrise, he will be a father. So, um, congratulations to Andrew. Um, he worked as VP of engineering at pro at project 44. And at, of course his chief technology officer at Verisign, both industry Darling’s highly valued supply chain tech firms. And what talk about is

Scott Luton (01:02:20):

Both the difficulty and the method in which to, to gain and nurture and, and capitalize on supply chain, technology, leadership, and capabilities within your company, and to use technology, to help with your digital transformation and supply chain. It’s a tough, tough combination to find someone who knows technology and who knows the supply chain industry. And Andrew is a great, he’s a great example of that. And, um, it’s a great interview, very inspiring almost it’s super, but I’m not a millennial and super inspiring. And um, so, so listen up for that and, and, uh, yeah, enjoy because it is powerful stuff. He comes out with three hot points on how to, uh, manage that. I give you a few points that I take away from what I understand about Andrew and his philosophy as well. So you get eight takeaways from this 40 minutes, no extra charge that was quite a lean podcast there, Greg.

Scott Luton (01:03:26):

Uh, all right. So, uh, be sure to check out our wonderful, uh, friends over@opentextopentext.com stay tuned for that June event that we’ll be sharing probably starting next week and also stay tuned for more. Morella joining us only a couple of future live streams. I think both of his appearances will be in may, but he’s, uh, I’ll tell you anyone. And Kevin and Greg both also do a great job of this taking these complex subject matter and concepts and bowling it down to one or two where anyone can really understand and, and can be a part of the conversation. So y’all check that out. Kevin and Greg, a pleasure to, uh, knock out the buzz here today. Big, thanks to Natalie and clay and Amanda, all behind the scenes. Stay tuned for weekend updates with Natalie Dutton next Monday, right on the lighter side. And, uh, hope everyone has a wonderful week. Make sure you check out tequila, sunrise and digital transformers, wherever you get your podcasts from. And Greg, you got that. You got this thing, get those things ready to go. Huh? Most importantly folks, Hey, this is a challenge for this week. This is a Monday is the start of a brand new week. Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody tried to mess me up.

Intro/Outro (01:04:51):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.