[00:00:00] Mike Wiggins: You can’t execute a supply chain without bringing your partners in, giving them the opportunity to do good. And the only way that they’re going to be able to do that is if they have some sort of visibility or forecast to what it is that’s expected of them. It’s really transparency and visibility that is important.

[00:00:21] Voice Over: Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

[00:00:34] Scott W. Luton: Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and Karin Bursa right here with you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome. Karin, how you doing today?

[00:00:43] Karin Bursa: I’m doing fantastic, Scott. Glad to be with you today.

[00:00:46] Scott W. Luton: I am as well, and it is gorgeous here in Metro Atlanta. We might have one of our last little cool breaks of the spring. We have a very unique discussion teed up. As we spotlight what many believe are one of the earliest and most powerful signals in supply chain ecosystems everywhere. The purchase order. Today, we’re going to be talking with a couple of industry leaders about how early PO visibility can help prevent very costly supply chain surprises. Now, Karin, you know the only surprises that supply chain pros like are the ones we get on our birthdays, right? So we’re going to explore a variety of topics, including what early PO visibility really means in practical terms, how we can effectively move from hindsight to foresight when it comes to supply chain planning, one of our favorite topics. And we’ll offer up some real world examples of PO driven, proactive decision making that’s creating some serious outcomes.

[00:01:44] Scott W. Luton: All that and much, much more. And Karin, I’ll tell you, given your proven track record of making big things happen in global supply chain, I’m really looking forward to your insights here today. Should be a good show, huh?

[00:01:54] Karin Bursa: Oh, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s really an important topic because PO visibility isn’t just about tracking your orders. This is a demand signal. This is a market signal that is tied to your business. So gaining that visibility early in the process is going to give you more control, a bigger decision window to work with. So I’m really excited to hear what our guests have to share today.

[00:02:19] Scott W. Luton: I am too, Karin. We got a great one, folks. So stick around. So let’s get to work welcoming in our featured guests here today, starting with Nayeli Valladares, Vice President of Solution Design & Deployment with our friends at DP World and her colleague, Mike Wiggins, Senior Vice President of Solution Design & Deployment with DP World. Let’s bring in Nayeli and Mike. Hey, hey, Nayeli. Good afternoon. How you doing today?

[00:02:45] Nayeli Valladares: Hello, good. How are you?

[00:02:46] Scott W. Luton: Great to see you. And Mike, how you doing, my friend?

[00:02:49] Mike Wiggins: Hey, guys. Doing great. Thanks for having us.

[00:02:51] Scott W. Luton: You bet. Great to see you both. Let’s start with a good old fun warmup question. So Nayeli, you’re kindred spirits in one of your passions, and that is food-driven travel. So you got to tell us one of your favorite recent culinary adventures.

[00:03:07] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah. I mean, I’m very lucky to travel for work, and I always try to keep a few extra days there while I’m traveling to explore local foods and the local culture. Recently, I was in India and I went to Mesaur and Uti and the food was amazing. I have great colleagues that are over there that took me to all of these great places. So very fortunate to do that and explore all these different food adventures.

[00:03:30] Scott W. Luton: Oh man, I’m so jealous. Karin, I can’t wait. I have not been to India yet, and I’m going to set hopefully a couple weeks aside at some point soon to do it. How about you, Karin? Have you been to India yet?

[00:03:41] Karin Bursa: I have not, but I would love to go with locals that recommend the best places. So I think Nayeli’s got the right idea in finding out where the locals like to eat, because that’s always the best food, the hidden

[00:03:56] Scott W. Luton: Gems. That’s so true. It is so true. So Nayeli, I’m coming to you with tips when that happens.

[00:04:00] Karin Bursa: Great to

[00:04:01] Scott W. Luton: Have you here. Now, Mike, when we were talking pre-show, our whole team was like, “Man, Mike just painted a vivid picture in our minds of how your summers are spent on boats and beaches.” So what is one of your favorite annual Wiggins family traditions, especially as we get into the warmer months?

[00:04:20] Mike Wiggins: Summer’s definitely the favorite time of year. Every time I travel with Nayeli, I gain about three pounds. Well, I try not to do that as we get into spring here so I can get back into shape. And the family love hopping on the boat. We have a place down by us called Clam Island. A bunch of friends and family get off on that island. We dig clams all day, hang out on the beach, enjoy that, and then head back home, cook them up, and just have a good old time. Summertime is definitely the place to be at the Jersey Shore.

[00:04:51] Scott W. Luton: Thanks so much, Mike and Nayeli. Now we’re all starving around here. Karin, he painted … You were almost there on that boat as we’re digging up those clams and having an authentic clam bake, huh?

[00:05:02] Karin Bursa: Oh yeah. He’s speaking my language now. Take me to the ocean and to a nice, beautiful crystal water beach and I’m happy.

[00:05:09] Scott W. Luton: Oh, man. I’m with you. Clams and some white wine and … Oh man. Oh gosh. Mike and Nayeli, great to have you here today. So let’s get to work. Nayeli, let’s do this. I want to start with some level setting with both you and Mike. Would you briefly share your background as well as your current role with DP World, Nayeli?

[00:05:28] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah. So I actually started working in operations doing account management. After a few years, I went into the implementation team where I started really working with customers and onboarding them to the solution and this PO visibility process. And I’m currently leading the solution design and deployment team in the POM business unit with DP World.

[00:05:47] Scott W. Luton: All right. And Karin, it’s all about that implementation and execution, it sounds like Nayeli’s doing a lot of great work there, huh?

[00:05:55] Karin Bursa: Absolutely. You need that expertise to help you maximize the benefit from any solution that you’re deploying. So somebody who can bring that real world experience and best practice to the table, it’s going to accelerate your time to value.

[00:06:08] Scott W. Luton: Ooh, that’s right. That is right. And the two-year payback period has been long gone for quite some time. Mike Wiggins, same thing for you. Level set a bit with us about your background and your current role at DP World.

[00:06:22] Mike Wiggins: Sure. So I started out in 95 in the transportation industry. I’ve been in the PO management space since about 2000, where I started is onsite at Toys R Us. I was there for about seven years. So that was one of the best work experiences of my life working with that group of people who are spread out throughout the industry today. It’s amazing that pedigree. And today I head up the business unit of PO Management, running the teams here in US and Mexico.

[00:06:54] Scott W. Luton: Okay. Outstanding. The toy supply chain, Karin, is what Mike’s … To start your career there, I think of GI Joe and Transformers, and that might’ve been slightly after their heyday, but that had to be a cool way to get started in what seems like decades of PO management type roles. Karin, your thoughts?

[00:07:11] Karin Bursa: Oh yeah, fun products. And I’m sure, Mike, lots of seasonality factors come into play there. So you talk about some peak volume. I’m sure that you know your way around those issues.

[00:07:22] Mike Wiggins: I still have some Furby nightmares, for sure.

[00:07:26] Scott W. Luton: I bet. Another famous toy that sold billions and billions. All right. So Nayeli, Mike and Karin, I want to dive a little bit deeper into why we’re all here today. And for starters, we want to explore a big shift that’s been taking place in global supply chain. And let’s explore why do purchase orders possibly matter more than ever before. So Mike, your thoughts, you’ve been involved in this space for quite some time. What your thoughts here?

[00:07:53] Mike Wiggins: When I started way back when, it was really just a transaction between a buyer and a seller. Everything was pretty much siloed, right? The logistics team, they picked it up after it was ready to move, but really didn’t have any contribution to how those POs were written. And we were dealing with basic routings. The sourcing was not all that varied. We had the main customers and suppliers were all in the same geographies over and over again. But over the last 10 years, as you mentioned, we started to see these sourcing shifts, right? The carrier alliances started to get much more complicated. The strings, how the carriers handled their MQCs became a big deal. Instead of, “Hey, this is how many I’m going to move in a year.” It’s, “Oh, it’s that many divided by 52.” So all of this stuff led itself to saying, “Hey, the logistics team’s got to get involved earlier.

[00:08:46] Mike Wiggins: They got to get the visibility of these POs much earlier in the process.” And of course, the tariff rollercoaster we’ve been on here in the last couple of years really put this into the spotlight. And

[00:08:58] Scott W. Luton: Really quick, MQC, making sure everybody’s with us, right?

[00:09:02] Mike Wiggins: Minimum. Minimum order, right? So it’s what you’ve guaranteed the carrier that you will move on their volume for that price.

[00:09:10] Scott W. Luton: Yep. I appreciate that, Mike. Before I get Karin’s comments, Nayeli, what else would you add when it comes to the shifts we’re seeing? And POs are still incredibly relevant and important here today.

[00:09:21] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah. I mean, just taking from what Mike just said, last year we had a huge sourcing change for a lot of our customers because of the high tariff impact, shifting a lot of this cargo from China to Southeast Asia and Mexico, being able to have all of our customers purchase order visibility with that origin element on that PO really helped us not only shift what was already going to go on the water, but anything that potentially was crucial to get on the water quickly to not have that impact our customers that badly. So having that visibility, being able to shift volumes with carriers for that MQC specifically, all of the forecasting and the allocation, it’s really helpful to be able to have not only that local PO visibility, but also the teams to be able to align with manufacturers and those carriers locally to be able to get these customers help and short-term plans to ensure that we’re all covered.

[00:10:16] Scott W. Luton: And Karin, looking at POs as those early warning signals is an important thing to call out here because it helps set the stage and helps create opportunities to move, which Mike and Nayeli both are kind of referencing from reactive mode to predictive mode, and better yet even predictive control. Your thoughts, Karin, and what we heard there from Mike and Nayeli.

[00:10:35] Karin Bursa: And I think all of you have actually said some pretty important things. So the PO alone, historically we thought of that as a transaction record, but it’s really a demand indicator. It is inventory in motion. And Nayeli made the comment about we can use that to make sure we’re synchronized all the way through right to the customer. And so I want you to think of the PO as not a transaction record anymore, but an intelligence asset. And if we can harness that intelligence, that visibility, right? It’s not just knowing where it is, it’s understanding the best way to use it as it moves through the supply chain. So connecting that proactive visibility is going to increase your control over the business.

[00:11:24] Scott W. Luton: Well said. And hey, it’s important to bring as much within our control as we can, especially given the T-word. It’s already come up a couple times.

[00:11:31] Karin Bursa: Tariff.

[00:11:32] Scott W. Luton: Tariffs. Oh my gosh, man. I used to have a coach who used to say, every challenge presents an opportunity to get better and better. I’m not sure if I can appreciate the trade disruption as opportunities just yet, maybe so. All right, so we’re going to keep driving here. And Nayeli, I’m going to stick with you on a critical topic because it’s really important to share that teams with early PO visibility will certainly gain that critical competitive advantage. So Nayeli, tell us more there, would you?

[00:12:02] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah. I mean, the purchase order once again touches a lot of different factors, a lot of different teams. Not only are we able to have that earlier purchase order visibility for the supplier aspect, the supplier can review the purchase order and confirm production capabilities and timelines based on the dates of the purchase order and the estimated intended arrival at destination by the customer. It can also start sending us signals or future risks of any delays that might impact even before that cargo is ready. So being able to have that visibility from a supplier perspective really starts getting that ball rolling and ensuring that our customer’s priorities are done correctly, not only from a carrier perspective for space, but also for any inbound cargo for their warehouses at destination. From a transportation perspective, our teams can work with that early PO visibility to be able to forecast based on volume and ship dates from a customer’s perspective to really gain some clear sight of commitment for space, if not rerouting allocations and making sure that the commitment not only for the cargo for promotional or seasonal customers, but also the MQCs are met.

[00:13:09] Scott W. Luton: Yes. Love that. And Karin, really quick before I go to Mike, back in my days of metal stamping, man, once you get the PO from the customer, we would check every single detail to make sure we are perfectly aligned long before we pushed orders into production. And really, while a lot of things have changed, including some of the technologies we use and some of the expertise we have, there’s still some universal truths that still harken back from those days, huh?

[00:13:37] Karin Bursa: Absolutely. And I think it becomes increasingly important to have this visibility because as we function as a series of nodes in a supply chain, that visibility across all of those nodes really surfaces additional opportunities. Nayeli mentioned, if there is a change in the order, in the purchase order or in the timing, we need to be able to respond to those changes and knowing it sooner is going to allow us to respond faster. That’s

[00:14:07] Scott W. Luton: Right. Which rolls up in a competitive advantage. Mike, we get your thoughts there. Early PO visibility can deliver a lot more than just alignment with customers. Your thoughts, Mike.

[00:14:16] Mike Wiggins: Karin, I like the term you used, which was demand signal. Many times when we’re talking with customers, they’re hung up on the word purchase order, PO. In reality, it’s a demand signal. It’s whatever it is, if it’s a stock transfer order or multitude of different forms that it takes, right? But it is that demand signal. And for us, having the demand signal have certain information on it is critical. So things like volume on a purchase order. And in fact, the volume of purchase orders are a very big indicator in terms of where the patterns might be shifting from a sourcing perspective or how they’re buying their goods. And maybe it’s an inventory stock at play, meaning that, hey, all of a sudden I’ve got purchase orders, I’ve got 10 more purchase orders than I used to have, but they’re smaller volumes. So that’s more of a stock inventory control methodology.

[00:15:14] Mike Wiggins: So as we see this come up in our platform and we start to look, say, “Hey, so you’re starting to control your inventory. You don’t want to have these big open to buys at the beginning of every month and then have to somehow smooth out the way you’re receiving cargo at your destination.” So for us, having those data elements within that PO and us looking at them aggregated up through all of our entire customer base, but to a specific customer, be able to come to them with questions, “Hey, are you changing the way that you buy goods?” And being able to then impact the way we handle the origin operation part of that.

[00:15:53] Scott W. Luton: Karin, what’d you hear there from Mike?

[00:15:55] Karin Bursa: Yeah. Well, Mike is hitting on a number of resources that need to be optimized. So when we think of the PO, it is in fact a demand signal. It is a time phased, quantity-based inventory number that we should be working with. There’s lead time associated with it for every one of its moves. Nayeli mentioned just a minute ago about making sure I’ve got space for it. That’s not just in the transport, but that may be in your distribution center. So you are using that visibility to inform the rest of the moves through your network. And then the factor that we all have the same of is time, right? There’s only 24 hours in a day. So anytime we can stretch that decision horizon by, again, having that advanced visibility, then we’re going to get the opportunity to evaluate more scenarios, make better decisions, and keep that inventory flowing through the network.

[00:16:49] Scott W. Luton: Lots of opportunity abound, for sure. Mike, I’m going to stick with you for a second because really all three of y’all, Karin, Nayeli, and Mike, all of you’ve pointed to the opportunity of transforming that PO data into true predictive control, presenting all sorts of opportunities. Mike, tell us more about that.

[00:17:07] Mike Wiggins: The word predictive is a bit challenging, right? To me, it’s moved into the blockchain realm, right? Everybody wants to use it. It’s right there with agentic AI and all the other big ideas. But listen, at the end of the day, when we have the information, we’re able to use it as an intelligent asset, as Karin mentioned, right? We can now start to plan accordingly as it relates to our ability to support those purchase orders. As sourcing starts to shift, we need to then support different geographies. We need to start to have different warehouses in play, different personnel in those geographies to be able to support that shift in business. And when we have a 90 or 150-day vision of those purchase orders there, it allows us to be able to do that. The fact that these POs used to be in this sort of a siloed environment, now it’s kind of opened up to everyone.

[00:18:04] Mike Wiggins: It’s opened up to us as a purchase order and logistics provider, being able to make sure that we can intervene. If there’s a purchase order that’s written for 20 cartons out of Madagascar, hey, maybe we can have a conversation with someone, the buyer and planner earlier to say, maybe that’s not a great idea. Maybe it’s not sustainable. Maybe it’s going to be an awful lot more expensive than you think it’s going to be by the time you get there. Same with high risk regions today. Yeah, it’s a cheap price, but at the end of the day, it might end up costing a lot more. And again, the visibility of these POs allows us to have those conversations now.

[00:18:44] Scott W. Luton: Nayeli, what would you add to that? And I liked Mike’s reference how predictive might have reached the zenith of blockchain in terms of how everyone’s using it and maybe not doing as much with it. But Nayeli, what would you add?

[00:18:56] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah, I do think that we can be predictive in certain aspects. So we have all of the data now. We have some historical information to go and give our customers some insight on trends that they’ve had. And so future strategic plans. What we like to do is we like to run purchase order KPIs. It allows us to work with their buyers to see if the lead times of those purchase order creations are enough time for the suppliers to provide that demand, also to provide it timely and in full. We work with their customers to make sure that the supplier’s complying to their business roles or how that’s affecting the overall end-to-end vision there for the customer getting cargo on time to the DC warehouse, getting it on time to the end customer. All of these KPIs and these historical data that we have, we like to review monthly, we like to review quarterly, however it is possible to really achieve the end goal of our customers and make sure that we’re getting them the results that they want.

[00:19:53] Nayeli Valladares: Going through all of the different aspects that we can and also using that purchase order directly in the system because we’re measuring items at a SKU level to ensure that alerts are being sent out proactively to all of the different partners, whether that be dray, brokers, or anybody else in addition to that as an alert and a key directly from the system.

[00:20:14] Scott W. Luton: All right, Karin, we’ve got our latest tranche there from Mike and Nayeli. What do you think are the most important signals out of their expertise they’re sharing?

[00:20:23] Karin Bursa: Lots of good information there, right? When we think of the reason for leveraging this visibility, first and foremost, we want to deliver on time in full every day, but when that doesn’t happen, we want to prevent a late order, not just report a late order. So that visibility gives us the opportunity to prevent problems or to proactively communicate any changes to the customer or to other members in the network and breaking down those age old silos across procurement or logistics or the inventory system of record, the operations team, the ability to elevate that and make sure that we’re all looking at the same information, the same visibility, the same status is really going to allow the business as a whole to serve customers better.

[00:21:17] Scott W. Luton: A couple comments there. We can’t put the hammers down until we’re done with all the silo busting that still has to take place. It’s interesting. We talk about this a lot, Karin, on a lot of different shows because here in the golden age of supply chain tech, and folks, y’all stop me because I know you’ve heard it before. It’s interesting. Are we creating more silos than we’re busting down? I’m not sure. It depends on the day, different answers each day. Let’s keep driving. We got a lot more of the story here to get into. And Nayeli, I want to stick with you here because how do you see those leading organizations, some that you work with, others out in the industry, acting on the opportunities that we’ve already been discussing here? Your thoughts?

[00:21:57] Nayeli Valladares: Yeah, I think we touched on it briefly, but we are seeing that internal teams really need to get together for multiple departments, not only planning, but logistics, operations. They are now working together, and I think we’re shifting a lot of that in our customer base where when we first work with them and we learn about their business, we actually bring everybody into the room and we see how the overall process really impacts each one of those team members. And I think we’re changing the way that they’re working internally and we’re really starting that at the purchase order creation. So being able to really stand out and let them know about different items that can impact each of their teams starting from the purchase order is really what’s changing the course of their action on their side.

[00:22:40] Scott W. Luton: Good stuff, Nayeli. I like real world anecdotes and scenarios, some that you mentioned there. Mike, what would you add?

[00:22:47] Mike Wiggins: Yeah, I think she’s underselling what she does because what part of her team and what her and her team do is when we win a customer and we go in to implement their business, one of the biggest things that we insist on is to be in the room with the customer and all of the stakeholders, all in the same room to start asking questions, to understand their flow all the way, as Nayeli points out, the first thing we start is a purchase order. Who writes it? When do you write it? What’s the lead time of that? What’s this data element mean? Invariably, the questions would be answered differently from all of the different departments. There’s a lot of legacy understanding and sort of folklore around how things operate, even in companies where folks have been there for 15, 20 years, not to mention the ones where most of the folks have been there for five or six.

[00:23:42] Mike Wiggins: So really getting everyone on the same page all the way from the point in which we start engaging them to implement the business. But beyond that, once we actually have it implemented and we are operating, us being able to communicate, at the end of the day, this all comes down to communication, making sure that we understand the customer’s needs. We do QBRs, we have strategy sessions with the customers, and this all in the vein of making sure that we understand where their business is going and that we can support how they’re doing it. And for us, it’s really about the customer letting us be a partner as an extension of their logistics group and providing feedback. Obviously, we do this for a bunch of customers in the geographies that these customers are going to operate in, and we can provide insight into those geographies and how best to operate.

[00:24:39] Mike Wiggins: And quite frankly, being able to talk with the customer, we call it the blanket, right? It’s, “Hey, how’s it going?”

[00:24:48] Scott W. Luton: I’m going to set that blanket analogy aside for just a second because I love that.

[00:24:53] Nayeli Valladares: I’ll get

[00:24:54] Scott W. Luton: Back to that. Yeah, I’ll come back to that for sure. But Mike, it’s changed and technology and supply chain has changed so much since the days, and some of this still goes on, but you get in the PO via fax and then you manually take

[00:25:08] Karin Bursa: It

[00:25:08] Scott W. Luton: From here to there and ever. We’re in a whole different place for customers, organizations willing to lean into that and make it easier on their people. Would you agree, Mike?

[00:25:18] Mike Wiggins: Yeah. And to your point, right? The Telex releases and you get the Telexs and you have to go in and put the PO. You’re absolutely right. And on our side, it takes a serious commitment for a customer to commit to do with us what we do. The majority of our customers, we’re connected to their ERP directly. So the minute that they have written a purchase order, it comes into our platform. We use Infor Nexus. So we have visibility of that immediately. Any of the collaboration and changes of those purchase orders are communicated back and forth. It’s about sharing that information, and you don’t need human beings or want human beings doing that. You want to do everything electronically so there’s a record of it and so that it runs smoothly without somebody who’s having a sick day, not being able to enter the information properly.

[00:26:06] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. Mike, well said. It’s amazing where we are today here in March 2026. Karin, we’ve heard a lot from Nayeli and Mike in practical terms, I think, of the opportunity. Your thoughts?

[00:26:19] Karin Bursa: I think they both shared some interesting approaches. I think it’s really important when we get everybody in the room. So as Nayeli was explaining, and then Mike actually amplified that and said, “Hey, I think you’re underselling the value that you’re bringing to the table.” Those conversations are critically important because most companies have some, I’m going to call them bad behaviors. There are things that we’ve done because we’ve always done it that way, or we used to have touch a PO, physically touch a PO or enter the data multiple times, and you don’t have to do that today. It can flow in a touchless fashion, which accelerates our visibility. The other thing that is worth mentioning is that there are different types of purchase orders, right? So we may have a replenishment order and those are reliable and hopefully our performance is highly predictable, but we may also have promotional goods.

[00:27:13] Karin Bursa: So Mike mentioned working with Toys R Us, high demand, high promotion activity, not just the seasonality factors, but it may be the first time that buyer or that shipper has gotten in the room and thought about, do I have visibility of both my replenishment orders and my seasonal orders and my promotion orders, and is there an opportunity to gang these things together to get better rates and cargo shipment, to get better visibility, and to just synchronize that throughout our business. And so Nayeli getting everybody in the room or her team getting everybody in the room might be the first time they’ve sat back and thought about some fairly simple things like that as they optimize really their investment and inventory and how they will leverage that additional visibility.

[00:28:03] Scott W. Luton: Well said. And that brings us back to the blanket analogy, Mike and Nayeli and Karin. And to some, you think of a nice, warm, your favorite blanket, right? I think in global supply chain right now, and I’m only being kind of halfway kidding, we’re seeking out every opportunity for as much comfort and control and stability and non-volatility as we can get. And I would argue, Karin, that customers would welcome this blanket approach from Mike and Nayeli, including the relationship side, but also that really important technology side, so we can get more done faster and really free up the time for the supply chain pros to put their brains and use their time in other things way above blocking and tackling. But Mike, did I mention the blanket analogy like you were thinking of it, Mike?

[00:28:56] Mike Wiggins: Yeah, I was worried that you might be using it to try to put out fires.

[00:29:02] Scott W. Luton: Well

[00:29:03] Mike Wiggins: We can

[00:29:03] Scott W. Luton: Use it for that

[00:29:04] Nayeli Valladares: Too

[00:29:04] Scott W. Luton: Sometimes.

[00:29:04] Mike Wiggins: Yeah. It’s about giving the customer comfort, right? It’s about making sure that we’re covering their business that they know at the end of the day, yes, there’s technology here, right? We’ve got AI, we’ve got predictive, we’ve got all of this stuff, but it’s still a people business.

[00:29:20] Karin Bursa: That’s right.

[00:29:20] Mike Wiggins: We don’t win any business unless we have a relationship with someone who is within that organization and understands what we do for a living and what we might have done for them at a past company. So for me, it’s really about that personal touch and relationship, and that’s really what the blanket’s about.

[00:29:40] Scott W. Luton: I’m with you and I believe you. We’ve seen it in action. All right, so let’s put it all together. So Mike, I want to get you and Nayeli to weigh in here because in all these sessions, as I’ve found it, whether I’m in person conducting meetings, which I’ve done a thousand times in my career, I know Karin has too, or whether it’s these virtual sessions, you always These have a contingent that are sitting in the corner somewhere. They’re harumphing at every point. They got their arms crossed. They’re like, “So what?” I want to speak to that crowd for just a second because I think we got a big compelling answer to the so what and what all this means that we’re talking about here today as it relates to supply chain organizations and their teams. How would you address that, Mike, when you put it all together?

[00:30:22] Mike Wiggins: Yeah. Listen, you can’t execute a supply chain without bringing your partners in. Giving them the opportunity to do good. And the only way that they’re going to be able to do that is if they have some sort of visibility or forecast to what it is that’s expected of them. Yes, you can write a purchase order and say, “Oh, go do that.” But at the end of the day, you have to bring them into your organization. You have to want them to share in the responsibility of getting your goods from A to B. And for me, it’s really about forecasting out, allowing the purchase orders to go to your PO manager and allowing the forecast to your carriers, allowing them the forecast to your brokers and allowing them to your dray providers. Provide all of that information. And Karin, you mentioned, hey, all the different nodes, what about the dray providers?

[00:31:13] Mike Wiggins: Are they getting a notification that this is coming inbound, trying to manage your detention and demurrage? Honestly, information sharing is the most critical part of this whole supply chain drama that we run with every day. So for me, we utilize Infor Nexus to distribute all of that information and visibility for all of the different folks and nodes in the supply chain. And it really helps our customers understand, “Hey, am I at risk of stockouts? Am I at risk of something getting hung up in the Suez?” All of these different aspects. It’s really transparency and visibility that is important.

[00:31:54] Scott W. Luton: Correct. And before I shift over to Nayeli, we have such a great choice and opportunity at our fingertips to really reduce the drama that Mike mentioned and the friction and the headaches, right? But we got to make that conscious decision to lean into that. And something all three of y’all touched on earlier, we got to talk in reality with how things actually happen, not fool ourselves with how things happen between our teams and departments and customers and whatnot. Karin, touch on what we heard there in terms of the so what from Mike.

[00:32:25] Karin Bursa: Yeah, I think it’s a valuable point. We’re not committing perfection. There’s too many variables to execute perfection for every order, every time, and we can’t prevent every disruption. So Mike mentioned this Canal as one example of recent disruptions that certainly had a global impact. What we can do with that visibility and connecting all of the moves in our supply chain and understanding the impact is we can absolutely reduce the negative impact of disruptions. And again, the sooner that we know that, the more proactive we can be or the additional time that will give us in order to look at resolutions that make sense for the customer, for the network, et cetera. So it’s not just visibility, it’s what actions are we going to take based on that visibility?

[00:33:19] Scott W. Luton: Yes. Karin, your commentary reminds me of something I’ve shared a thousand times, food industry magnate. One of his mantras was, give me good news fast, give me bad news faster.

[00:33:30] Karin Bursa: Faster.

[00:33:31] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. All right. So Nayeli, same question to you, as we put it all together and we address the so what contingent out there. There’s a great opportunity for supply chain teams. Your thoughts, Nayeli.

[00:33:43] Nayeli Valladares: I think technology is one of the greatest factors here as well. Working in Infor Nexus, we’re able to put an SOP that’s currently in paper form directly into a portal. It’s all automatically fed into the system. It can ping different, like Karin said, different purchase order types with different business rules. They don’t all have to follow the same process. Being able to automate all of that into one system across all partners, like Mike mentioned before, is really what helps out all of our customers and really provides that risk or that flag earlier on rather than waiting to action it once it’s happening. And also on top of that, I know Mike mentioned this as well, the people. We can have technology run all of this automation and provide alerts and provide flags and items to call out any risk, but the person who’s actually working the system and taking that output and putting into a vision or a plan to fix for the future is really what brings all of this together for our customer.

[00:34:42] Scott W. Luton: Nayeli, I love it. I love it. Kind of a actionable, inspirational finish as we start to come down a home stretch here. Karin, weigh in on what we just heard there from Nayeli.

[00:34:52] Karin Bursa: What Nayeli said, it’s people, it’s a better process, it’s technology, it’s tracking the data, bringing that all together in a holistic solution that they map out with their customers and build that relationship and be a trusted partner to accelerate that visibility through the network.

[00:35:11] Mike Wiggins: Yes, Scott, I just want to just jump in. One other point there is, as Nayeli mentioned, the people, and we’re talking about really the people and the customers, but the reality is it’s the boots on the ground in the origins. It’s the folks that are speaking local language to the manufacturers that yes, we do everything in the system, but at the end of the day, we’ll still pick up the phone and say, “Hey, are you guys okay? Is everything all right over there? Are we moving forward? We’ve got some things that are pending. Can you get into the system and action them?” So a system’s great and it’s transparent and all of that, but at the end of the day, our folks with boots on the ground, those teams are the ones that are really impacting the very beginning of the supply chain.

[00:35:51] Scott W. Luton: Well said, Mike. As we always talk about here, the people, even in this golden age supply chain tech is the people in our industry, around the world that make it happen every single day. And for that, we’re very grateful. Mike, question for you. When it comes to starting relationships, starting to work with DP World, just how easy is it?

[00:36:12] Mike Wiggins: Yeah, it’s a simple message. I mean, at the end of the day, what we want to do is sit in a room with you for 60 minutes and show you our solution. While we present the platform that we use and how we operate it, it’s really the operations and the people and the solution around that. We’re not software providers, right? We don’t program software, so we use Infor Nexus to be able to execute what we do and we believe we are the best at it. So give us an hour, whether it’s a Teams meeting or an in person meeting, we welcome all of it and we can show you what we can help you with.

[00:36:43] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. Karin, that sounds like a challenge. I like it. Give them an hour. And if they can’t knock your socks off in an hour, no one can maybe. I don’t know. Karin, your thoughts.

[00:36:54] Karin Bursa: Well, I mean, it takes you back to, it’s about the expertise. It’s about how do we leverage both the domain expertise with process improvements, best practices and the people. The people, the process, the technology, the data, and understanding the why around it all. Bringing the team in is going to give them that opportunity. They’ll highlight priorities for you and drive some quick wins for the business.

[00:37:21] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. That’s right, Karin. Infor Nexus has come up a couple times. Big shout out to Heidi Benko doing big things over there for quite some time. Good people. Nayeli, how can folks track you down, my friend?

[00:37:31] Nayeli Valladares: So I have my LinkedIn, Nayeli Valladares. I can also put it on here as well to share, but that would be the best place.

[00:37:38] Scott W. Luton: Mike, same question. How can they track you down?

[00:37:41] Mike Wiggins: Yeah, I mean, LinkedIn’s always good, but there is a lot of spam going on there. But mike.wiggins@dpworld.com is an easy way to get in touch with me as well.

[00:37:50] Scott W. Luton: Okay. So folks, we got Mike’s LinkedIn there, but he is true. There’s a lot of spam. I think everybody’s shifted over to LinkedIn, so he’s even dropped his email there. They have, right? I mean, gosh, I’m sure I’m not the only one getting a thousand pitches a day for all kinds of things, including how we ship our containers here at Supply Chain Now because Karin, we got so many containers we ship here, right? You get some of those too. All right. So one other thing we’re going to share, we’re about to get Karin’s patented key takeaway. But we also want to encourage you, we love sharing resources and especially practical resources, right? And they’ve got this great white paper that’s on this topic we’re talking about here today. We invite you to check out Early Visibility, Real Impact, Rethinking Purchase Order Management. There’s a whole new way.

[00:38:36] Scott W. Luton: We don’t have to do it like 1982 anymore. You can learn more about how DP World’s PO management solution will help to transform PO data into predictive control. Be sure to give it a read and connect with Nayeli and Mike to keep the conversation going. So Karin, you got a tough question here today because Nayeli and Mike have really brought it lots of actionable, practical, been there, done that perspective. So what is your golden key takeaway here today, Karin?

[00:39:06] Karin Bursa: The pressure is on.

[00:39:08] Karin Bursa: I think we covered a lot actually in a pretty short period of time, and we continue to come back to the people are important. And Mike mentioned local experts to work with you and work with your shipping partners and your manufacturing partners, distribution partners. That’s important. But the topic today was around purchase orders and PO visibility. I want to bring us back to what do we do with that PO visibility? So the earlier we have the visibility, the more actionable it is. And this expands our decision window and horizon. It gives us more time. It buys us time to be better partners in our supply chain because that’s going to lead to better decisions. The earlier we detect a problem or a change, the more options we can evaluate. So at the end of the day, much like that title of that white paper, I’m going to download that and give it a read as well.

[00:40:03] Karin Bursa: At the end of the day, this is about turning that visibility into control and that control into action. What’s the next right thing we need to do so that we can delight our customers so that we can help them get their goods on time in full in good condition and do that reliably.

[00:40:25] Scott W. Luton: It’s such a great opportunity. And I think I capture some of that. Better technology leads to better partners, better partners lead to better decisions, and better decisions, of course, lead to much better outcomes. And we can tackle the surprises that is inherent in global supply chain much more effectively because the core business, right? The day in, day out business and challenge related to what we do is in much better position. So good stuff there, Karin. Well said. You somersaulted over the bar for the golden takeaway of the day, Karin. All right. So really quick folks, we encourage you also, we shared Nayeli’s and Mike’s information. We also are including Karin on LinkedIn. If you want to continue the conversation, we encourage you to do that. You can also find and subscribe Supply Chain Now, wherever you get your podcast. Check that out. And again, reach out to Mike and Nayeli.

[00:41:14] Scott W. Luton: Give them the hour, share about challenges you’re trying to tackle. Get a clam bake maybe, Mike, or some delicious Indian food, Nayeli, and have a great supply chain conversation. That sounds good to me. I wish we had a couple more hours. I find that y’all’s perspective and what you’re doing to be fascinating. And I really appreciate what y’all both and your organization’s doing to continue to transform global supply chain, making it easier, especially for the wonderful people of supply chain to have much better, easier and successful days. I want to thank Nayeli Valladares, Vice President of Solution Design & Deployment with DP World. Nayeli, do you want to share, not to put you on the spot, do you want to share where your next culinary adventure is going to take you?

[00:41:57] Nayeli Valladares: Hopefully back to Spain this year. So haven’t told the boss, but maybe sometime after he gets back from Brazil, I’ll be going to Spain and hopefully back to Madrid.

[00:42:07] Scott W. Luton: Hey, that sounds great. All right. Mr. and Ms. Boss, we got to rubber stamp that. Going to Spain and Nayeli, we trust you’ll send pictures back. Big thanks. Mike Wiggins, Senior Vice President of Solution Design & Deployment for DP World. Mike, it’s been a pleasure and I hope that … Is your boat fueled up, ready to go?

[00:42:25] Mike Wiggins: It’s not in the water yet, but it should be very soon.

[00:42:28] Scott W. Luton: Okay. Very

[00:42:29] Mike Wiggins: Soon. We’re looking forward to it.

[00:42:31] Scott W. Luton: Well, appreciate you and Nayeli spending time with us here today, making us all smarter. Karin Bursa, you just say I learned something new every time I sit down with Karin Bursa. Karin, always a pleasure. Thanks for being here.

[00:42:43] Karin Bursa: I really enjoyed the conversation and I want to remind everybody it’s a great time to be in supply chain. This is just another example of how you can make an impact.

[00:42:53] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. Even on the toughest of days, it’s a great time, as Karin mentions. That’s her mantra and it’s so true. Reach out to Mike, Nayeli and Karin, your homework as always. And this conversation offered a lot of opportunities. Take one thing that Mike or Nayeli or Karin offered up and do something with it, right? Put it in action, share it with your team. Do one thing, deeds not words. That’s how we’ll continue to transform global supply chain. And with that said, on behalf of the whole team here at Supply Chain Now, Scott W. Luton challenging you, do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.

[00:43:30] Voice Over: Join the Supply Chain Now community for more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation. Check out supplychainnow.com. Subscribe to Supply Chain Now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain Now wherever you get your podcasts.