Dr. Ronald Ballou

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! We started our week off with a conversation on Supply Chain Now with not one, but two Allisons! Scott and Greg had the opportunity to talk with Allison Grealis the President of the Women in Manufacturing Association and Education Foundation, and Allison Giddens the Co-President of Win-Tech and Treasurer of the Georgia Chapter of Women in Manufacturing. Scott focused on the history of Labor Day in Monday’s This Week in Business History’s episode. Scott talks about the history of the holiday and the part that everyone plays when it comes to the global workforce. On Tuesday, we published a new episode of TEKTOK with host Karin Bursa featuring Greg White, host of TECHquila Sunrise. During this episode Karin talks with Greg about his perspective on how to be successful in today’s HOT Supply Chain Tech market. On Wednesday’s episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott and special co-host Mike Griswold, Vice President of Research at Gartner, interviewed Scott Mann. Scott Mann is known for being a Green Beret, Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, and President of Rooftop Leadership.…

Inside the reverse logistics education gap and the economic blind spot keeping it invisible Special Guest Blog Post written by Deborah Dull   Tony Sciarrotta has been asking the same question at industry conferences for years. As the Senior Director of Circularity and Reverse Logistics at the National Retail Federation, he knows what answer he’s going to get. But he keeps asking anyway. “Anybody in here go to school for returns management, reverse logistics, circularity? Any degrees in those fields the room?” It’s rare that anyone raises their hand. “That’s what’s wrong with our industry,” Sciarrotta told me at NRF Rev this January, the first conference under NRF’s new reverse logistics banner. “We still need to fix it.”   The Numbers That Should Make Headlines Here’s what makes reverse logistics so fascinating: the scale is staggering, but the infrastructure to support it needs to be stronger. According to the National Retail Federation, American retailers processed approximately $890 billion in returns in 2024 which is roughly 17% of all retail sales – and it’s higher for ecommerce. But that number almost certainly understates reality. “We have a fragmented industry,” Sciarrotta explained. “Where are all those returns going? It has to be…