Dustin McIntire

ATLANTA, GA — January 6, 2026 — Supply Chain Now, the award-winning global digital media platform recognized as the #1 Voice of Supply Chain, today announced the promotion of Mary Kate Love to President, effective January 1, 2026, alongside the continued engagement of a distinguished Advisory Board composed of proven leaders across supply chain, technology, strategy, and media. Together, these leadership updates signal Supply Chain Now’s next chapter of growth as the company prepares for significant expansion in 2026: scaling programming, partnerships, and demand-generation capabilities while staying rooted in authentic, practitioner-led content serving a global audience of more than 1 million listeners. In her new role, Love will lead Supply Chain Now’s strategic growth across programming, partnerships, operations, and long-term platform strategy, further strengthening its mission to inform, connect, and elevate the global supply chain industry. “Mary Kate is a trusted, decisive leader with a rare combination of delivering both strategic vision and operational excellence,” said Scott W. Luton, Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Now. “In 2025, she played a pivotal role in accelerating our revenue growth, expanding our audience to more than one million supply chain professionals, and sharpening our focus on delivering measurable value for both practitioners…

Lean manufacturing is all about reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Manufacturers have been implementing lean practices for decades and have stood the test of time. Now, with technological advancements, lean methodologies can be more transformative than ever before. “Integrating automation into lean manufacturing is a powerful strategy. Unlike traditional automation, which often aims to increase production capacity without considering real needs, lean automation focuses on the smart and selective application of technologies to meet specific continuous improvement goals and eliminate inefficiencies,” the Kaizen Institute said. “Digital transformation provides an unprecedented opportunity for implementing lean,” it continued. “When applied within lean, tools like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics can revolutionize how organizations detect and eliminate waste.” What is Lean Manufacturing? In “The Machine That Changed The World,” published in 1990, lean production is hailed as “Toyota’s secret weapon in the global car wars.” The Toyota Production System was developed following World War II from “a series of simple innovations … to provide both continuity in process flow and a wide variety in product offerings,” according to the Lean Enterprise Institute. In “Lean Thinking,” a 1996 follow-up to “The Machine That Changed The World,” authors James…