Jeff Schwartz

At the jampacked MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, Scott Luton sat down with Brian Devine, President & CEO of Ignite Industrial Professionals, for a grounded and timely conversation about one of the most pressing issues in global supply chain: the workforce. While automation continues to dominate headlines, Devine makes one thing clear: people are still at the center of it all. And finding them is getting harder by the day.   “Fingerprints on Every Box” Despite rapid advancements in robotics and automation, Devine emphasizes a fundamental truth that often gets overlooked. “There’s still… fingerprints on boxes. Somebody’s putting their fingerprints on tons of boxes to move it to the next phase of the supply chain,” he explains. Even in many highly automated environments, human labor remains essential. Devine shares an example of a cutting-edge facility where autonomous forklifts handle part of the process, but still rely on human operators to complete the job. The takeaway? Automation is largely augmenting, rather than replacing, the workforce. And that makes the labor shortage even more critical to address.   A Shrinking Labor Pool One of the most compelling parts of the discussion centers on simple supply-and-demand economics. The labor pool isn’t just tight. It’s…

Listen up to the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from Supply Chain Now this week!   On Monday, Scott Luton and guest host Will Haraway welcomed JP Wiggins with 3Gtms for a conversation on transportation management and even a little baseball!   On Tuesday, Host Karin Bursa welcomed supply chain genius Criag Ablin to TEK TOK to discuss the 6 levers that drive digital and physical success.     On Wednesday, we kicked off our Reverse Logistics series in partnership with the Reverse Logistics Association featuring Chuck Johnson, COO of goTRG. Tune in for a great conversation about peak returns season, with passionate opinions from Chuck, our hosts Scott, Greg, and Tony Sciarrotta, and our audience!   On Thursday, Scott Luton, Greg White, and Enrique Alvarez sat down to discuss all the top news and biggest stories in supply chain this week on The Supply Chain Buzz.   On Friday, Scott Luton dived into the top news in business, including industry developments in the tech and talent sector, aviation, the beverage industry, and more!   And we wrapped up with a bonus livestream this Saturday to discuss Supply Chain leadership across Africa. Which was your favorite episode? Make sure…