Lori Chennault

Special Guest Blog Post written by Matt McKinney, Co-Founder and CEO of Loop   I spend most of my time with supply chain and innovation leaders at major enterprises who are sitting on significant AI budgets but struggling to show measurable business impact in an increasingly complex and volatile supply chain environment.   These conversations have evolved dramatically. A year ago, executives were asking basic questions about AI feasibility. Today, the questions have shifted to strategic implementation at enterprise scale.   Based on hundreds of these discussions, three questions consistently emerge that separate companies making transformational progress from those stuck in pilot purgatory.   How do we move from AI experiments to enterprise-scale impact?   Most organizations have yet to see organization-wide, bottom-line impact from AI use. This is the strategic challenge keeping C-suite leaders awake at night.   The problem isn’t the technology. It’s the application of the technology. Too many enterprises are trying to treat AI like a magic wand they can bolt onto existing systems. But garbage in, garbage out. If your underlying data is fragmented and inconsistent, AI won’t solve your problems; in fact they’ll get worse.   At its core, anything automated is powered by…

The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index for 3Q 2021 has been released, and one thing remains clear: spend is up. More specifically, year over year, quarterly freight spend showed the second largest increase ever – rising 32.6% from 3Q 2020. What’s driving the dollars, and what can this increase tell us about the state of the supply chain across the country? Supply Chain Now co-hosts Scott Luton and Greg White recently sat down with Bobby Holland, Director, Freight Data Solutions at U.S. Bank, and Patricia Gabriel, Vice President US Customer Service & Logistics, at Mondelez International, to find out. Let’s review highlights from their discussion of the report – and take a look at what you need to consider moving forward. But first, what is the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index? The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index is a free report you can download each quarter to keep your finger on the pulse of freight shipping volumes and spend from both a national and regional perspective. The report uses actual transaction payment data, de-seasonalized and calendar adjusted for maximum comparability. How do I use it? When you’re asking the question, “What happened last quarter?” the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index…