Raleigh Wilkins

It’s time for Supply Chain Now! We’re looking back on the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from this week right here. On Monday, we released 2 new episodes! In this episode of Digital Transformers, powered by Supply Chain Now, hosts Kevin L. Jackson and Kelly Barner welcome Gary Storr and April Harrison with Trust Your Supplier to the podcast to discuss supplier management using blockchain. On This Week in Business History, guest host Nick Roemer with Cibus21 walks us through the history of the COP: the conference of parties, as well as key milestones in actions to address sustainability. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of Supply Chain Now, Bobby Holland, Freight Data Solutions team at U.S. Bank and Drew Wilkerson, head of XPO’s transportation group in North America, share the results of the Q1 2021 report with Greg White and Scott Luton, interpreting what they may mean for the economy and the shipping industry in the short and longer term. On TECHquila Sunrise, we looked back on a Classic episode where host Greg White shared the ins and outs of what it takes to get into supply chain tech. On Wednesday, Charles Redding, CEO…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Bernadine Henderson Ms. Henderson, senior director of procurement at Protolabs, lifts the lid on buying in manufacturing and why relationships are central to it.   Simply put, the job of a buyer is really about buying the right thing at the right time for the right price. It sounds simple, but it really is very complicated because everything that’s going on in the world impacts the timing, the availability, and the price of the product. This means that buying has recently got a lot more complicated. World events have very real consequences on global supply chains. Just one example is the way in which buyers have responded to tariffs in the U.S. by re-routing sourcing locations. It takes a certain amount of agility to be a buyer in 2025, and this quick responsiveness is helped along by one key ingredient, and that is strong relationships with suppliers. Relationships Built on Trust A widely held misconception is that buyers are only interested in getting to the lowest price possible. In fact, the most important thing to a buyer is for suppliers to bring solutions that deliver overall value. In my experience, a really strong supplier…