Small Actions, Lasting Change: Kate Williams with 1% for the Planet

In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton and special guest host Kim Humphrey, President & CEO of AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence), welcome retired Air Force Lieutenant General Andy Busch, Strategic Advisor at Goldratt Consulting, for a high-impact conversation on the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and its ability to transform complex operations. Drawing from a 38-year military career, Andy shares how TOC’s five focusing steps helped him cut C-5 aircraft maintenance timelines from 340 days to 110, save hundreds of millions through inventory discipline, and reduce a 15-month procurement backlog to just three months. He also highlights the leadership skills required to drive these changes, including clear communication, organizational alignment, and active workforce engagement. They also discuss the universal applicability of TOC across industries and geographies, with Andy recounting implementations at the Defense Logistics Agency, large-scale MRO depots, and in international settings such as Japan and India. From managing high-variability environments to avoiding the trap of local optimization, the conversation delivers actionable insights for supply chain and manufacturing leaders seeking breakthrough results, stronger team alignment, and sustained performance improvement in today’s volatile business climate.   This episode is hosted by Scott Luton and Kim Humphrey, and produced by…

The advance of human capabilities has been led by people who were able to imagine things that were not possible and then muster the willpower to build them. That requires a combination of seeing the world a bit differently and being willing to take risks and push the limits to create something new. Eric Adolphe, CEO of Forward Edge-AI, Inc., is a technology-savvy executive with over thirty years of success building high-growth firms focused on mission impact, revenue, and margin attainment, primarily in the national security sector. But he isn’t interested in technology for technology’s own sake. Instead, he believes that it has the potential to generate enormous benefits for all of humanity. In this classic Supply Chain Now episode, sponsored by Microsoft, Eric joins co-hosts Scott Luton and Kevin L. Jackson to talk about his passion for innovation and willingness to go where no man has gone before: Eric’s opportunities to work first with NASA and now with the United States Space Force Why innovators must dedicate themselves to building responsible and more inclusive AI capabilities than we have today How AI is acting as an accelerant in manufacturing, making it possible to bring designs to market faster than…