Is the worst of the semiconductor shortage over? Could rare earth mineral mining be coming stateside? And what about Omicron, inflation and SMB inventory planning? Uncertainty abounds – and co-hosts Scott and Greg are tackling it all with a little help from Joel Beal, CEO and co-founder of Alloy on the Supply Chain Buzz for December 6. From wearables with industrial applications to a new era of interconnectivity among enterprises, stay on the pulse of global industry with experts who stay a step ahead of new supply chain trends.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:00:31):

Hey, Hey, good morning, Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on supply chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Gregory. How are we doing?

Greg White (00:00:38):

Doing quite well? How are you doing?

Scott Luton (00:00:40):

I’m doing a wonderful, great weekend. Wonderful weekend. Lots, lots of rests catching up, got the tree, got things decorated, assembled a Christmas village. Nice. Which is a fun tradition. You ever done that? Uh, yeah.

Greg White (00:00:52):

Yeah. My wife has quite the Christmas village and we visited some friends during the week who it’s like the New York city of Christmas village.

Scott Luton (00:01:00):

<laugh> I gotta check. I’m gonna have to come over and, and, uh, compare notes in. We love, we have a small, but growing collection and it’s fascinating. It’s a good tradition. Now you’re on the road again today. Yes. From Kansas city. Is that right?

Greg White (00:01:13):

Kansas city. Yep. Yeah. Uh, went to the chief’s game last night and, uh, it was a pretty calm night. Actually. It was pretty cold. So believe it or not, chiefs fans were relatively quiet really. And yeah, and it wasn’t much of a game. So I mean, there wasn’t, you know, even at ten three, I think nobody was really that worried. There was no sign, no real signs of life from the

Scott Luton (00:01:36):

Broncos. Well, Kansas city continues to, to, um, put wins in the, uh, the winning uh they’re. They’re what leading to the division now, is

Greg White (00:01:46):

That right? Yeah. Yeah. So all of the division leaders are eight and four now in the AFC. How about that? How about that?

Scott Luton (00:01:54):

Yeah. Well, I never slept on the chiefs. I knew they were gonna bounce back and be good. And you never know, maybe, maybe they’re on the path back to super bowl this year. There

Greg White (00:02:02):

Are, are a lot of good teams in the NFL right now. There really are. If you look at, at any of the lists of who’s in and who’s out the list of who’s out consists of the Detroit lions, everyone else is, I mean, virtually everyone else <laugh> it’s has a statistically viable chance of, of making the playoff.

Scott Luton (00:02:21):

We know one last comment. I really, and we’re gonna talk about inventory and hoarding inventory. Uh, later in the hour. I really wish when the Falcons were playing really good football, I wish we had hoarded all that inventory from two or three years ago to use it now. Cause it’s, it’s painful to watch this Falcons team, but, uh, it’s a shame.

Greg White (00:02:40):

You can’t do that. Right. <laugh> when the game is played by robots maybe than you can.

Scott Luton (00:02:45):

Oh, maybe so, maybe so, but Hey folks, uh, today is it’s all about supply chain buzz, right? We’re tracking, uh, some of the leading stories across global business and yeah, we’ve got a big time guest joining us about 12:25 PM as we welcome in Joel BELE, CEO and co-founder of alloy. So buck up, get ready because we want to hear from you too, as we work our way through the stories. Now, Greg, we’re gonna make a quick announcement after we do got a bunch of folks, uh, jumping into the stream with us here today, including Barb Sexton. We’ll go ahead and say hello to Barb. Uh, we’re gonna be talking with members of her team later today. Barb hope this finds you well.

Greg White (00:03:22):

Yeah. And speaking of great football teams, the Arizona Cardinals, they are the real deal <laugh>

Scott Luton (00:03:30):

That

Greg White (00:03:30):

Sure are. I don’t wanna face them in the super

Scott Luton (00:03:32):

Bowl that quarterback Kyle Kyle Murray, Kyle Kyle Murray. Yep. He is, uh, remarkable Barb hope. This finds you well and uh, safe travels. I think you saw that you were traveling this week as always, so all the best you and members of the Omnia partners team. Okay. So Greg, uh, we gotta give a shout out to our, uh, partners for this show as arc. Now, you know, as arc built our marvelous new website@supplychainnow.com as you know, Greg, they’re a leader in UX, right. User experience design, right. And development of websites also though custom software applications, especially for the supply chain industry. So big thanks to Zahi and the topnotch team over at a Azure arc. And you can find out more@aularc.com. Your thoughts,

Greg White (00:04:23):

Greg. Yeah. They may have done a few more sites than ours. Uh, I, I mean, they’ve done hundreds, maybe thousands, I don’t know. But, uh, I think we talked about this last week. They also did vector global logistics. And I think you and I both had the same reaction when we saw that one, which is, wow, that’s cool. Right. Um, and, and yeah, and they work with technology companies. So UX is such an important part. The user experience is such an important part of getting users engaged in a technology. In fact, it’s, as in every bit as important as even the, you know, quant and mathematics and, and, uh, all of the other magic behind the scenes. So that’s right. You gotta use it to create value in all that other magic.

Scott Luton (00:05:08):

Right. <laugh> I’ll think of Michael Scott whenever I hear magic. And I think of a big top hat, top hat upside down with lots of tricks in it. And that’s what, uh, as arc probably has at their offices. But, uh, they do good work to, but

Greg White (00:05:19):

Michael Scott, no, Michael Scott, he was not available.

Scott Luton (00:05:24):

No, not this time. Uh, Jacob out a, a.com also wanna mention, we’ve got a, a great upcoming webinar coming up December 9th, just this week, uh, 12 in Eastern time, join Corrin, bur and I, as we connect with the transplant team, uh, one more time as Chrisy glass, Michelle McBride talk about out many of the learnings. Uh, they have gleaned from their work with over 6,000, uh, partners that make up their ecosystem and growing. So join December 9th, 12 noon. You can check out that link in the show notes. This is gimme a good one in it, Greg. Yeah. Trans

Greg White (00:05:57):

Literally the Uber of transportation.

Scott Luton (00:06:01):

<laugh> right. How about that? Uh, it’s been a big year, big year for them, for sure. Okay. Let’s say hello to a few other folks that have, uh, have joined us here today. And then Greg, we’ve got a full plate today, uh, left. It’s like a big plate of Thanksgiving leftovers, so much Turkey and, and match potatoes and

Greg White (00:06:18):

Cheese. Goodness cheese. You still got Thanksgiving, leftovers people, please throw them out. Do not

Scott Luton (00:06:22):

<laugh> that’s right. Well, see, uh, via LinkedIn. Great to have you here today via Bangladesh. Uh, looking forward to your perspective as we work through a variety of topics from semiconductors to wearables to inflation, and then some Aash tuned in via LinkedIn from India. Great to see you here today. Welcome board. Absolutely. Uh, I bet this is Ja me Jaime tuned in from Peru via LinkedIn. Is that right, Greg? I get

Greg White (00:06:50):

That right. Hi Mike Cardena Del Cario,

Scott Luton (00:06:53):

Not man. That that was Hollywoodish. Uh, Greg, that was nice. That

Greg White (00:06:58):

Was, that was with an AIAN accent. So, sorry.

Scott Luton (00:07:01):

<laugh> well, and, and you know, it’s been a little while since we’ve reminded folks, you you’ve got family roots tracing back to Argentina, right.

Greg White (00:07:08):

Still existing there. Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. 150 or so

Scott Luton (00:07:12):

Relatives. I must see that picture. You used to have a image of land there. I should carry

Greg White (00:07:17):

It with me. I right. It would go really nice right here. I’m I’m afraid it would get broken in my bag though. <laugh> wind.

Scott Luton (00:07:24):

Well, let’s, let’s go visit that image. Uh, there we go. At some point in the weeks you have lives

Greg White (00:07:29):

From to deal

Scott Luton (00:07:30):

<laugh>, but uh, Hey, uh, great to have you here today. Looking forward to your perspective, Michael aver is back. Michael. Hope. This finds you well. He’s tuned to en via LinkedIn. Great to see you here. Mike Hill is back. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. All that’s right. Mike <laugh>, uh, folks are tuned in from around the world and they’re telling what time it is other than a time full of end of year pressure, whether you’re consumers buying gifts or whether you’re supply chain folks make it happen. But Mike hope this finds you well,

Greg White (00:07:57):

When you guys say that, I all always think of the Truman show.

Scott Luton (00:08:00):

Yes, <laugh> right. What a great movie. Great movie. Jean pleasure from north Alabama is with us tuned in via LinkedIn. Jean hope. This finds you well today and you had a good, uh, weekend. Hi may is, is, uh, complimenting your Spanish. That’s

Greg White (00:08:16):

Rare when you’re from Argentina for some <laugh> someone compliment your saying.

Scott Luton (00:08:21):

So great work. There is always Greg T squared is back with us. He holds on the Fort force at YouTube. Call it what it is. Nourishment gone bad. He’s talking about those Thanksgiving leftovers. Leftovers. Yeah. <laugh> we need some new nourishment here, please. Supply chain management nourishment too. I’m with you Ts squared, but welcome everybody so glad that you’re here. Hey, we want to hear from you. So, uh, get ready. We’ve got, I think five stories we’re gonna be working through here today. The first couple with Greg and I, then we got Joel be again, uh, joining us about 1225. In the meantime, you can check out, uh, his organization, alloy, alloy dot. Okay. So Greg let’s move right into the news here today. Are you ready? Yes, sir. We got some we’re we’re we’re kicking things off with some good news. We can’t get enough.

Scott Luton (00:09:08):

Good news. Right? So, uh, this in particular from the world of semiconductors, especially in automotive. So according to this story via the ni Asia, the global supply of computer chips for the automotive industry is finally starting to increase. In fact, inventories at the end of September, were up for chip makers across the globe from Japan to Germany, to the us, right. Pro production. And there’s two there’s particular reasons here, production disruptions at chip factories of ease. I mean, you know, Greg, we, we were faced, uh, from fires to, uh, lack of water and, and rain to you. You name it, uh, everything. It was a perfect storm that really hit this all at once. And the contract chip makers at these foundries, as they’re shifting to automotive. Cause as we all know, they shifted from automotive to other things like chips for, uh, smartphones, you name it, uh, when those orders were going down, well, they’ve shifted back and that’s now starting to be felt that shift back now, continental, a company in Germany that is one of the world’s top auto parts suppliers. They said recent earnings call that quote. We do believe the worst of the semiconductor shortage is behind us. Well, that doesn’t mean it’s, it’s, it’s easy. Uh, it’s easy street just yet, but Hey, right. That’s good news. I’ll take it, Greg. Your

Greg White (00:10:30):

Thoughts. Well, the worst was pretty bad, wasn’t it? I mean, I think I shared last week that we’ve been waiting around six months for a car, um, to be delivered. We saw ages ago around the summer, we saw just thousands and thousands of cars sitting idle, waiting for that final chip so that they could actually be started. Um, and we know why it happened to, I think we need to acknowledge that. And that is that chip makers were happy to make, continue making and shipping chips, um, shortly after the pandemic and lockdowns hit, but the automakers would not commit via POS to orders. So we I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be kind and say we did it to ourselves. If we are GM Ford Toyota, Nissan, right. Um, BMW, Audi <laugh>

Scott Luton (00:11:26):

The list goes on and on, right? Yeah,

Greg White (00:11:27):

It does. It does go on and on. And, and, um, you’ll also recall that during the summer we were talking about reshoring chip manufacturing. In fact, just yesterday, governor Abbot from Texas said, Texas will be the hub of semiconductors. Really? Yeah. I doubt it, but he said it, um, I mean, you know, the thing we have to acknowledge also is that China controls Al many of the rare earth materials in semiconductors. So it’s, you’re gonna be hard pressed. Uh, we, we do have some, um, rare earth mineral resources here in, in north America. And there are in many other countries, but not nearly enough to facilitate, uh, the kind of production that we we need nationwide or else we’d be doing it before the crisis.

Scott Luton (00:12:10):

Right. But, and there’s been some talk and some reporting that, uh, rare earth mineral mining may, uh, there may be more investment here in the states to reclaim some of that. As we know, Greg, it’s a, it’s a real dirty business. It’s highly regulated. And we’ll see, you know, if that comes to fruition.

Greg White (00:12:32):

Yeah. That’s I that’s what governor Abbot is thinking, cuz there’s some good stores, relatively good stores in Texas there. Well, I mean stores like you can’t go to buy stores and buy rare mineral <laugh>

Scott Luton (00:12:43):

Right. Not yet. Amazon’s opening a new page as we speak. Maybe <laugh> um, so, but you know, uh, we’ve also seen <laugh> Ford and GMC try to find new ways of redesigning more customized and uh, different ships that may use different, um, you know, uh, different supplies going into ’em to, to kind of create some, um, get around, uh, the bottleneck that has been. So we’ll see how that plays

Greg White (00:13:10):

Out. They change their production methodology too, right. To basically going back to the fifties when people ordered cars and um, you don’t quite get the customization that you got back then, but I mean, they prioritize those cars that were ordered and pre-sold, and essentially, I don’t know if every car is, but I can tell you that every car I have considered buying is, is effectively pre-sold you have to buy it before it comes off the fat.

Scott Luton (00:13:35):

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Um, and still most experts are still pointing to the second half of 20, 22 before we really have the breakthrough that I think everybody’s looking for. Yeah. So, uh, y’all watch for that. I’m gonna take a couple of quick comments here. We got a bunch of ’em. Uh, Matt is back with us, Matt. Great to see here today. He says just in a new car in the new year. How about that? Right. Uh, Michael’s talking about, uh, Texas as well. Michael says also just got Samsung’s chip plant. Now that probably takes what, two to three years to stand up. One of those, some of the semiconductor manufacturing sites, Greg?

Greg White (00:14:10):

Um, no, I don’t know. It’s hard to tell with all the clean room and all of that. It’s hard. It’s probably a long term process.

Scott Luton (00:14:17):

Yep. Agreed Mohe. Good morning from Wichita, the air cap of the world, sunny with a touch of chilliness. We, Hey Mohe, we gotta see a weather map if you’re gonna pull the weather.

Greg White (00:14:27):

Yeah, that’s an understatement. I mean, and when you live in Atlanta, 30 degrees is cold. Let’s just

Scott Luton (00:14:33):

Cold. Rich is pointing out what you shared. Greg China can ounces for over 95% of the world’s production of rare earth materials. Unbelievable. Uh, Matt says time for some new conventional chips use some artificially made products, uh, more so than the current ones. That’s a great idea, Matt, I’ll leave that to the, um, I imagine you gotta be pretty smart, big giants to figure out out design a civil conductor. So a lot smarter than me. Um, but Hey, still it’s good news folks. We’re seeing, uh, ways of getting around the pressure, just like supply chain folks always find a way, right? Uh, some uniquely challenging, um, uh, elements to this chip journey. The we’ve all been tracking, but we’ll see if the, uh, heightened supply continues. So Greg moving right along again, before we bring in our special guests in about 10 minutes here, Joel, be with alloy.

Scott Luton (00:15:21):

I wanna talk about the hot investment world of wearables cause the pandemic pandemic has dramatically changed the wearables market. Now, Greg, I mean, we can, I’m gonna get your take, but from what I’ve gathered, uh, big part of the reason is, is the big focus on work, FA workforce safety, a company named VRV motion has an exo suit that reduces backs strain by some 30 to 40%. And then you’ve got a, a rolling stone app that this article points out it’s deployed by Kotch trucking to help up truck drivers with wellness programs and, uh, you know, all, all these programs as they come with impact. I imagine it does create some investment opportunities. So what’s your take here?

Greg White (00:16:01):

Yeah, I mean it, I, I think, um, it’s kind of a dual edge sword, right? This, this is the kind of technology that has to be used, right? It will probably be viewed suspiciously. Um, like things like dash cams were by drivers in tracking industry and various other sort of big brother type or, you know, potentially big brother type products are usually, uh, but I think there’s a ton of value here. And what I see generally is technologies really, uh, creating benefit for both the workforce and for their employers. Um, in fact, uh, a couple of the folks that I was with yesterday, uh, worked for a company called Dar motion, fascinating technology, where they can like scan you and tell you where you’ve got range of motion issues. So, wow. Imagine you have one of these wearables, um, and you’ve been assigned to go pick up something that weighs 70 pounds and you’ve got a shoulder problem. You know, the two, the two technologies could communicate to avoid an injury. I think the preemptive nature of this is as important as, um, you know, as the tracking and, and data and that sort of thing to keep people safe. But I, I gotta tell you this, I just wanna tell you, this is just fascinating to me. So it was a three hour, three hour ride from Wichita three hour tour,

Scott Luton (00:17:19):

A three.

Greg White (00:17:20):

So we got to talk about this thing. So what DRI does is they can scan your, your body and, and, and identify where you’ve got immobility, uh, in, in your body. So they’ve had helped athletes become more effective. Josh Allen, um, changed the way that he was throwing the ball and moved his hips more forward rather than leading with his elbow, which is a thing. If you’re a professional quarterback, wow. They identified, uh, a number of players that they predicted would get hurt in, you know, in the first few weeks of the NFL season. And they were 10 for 10. So think about the value of that in a workplace like we’re talking about in a workplace that is every bit is physical though. You don’t take quite the hits, but every bit is physical as a football, basketball or baseball game. I mean, it’s not, not quite is fun. There’s no, there’s no major league for, for tossing boxes. Right. But maybe that should be <laugh> well, so, but then you combine that with the ability to preempt those injuries. And I think that becomes really, really valuable. So agreed.

Scott Luton (00:18:24):

Well, you know, I think that’s one of the several lines we’ve talked about it, uh, quite a bit, uh, from the pandemic is a bigger focus on protecting our workforce. Right. They’ve had to endure so much these last couple years. Uh, so no wonder, Greg, I know as a, um, entrepreneur, an investor, uh, someone that knows that side of the business world, you’re not surprised by the all of a sudden, a, a hot investment opportunity in the wearable market, right?

Greg White (00:18:51):

Yeah, no, it’s, I mean, it’s, you know, it’s been a, a while coming. I mean, if you think about it, if you have an apple watch, it’s the precursor to something that’s maybe a little bit more advanced and maybe more, um, medically compliant because of course what’s going on in your body is you’re owned by you and you don’t owe it to in anyone else, including your employer. So, um, that kind of, that kind of protecting the HIPAA privacy while, while still managing to, um, keep workers safe and to keep, keep, uh, employers, um, notified of those kind of things. It’s super powerful. There’s, you know, there’s a big opportu out there and of course, um, yeah, investment has been piling into frankly, everything to do with supply chain or, or medical. Um, and yeah, it’s been, it’s been a big motion in that direction.

Scott Luton (00:19:42):

I gotta check out one of these exo suits that that’s a step. You it’s taking a couple steps toward my, my childhood goal. I become, I’m gonna transform, uh, Greg. So if we can do that and save on back pain, Hey, sign me up. And clearly they’ve been signing up with investors. I think I saw that, uh, let’s see that company’s name was Verve motion. I think they got a 15 million investment as they’re looking to what’s coming up next. So, uh, it’s great to hear well, and

Greg White (00:20:10):

If you, if you can fit it under your clothes, imagine it makes you stronger, you know, and, uh, nobody knows you’re wearing it. That would be awesome. <laugh> I doubt sign

Scott Luton (00:20:22):

Me up, right. Uh, let’s see here. I’m gonna share this comment here. So Matt says, I was thinking of this some time ago when I got my back hurt, the, the seats in the cars might be more healthy, more ergonomical. Uh, my longest drive, no stop. He says was 10 hours straight. I bet that was painful. Uh, and Matt, uh, you, maybe if you’re driving a truck, let us know. We’d love to, to learn a lot more about that. Matt says wearables, it makes his spaghetti diagram much easier to prepare. Absolutely. Uh, as sort of tracking steps in these facilities, right? Wasted, wasted, motion, wasted, uh, foot traffic, uh, along those lines, Mike aver says, helps managers use their team resources yep. As a efficient as possible.

Greg White (00:21:08):

I mean, imagine, you know, where everyone is, you can avoid collisions, right? You can chart the shortest path. I mean, that that’s being done with robots today, right. It’s harder to do or has been harder to do with humans cuz they’re not monitored as closely. Right. Right.

Scott Luton (00:21:24):

Uh, Scott, I must prime. Yes. Maybe that that’d be my transformer nickname. I don’t know. Um, and so also Greg, along those lines is, you know, it, you can read, lay out facilities, right? When, you know, for years they’ve had, uh, apps in your cell phone that, that, that if folks opted in, it helps track motion. But man, we’re taking that to a whole new level, which is outstanding. Um, let’s see here. Mohe talks about, um, probably insourcing back on the chip side. I think he says insourcing has many sustainable benefits, limited transportation, less wait times at the port to pick up your containers, less carbon emissions, less carbon footprint in your supply chain and a little bit more fresh air left for my grandkids as a beautiful picture that you pay there. Mohe. Yeah,

Greg White (00:22:09):

Indeed.

Scott Luton (00:22:10):

Um, okay. So I’ve got 1222, Greg. I think we’ve, uh, we have walked through these first two stories we’ve got, uh, about halfway through our big plate full of Thanksgiving leftovers. Are we ready to bring in our special guests here today, Greg?

Greg White (00:22:25):

I just wanna be clear. You’re not talking about actual leftovers, right?

Scott Luton (00:22:29):

No. You know, once we get a theme, we stick with it and beat the heck outta, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Greg White (00:22:35):

So, well, I, I thought of a little theme. So once we bring Joel in, I want to, I wanna float a theme by him for his favorite. Uh, his favorite NFL player. Love it.

Scott Luton (00:22:45):

Uh, well, and let’s start just there. So let’s bring into the stream. Welcome in our special guest Joel Beal CEO and co-founder at Allway Hey, Hey Joel. How you doing? Good morning,

Joel Beal (00:22:56):

Scott. Good morning.

Scott Luton (00:22:57):

Greg’s so good to see ya. Likewise ears have been burned a little bit.

Joel Beal (00:23:02):

I feel like I should have showed up with a plate of leftovers, but uh, I didn’t have time to grab that out of the refrigerator and I think we might be low at this. We might have gotten through it.

Scott Luton (00:23:11):

<laugh> well, Hey Joel, you don’t miss a beat and I love that. Uh, and we might be, we may be having a little bit of lay. It could be on my end. Uh, but just to give y’all a heads up there. Um, Greg, you wanted to ask Joel a question about football, right?

Greg White (00:23:25):

Yeah. The, well, the kids may be playing Fortnite. Joel, just in case you need to check. So we were talking, we were talking before the show about your favorite Seahawks player, Marshan Lynch and the good deed that he does, every Thanksgiving giving out turkeys. Right. So I got, I got something for you. How about this? Call it feast mode.

Joel Beal (00:23:48):

<laugh> oh, <laugh>

Scott Luton (00:23:50):

Greg. Nice man. Nice. And, and for those maybe not in the know, uh, Marsha’s uh, standard nickname has been beast mode where Greg, uh, made a little playoff of beast. Mode’s charitable efforts. I think for year that’s been like a, a, a year over year occurrence. Is that right? Joel? Yeah.

Joel Beal (00:24:10):

That’s my understanding. At least I’ve seen a couple videos over the past couple years.

Scott Luton (00:24:14):

Love it. And Greg Joel shared, uh pre-show with us that he hopes that the charitable efforts this year didn’t create a, uh, a shortage somewhere else in the country

Greg White (00:24:25):

Because yeah, because Marshan had an entire truckload of turkeys, right?

Joel Beal (00:24:29):

Yes. The videos I’ve seen Mabel, he doesn’t do it in the same spot. I think I saw Hawaii one year Oakland another year. So he’s that demand shock showing up in your city. <laugh>

Greg White (00:24:41):

That’s that’s great. We’re gonna talk about that. Yes,

Scott Luton (00:24:44):

We sure are. And own that note. Let’s go ahead and transition, but uh, love to see these, uh, sports athletes giving back. That’s such a wonderful tradition that Marshan is doing. Um, so let’s switch gears here. Uh, so Joel, I think we’ve got three stories we’re gonna walk through and, and chat with you about, uh, for starters as reported by CNBC. The I’m Aron variant is another punch to the gut of global supply chain. So, you know, folks here are in particular, they’re watching see China’s response as well as to see the regional impact across the globe, as this thing continues to do. Do what do what, um, um, viruses do, right? Uh, look for ways to expand. So we’re all kind of waiting to see what, um, how this thing plays out. Joel, your take here first. Yeah,

Joel Beal (00:25:30):

I think, um, you know, it’s interesting, we first heard about Aron what a week or two ago, probably all learned how to try to pronounce it, which we were talking about earlier <laugh> and right. You know, to me, it’s, it’s not about Aron per se. It’s a continuing pattern. You know, experts have been saying this about the pandemic from the start, you know, we’re almost two years into this at this point of, you know, they’re gonna be waves, um, and different things are gonna happen. And uh, you know, I think we have no idea at this point, if this wave is gonna be meaningful or not. Although I do think we’re seeing countries responding pretty quickly and shut down borders, limiting travel. I think there’s still open questions about if it’s gonna impact manufacturing other things. Um, but to me it, it spells more of a broader theme that I’m seeing a lot as I talk to people in the industry, uh, for a long time, people have kind of had this attitude.

Joel Beal (00:26:23):

A lot of our customers or people will talk to they’ll say, well, can we just ignore 20? It was an outlier COVID hit <laugh>, you know, there were demand spikes. You know, things went all over the place. You know, when I’m forecasting, let’s just, let’s pretend 2020 never happened. Or if I’m doing comps, I’m not competent against 2020. Well, we’re, we’re almost at the end of 2021. And we’re talking about other waves. We’re talking about other supply chain impacts, you know, that are happening. And so this isn’t about a single wave or a single event. This is about a change in how we think about uncertainty and risk in the world. Um, and this could be, you know, one that up having a big impact, it could be something that’s relatively small. Um, but that to me is, is how people need to be changing. We’re not going back to some world that was more stable. You know, we’re gonna be in a world of uncertainty and you’re gonna have to operate your supply chain against that. I think for, for many years to come. Right. And

Scott Luton (00:27:21):

That’s a great take. It’s not like, um, this is an obstacle course. And when we’re done with it, we go back to, uh, you know, easy street before we entered the obstacle course, things are changing. Things are changing in the short term and the long term, uh, consumers, uh, preferences are changing. So naturally, you know, the, the game has changed, uh, in some many ways, Greg, your take. Yeah. Well,

Greg White (00:27:42):

I think we have to recognize the call. It Amicon call it Delta, call it whatever you want, call it a ship stuck in, in the Sue as canal. These cause impacts on the consumer and the consumer, as you know, I say is the beginning and the end of the supply chain. So whenever we disrupt the consumer’s life with a new variant or lockdowns, or even the, the proposition of lockdowns by China, which has been their policy, right, they’ve, COVID zero policy, right. Um, that’s going to change behaviors. And um, so that’s, you know, that’s something we have to have our eyes on it. I mean, I don’t wanna say Omicron is not material. It is of course material, but it is just another one of those disruptions that Joel has been talking about. And frankly, those disruptions saving the pandemic and the government’s responses to it, um, that have caused a lot of this disruption. Um, those kind of disruptions have been happening all along. It’s just, nobody cared about supply chain before. Right? Joel, you were shouting in the wind before right now. People want to hear it. They, their eyes don’t glaze over at the dinner table. <laugh> and um, and I, I think that’s the other thing we have to recognize. And that’s why companies have to be particularly diligent is because now they’re in the forefront of, of annual reports and excuse making just like sales and, and finance has been for so many years. Right?

Scott Luton (00:29:06):

Yeah. Well said there, Greg

Joel Beal (00:29:08):

Joel. Yeah. Yeah. I think Greg, that jog the thought for me. Um, we were getting together with a number of supply chain executives and they were talking about this world where they’re making, you know, you go to extraordinary efforts on the supply chain side to make sure you have inventory today. I mean, everybody’s doing that. We’re in a, a world of increased demand and, and reduced supply. Uh, and everybody, you know, if you, if you can get inventory, you can sell it. <laugh>, that’s a short answer for most of these, these companies, but it was, you know, bringing supply chain to the forefront. And I think, you know, a lot of people were laughing about how, you know, sales looks great. Cause if I can get ’em inventory, they can sell it, you know, no problem. And they’re not having to discount like they did in the past, but there’s no doubt supply chain used to be, you know, it was in the, the B sections, the C-sections, the C-sections of the newspaper, I guess that’s in, that makes me feel old. Right. Even talking about a physical newspaper, but you know, seeing at the front of the wall street journal or the New York times, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty amazing. Cause people see, see how their, their lives are impacted when, when these things happen.

Scott Luton (00:30:11):

Yeah. Excellent point there. And Hey, you fit right in. I talk about Weedies and readers digest. So you fit right in talking newspapers here. Uh, all good fun. All right. So, uh, the quick shout out Peter Bole all night and all day is back with us. Peter. I hope you had a great weekend and great to see you here today. Um, we’re talking about, uh, we just wrapped up a section on Aron and some of the things we’re doing there, including, uh, all eyes on China to see how they’re gonna respond, but on a, on a related note, we’re talking inflation, right. Inflation and I I’m so glad we’ve got the two of y’all here because, um, I’m gonna tell you, it took me three tries just to get through accounting two in college. So I’m gonna lean on y’all’s, uh, financial expertise, but painful topic. Uh, inflation interesting perspective from mark lawless via the Institute of business forecasting and planning. So in this article he’s got quote says overall inflation in the us is about two to three times. The average inflation rate experienced over the past 15 years in. And of course there’s other commodities as the article points out this far beyond, uh, that two to three times. Um, so Joel, some folks as we are chatting, pre-show may not know you’ve got a deep background in economics. So what’s your take when it comes to talking inflation? Well,

Joel Beal (00:31:28):

Inflation is just another type of uncertainty. <laugh> to me, there’s it follows this pattern. Now this is something that’s happening beyond just supply chains. Although they’re a big part of this right now. Um, and you know, that, that common in the, of, you know, we’re, we’re three X, what we have been historically, you know, generally in economics, right? You think of two to 3% as being a healthy inflation rate, we expect there’s gonna be some, the key thing is it needs to be predictable, right? That allows everybody to adjust their prices accordingly. There’s always, you know, extra money supply coming in. Um, so you have these spikes, which we haven’t seen since, you know, at this point, the 1970s, um, and they’re, they’re unplanned. And that’s the other thing is, you know, there was a lot of discussion, you know, a month or two ago, this is transitory, right?

Joel Beal (00:32:15):

It’s a one off thing. Don’t worry about it. I think now there’s some polling back from that saying, well, maybe not, this might, might take longer. Um, and it’s hard as a right. You say, look, when you’re, when you’re running a supply chain, especially with longer lead times with, you know, needing to order farther in advance that we’re gonna talk about here more in a moment, you know, you’re com you’re making those commitments with, with price commitments. And if you don’t know what the value that money is gonna be down the line, that’s, that’s difficult. Um, so I, I think it’s, it’s an interesting thing going on right now. The other thing I’ve been reading about is just how businesses pass this on. Right? What do you do? You know, we’ve been in a world where everybody’s been obviously trying to reduce price, and I think you’ve got the big, right.

Joel Beal (00:32:57):

You know, the Amazon’s the Walmarts and been so successful at squeezing their supply chains. I think there’s a recognition now. You probably can’t do that as much anymore. There’s gonna have to be some prices passed on. So what does that look like? What prices do you pass on? How do consumers respond? Right. Incomes have gone up, but prices are going up too. Um, I mean the, the one I found probably the most interesting is, um, what is it, uh, dollar tree, you know, dollar store. I mean, their whole thing is we sell everything for a dollar. They, they bumped all their prices up to about 25, you know? So 25% price increase, you know, it doesn’t even align with their name, but, but at some point you have to make that shift if, um, you know, these costs are coming down the line

Scott Luton (00:33:35):

For you. Excellent point there. And Greg, you know, early on the, um, beginning a Joel response there, once we know what we’re up against and really know it in a tangible manner, then we could really have a much better certain idea of what the path is for whether we’re talking, you know, living with COVID right across the globe, right. Or when it comes to inflation your take, Greg,

Greg White (00:33:57):

I think it’s been really difficult, especially on, on inflation because the government doesn’t know what they’re doing. I mean, the, you know, the fed, uh, has been, they just changed their policy again since, um, Powell was reinstated as fed chairman. And now instead of, instead of ceasing their easing process in June at a slower rate, they’re gonna increase the rate and cease it in my arch, which, you know, we’ve talked about forever Scott, that, that, that was gonna ha you know, the, in which will lead to an increase in interest rates. Joel, check me here. You’re the economist, but correct.

Joel Beal (00:34:31):

Um, interest rates go up inflation down, right.

Greg White (00:34:35):

And, and, um, for so long, they have been inflation deniers. The, a term you used, Joel transitory has frustrated me for Nyon a year now because it was obvious. It wasn’t transitory for a year. If, if you had the resources to get into the economy and do some studying, like I did, I did some incredible deep studying on chicken wings and how chicken wings went from $10 for, for 10 wings to $20 for 10 wings virtually overnight. Why? Because like dollar tree, the V the, my vendor, my next door neighbor and his sports bar, they held onto that low price. Hoping that inflation was transitory finally realizing that it wasn’t, and they couldn’t eat the margin break anymore. So they had to up prices dramatically over a very short time. And I think we we’ll, we’ll continue to see that. I think we’ve seen a lot of the big breaks, and that’s why the numbers have been so big in the last couple months in terms of annualized inflation.

Greg White (00:35:39):

But I have no doubt that, um, now that the fed has confessed, that it’s not transitory, that there will be more relatively large price increases on the horizon because a lot of companies trusted the fed and they thought they could hold out until this transitory inflation abated. And then they would be able to hold their prices and maybe gain a little bit of margin back, but seeing that it’s not gonna happen. Um, I think that, I think you could see some, some spikes in pricing. I know that there are still people holding off on price increases right now, but that’s, I mean, and that’s part of the problem is the Fed’s job is not just to manage the money. It’s also to manage our expectation and frankly, our emotions, right. They, they couldn’t have admitted that inflation was not transitory. And then when they realized it wasn’t, they couldn’t instantly, um, admit that it was transitory because they have to manage our actions and expectations, or else consumers that we’ve been talking about would have reacted even more dramatically than they have over the last couple years.

Scott Luton (00:36:42):

Okay. I’m gonna circle back to Joel and get your comments. Hey, as I, as I told y’all in full transparency, uh, I am not, uh, <laugh> when it comes to economics, microwell macro, I’m not your guy. So I’m glad both of y’all, uh, can talk about for fiscal policy and inform our global listenership really quick. Amadou, appreciate that comment. Great to see you here via LinkedIn, look forward to hearing your take here today. Uh, T square says, Hey, when too many dollars chase too few goods, it screams inflationary measures. Gene says big problem, still purchasing forecasting and project pricing. I can only imagine there gene. I can remember that from my days in metal stamping, where even in a, in a quote unquote normal market, that meant quarterly repricing for gosh, dozens, if not a hundred parts, that was not my favorite aspect of that, that role. Uh, but thanks for that. Gene rich says inflations is in some respect, a macro economic impact and unintended consequence of not vaccinating the rest of the world. Big, big, big point. Uh, they’re rich. Um, okay. So Joel, what’d you hear whether it’s something from Greg, something from the comments or something to add to this, uh, story about inflation? Well, there was

Joel Beal (00:37:56):

A couple things. I mean, one, I think, you know, really important point that Greg makes. I remember when I started learning about inflation and economics and you’re like, okay, they’re telling me some inflation’s okay. There’s kind of a target rate. Um, all of it, it really comes down to the predictability that Greg talked about it’s so businesses can plan for it. And, and that’s, again, to me, is I just kind of reading, I mean, not just supply chain, but the world at large, there’s just more uncertainty out there and uncertainty is risk. Yeah. You can sit there and say, okay, I’m gonna bake in. You know, I, I run a company too, you know, we’re software. Um, but you know, we have to look at our costs and you know, how their are gonna grow and what does that mean for how we need a price to our customers?

Joel Beal (00:38:40):

And then when there’s predictability, you can bake it in. You can make your customers anticipate it, but what does it feel like? And Greg, I think you made a great point. Prices do not just change dynamically usually, right? You you’ll hold off for a while and then, but then when you, you, when you let it go, all of a sudden it’s a 15% or a 20% job, it’s not the 5% and that scares people and you don’t know how they’re gonna respond. So it’s, um, it’s a challenge. Uh, it is, it is nice that people are taking it more serious now. <laugh> um, and, uh, but, but I think that’s the thing to emphasize is inflation’s okay. Um, even if it’s higher than we expect it to be, we just need to make sure that it’s not shifting so much. Cause that’s what really, really makes everything difficult. And forecasting is hard enough as it agreed. You don’t need to add extra factors. <laugh> right.

Scott Luton (00:39:26):

We need more bedrock, uh, in today’s environment for sure. Things, we can lean on things we can, we can, we can build around. We can plan on knowing that, uh, uh, we’ve hit more solid ground. We’ll take bedrock wherever we can get it. Greg, what, how else would you respond to what Joel was saying there?

Greg White (00:39:44):

Well, I mean, I think one of the things we have to acknowledge is that a lot of this disruption is because of government policy and government response to, to the, uh, the pan and I mean, necessary response. Admittedly, some of it, some of it pandering like stimulus checks, um, for people who could have gone back to work about three weeks after they were laid off. But, um, but a lot of it, you know, a lot of it has, we have to recognize that they, these organizations don’t just have economic. Um, they don’t just have economic roles or goals. Right. Right. The government has to remain in power and they have to, to some extent they have to appease the masses in order to do that. And that is a, you know, that’s gonna create a lot of unpredictability, especially as there are so many governments around the world. We’ve talked about this with varying policies where, you know, you have, you have sea fairs who have been vaccinated eight times because you know, the policy in one port is different than the policy in another. So as we have all these, these conflicting, um, responses of politicians, frankly, then we’re gonna continue to have these very highly unpredictable dis disruptions because they’re largely, emotionally based. Mm.

Scott Luton (00:41:02):

Okay. So with that said, if y’all good with it, I wanna, I’m ready to leave inflation where

Greg White (00:41:08):

I can all, I think we’re ready to leave

Scott Luton (00:41:10):

Inflation. Don’t amen. I think we all are. So I wanted to all

Greg White (00:41:14):

These things, I, I wish it worked like that, Scott, right. Scott has to clear no more inflation <laugh>

Scott Luton (00:41:19):

Yeah. More Michael Scott. I declare bankruptcy. That’s a good, great episode. Um, okay. So let’s on a related note, uh, uh, Joel, we’re seeing more hoarding, but not with consumers, but with many retailers that are hoarding inventory to get around some of these pressures. So this, this all comes to us via article in the New York times. What’s going on

Joel Beal (00:41:42):

Here, Joel. Yeah. So, um, and this is something we are seeing across the board. Uh, and again, it speaks to uncertainty when there’s greater uncertainty. If you look at how, how people calculate safety stock, so get a little bit technical here, right? The, the classic safety stock formula looks at what’s forecasted demand and how much variability is there in my forecast accuracy. And what does lead time look like and how much variability is there in a lead time? Every single one of those has gone up. <laugh>, there’s more demand, there’s more unpredictability and demand. There are longer lead times and there’s less predictability in lead times. So everybody is pushing for more product right now, cuz they need to be holding on to more, more buffer. Um, and I think what you’re seeing, at least all the reports I’ve seen the Walmarts, the home depots, they’re able to go get that inventory, right?

Joel Beal (00:42:31):

They have that leverage with their supply. They say, I need it. And you’re gonna, you’re gonna give it to me. And it’s really squeezing out a lot of, of the smaller players and the same dynamic plays out a level back when you’re talking about, you know, these brands trying to, you know, get manufacturing capacity and make sure that they can produce their product, same type of thing is going on. So if you’re a smaller player, know the only way you get ahead of that is you’re gonna say, well, I’m gonna make a commitment and I’m gonna do it further in advance. I need to get that locked in. So at least I can make sure that I’m at the front of the queue. Um, I’m gonna de-risk you know, that vendor, cuz I’m gonna tell them I’m gonna do it. Um, so it’s an interesting dynamic.

Joel Beal (00:43:09):

I mean, that’s how you have to play the game. This article talks about a lot of, you know, very small, you know, more mom and up type businesses. But I mean the numbers they’re throwing out, I think in this example, you know, is carrying an extra $165,000 worth of inventory, which is a lot of money, right? You’re running, you know, a single store, um, because you just had to make that commitment in advance to say, I’m gonna just bet that I’m gonna have enough consumer demands and, and I’m gonna, it’s gonna, it costs you for sure to hold it and hopefully you can sell it. So, um right. Yeah. Um, interesting dynamic and one that obviously has the potential to lead to a lot of pain down the line, if then the demand doesn’t come through and the way people think it’s going

Scott Luton (00:43:49):

To that’s right. A calculated gamble for sure. Greg you’re take, I think

Greg White (00:43:53):

The example, the specific example, the lady with the shoe store bought 50% more inventory than she would ordinarily over 50% more inventory than she would carry. That’s not right over 33% more inventory than she would normally carry this time of year. But um, that’s, I mean that’s substantial, right? And um, it is, it’s a huge gamble, but I think Joel, you alluded to this earlier, this supply chain is not a cost saving exercise. It is a risk balancing exercise and she saw the investment in additional inventory as a lesser risk than potentially not getting the inventory and not being able to sell shoes in spring in Connecticut. Cuz guess when people start running in Connecticut, right. Um, or need new shoes from running in all that snow and salt. Um, so, so you know that, that’s what we have to recognize here also in an inflationary environment, I bet you’re going here, Joel, in an inflationary environment, hoarding inventory is great idea.

Greg White (00:44:51):

In fact, there’s this entire concept of forward buying inventory. I work for a company that back in the late seventies and eighties built a forward buying technology and that’s how they made their way in the marketplace initially. Uh, because interest rates were so high or sorry, inflation rates were so high. Um, so this lady has actually the herself, a greater service than she might know, as long as to Joel’s point, she bought the stuff that’s gonna sell. Right. Um, and I think we have to be really careful about that because so many people in supply chain, they take a broad brush approach and say, I’m just gonna buy more of everything. <laugh> my suggestion is just buy more of everything that sells really well. That’s right.

Scott Luton (00:45:31):

I, that is right. Uh, and folks we’re talking about this article, uh, came to us via New York times. It’s free. One of my favorite things about all these stories, uh, and, and coverage of supply chain is the specific stories, especially on the smaller companies and how they’re navigating this. So this was a, a well written story, check it out. Uh, and you can sign up for an account free as learned over the weekend. So good stuff there. Yeah. As I

Greg White (00:45:54):

Learned today.

Scott Luton (00:45:55):

Yeah. <laugh> just in time just in time. Yeah. Um, alright. So let’s share a couple quick comments here and Joel, we’re gonna make sure folks know how to connect with you and the alloy team that’s been on the move, man. Y’all racking it up award after award and new business and growth. It’s pretty exciting to see. Um, let’s see. I think this is Jacqueline. Jacqueline is with us Jacqueline hope this finds you and the twin engines team. Well you’re right. My blue masks are now 5 99 when it used to be a dollar 99, man. That’s quite a jump. Holy cow. Now Mohe took a little bit of issue with, I think something Greg said, he says, Hey, now stimulus checks kept the economy and the supply chains moving. I’ll give you a quick rope there, Greg for a while. <laugh> okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. And by the way, not,

Greg White (00:46:38):

Not for as long as they were being paid. I mean, that’s why we have such an incredible labor shortage right now. Right? Why would you get a job when you can make $47,000 sitting at home? I mean, it’s just a fact, right?

Scott Luton (00:46:50):

Uh, and really quick aside, most of our listeners know this, but Mohe is zone the faculty w at, uh, Wichita, Wichita, uh, state university in Wichita, Kansas, Greg is an alum. So Hey, bless be the ties at bind. For sure. Peter says, I expected my Christmas tree this year to cost north of $80. That might be Canadian dollars, but happy to say, pay what I did previous years from the same family. That’s been selling trees locally for 23 years. Peter I’m with you. Wow. Um, we we’re doing something similar, uh, here in our neck of the woods. So, uh, it’s great to hear T square says, hoarding smells a lot like shortage, ration, uh, rationing and, and gaming from the bull whip effect.

Greg White (00:47:32):

Well, yeah, and it, and you know, again, to Joel’s point, it could create a bull whip effect if that, if she’s wrong and has bought the wrong product. Right. And he, and he kind of feeds itself agreed.

Scott Luton (00:47:44):

He, he he’s clarifying, he’s talking about a man, a manufactured shortage. Oh. And game is, yeah. It’s a little different, but beast, Tom. Um, and one final comment, uh, Jean says also hard for mom and pops and small businesses absolutely. To get, uh, access to working capital two. It’s a great point. Uh, gene, well,

Greg White (00:48:01):

Joel, you said something earlier I’d and I’d love to get kind of a final thought on this topic, but you said something earlier, these big brands and retailers go and get the inventory that they need. And that’s quite literal. And this article alludes to that, well, addresses it specifically. They have their own ships, they have their own trucks, they have their own planes now, or at least they’ve chartered them for their sole use, which is not something that’s available to smaller retailers. Right. So maybe a quick comment on that. And then anything else you, you know, you, uh, think from this article?

Joel Beal (00:48:35):

Yeah. I mean, they just have so many advantages. You’re absolutely right. They have their own logistics, they can go get the products and, you know, pick ’em up directly from the factories. Um, and they just like the end of the day, it’s, you know, we work mostly with the brands. So we’re working with the, and you know, when you’re sitting there deciding you’re on allocation, which everybody is on right now for some products, right. You know, who do you fill? And in an ideal world, you’d feel where the need was greatest, but there’s a lot of other dynamics at play. You don’t want to upset, um, you know, your, your biggest buyers. And so often you’re willing to do things even when it might be suboptimal at kind of a more global level. So, uh, a tough, uh, it’s been tough sledding for a while, I think for smaller businesses and, and the pandemic hasn’t made that easier. Right. But

Greg White (00:49:24):

Isn’t it great to see them taking on some of these tactics that I know that you, I know, I, and I’m sure you are going for you guys right. To think of that. Yeah.

Joel Beal (00:49:33):

Well, interesting. If you read the article, you know, they start talking about just other advantages that these smaller businesses do have, and they were actually talking a lot about Etsy and, you know, things that are more locally sourced and, you know, unique challenges there that make for some interesting stories. But, um, so it’s not all bad news, but there’s no doubt that, you know, the large players have a lot of advantages that are hard to

Scott Luton (00:49:55):

Compete against excellent point. Uh, Joel, we, we need another hour booked with you. I appreciate your take and your perspective and, uh, how you explain what we’re seeing. So, uh, I think you make it easy for all of us to fall along, including myself. Um, I can be behind the herd sometimes. Um, well, Hey, uh, what I wanna point out, uh, Greg, one of our favorite episodes with the alloy team was, uh, it featured, uh, y’all’s relationship and partnership with vine and Amanda, if we have that link handy, I’d love to drop that in the comments in a few minutes here with Joel, we’re not gonna do it justice in terms of all that they do. Uh, but Joel, in a, in a very small nutshell, tell us what alloy does and, um, you know, between the rewards, the a, uh, rewards, awards, recognition, growth, new business. I mean, y’all have been on the move. So what are you doing? Yeah,

Joel Beal (00:50:46):

So I, I think to put it very, very briefly, we are a so software as a service company, we work, uh, primarily with consumer brands. So vowing being a, a great example. Uh, and we, we are connected planning and execution platform. So we show exactly where your demand is. No matter how you sell a product, we are plugged directly into the retailers, distributors e-commerce platforms. So you are seeing in real time where products are selling and exactly where your inventory is across the supply chain to meet that demand and helping you define those imbalances. So that’s, uh, that’s what we do for a range of, of consumer brands, you know, globally. It’s an exciting area, obviously, lots, some things are moving right now. So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s pretty fun to fun to see all the patterns and all the changes that are going on in the industry today. A lot more data sharing too, which is for us something that’s very exciting, cuz that’s how you can really cut down on that bullet effect.

Scott Luton (00:51:40):

Yep. Agreed, agreed. Uh, right. How can folks connect with you and alloy team?

Joel Beal (00:51:46):

Yeah. So Scott, as you mentioned, or website is alloy.ai. So you can always go to the website. There is a contact, you know, button there. If you wanna reach out, uh, learn a bit more. I’m also happy you can reach out to me directly. I’m just joel@alloy.ai. I’ll put out my email. So if you, you wanna chat, you wanna talk, uh, shoot me a note. Happy, happy to do it. Awesome.

Scott Luton (00:52:06):

And, and Greg, as we were talking appreci, uh, if you wanna talk Seahawks football, Joel, is your guy, is that right Greg? Yeah.

Joel Beal (00:52:14):

I mean, especially if you wanna talk Marsha and Lynn <laugh> yeah. Let’s pick a different here to talk about Seahawk football, but uh, you know, we’ll talk about the glory days.

Scott Luton (00:52:23):

Hey, that is wonderful. Uh, and Joel, I really appreciate your appearance here today. We we’ve enjoy would collaborate with, with your team going back a few years. It’s fascinating to see what you’re doing. You know, one of our favorite analogies, I think I’m gonna get this right. And Greg correct me if I’m I’m wrong. Um, creating this central nervous system for global supply chains. I think that’s, that’s such a brilliant, uh, way of putting it. So, uh, Joel, keep up the great work, uh, uh, happy holidays, Christmas, happy new year to the alloy team. And we hope to reconnect again with you really soon. Thank you.

Joel Beal (00:52:54):

I appreciate it. Thanks Greg. Thanks Scott. Take care.

Scott Luton (00:52:56):

Thanks so much, Joel. Thanks. Good having you. All right, Greg. Uh, we got this comment. I’m gonna share a couple quick comments here, this one row, I think. And I’m, I’m probably mispronouncing that. And uh, let me know if I am, we wanna make sure we get the names right. Uh, says, thanks for the insight and perspective. I adjusted my planning rhythm to look at risks more often, 80, 20, and ABC analysis to focus on the right items and implemented more regular supplier sessions. Love that lots of extra communication. Mm-hmm <affirmative> up to two tier, uh, up to tier two and three suppliers to gain faster awareness of where markets are going on. Our core inputs, tough supply chain season. Love that comment, Greg. No

Greg White (00:53:38):

True. Her words were spoken there. <laugh> tough supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:53:42):

No doubt. Also like how she

Greg White (00:53:44):

Spelled year long season it’s approaching a two year long season. Isn’t it?

Scott Luton (00:53:48):

The endless way? Endless peak? Uh, yeah, endless peak. It seems well, Hey, lot of good stuff. So, so we, we ran the gamut with Joel, right? Uh, even though there’s three issues where interrelated, they were still very broad and very deep, especially as we’re trying to, uh, you know, chat through it in, in, in base 30 minute conversation. But what do you think, Greg, based on what Joel shared here today, what do you leave in this con? What, what’s a key takeaways. You leave this conversation. I

Greg White (00:54:14):

Think the interconnectivity between enterprises that you were just talking about, uh, is really, really important. I mean, um, we’re in a new era when retailers will share their sales with their, with their suppliers. When I was in merchandising, there was no way that was gonna happen. You can guess what happened during the pause <laugh> um, and <laugh>, and um, I think that’s important and that’s a critical step forward because to, as Joel was talking about, to reduce the risk in the supply chain, to be able to understand the variability and lead time. And, um, and in demand, you need to have connectivity with your trading partners because a, a simple, I mean, this was one aspect of mark lawless’ article around inflation that I took some issue with, even though the world has changed in the way that we need to look at demand has changed dramatically.

Greg White (00:55:09):

There are a lot of people out there still, still pitching the same old techniques, you know, whether it’s regression or whether it’s, um, some other type of forecasting, it’s still post casting. It’s still looking at history to try and predict the future. And what we need to be doing is very much more heavily weighing the current state what’s currently happening and much less weighing what’s happened in the past. And, um, and that is done in a lot of cases through that connectivity between enterprises, because things are changing so fast, agreed, and they impact the supply chain as we’ve all seen, even if they happen fast. And for a relatively short time, like getting stuck in the Suez canal, they impact the supply chain for hundreds, thousands of companies for a long time following it’s like, it’s like a breakdown on the 4 0 5 in LA. You know, they might only be broke down for an hour, but they’re gonna cause a four hour backup on, on the, on the freeway, right? Because every it’s it’s the train car effect, the box effect, every car has to slow down and every car that slows down slows down the one behind them and so on. So, um, supply chain works a lot like that and that interoperability, that interconnectivity is really, really critical to, um, to doing that. So it’s good to see that alloy is enabling that for a lot of companies, particularly for the brands that they’re working with.

Scott Luton (00:56:33):

Agreed. Yeah. The, the, the, um, you know, consumer sentiment and preferences and behaviors are changing and shifting, shifting for, uh, in all, in all ways so often, and you got platforms like alloy that, that, that, uh, give you that con basically constant check-in points, right? So you can really monitor what’s going on rather than on a weekly basis or even a daily basis that that’s not good enough these days and in this world we’re living in. So, uh, love to see, uh, all the growth there at all. Uh, a couple quick comments, Hey, we got RO pronounced. I pronounced the right way. <laugh> that never happens. Uh, Peter says SM and regular business reviews are critical to stay the course coupled with clear K R I S, and service, uh, SLAs service level agreements.

Greg White (00:57:22):

Thank you. I don’t

Scott Luton (00:57:23):

Know what is, I’m not sure what Chris is either. So Peter dropped that in

Greg White (00:57:26):

There. Spell out for us, Peter,

Scott Luton (00:57:26):

Literally, Hey, some Monday mornings acronyms come easier than others. That’s how it goes. <laugh> so true. <laugh> Mohe I’m with you RO that, that was, uh, that was one of the comments of the day. So appreciate you sharing that. And Jean, thanks so much, uh, great to have you here today, uh, and appreciate your comment here. Yeah. Uh, we love spending time with all of y’all and learning from all of you, uh, as we navigate these, uh, these crazy crazy times and Peters, uh, KPIs. I think it was just a mistype there. So thank you, Peter. Okay. Folks, be sure to check out, uh, our friends, alloy, alloy.ai, uh, be sure to connect with Greg white by the, um, you may or may not know. So Greg usually, uh, picks some of his favorite developments out in industry and he drops some perspective, some hot POV. You don’t wanna miss typically on LinkedIn anywhere from two to four times a week. Uh, and it really, it, he tells it like it is in a, in a been there done that and then some way some of my favorite social media to consume Greg and how can folks connect with you?

Greg White (00:58:29):

Yeah, yeah, of course you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Um, I’m, I’m at Gregory S. White on Twitter. I’m not on Twitter as much, but it’s also a good way to get hold of, or get links to the articles that I post. Um, yeah. And, and you can email me anywhere. You can find my email. Uh, no, <laugh> Greg supply chain now.com.

Scott Luton (00:58:50):

That’s right. It’s just, <laugh> just that easy, whatever you do listen up when he is, uh, uh, letting us know what we need to be looking for

Greg White (00:58:59):

Reviving that I’ve quit. I’ve quit putting that in my, in my summaries. And I need to get that back in there. Got

Scott Luton (00:59:06):

To, you got to that’s Greg white, uh, that is Greg white. It’s synonymous with who you are. So, uh, check it out, make sure you connect with Greg, uh, and big thanks to, by the way, big, thanks to our team behind the scenes here today, Amanda and clay and Jada. I appreciate all the great production folks. I know we’re rolling into it’s already. Gosh, the 6th of December, the 6th of December. Uh, but whatever, you know, wherever you are, if it’s morning, noon, or night, I’m hoping that you find a chance to unplug, refresh and reenergize here towards the end of the calendar year and, uh, happy holidays, Merry Christmas and happy new year from your friends here at supply chain. Now, Hey, one more challenge though, Greg, one more challenge. Folks, gotta be like, Marshan right. Do good. Give forward and be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see next time, right back here at supply chain now. Thanks everybody. Feast mode.

Intro/Outro (00:59:58):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.