Early in 2023, the Reverse Logistics Association held its 19th Annual Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was their biggest event yet, with over 350 member companies and over 800 people registered for the event, which featured a pitch competition, awards ceremony, top notch content, and – of course – plenty of networking time. Tony Sciarrotta has been the Executive Director of the Reverse Logistics Association since 2016 and is a return guest and co-host in the Supply Chain Now Reverse Logistics Series. Tony has also held a variety of sales and marketing positions in the consumer electronics industry, including President of Reverse IT Sales & Consulting and 25 years at Philips Consumer Lifestyle. In this classic Supply Chain Now episode, Tony joins host Scott Luton to share his main takeaways from the event and to shine the spotlight on top trends in reverse logistics: • How new software is automating the business decisions about whether each return should be liquidated, resold into the secondary market, or sold via a special business channel • Why he is challenging business leaders to prioritize reverse logistics by appointing someone at the VP or even the C-level to own their management…

Supply chain benchmarking has been evolving rapidly, but the biggest shifts in driving true organizational value may still be unfolding. In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott W. Luton and Lora Cecere (Founder of Supply Chain Insights), are joined by Dave Winstone (Global Director, Supply Chain Excellence at Dow) and Wael Abdelmalek (CEO of Uthereal). Together, they explore what it truly means to define and measure supply chain excellence, moving from rigid historical spreadsheets to data-driven, dynamic benchmarking and human-AI partnership. The panel highlights how 32 top-performing companies outperformed the market by focusing on metrics that correlate directly to market cap rather than a simple popularity contest. Dave draws on nearly four decades of global leadership to make the case for focusing on portfolio rationalization and network design while bypassing traditional distractions like massive ERP implementations. Meanwhile, Wael shares how agentic AI platforms can condense 15 years of industry-leading research into minutes, creating a powerful learning engine that works alongside humans to scale organizational insights. The guests share the core operational pillars that separate top performers from the rest of the market: leadership alignment, clear strategic direction, customer focus, and balanced performance scorecards. By embracing data objectivity and the…