Tag: Digital Supply Chain

Embracing ESG in Supply Chains: Insights from Dean Alms, Chief Product Officer of Aravo

The world of supply chain management is evolving rapidly, and one of the most significant factors driving this change is the increasing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations. In a recent episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dean Alms, Chief Product Officer of Aravo, a leading provider of ESG and risk management solutions. Dean shared his invaluable insights into how ESG is shaping the future of supply chain management and how companies can strategically align their initiatives for maximum impact.

One of the key takeaways from our conversation was the concept of “thinking big, starting small, and growing fast” when it comes to implementing ESG initiatives. Dean emphasized that while companies should have a long-term vision for their ESG goals, it’s crucial to begin by tackling one issue at a time and gradually expanding their efforts. This approach allows businesses to be agile and adapt as regulations and industry standards evolve.

Dean shared an example of Aravo’s Strategic Alignment Framework, which is designed to help companies align their ESG initiatives with their overall business strategy. The framework is set to be available online soon, and Dean mentioned that it would likely roll out at the end of March. This resource will be invaluable for companies looking to establish a solid foundation for their ESG programs.

Video of the podcast

During our discussion, Dean also touched upon the importance of the “3 P’s of procurement” – product, price, and practices. Historically, procurement decisions were primarily based on product and price, but now, companies must consider the ethical and sustainable practices of their suppliers as well. This shift is transforming the way businesses approach their supply chains, as they must now evaluate the social and environmental impact of their purchasing decisions.

Dean provided real-world examples of how companies in various industries are making strides in ESG and risk management. In the consumer packaged goods sector, businesses are working closely with farmers and manufacturers to ensure adherence to ethical business practices and environmental sustainability. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies are focusing on compliance-driven aspects of ESG, such as anti-bribery, corruption, and data privacy.

As we wrapped up our conversation, Dean discussed the future of ESG and risk management in supply chains. He highlighted the growing complexity of managing extended enterprises and the need to stay on top of an ever-increasing number of regulatory agencies and requirements. Dean’s insights underscore the critical role ESG and risk management will play in shaping the future of supply chains, as companies must adapt to these new requirements and expectations.

As I listened to Dean discuss the future of ESG and risk management in supply chains, I couldn’t help but feel optimistic about the potential for positive change. With companies like Aravo at the forefront of promoting sustainable and ethical business practices, we are undoubtedly moving towards a more responsible and transparent supply chain ecosystem.

I encourage you to listen to the full episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast featuring Dean Alms to gain a deeper understanding of how ESG and risk management are transforming the supply chain landscape. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in staying ahead of the curve and embracing the opportunities presented by this rapidly evolving field. And the episode is also available to watch on YouTube.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider following the podcast and sharing it with others who may be interested. And as always, if you find the podcast of value, and you’d like to help me continue to make episodes like this one, you can go to the podcast’s Support page and become a Digital Supply Chain podcast Supporter for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

And if you’re interested in having your brand associated with the leading Supply Chain podcast, don’t hesitate to check out these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you!

Revolutionizing the Supply Chain with Electric Vehicles

As the host of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, I’m always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in the world of supply chain and logistics. And today, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Mark Ang, CEO of GoBolt, a cutting-edge delivery company that’s changing the game when it comes to sustainability in the supply chain.

Mark is a seasoned veteran of the delivery industry and he’s got a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to incorporating EVs into a company’s logistics infrastructure. During our conversation, we explored the many challenges that companies face when trying to make the transition to EVs, and Mark shared some of the key insights that he looks for when monitoring the performance of GoBolt’s system.

One of the biggest takeaways from our chat was that involving EVs in a company’s logistics infrastructure is not as simple as just cutting a check and getting a truck off a lot. It’s a complex process that requires a lot of planning, preparation, and investment in both people and technology. Businesses that want to have EVs as part of their transition strategy need to be thinking about these things if they want to successfully manage their Scope three emissions.

We also talked about sustainability reporting, and Mark shared some of the steps that GoBolt has taken to accurately attribute emissions to an order level. He emphasized the importance of having a robust model that takes into account distance traveled, payload traveled, and other key data points. GoBolt has worked with external consultants to build a model that they feel comfortable publishing externally, and they hope to continue to lead the way when it comes to sustainability reporting in the delivery industry.

Mark shared his vision for the future of GoBolt, and it’s an exciting one. Within the next five to ten years, he sees the company expanding its operations to Western Europe and other commonwealth countries, and continuing to support Fortune 100 and 500 companies as they transition to a more sustainable supply chain.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about EVs, sustainability reporting, and the future of the delivery industry, be sure to listen to this episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast. I’m confident that you’ll come away with a wealth of knowledge and insights that you can apply to your own supply chain and logistics operations.

And don’t forget to follow and support the Digital Supply Chain podcast! With more exciting episodes like this one in the works, you won’t want to miss a single one.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider following the podcast and sharing it with others who may be interested. And as always, if you find the podcast of value, and you’d like to help me continue to make episodes like this one, you can go to the podcast’s Support page and become a Digital Supply Chain podcast Supporter for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

And if you’re interested in having your brand associated with this, the leading Supply Chain podcast, don’t hesitate to check out these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you!

Photo credit – Ivan Radic on Flickr

The Power of Listening to Your Frontline Workers: A Recap of My Podcast with Dan Johnston

I’m excited to share a new episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, featuring Dan Johnston, CEO of WorkStep, a platform that helps companies improve their supply chain workforce engagement.

In this episode, Dan and I delve into the challenges of supply chain workforce engagement, and the impact it has on a company’s bottom line. With turnover rates on the rise, companies are facing increasing difficulties in retaining and engaging their frontline workers. This not only affects productivity and safety, but also profitability.

However, Dan believes that there is a double bottom line opportunity in this challenge, as companies that invest in improving their supply chain workforce engagement can not only save millions of dollars, but also positively impact the lives of thousands of frontline workers.

We discussed the results of a case study with Animal Supply Company, a smaller logistics firm that saw a decrease in annualized turnover rates of 50% after implementing the WorkStep software. Dan also shared his insights on the current trends in the space, and how companies can use technology to improve their supply chain workforce engagement.

One of the key takeaways from the episode is that companies have the power to positively impact the lives of their frontline workers, and that doing so is not just good for the bottom line, but also for the human bottom line. Dan believes that companies that listen to the voice of their associates, engage with them, and take the actions that could be most impactful for them, will ultimately be the most successful in the long run.

As WorkStep is a series B company with over a hundred large customers, and millions of frontline workers, Dan shares his vision for the future of the platform and how it will help companies not only decrease turnover, but also make their supply chain a better place to work.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did, and I encourage you to listen to it in full to learn more about the challenges and opportunities of supply chain workforce engagement. You can visit workstep.com or email Dan directly at dan@workstep.com for more information.

Don’t forget to follow the Digital Supply Chain podcast for more insights and discussions on the latest trends and developments in the world of supply chain. Thank you for your support!

Protect Your Small Business from Supply Chain Shipping Nightmares

Today on the Digital Supply Chain podcast I welcomed Eduardo Lopez Soriano, the Chief Marketing Officer of UPS Capital, to the show to discuss the importance of shipping insurance for small and medium businesses (SMBs). In today’s world where e-commerce is on the rise, shipping insurance is becoming a crucial aspect for SMBs to protect themselves from negative customer experiences and compete with larger retailers.

During the episode, Eduardo explained that UPS Capital is a business unit that provides peace of mind during the shipping process and a seamless post-purchase experience for SMBs. He went on to explain the various ways customers can insure their packages, including setting a universal rule or customizing it to certain carriers or destinations. The option of having the merchant or customer pay for insurance was also discussed. With 69% of customers interested in customising their shipping experience, Eduardo explained that UPS Capital offers SMBs a safety net for their packages and helps protect their reputation with end consumers.

He highlighted that the pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in shipping issues, with 78% more damaged packages and 200% more lost packages. He attributed this to the rise of drop shipping, porch piracy, and the increased use of same-day delivery carriers. He also mentioned that large weather events can cause shipping delays, especially for perishable packages.

Lopez Soriano emphasized the importance of insurance for SMBs as 72% of SMBs have received negative reviews due to shipment issues and 37% of customers say they wouldn’t buy from the SMB again if they had a bad experience. Insurance provides SMBs with a safety net and allows them to respond quickly and positively to customer needs, helping them grow their business.

Eduardo discussed how customer expectations and priorities are changing, with 47% of customers preferring a guarantee of replacement for a damaged package over a two-day delivery. He explained how UPS Capital provides a shipping insurance solution for all carriers, not just UPS, and how it is different from carrier liability. Unlike carrier liability, which only covers the cost of shipment and doesn’t cover porch piracy or weather-related damage, UPS Capital’s Insure Shield offers a faster claims process and is cheaper than carrier liability.

In conclusion, Eduardo re-emphasized the importance of proper management of the customer experience for SMBs to succeed. He encouraged listeners to visit UPSCapital.com for more information on the topics discussed. It was an enlightening and fascinating conversation and I would like to thank Eduardo for joining us on the podcast today.

If you are an SMB looking to protect your business and provide a great customer experience, or if you’re simply interested in learning more about shipping insurance, be sure to tune into this episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider following the podcast and sharing it with others who may be interested. And as always, if you find the podcast of value, and you’d like to help me continue to make episodes like this one, you can go to the podcast’s Support page and become a Digital Supply Chain podcast Supporter for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

And if you’re interested in having your brand associated with the leading Supply Chain podcast, don’t hesitate to check out these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you!

Photo credit – Cindy Shebley on Flickr

Simplifying Real-Time Location Tracking with Cloud-Delivered AI for Supply Chain

In this episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, I sat down with Adrian Jennings, the Chief Product Officer of Cognosos.

Cognosos provides real-time location intelligence solutions for the logistics and healthcare industries. Their aim is to bring the location intelligence technology that is now common in our personal lives to the enterprise level of logistics.

Adrian has over 23 years of experience in the real-time location industry and has worked on tracking various objects, from cars and airplanes to people and even monkeys. He explained that Cognosos’ solution is different from other real-time location solutions because it addresses the need for manual, spatially distributed processes, which occur in various industries but tend to be invisible. Cognosos’ solution offers a more flexible and efficient approach to real-time location tracking than the solutions available in the market.

Cognosos was founded in the era of cloud and AI, which allows the company to take a ground-up approach to tracking. Instead of using traditional on-premise processing, they use low energy Bluetooth beacons that are low-cost and easy to deploy. These beacons emit a low-frequency signal that is picked up by the tags and sent to the cloud for processing. This approach allows for a more cost-effective solution with improved performance.

Adrian explained how Cognosos solves the issue of location through machine learning. Instead of figuring out the X, Y, and Z coordinates of an object, which is a difficult task, they treat it as a classification problem. AI algorithms are excellent at recognizing patterns and making inferences based on sparse input data, like a sparse network of beacons. Cognosos leverages this technology to create a lightweight network of beacons that can determine a high-quality, high granularity location without the need for a heavy infrastructure.

Adrian shared two use cases for their solution, one outdoor and one indoor. In the outdoor example, in a logistics yard, cars are moved multiple times from the assembly line to the logistics organization, where they undergo various processing steps. By tracking the car, Cognosos provides visibility into the process, allowing the operator to see where the inefficiencies are and optimize the process. In the indoor example, in hospitals, Cognosos goes beyond just finding lost assets, it helps improve the utilization of equipment by reducing overstocking and making the process more efficient.

Cognosos is a rapidly growing company that is currently focused on vehicle manufacturing logistics and asset management in healthcare, mostly in hospitals. However, they are now starting to extend into smaller facilities as well. Their next frontier is workflow management in healthcare, where they aim to minimize inefficiencies by better managing and understanding the flow of patients and caregivers. In logistics, they are moving beyond automotive manufacturing and are now being pulled into other areas such as food and beverage, garment, and pharmaceuticals.

In conclusion, Adrian explained that the traditional approach to RTLS has been to focus on creating value through granularity, but this often leads to expensive and difficult-to-implement solutions. Cognosos, on the other hand, focuses on creating value through simplicity and ease of use, which has led to their rapid growth and expansion in various industries.

I hope you found this episode as informative and engaging as I did. If you want to learn more about Cognosos and their real-time location intelligence solutions, be sure to listen to the full podcast episode. And don’t forget to follow and support the Digital Supply Chain podcast.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider following the podcast and sharing it with others who may be interested. And as always, if you find the podcast of value, and you’d like to help me continue to make episodes like this one, you can go to the podcast’s Support page and become a Digital Supply Chain podcast Supporter for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!

And if you’re interested in having your brand associated with the leading Supply Chain podcast, learning more about these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you!

Photo credit Quinn Dombrowski on Flickr

Streamlining Supply Chain Issue Resolution with Riptide’s Three-Way Text Platform

In today’s episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast I had the pleasure of speaking with Doug Marinaro, the CEO and co-founder of Riptide, a three-way text platform for issue resolution.

Doug shared the story of how Riptide came about, starting from the simple idea that a lot of problems could be solved before they become failures if the right people come together in a conversation. He and his co-founder, a small businessman in San Francisco, had previously been applying messaging to his auto repair and towing businesses, and saw dramatic improvements in his ability to satisfy customers. From there, they decided to expand this concept of messaging to be applied more broadly in the context of business and transactions.

Doug went on to explain that Riptide is different from consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, as it allows businesses to have control over who’s in the conversation, where the information about the conversation goes, and the conversation workflow. This allows businesses to automate the conversation and also give the people responsible for the success of that service, the ability to control the conversation and the participants.

Riptide is currently being used in roadside service, delivery, field service, and home services. Doug shared an example of last mile delivery, as this is where Riptide’s solution applies the most. He highlighted that the intersection of instant gratification with complexity is where Riptide’s solution is most valuable, as customers have an expectation of getting an answer immediately and getting their delivery instantly, but the process of actually accomplishing that delivery can be complex and difficult to manage. Riptide’s solution allows businesses to have control over the customer journey, and to have the right participants in the conversation at the right moment, which ultimately leads to a positive end-to-end customer experience.

Doug also discussed Riptide’s expansion plans, and how the solution can be used globally. He mentioned that Riptide is currently only available in North America, but they are talking to customers all around the world who have heard about what they’re doing and the universality of this problem. The good news is that the telecom services that they work with are robust and global, which will allow them to rapidly expand into other countries.

Riptide is a web-based app, so there’s nothing that needs to be installed on your computers, and it allows for the consumer to use the messaging app that’s already on their phones. This makes it easy for businesses to integrate Riptide into their ecosystem, and to provide real-time visibility on every conversation that’s happening. This data is collected and can be mined, and Riptide generates dashboards on usage by different parties, on response rates, and on how long it takes a person to read a message. This data can also be used for dispute resolution and to apply machine learning models that will allow businesses to insert chatbots into the conversation.

Overall, Riptide would appear to be a valuable solution for businesses looking to have control over the customer journey and to ensure a positive end-to-end customer experience. Tune in to the episode to learn more and to hear Doug’s insights on how Riptide can help your business.

And of course, be sure to follow the Digital Supply Chain podcast in your podcast app of choice to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices in Supply Chain.

Photo credit Sarah Marriage on Flickr

Maximize your Supply Chain Industry Exposure with my Podcast Sponsorship Packages

I am delighted to announce that my Digital Supply Chain podcast – the number one podcast showcasing thought leadership, and best practices in Supply Chain is now offering sponsorship packages for companies looking to gain exposure to my highly engaged audience.

As a twice-weekly podcast that focuses on the latest trends and developments in the supply chain industry, I have built a strong following of professionals in the field. With over 240,000 total downloads, and a number 1 ranking on Google and other major search engines for the search term “supply chain podcast,” I believe that these sponsorship packages are a great opportunity for companies to establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry.

My sponsorship packages include:

  1. The ability to brand episodes as “The Digital Supply Chain podcast – this episode sponsored by [sponsor company name]”
  2. The opportunity for the sponsor to choose the guest for the podcast
  3. A full transcription of the episode (this is extremely useful for accessibility, search engine optimisation, and for subsequent write-ups of the episode)
  4. Podcast show notes including links to websites, social media accounts for the sponsor
  5. A comprehensive blog post summarising the episode
  6. An audiogram for each episode with a soundbite from the podcast to be shared with the sponsor
  7. Embed code for each episode to be shared with the sponsor
  8. Three tweets and Mastodon posts per episode containing the audiogram and a link to the episode
  9. A LinkedIn post with the episode highlights, the audiogram, and a link to the episode

We understand that every company is unique, which is why I am happy to work with you to create a sponsorship package that fits your specific needs and budget. Prices for the packages are available on application.

If you’re interested in having your brand associated with the leading Supply Chain podcast, learning more about these sponsorship packages and how I can help your company gain exposure and establish yourself as a thought leader in the supply chain industry, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

5 Ways to Make Your Supply Chain More Sustainable

As the world becomes more digitized, companies are under increasing pressure to improve the sustainability of their supply chains. Here are 5 ways to make your supply chain more sustainable, from using artificial intelligence to increasing visibility.

  1. Use AI to stay ahead of emissions regulations.
    As climate change continues to be a pressing global issue, emissions regulations are only going to become more strict. Use artificial intelligence to stay up-to-date on the latest emissions regulations and ensure that your company is compliant. AI can also help you identify ways to reduce your emissions and improve your overall sustainability.
  2. Increase visibility into your supply chain.
    Visibility is key to managing a sustainable supply chain. You need to know where your materials are coming from, how they’re being produced, and where they’re going after they leave your facility. By tracking this information, you can make changes to reduce your carbon footprint and improve overall sustainability.
  3. Make sustainability a priority for suppliers.
    Sustainability should be a key criteria when choosing suppliers. Working with supplier who share your commitment to sustainability will help you further reduce your carbon footprint and have a positive impact on the environment.
  4. Invest in renewable energy sources.
    Investing in renewable energy sources is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint of your supply chain. Solar and wind power are becoming increasingly cost-effective, so now is the time to make the switch! Not only will this help the environment, but it will also save you money in the long run.
  5. Educate employees on sustainability practices.
    Your employees play a big role in making your supply chain more sustainable. Educate them on best practices and encourage them to come up with new ideas on how to improve sustainability throughout the entire organization. Creating a culture of sustainability will help facilitate lasting change that benefits both the environment and the bottom line!


There’s no question that sustainability is important for businesses today. But with so many different aspects of supply chain management to consider, it can be difficult to know where to start! By following these 5 tips, you can make your supply chain more sustainable and better prepared for the future!

If you’d like to know more about supply chains and sustainability, don’t forget to check out my Digital Supply Chain podcast – the number one podcast focussing on the digitisation of supply chains

Photo credit Rab Lawrence

Digital Supply Chain and surviving coronavirus-driven supply chain disruptions – a chat with MSCG

Supply chains have never been hit with so many disruptions at once. A perfect storm of trade wars, an oil price crash, and then the coronavirus have seen global supply chains shocked like never before.

In the midst of this, via a chat on LinkedIn I discovered that MSCG held a webinar for partners and customers on this very topic, so I invited the two webinar hosts, Dr Dan Bhide and Odell Smith to come on the podcast and talk about the comments, concerns, and learnings folks came away from the webinar with.

I think it was a great chat, but don’t take my word for it (I may be a bit biased 😉 ), have a listen using the player above and/or check out the transcript below, and let me know what you think.

 

Odell Smith [00:00:00] We’ve been in great times, you know, over the last over the last several years, and and the the the thought about risk management and about evaluating risk and then putting in good mitigation plans hasn’t hasn’t really been in place.

 

Tom Raftery [00:00:19] Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Where ever you are in the world. This is the digital supply chain podcast and I am your host, Tom Raftery.

 

Tom Raftery [00:00:31] Hi, everyone, welcome to the Digital Supply Chain podcast. My name is Tom Raftery with SAP and with me on the show today, I have two guests, Dan and Odell. Dan and Odell, would you like to introduce yourselves?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:00:45] Yes, happy to Tom. Thanks for having us on your podcast today. Really look forward to this conversation. My name is Dan Bhide. I’m a co-founder and partner at My Supply Chain Group. We are Enterprise consulting firm, helping our clients with supply chain stategy, process reengineering and solution implementation in multiple industry verticals.

 

Tom Raftery [00:01:07] Super, and Odell…

 

Odell Smith [00:01:09] Hey. Glad to be here. My name is Odell Smith. I have been with My Supply Chain Group for since it started over 11 years ago. I have been working in the supply chain space for over 30 years and specifically and in I.T. for the last 26 or so and build ITs, architect I.T. solutions for the supply chain.

 

Tom Raftery [00:01:38] Nice, nice, nice. Now, you guys held a webinar a week or so ago addressing specifically supply chain disruption, because  we’re in a kind of a crazy mixed up world right now, this is April 2020, the 14th of April 2020. You know, everything in the world seems to have gone to pot. And you had about a hundred or so people on the webinar. And I was interested to maybe bring some of the learnings from that to the audience of his podcast. So, do you want to talk about the background to the webinar first and then we can get into some of the things that come out of it?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:02:20] Indeed, we had a lot of other clients calling us, asking, hey, you know, can you help us with these issues vs those issues? And we certainly engage in those activities. What turns out from our experience is this unlike many other disruptions that we have seen in the recent past, whether it was an earthquake or a tsunami, or a fire at a major airport, this one is unique in the sense that quite a few things have certainly assembly together themselves in one place at one time. You know, whether it’s the corona pandemic, whether it’s also the mix of the US-Sino trade war that’s actually been happening for the last couple of years whether it is this certain glut of oil and the rapid decline in oil prices because of that, the fear of recession. All those things are suddenly piled up on us. And a lot of companies that thought they had their business continuity plans put together are now finding that, you know, those weren’t after all that resilient. So that was the reason behind us saying lets take a big picture approach to helping our clients and prospects understand what happened, why it’s happening and what we can do about it. As we go on this conversation we can explain the fact that, you know, beyond going from just issues, impact and mitigation strategies, very able to help clients understand how to actually translate a mitigation strategy into the specific action plans and the specific tasks.

 

Tom Raftery [00:03:44] Okay. Odell, you want to jump in and add anything to that or…

 

Odell Smith [00:03:48] A lot of a lot of this kind of comes down to to information and in the sharing of information. And so one of the one of the only ways that any business is going to be able to get through this is is with collaboration. And so so there’s being able to have information to process and manage internally as well as being able to share with your your vendors and your customers.

 

Tom Raftery [00:04:20] Can I interrupt you Odell for a second just, rather than getting into that just yet, can we take a step back? And we’ve identified the kind of main factors, the drop in oil price, the trade wars and the sudden global pandemic that has shut almost everything down. Those are the big picture factors. But how is that affecting supply chains? How is that affecting organizations you work with? What is it? What are the problems that you guys are seeing out there for companies?

 

Odell Smith [00:04:55] OK. So an example is there’s there’s quite a bit of disruption in in not only in in some of the vendors and suppliers, especially with the the great focus that’s been happening over the last 10 to 20 years of outsourcing, a lot of stuff overseas. And and so there’s obviously enormous impact there with suppliers not being able to provide raw material and/or finished goods to to the supply chains. But in addition to that, there’s there’s logistics impacts as well. So take, for instance, one of our clients has asked us to help them build some what/if simulation capability around port closures. So as these as these products, in addition to the suppliers not being able to provide things, the government mandated closure of of logistics facilities and ports has been a significant problem and a concern with several companies in addition to health and safety measures for the people that work in those areas. So there’s just a couple of examples of of things where things that you wouldn’t normally expect. I mean, sometimes you have union strikes and these type of things, but they’re they’re known more ahead of time. Right. Sure. And there’s a way to be able to try to mitigate some of that. But this is this is urgent, immediate and unexpected in many cases.

 

Tom Raftery [00:06:36] Totally, totally unprecedented to use a word that’s been used an awful lot these days.

 

Odell Smith [00:06:43] Exactly.

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:06:44] You know, if you think about it Tom, even in the last few big disruption that some of us have read about or been through we were, none of us were around for the 1929 Great Depression, many of us may not remember the 1973 oil shock, but none of them had this confluence of all the events and the disruption of demand, disruption of supply, the disruption of networks. And all that compounded by the fact that most of us are forced to stay home because of social distancing. Many people are losing jobs, and all this confluence of multiple impacts is fairly unprecedented.

 

Tom Raftery [00:07:18] It is. And we here in Spain, they’re now starting to allow some sectors go back to work again in a very limited capacity. But it looks like we’re coming out, you know, slowly, the other end of it. The curve is being flattened, but it’s still… There’s not going to be a vaccine widely available until mid to late 2021. So social distancing and those kind of measures you know, to Odell’s point in the workplace for health and safety. That’s going to be an ongoing factor and possibly access to supplies and things like that we can deal with these kind of things short term but is this something that we can manage for 18 months?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:08:11] I guess it’s more do we have a choice about how to manage it. You know one of the CEOs of a big retailer said, “Hey, you know what? There is no playbook. We are doing this on the fly.” And speaking to another client recently, he said because of social distancing requirements we really can’t even have the whole production staff on the floor, for example. And if earlier we were running the line with, say, 20 people on the line, now we have to make do with ten or twelve of them because of social distancing. And that means we are running our lines at says 60-70% of the capacity than I would usual. Now, this is where the ability to look at all kinds of what/if analysis now that I’m running at 70% for example can I open up the third shift? Can I open up Saturdays? And if I do that, do I have an ability to catch up on my demand? That kind of ability to on the fly do these kinds of different analysis and then figure alternative now that you know you have a different harder constraint of not getting everybody on the production floor becomes an issue. And how quickly are you able to do that kind of analysis to have right kind of decisions made becomes a significant challen. If you digitise your supply chains, then that kind of what/if capability becomes a little easier to achieve then if things are still disconnected and maybe worst, even on paper.

 

Tom Raftery [00:09:32] In the webinar that you guys ran what were the primary concerns that people had when they joined the webinar? What were the questions they were asking and what kind of answers did you have for them?

 

Odell Smith [00:09:44] I guess some of the main concerns were around again, back to the data thing trying to be able to understand the impact of a particular situation. In many cases there are there are several different impacts even inside of some of the same companies. Right. You can have massively increased demand in one business unit and devastatingly loss demand in another business unit even inside of the same corporation. So being able to quickly be able to get information on where we think that’s going to go and what the impact of that is going to be is important and being able to simulate what, how am I going to solve whichever side of that that I’m on? One of the things about this flattening the curve thing, Tom, is I get it. It’s important for for the medical response to this. But what that does, in effect is an indeterminately amount extend this issue and extend the supply chain impact for what you’re talking about, a very long duration. Right. That’s a whole purpose of that model of flattening that curve. And and so trying to to be able to put some data, the people that we were talking to were very concerned about how how to model that. Right. So that they could so that they could plan effectively and then try to, you know, come up with different scenarios where they might be able to make it through. There’s a lot of capability to do things to to try to substitute products where available and to be able to maybe, maybe delay demand spikes or, you know, change promotions and and pricing things that were going to affect demand and that type of thing to be able to shift some of those things around. Those are those are very doable. Those wind up affecting then the supply and how it’s supply is going to be able to make that. So there’s a balance that you can do with that. But being able to simulate that and see that have the visibility of those is some of the biggest concern, because a lot of people have not put in some of some of the new capabilities to be able to visualise that stuff. And that’s that’s an important piece of this concern anyway. Not being able to see.

 

Tom Raftery [00:12:30] So Odell, if I remember correctly, I think you said you’ve been in supply chain for 26 years. Yes. If this had happened 25 years ago as opposed to today you know, what are the differences in the supply chain solutions that are available today versus ones that were available 20 odd years ago? What can companies do now that they couldn’t do then? I mean, we were chatting away here on a podcast recording platform that allows us to see each other’s faces. We’re working from home using Zoom and similar technologies, things that could not have happened 25 years ago. How does the supply chain world compare?

 

Odell Smith [00:13:14] It’s even it’s it’s hard to even imagine back then the the being able to have a) this happening, but but the capability of being able to to function as well as we’re able to. I mean, there is still an amazing amount of business that’s being accomplished because of technology, just like what you’re what you’re describing here. So as an engineer, before you know, it got into the I.T. side of the supply chain working in manufacturing there, there were there were these same type of of of problems. But it seems like there has been this kind of just in time mentality that’s that has really shortened the supply chain, has reduced a lot of cost and has and has taken a lot of the flexibility out of the supply chain over the last several years. And and that that flexibility then is has done a great thing for reducing prices and increasing margins. And it’s a it’s a great thing for the business. But it also I think this is a bit philosophical, but it’s kind of, we’ve been in great times, you know, over the last over the last several years. And and that the the thought about risk management and about evaluating risk and then putting in good mitigation plans hasn’t hasn’t really been in place. Back to your technology question. So there’s going to be a focus on that going forward that hasn’t been there in years. And this whole just in case logic that we discussed in our webinar is going to be much more tied to the just-in-time thing and there’s going to be a balance there. The new technologies that we’ve that we’ve seen come available, especially in the digital revolution, where we’re able to quickly put data in to a system and be able to get valuable results out of it from partners is probably one of the biggest, biggest benefits. So our being able to see the entire supply chain and then be able to collaborate with the cloud technologies with with partners on on from supplier side as well as in the in our manufacturing and processing as well as through to the end customer. And being able to collaborate is the biggest advantage that I’ve seen here in the technology. And that’s that’s a large piece of that is going from on-premise to the cloud. Right. And those those are the biggest the the biggest advantages. And then the tool sets inside of those that that allow more flexibility and visibility in the analytics that are real-time, where we used to have to wait days, you know, to be able to get data in a place where we could do analytics on it. Those are the main pieces for me.

 

Tom Raftery [00:16:32] All right. Dan, have you anything to add there?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:16:34] Sure. You know, just as the technology has evolved, you know, most of us hadn’t. Maybe the word digital supply chain wasn’t coined 25 years ago. Now it’s a reality for us. You know, and some of us had been leaders, some companies had been forced to follow that, you know. The expectations of consumers have changed as well over the last 25 years, you know, when you thought of getting a product within a week was good enough. Now, here are the Amazons of the world offering the products overnight or even sometimes the same day. So some brick and morter have been forced to go there as well. What that has done is we all talk about the 3 V’s of supply chain, the velocity of supply chain has been forced to increase big time. The visibility also is required to go literally not just within your own silos or breaking the silos, now we’re talking about visibility across the whole network you know from supplier’s supplier to customers, customers. And then there’s also expectation of variability how do I reduce my variability in my supply plan so that I can assure for Tom delivery of his product that he ordered tomorrow morning or even today evening. So expectation of reduced variability, expectation of increasing velocity and expectation of increased visibility has been forced upon the client companies as well.

 

Tom Raftery [00:17:51] And we’re at to almost 18 minutes mark now and I like to keep this podcast to about 20 minutes. For people who are listening who were unable to attend your webinar. What advice would you give them going forward where we’re headed into a world of possibly 18 months of social distancing. You know, maybe there’s a vaccine comes out sooner and maybe it’s, you know, nine or twelve months or whatever it is. But we’re heading into a world of a lot of unknowns, you know, and we’ve had this triple whammy hit us now, what advice would you give to people who are running supply chains now moving forward?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:18:33] You know, one of the things a caution is that this priming the pump, once things start getting normalised to a new normal, I mean, is going to be excruciatingly complex and time consuming. So that is something that they’re already dealing with. But this priming the pump, meaning getting back to a new normal, is going to take weeks, possibly months to happen. And that means that we have to now look beyond the short-term mid-term plans to look at the Long-Term Plans, having the business continuity plans in place and also literally doing a monthly new scenario’s of what/if, and to mitigate the risk and most importantly focus on the fact that what you do now is going to redefine your competitive ecosystem as well, because some companies will be able to handle this well, some won’t. And that’s going to create a new normal and a new competitive landscape. So see this as much as an opportunity, as a disruption or threat.

 

Tom Raftery [00:19:32] Ok Odell…

 

Odell Smith [00:19:32] So there’s there’s a lot of companies where executives are down on the shop floor packing warehouse boxes right now, trying to to to be able to just get through this. Right. And and that is absolutely required. You just have to do what you have to do to be able to make to make this work. All hands on deck. But at the same time, there has to be some level of strategy where you do like Dan was saying, where you you look for ways that you can take advantage of this and that you can get out of execution and start trying to do some of that forward planning and being able to being able to focus on the entire chain inside of your corporation with a value chain, but the entire supply chain and work on collaboration, with your suppliers and with your customers, to see what they are seeing right as what their demand is and to be able to figure out how you can best supply that, you have to you have to spend some time on that, even in the middle of, you know, working 14 hours a day packing boxes to try to get things out. And so the it’s not necessarily a time to to go and do a full system implementation, but there are there are ways that technology can help in this digitisation, the digitisation that we’ve just talked about. That was a little bit tough to get out! There are there are ways that that you can use information to help expedite that collaboration. And I couldn’t I couldn’t emphasize the collaboration with customers and vendors enough in that scenario.

 

Tom Raftery [00:21:25] OK. Last question, guys. Is there anything that we haven’t talked about that you think we should have talked about? Anything that you’d like to bring up that we haven’t hit on just yet?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:21:36] One quick comment from me and as I was referring to earlier, it’s one thing to comprehend the big picture and talk about mitigation strategies. I would align that to maybe a 80 to a 20 thousand feet level thinking, but it’s a whole another world translating those mitigation strategies into really what enables us to translate that mitigation strategy into action plans. So this is where the expertise matters. How do you translate the so-called one-liner mitigation strategy into 20-30 action items or tasks, whether they’re on the system side, on the people side, on the process side, on the policies and practices side, how do you come up with the new KPIs for resilience as against traditional KPIs for efficiency and just-in-time because those are the challenges that one needs to really think through.

 

Tom Raftery [00:22:31] Odell…

 

Odell Smith [00:22:31] I think being able to look back at this and be able to think of what worked and what didn’t work is going to what is going to wind up being of value as well. It’s it’s almost impossible to do that while you’re in the trenches. But take take notes about about what’s going on and and what worked and what didn’t work and then where you might want to, where you might want to have things perform differently in the future. Most of our planning solutions are are based on data that happened in the past. These anomalistic times that we’re in are going to cause many, many outliers. But there is also going to be a new normal that’s going to come out of that. There’s going to have to be a focus and an analysis on that data to have good plans going forward in the future. And that’s probably a complete separate podcast discussion around innovations and that type of thing. And, you know, being able to use advanced machine learning and AI to be able to support some of those quick decisions. But that anyway, that’s that’s that’s something that’s necessary to do for sure.

 

Tom Raftery [00:23:52] Gentlemen, thank you very much. If people want to know more about yourselves, Dan and Ordell or MASC Gee, where would you have me point them?

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:24:01] They can go to my supply chain group dot com and they can call us as well. But my supply chain group dot com, one word is the place they can reach out to us.

 

Tom Raftery [00:24:13] In that case, gentlemen, thank you very much for your time and your expertise today. It’s been it’s been a pleasure talking to you.

 

Dr Dan Bhide [00:24:20] Thanks for having us Tom. It’s my pleasure.

 

Odell Smith [00:24:22] Yes. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for the time.

 

Tom Raftery [00:24:30] OK. We’ve come to the end of the show. Thanks, everyone, for listening. If you’d like to know more about digital supply chains, head on over to SFP dot com slash digital supply chain or simply drop me an email to Tom Dot Raftery at SAP dot com if you’d like to show. Please don’t forget to subscribe to it in your podcast application to get new episodes right away as soon as they’re published. And also, please don’t forget to rate and review the podcast. It really does help new people to find a show.

 

Tom Raftery [00:24:57] Thanks. Catch you all next time.

 

[00:28:56] Super. Super. That’s great. Claudio’s that’s been fantastic. Thanks a million for coming on the show today.

 

[00:29:10] OK, we’ve come to the end of the show. Thanks, everyone, for listening. If you’d like to know more about digital supply chains, head on over to SFP dot com slash digital supply chain or simply drop me an email to Tom Dot Raftery at SAP dot com if you’d like to show. Please don’t forget to subscribe to it in your podcast application to get new episodes right away as soon as they’re published. And also, please don’t forget to rate and review the podcast. It really does help new people to find show.

 

[00:29:38] Thanks. Catch you all next time.

 

And if you want to know more about any of SAP’s Digital Supply Chain solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/digitalsupplychain and if you liked this show, please don’t forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks.

And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

 

 

 

Digital Supply Chains and the impact of the #Covid-19 #Coronavirus – a chat with Richard Howells (@HowellsRichard)

It is early April 2020 and the world is in the middle of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The contagion has hugely impacted supply chains, and in some cases supply chains have hugely impacted the contagion, stepping up to allow automobile manufacturers pivot to building ventilators, airplane manufacturers switch to 3D printing protective visors, and drinks makers start making hand sanitisers.  And that doesn’t even start to get into the challenges facing grocery stores maintaining stock levels.

In the midst of this Richard Howells wrote an excellent piece in Forbes titled Business As Unusual: Resiliency In Times Of Supply Chain Disruption examining how supply chains are coping with the outbreak so I thought I’d invite him on the show to discuss this and we had a fascinating conversation on the topic.

Click on the player above to hear our conversation and/or check out the transcript below:

 

Richard Howells [00:00:00] So there’s lots of areas where we’re seeing companies addressing short term challenges, but also looking at ways to rebalance their supply chains, moving forward and having risk mitigation strategies. I think supply chains will, if they don’t already in every business, will have a seat at the table of every business moving forward because they’re both an opportunity and a risk.

 

Tom Raftery [00:00:27] Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Wherever you are in the world, this is the digital supply chain podcast and I am your host, Tom Raftery.

 

Tom Raftery [00:00:38] Hi, everyone, welcome to the Digital Supply Chain podcast. My name is Tom Raftery and with me on the show today, I have Richard Howells. Richard, would you like to introduce yourself?

 

Richard Howells [00:00:47] Hi, Tom. So I work for SAP in the area of digital supply chain and I spend a lot of time writing about business challenges, trends and opportunities for supply chain executives.

 

Tom Raftery [00:01:00] Yeah, you write a lot of stuff on Forbes as some great some great articles. And you wrote one because, you know, we are; this is, what, the second of April 2020, we are in the middle of a global pandemic. The Covid-19 Coronavirus virus pandemic. Today is the day that we are going to reach 1 million people infected and 50000 dead. And, you know, it’s presenting a lot of challenges. And you wrote a blog post about this on Forbes called Business as Unusual Resiliency in times of Supply Chain Disruption. And you made some, you know, great points in that and talked up some interesting stories. So I thought it’d be cool to have you come on the podcast, because, you know, this is a supply chain issue big time globally. And you address a lot of those challenges there in that article. So would you like to talk a little bit about that?

 

Richard Howells [00:01:53] Sure. So, I mean, I start I started the article off about talking about some of the challenges from a supply chain perspective that this pandemic has caused. I mean, it’s hard to believe that when we were celebrating New Year’s Eve for three months ago that this didn’t was a figment of wasn’t even a figment of anyone’s imagination. We couldn’t believe that we’d be been this case three months later. And what’s happened is that I mean, we’re seeing supply chain at the centre of everything at the moment. It’s both the challenges in some cases and the opportunities in others. I mean, when we started off with the issues in China, it considered it created a huge supply issue because China is the manufacturing factory of the world. So when you’ve got uncertain supply of critical materials, it has a knock on effect throughout the whole world. And then as the pandemic spread, so did the demand volatility as people started panic buying. I mean, we’re seeing huge demand for medical equipment, medical devices and of of of key products from a from a consumer goods standpoint. And the demand for luxury items and discretionary items is nonexistent. Now, it’s amazing to me that we are reliant as a globe now on 20 or 30 items that everyone’s looking for in the stores and… toilet paper of all things, who thought there would be a rush on toilet paper.

 

Tom Raftery [00:03:23] I think that was a I think there was a social media thing more than anything else, because I went to I we had our lockdown announced on the 14th and I went to their local supermarket and there was plenty of toilet paper. What was missing was all the meat. The meat counter was stripped bare. Now that was fixed in a matter of a couple of days. It was a supply chain issue again. You know, they didn’t anticipate that big demand, but they and they got it fixed in a couple of days. So there aren’t any shortages here. There are sometimes if you go to the shops, there might be a short term shortage of an individual brand, but not of that, not of the class of goods.

 

Richard Howells [00:03:57] And I’m based in the US. And we’ve still got I mean, you’re you’re a few weeks ahead as far as the pandemic is in in Spain. And we we still have shortages. And those shortages are now because of capacity constraints. There are shortages because we don’t have enough manufacturing capacity to increase the production of toilet paper, for example, which was running at full production anyway. And we’re having logistics challenges of getting goods from point A to point B. What if they’ve got to come from foreign foreign ports or foreign countries? There’s no transport that the flights are down by 80 plus percent. Some of the ports are closed or there’s less or less capacity going through it. And then we’ve got the challenge of drivers and the risk that those drivers are taking without the proper security and humanitarian coverage. And that’s the final challenge I think we see from this at the moment, is that humanitarian risk, the balance of of labour shortages, but also of ensuring the health and safety of employees who are doing the vital jobs, who are doing the “required jobs”. How we’ve changed manufacturing processes, for example, where there can be less people on the plant floor. So to make sure that we’ve got the social distancing during working environment, working processes and working environments as well.

 

Tom Raftery [00:05:22] That’s going to be a huge challenge for manufacturers. I mean, they they’ve set up their manufacturing lines in a particular way. And to your point now, they have to do social distancing between the employees and the floor and just for health and safety.

 

Richard Howells [00:05:33] Yes, it’s it’s it’s things that you wouldn’t think about in normal circumstances, I’m sure it’s never been thought through as a as a plan of how to do this. And people are having to come up with solutions literally on the fly.

 

Tom Raftery [00:05:47] I went grocery shopping yesterday just for the second time since lockdown because the grocery shops are tending to push us towards online deliveries and in the grocery stores now, they have markings on the floor to say where you should stand when you’re in a queue for the checkout counter you know, and there is, you know, two meters between each mark so that you’re two meters behind the person in front of you. You know, again, for social distancing and they have to have a glass Perspex barrier between you and the person at the checkout counter, which was never there before. And again, it’s just to protect the employees from potential infection from shoppers. Yes, and vice versa, I suppose.

 

Richard Howells [00:06:27] Is that just they’ve just started introducing in some of the stores here one way systems around the supermarkets as well, which I haven’t seen up until now in the US.

 

Tom Raftery [00:06:36] Wow, wow, wow

 

Richard Howells [00:06:38] And we’re seeing lots of repurposing as well of manufacturing. I sent you a link this morning to the Airbus plants here in Spain. I mean, Airbus have several factories here in Spain and they have over 20 3D printers because they I mean, they were they were the first commercial airline company to use 3D printed parts and commercial flights back in, I think was 2015. So they’ve been playing a lot and working a lot after playing working a lot with 3D printers. And now they’ve turned that around into using those 3D printers to make the Perspex masks that the health workers, the health care workers are using to keep themselves safe when they’re dealing with people who are very sick. Actually, there’s a there’s a consortium that I’ve seen online of 3D printing companies who are sharing the designs of these 3D masks for that very purpose that they’re crowdsourcing and sharing the information. And we’re also seeing other companies doing some similar things. I mean, I read about Medtronic’s are opening up, or making that does the designs of their ventilators so that they’re simple ventilators, their basic line of ventilators open to other people so that they can manufacture those ventilators. And they’re also partnering with with Tesla to to to increase their production. You’re you’re seeing automotive companies becoming outsourced, manufacturers for medical device companies to increase the production, because there’s a lot of very small ventilator manufactures that just can’t scale.

 

Tom Raftery [00:08:15] If I had said that to you in December thirty first, that the car companies would be making ventilators in April of this year, you’d said, Tom, you’re smoking crack.

 

Richard Howells [00:08:24] That’s exactly what happened. Yes. And they’re becoming the contract manufacturers rather than working with lots of contract manufacturers for their parts.

 

Tom Raftery [00:08:31] So how do they how are these automotive, for example, companies sourcing the parts to manufacture these ventilators? How would that work?

 

Richard Howells [00:08:40] Well, that means that that means having improved visibility across the supply chain. I mean, first of all, I mean, SAP is doing a lot of work in providing offers to our customers to access some of our, some of our systems in these times of need and mapping, mapping the visibility of where the suppliers are that have the inventory with your demand and in-building and having visibility across the network of that is a huge, huge first step. I mean, I would imagine that there’s as I said, there’s a lot of partnerships going on. The also the the the the medical device manufacturers will be sharing their partner information and their supply information and supply sources to satisfy that demand for additional materials that these companies may never buy. I mean, we’re seeing other examples. We’re seeing perfume manufacturers and liquor producers making hand sanitizers. I mean, at the moment, the medical device, medical companies need three or four sections of things. They need we need they need the public to have and they need hand sanitizers to reduce the spread of the virus. They need the masks, the testing equipment and the robes for testing people and treating people. And ultimately, in the worst case situations, they need ventilators and an unparalleled amount of ventilators to actually treat the most critically ill. And companies are coming together to help support that. As I said, I mentioned the hand sanitizer example. We see the ventilator example with car manufacturers. We’re seeing other companies. Another one of our customers, actually Decathlon are are repurposing this, their the devices for their breathing, snorkelling devices and adapting them to be ventilators, working with with partners to adapt them to be ventilators. So we’re we really are thinking out of the box and and building partnerships that you wouldn’t have seen. And it’s it’s actually good to see companies coming together to solve solve some of these problems.

 

Tom Raftery [00:10:45] I came across a thread of tweets a couple of days ago and again this morning because someone else tweeted, not me, where it was. I think a psychologist talking about how in times like this, people are afraid that there’s going to be a breakdown of social order. Whereas in fact, in times of crisis like this, it seems to bring out, in fact, the best of us, the likes of the people in New York in 9/11, all coming together to help each other out. And, you know, we’re seeing it again in this situation where rather than, you know, everything falling apart, in fact, we’re getting to your point, unprecedented partnerships between businesses that would never work together before, to try and all come together to produce the goods that are in short supply.

 

Richard Howells [00:11:31] Yes. I mean, you see it at a personal level with with neighbours helping other neighbours. And we’re seeing it at a business level as well at a larger scale. And it’s it’s good to see. But the wrong circumstance. Wish we didn’t have to see it, but it’s good to see when it does happen.

 

Tom Raftery [00:11:47] Richard, what are some of the strategies that companies are coming up with to address this situation?

 

Richard Howells [00:11:53] Well, what we’re seeing across all areas of the supply chain, different, different needs and different strategies. If we start at the basic level over the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve stripped a lot of cost out of the supply chain. We went to a global supply chain to reduce the cost of raw materials. For example, we’ve outsourced a lot of our manufacturing to have cheaper labour. And this has done a great job in cost reduction. But it’s also increased the risk involved, which… Exactly, it’s coming home at the moment as a huge cost implication and a customer service implication. And in the short term, I think we’ve got to work out where the from a supply standpoint, where the inventory is, how can I access that inventory? Which which partners do I have that already have it? Which other companies have available inventory that I can source? How do I get the goods to the right place, to the hotspots when we’re talking about medical supplies to the to the areas with the most shortages? When we talk about supermarkets, we’re seeing so so alternate sourcing strategies are one of the areas in the short term that I see a lot of supply chains looking to to solve. Also, where to position inventory in a in a global supply chain. I can’t be totally reliant on having all my finished goods being shipped and it takes a week for me to get the finished goods. I need a source of inventory of finished goods locally. We are seeing a lot of companies start thinking or will be thinking a lot about the balancing of offshoring versus near shoring versus on shoring, even though it may cost more to manufacture locally, but you need that to reduce that risk. The whole area of employee safety, of ensuring you have the environmental, health and safety processes in place to ensure the safety of your people working on the plant floor. The people working in the distribution area and and and your customers safety of making sure that the products are of good quality and having visibility of demand, I think is critical. I mean, this may be a case. It’s taken a long time to for the retailers to share the point of sales information with manufacturers. Now is the time to share that information. We need to know where we have shortages. We need to know what is going off the shelves, although it’s pretty obvious what’s going off the shelf as a consumer. But maybe the manufacturing companies could have had advanced information of that to get more goods of the right sort to to the to the retailers that needed it the most. So there’s lots of lots of areas where we’re seeing companies addressing short term challenges, but also looking at ways to rebalance their supply chains, moving forward and having missed risk mitigation strategies. I think supply chains will if they don’t, already in every business will have a seat at the table of every business moving forward because they’re both an opportunity and a risk.

 

Tom Raftery [00:15:03] Yeah, absolutely. And so that that brings up a good point. Where do we go? Post pandemic? You know, in whether it’s six or 12 or 18 months time, what is the supply chain world going to look like?

 

Richard Howells [00:15:18] Well, I mentioned I think we’ll have still have global supply chains, but maybe with local execution we will be balancing our inventory so that we keep a certain percentage of inventory locally. We will be balancing our manufacturing, outsourcing vs. and offshoring to to maybe doing some of the manufacturing ourselves and at least having it local, local manufacturing capabilities and capacities. I think that we will not be reliant on single sourcing strategies. We won’t put all our eggs in one basket. We will we will have multiple suppliers to provide the same critical the critical components that we need and balance that. Maybe we work with one but 20 percent and 80 percent with the other at the moment, but have the ability to switch so that you can go to local sourcing as and when required. And it’s going to cost a little bit more, but it will reduce risk. And I think sustainability actually will be a huge thing moving forward. I mean, it should be a huge thing anyway. But we’re seeing the in the environmental impact of this pandemic is actually a positive impact on the globe. We’re seeing less pollution in certain areas and we’re seeing cleaner waterways due to lack less less distribution and fumes being put into the atmosphere. And I think that as companies start to think about how they are global but execute locally, that will reduce the carbon footprint of our supply chains automatically. But we also want to ensure that we we are still sourcing ethically, that we are having good labour manufacturing environments to work in for working conditions and we are designing sustainable products and recyclable products for the good of the planet anyway.

 

Tom Raftery [00:17:22] I actually have a very practical example of that. I have a personal air quality meter. It’s made by a company called Plume. Plume Labs. It’s called a Flow air quality meter. It’s it’s a device you wear on your belt loop or somewhere like that. And it measures five different air quality indices. There are things like VOCs which are, you know, volatile organic compounds, NOx, pm 1, pm 2.5, and pm 10, that’s particulate matter at different sizes. And it has an app which comes with the phone, which syncs with the phone. So it matches up the air quality, which it measures once every minute along those five measurements. It synchs that with the G.P.S. coordinates and then uses mapping data to give you a map of the air quality for everywhere you’ve been for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year, etc.. So, I only get out of the house now to walk the dogs because we’re on lockdown and walking the dogs is literally the only… Well that and grocery shopping, you know. But what of the groceries are, you know, online deliveries? So just walking the dogs. I used to walk the dogs anyway before the lockdown. So I have before and after data for the air quality where I live and for the walk that I take every day. So I’ve perfect A.B data and these the the difference in air quality between, you know, before the lockdown and since the lockdown is just amazing. And even even before the lockdown, you know, I used to in presentations talk about this, talk about, you know, you get air quality in one area, which is terrible and in another area, which is better. But it’s not just it’s not just it’s not just a question of where. It’s also a question of when. And what I mean by that is… Rush hours? Yeah, exactly. The the I used to take the dogs out for a walk in the morning and the evening and in the morning it was, you know, just before 9:00 a.m. and I’d be walking past a local school. And of course, all the SUVs would be outside the school as the parents were delivering their kids. I’d walk past the same school at eight o’clock in the evening and there wouldn’t be a car from miles. And the air quality difference between those two times a day for the exact same place was incredible. But now that there have been almost no cars driving by there in three and a half weeks, it’s it’s flat. You know, there’s almost nothing there at all. It’s just like almost it’s not it’s not exactly zero across all five measurements, but it’s close enough.

 

Richard Howells [00:20:15] And it’s interesting, using personal devices like that would be a great way of getting the information across the globe or the country. You know, about how that has improved because that information is is stored centrally in the cloud some whereand that information can really add value. And that’s another example about that. We’ve been seeing this in the news about we we can see where the hot spots are and where that they’re reducing a little by people who were using electronic temperature. That’s right. The company has visibility across the North America at the moment of the temperatures are coming down in certain areas, which implies that people are getting a little healthier in those areas or the pandemic isn’t as is reducing in some of those areas or increasing as the case may be. Saw that. That’s fascinating. A type of information from Smart Assets is very valuable in today’s climate and it’s very valuable from a business perspective moving forward as well.

 

Tom Raftery [00:21:17] It is. And the company who make that air quality meter know that, they’ve been mapping air quality across cities globally since they started. It was a, you know, one of the one of the business drivers of creating the air quality meters. Richard, we’re at about 20 minutes. We’re just over 20 minutes. So we’re coming towards the end of the podcast. I like to keep it about the 20 to 25 minute mark. Is there is there anything else that we haven’t touched on that you think that we should have?

 

Richard Howells [00:21:44] I think we’ve covered most of the topics or all the topics, I think. I’d just like to. I hope that everyone stays safe and adheres with the different mandates and guidances from the different governments around the world, and hopefully the next time we we do a podcast Tom, we’ll be talking about in happier times and about happier subjects.

 

Tom Raftery [00:22:05] I hope so. OK, everyone, thanks a million for your interest. Richard, thanks for coming on the show. And to everyone who’s listening. Stay happy. Stay healthy. Stay safe. Stay sane. Because, I mean, you know, we’re on lockdown right now. It’s very easy to kind of go a bit out of your head, do stay sane.

 

Richard Howells [00:22:24] I’m not sure if I can do that.

 

[00:22:30] OK, we’ve come to the end of the show. Thanks, everyone, for listening. If you’d like to know more about digital supply chains, head on over to SAP.com/digitalsupplychain or simply drop me an email to Tom Dot Raftery at SAP dot com. If you’d like to show, please don’t forget to subscribe to it in your podcast application to get new episodes right away as soon as they’re published. And also, please don’t forget to rate and review the podcast. It really does help new people. To find the show. Thanks. Catch you all next time.

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