Art of Supply

Companies and consumers regularly rely on product descriptions to decide whether or not to make a purchase and to determine the right price for that product.  In the case of seafood, those descriptions and tiers create choices for consumers, but they also provide a built in incentive for fraud at scale. Any time someone is willing to pay a higher margin for a premium product, someone else is willi...

"Every time I don't have a delivery truck stop in front of your house, 800 grams of CO2 is never created." - Mike Robinson , Head of Retail Solutions and a Founding Member at The Eighth Notch (T8N) The ecommerce boom of the last few years has led to new business models and consumer experiences, but it has also added to the number of packages being delivered each day. Does the number of packages co...

On June 26th, The Wall Street Journal reported that FedEx plans to spin off their freight division - and the most interesting part is why. FedEx Freight is the less-than-truckload (LTL) division of the company. It is the most profitable division, with a recent operating margin over 20 percent, compared to 11.8 percent for FedEx Ground and 2 percent for FedEx Express. The company has realized that...

According to reporting in the New York Times, about 20 million containers travel through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach California annually. Those containers are full of goods that need to travel to warehouses, stores, and consumer homes by truck and rail. Unfortunately, a growing percentage of those goods never arrive, thanks to a sharp uptick in cargo theft. As Supply Chain Brain has re...

Section 321 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 contains a small provision known as 'de minimis.' From a Latin phrase meaning "the law does not concern itself with trifles," this provision has become a major concern for retailers, shippers, and regulators.  De minimis is supposed to simplify shipping so that packages under $800 can be sent to U.S. consumers from overseas without distracting U.S. Custom...

"You can't just come with ideas. You've got to show that you're going to be on the journey with them." - Adrian Ristow , Executive Director of Project Last Mile  "Coca-Cola Project Last Mile is held within the practitioners of my craft to be the flagship model of what good looks like in terms of public-private partnerships." - David Canarutto, Private Sector Relationship Manager at The Global Fund...

About 15 years ago, someone noticed that while you could buy a cold Coca-Cola in the most remote corners of Africa, lifesaving medicines that require cold chain logistics were nowhere to be found. A group approached the company and asked, will you teach us how you manage your supply chain in rural Africa so we can apply those learnings to healthcare?  Coca-Cola not only said yes, they threw their...

Red Lobster, the largest seafood chain in the United States, declared bankruptcy on May 19, 2024. As of the filing, they had 551 locations operating in 44 states, but underperforming locations have already started to close.  What brought about the bankruptcy of the restaurant chain that rapper Flavor Flav describes as "one of America's greatest dining dynasties"? It wasn't all-you-can-eat shrimp,...

On May 25, the Federal Trade Commission announced their consent for the planned acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources by ExxonMobil. It was the largest shale oil and gas merger ever planned. The consent may not have been a surprise, but one of the conditions was: that former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield was prohibited from taking a planned seat on ExxonMobil's board and accused...

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA, took effect in June of 2022 to protect an ethnically Turkish, predominantly Muslim minority that lives in the Xinjiang autonomous region of China.  The Uyghurs have been the subject of forced labor claims and investigations - truly the stuff of supply chain nightmares. If companies try to import anything connected to Xinjiang into the United States...

On April 30th, 2024, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Personnel, held a hearing about the Department Of Defense's efforts to ensure service members would have access to safe, high-quality pharmaceuticals. One of the panelists invited to testify was Victor Suarez, a retired Colonel from the United States Army. He worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service...

Pharmaceutical supply chains are never far from news headlines. Regular drug shortages affect our families, friends, and neighbors when they can't access their chemotherapy treatments, ADHD medication, and pain medication - just to name a few. In 2023, Americans spent over $600 Billion on prescription drugs. That's more than ever before — and more than any other country in the world. 90 percent of...

Some corporations have chosen to wade into socially sensitive waters over the last few years and others have been pushed in from behind. The adoption of a social mission or set of causes at the company level does not guarantee 'trickle down' benefits to individual employees.   The right to free speech is one of the most valued privileges granted in the United States. But it has limitations - somet...

On April 9th, Rene Haas, CEO of Arm Holdings, a British semiconductor and software design company came out and made a statement about data center energy consumption that most people would find shocking. He said, "by the end of the decade, AI data centers could consume as much as 20% to 25% of U.S. power requirements. Today that's probably 4% or less." Everyone wants to talk about AI, but this real...

"We know what matters to our employees, and we know what matters to our customers, and we know where the leadership view is. That alignment means that you make progress more easily because you're focused on stuff that matters and that people care about." - Gareth Hughes is the Business Services and ESG Director for Whistl If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say, what is the...

Heavy-duty trucks include tractor-trailers, ambulances, garbage trucks, and school buses. All of these are now on an official timeline for reduced emissions, in alignment with a new Federal mandate.  Manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles must reduce their overall emissions by mandated percentages according to model year, starting with their 2028 models and extending through 2032. When the rules wer...

80 percent of all ship-to-shore (S2S) cranes at ports in the United States - and 75 percent of all S2S cranes in the world - are made by just one company: ZPMC.  Short for Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited, ZPMC is a Chinese state-owned manufacturing and engineering firm. It was founded in 1992 and quickly grew to become the largest S2S crane manufacturer in the world. U.S.-China r...

On February 28, 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued JBS, the largest meat company in the world, for civil fraud. James is accusing the company of 'greenwashing' or making statements to sound more environmentally friendly than they truly are.  In 2021, JBS made a commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040. James says this statement is "unsubstantiated" and "unachievable" without...

"China's supply chain has gone through significant, transformative changes in the last five years. For executives or engineers, designers or buyers, who have not been here since before COVID, they're going to see a completely different China." - Jeffrey Goldstein , Founder & President of Onward Global It is impossible to discuss global supply chains without being hyper aware of the role of China....

In October of 2021, Hertz announced that they would purchase 100,000 Tesla Model 3's for their rental fleet, followed by 175,000 from GM, and 65,000 from Polestar. The move was supposed to help them overcome shortages of conventional cars, lend the recently ex-bankrupt company a 'cool factor,' and lean on the sustainability trend to drive revenue. Instead, it backfired. On April 1, 2024, Hertz wil...

The global off-price apparel and home fashion market is estimated to be worth $900 Billion. While retailers like Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond faltered or fell over the last few years, the chains owned by TJX - notably TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods - have thrived. TJX has seized the opportunity to snatch up excess brand name inventory and sell it at a discount over the last few years, but thei...

In early February, news hit that there was a problem with the new Major League Baseball uniforms. Redesigned by Nike and made by Fanatics, the new uniforms were unveiled with tremendous fanfare. They were designed to be more comfortable, cooler, and better at moisture wicking. Unfortunately, one man's breathable is another man's translucent. Pictures started to appear on social media that revealed...

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…" - President Theodore Roosevelt , 1910 The last four years of supply chain challenges have taken a toll. People are exhausted, stressed, and scarred. Unlike many areas of life that have gone bac...

"Wisdom is given equally to everybody. The point is whether one can exercise it." - Taiichi Ohno, The "Ten Precepts" The supply chain profession has recently run the gauntlet of existential challenges. Is it possible that - given enough time - they could return to the old ways?  There have recently been a number of news stories about retailers returning to just-in-time inventory management. If tha...

On February 2, 2024, news broke on one of the court cases we've been following for a while. In May of 2023, two of the companies owned by Byron Allen, a black businessman and producer, sued McDonald's for $100 Million in California for fraud and false promise. The suit claimed the company lied when it said it was going to spend more money with black-owned media companies. California Superior Court...