Art of Supply

In today's digital age, jokes are often made at technology's expense. Computers don't like switching from one virtual meeting platform to another. Sometimes webinar platforms insist upon seeing someone's earbuds as a microphone rather than as a speaker. And why does software always need to update when we are already 5 minutes late for a meeting? Digital gremlins have become the tie that binds, and...

On January 5th, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 left Portland, Oregon en route to Ontario, California. Just minutes into the flight, the Boeing 737 Max 9 lost a door plug, creating a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft. Fortunately, all 171 passengers and six crew members were safe, largely because the plane had only reached 16,000 feet, minimizing the amount of cabin decompression that took place...

In 2013, then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted that drone deliveries would be a reality in five years. More than 10 years later, they are still largely in the pilot phase, but a drone final mile is becoming a reality fast for some parts of the company. As the FAA reduces restrictions on drone deliveries in places like the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, they are kicking off a race to make dron...

In June 2023, Sharat Ganapati, an Assistant Professor of International Economics at Georgetown University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Woan Foong Wong, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, wrote a research paper that was published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Titled How Far Goods Travel: Global Transport and Sup...

On New Year's Eve, weeks of rising tension in the Red Sea reached a boiling point.  Houthi militants tried to board the Maersk Hangzhou just one day after hitting the vessel with a missile. The ship's crew sent out a distress signal that was picked up by the USS Eisenhower and the USS Gravely, which sent helicopters to support the on-ship-security team. Three Houthi ships were destroyed and ten as...

Effective today, Dial P for Procurement is the Art of Supply. Rather than being a change in content, this rebrand brings the name and brand identity of the show into alignment with the content we have already been creating.  Building on the strength of the category-leading Art of Procurement podcast, Art of Supply will focus on supply chain topics and news stories while advocating for the impact a...

Looking all the way back to the beginning of the year has a way of putting everything into perspective. The individual and cumulative impact of all of the events that took place in 2023 can not be understated: from legal action, to labor unions, to geopolitics. In this episode, Kelly Barner reviews the stories and topics covered on Dial P for Procurement this year - following the lead of the liste...

With all the recent buzz about electric vehicles (EVs), not to mention the push towards sustainability and emissions reduction, it was only going to be a matter of time before electric Class 8 trucks entered the scene. Class 8s are classic semis or tractor trailers, so they are not just part of the supply chain, they have supply chains themselves. There are a number of companies in the space, some...

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, is usually associated with organized crime. It was used in 1992 to bring down the Gambino Crime family and sentence John Gotti to life in prison. But there is no supply chain mafia, right? A recently filed legal complaint will ask and hopefully answer that very question… On December 8th, it was disclosed that PYNQ Logist...

The People's Republic of Bangladesh in Southeast Asia is the second-largest exporter of ready-made garments in the world. The ready-made garment sector employs 4.4 million workers, and 65 percent of them are women. 84 percent of the country's exports are from this one sector. The garment workers get a pay raise every five years, and the last five have not been particularly kind - with the impact o...

"Did you ever think we'd be talking this much about supply chains?" - President Biden On Monday, November 27, 2023, President Biden announced the creation of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience. The event was big news for the administration and for supply chain professionals. Almost 30 new actions focused on strengthening economically important and national security-critical supply...

The stories we cover on Dial P for Procurement are pulled from the headlines, but some have more 'legs' than others. Just because a story, person, or company slides down in the feed, we can't stop following it.  In this week's episode of Dial P for Procurement, Kelly Barner looks back at the people who played large roles in three past episodes to find out the answer to one common question: where a...

Convoy was a digital freight brokerage founded by former Amazon executives to digitally revolutionize a high-transaction, low-profit space. Investors included Bill Gates, former Vice President Al Gore, Bono and The Edge from U2, the investment arm of Google parent Alphabet, and Jeff Bezos. Convoy was launched in 2015, reached a $3.8 Billion valuation in early 2022, and was gone less than 18 months...

According to the National Retail Federation, 43 percent of people started doing their holiday shopping in October, leading the NRF to predict a year-over-year holiday spending increase of 3 to 4 percent.  58 percent of shoppers will buy online, and all of those gifts have to be packed and shipped… probably via small parcel channels. And yet, final mile carriers like FedEx and UPS are bracing for a...

"Coke is everywhere. In fact, when I travel to the developing world, Coke feels ubiquitous. [...] If we can understand what makes something like Coca-Cola ubiquitous, we can apply those lessons then for the public good."  -Melinda Gates In Africa, nearly half of people lack access to critical medicines. The continent covers 11.7 million square miles and is divided into 54 different countries. Phys...

In 2012, LEGO made a commitment to make all of their bricks out of sustainable materials by 2030, just in time for the company's 100th anniversary. As Tim Guy Brooks, LEGO's head of environmental responsibility said, "We can't say we inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow if we're ruining the planet." The company has been willing to invest and experiment, but a solution continues to elude th...

The last two years have brought us many news stories about labor unions throwing their weight around.  First there was the fear that the railway workers unions would stop freight in the lead up to Christmas, then we watched as the Teamsters negotiated with Yellow and UPS, managing to avoid a strike in both cases, the United Auto Workers union is now actively on strike, and Kaiser Permanente's work...

In early September, J.M. Smucker announced that they had struck a deal to acquire Hostess, the 130 year old maker of treats like Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs, Zingers, and Voortman cookies. Smucker agreed to pay $5.6 Billion including $900 Million in debt for the company. Most people felt the deal was overpriced, and Smucker's stock fell 7 percent, but the two executive teams had done their homewo...

"If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed." ― Benjamin Franklin Banned Book Week was started in 1982 to call attention to censorship and intellectual freedom. In 2023, it runs from October 1-7, culminating with Let Freedom Read day on Saturday the 7th. This week and the many events that will fill it may be...

Google is currently being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Not since they went after Microsoft in 1994 has there been such a major antitrust trial with such widespread implications - and never before has U.S. antitrust law been so tested. While it is not illegal to have a monopoly, it is illegal to stifle competition in order to keep one.  Goo...

After years of pandemic-fueled spikes in demand for chocolate and salty snacks, Hershey's supply chain hit the wall.  During The Hershey Company's second quarter earnings call on July 28, 2022, CEO Michele Buck warned investors that the company "will not be able to fully meet consumer demand" for Halloween candy. Ingredients were in short supply, and with production lines shared by regular and sea...

News stories have a way of going from the front page to the scrap heap, and even the spotlight focused on the supply chain over the past few years couldn't prevent it from happening altogether. One specific element of supply chain - cold chain logistics - recently resurfaced in coverage of the costs and challenges surrounding transport of Ozempic and Wegovy, different brand names for the same pres...

"You can't unscramble eggs." – J.P. Morgan There are few companies in the United States as storied and historic as U.S. Steel.  Dating all the way back to the Gilded Age, U.S. Steel was formed in 1901 when J.P. Morgan financed the merger of Andrew Carnegie's Federal Steel and National Steel, into one behemoth. The resulting company is the now second largest steel company in the United States and t...

In the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, he writes about the flywheel effect, a prosperous cycle of work and change that eventually picks up speed and builds its own momentum. Anyone that has taken a product to market or started a company has tried to get that virtuous cycle going.  Fewer people talk about the flywheel effect's evil cousin: the doom loop. Also covered by Collins, the doom loop...

On July 30th 2023, Yellow Freight announced that they would cease operations after 99 years in business. Chapter 11 bankruptcy followed just one week later.  It took more than one thing to bring about Yellow's bankruptcy, one of the largest in the history of the trucking industry: poorly integrated acquisitions, a strained relationship with the Federal government, and an ill-timed fight with the T...