Resilient Supply Chain— stories and strategies that keep business moving

Send me a message Autonomous vehicles were all the rage a couple of years ago with many people predicting that they were imminent, and going to heavily impact supply chains, as well as transportation business models. As it turns out, they are still quite far off. However, smaller autonomous delivery vehicles are already here, and starting to have quite the impact. One company making these autonomo...

Send me a message Serialisation is an area of growing importance in supply chains. One company, Kezzler helps all kinds of companies with serialisation having serialised over 25bn products to-date, so I invited their CEO Christine Akselsen , to come on the podcast to tell me all about it. We had a fascinating conversation covering why serialisation is so important when it comes to traceability, we...

Send me a message Semiconductors are everywhere. As more and more devices are made smart, these chips are required now for everything from your car keys, to your remote controls, to you lights, doorbell, fridge, toothbrush, etc. And that's before we get into the number of semiconductors needed for today's phones, laptops, tablets, and on. The pandemic brought major disruption to the semi...

Send me a message The Internet of Things has a huge influence on Supply Chains. To talk a bit about this, and what HCL calls Supply Chain Next, I invited Sukant Acharya who leads HCL's IoT Works business to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation I learned loads, I hope you do too... f you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voic...

Send me a message The Internet of Things could still be referred to as the Internet of Expensive Things because the cost of connectivity is still too high to get everything in the supply chain connected. One company working to fix that is Wiliot . They have developed tiny sensors that don't require a battery, and are inexpensive. Could this be the breakthrough that the Internet of Everything...

Send me a message ESG is coming like a juggernaut, it will affect supply chains significantly, and many supply chain professionals are unaware of the changes it will require. To find out more I invited Certa Founder and CEO Jag Lamba to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation covering Jag's company Carta, then we discussed what Jag refers to as the ESG Tsunami (what I refer to...

Send me a message We probably don't pay enough attention to the packaging used in supply chains - not that is until we receive a delivery, and it is a vastly outsized box for the size of the item being delivered. This issue of using outsized packaging affects upwards of 50% of items being delivered and is significant because apart from the excess cardboard being used, it also means far more d...

Send me a message We've never featured the music industry's supply chain on this podcast, despite it being an industry that touches all of us on a daily basis. So, when I came across Phil Rich , Chief Supply Chain Officer at Sweetwater Sound , I had to get him on the show to tell us all about it. We had a fascinating conversation covering how the supply chain for musical instruments diff...

Send me a message We have featured the partnership between Kuka and SAP in previous episodes of this podcast. As a follow-up to our joint showcase at the Hannover Fair just before the summer, I invited Kuka's Quirin Goerz , and SAP's Georg Kube to come on the podcast to update us. We had a fascinating conversation covering our joint showcase at Hannover Fair, the strategic themes that ca...

Send me a message Sourcing for manufacturing supply chains is a process that can be fraught with issues. One start-up attempting to remove some of the friction is Jiga . To find out more about them I invited Jiga's co-founder and CEO, Adar Hay to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation covering why Adar set up the company, the kinds of problems they are solving for manufacturer...

Send me a message Supply chains are becoming more digital every day. Even warehouses, which have been slower to change are too becoming more digital, and more efficient as a result. One of the companies helping in this space is Zebra Technologies . I invited James Pemberton from Zebra to come on the podcast to tell me more.  We had a fascinating conversation covering barcodes vs RFID, how robots a...

Send me a message We've all experienced poor wifi at home, or in hotels/airports etc., but when wifi is being used as critical infrastructure in supply chains, it can't fail. It needs to be up all the time. Enter Wyebot . Wyebot are a company that uses AI and works with large wifi networks to ensure maximum connectivity and uptime. This is especially important in dynamic environments suc...

Send me a message With the advent of direct to consumer sales, not only is the forward supply chain coming under pressure, but more and more purchases are being returned, impacting the reverse supply chain. To help large organisations manage this ReverseLogix have developed their returns management system (RMS), and to find out more about this, I invited Des Frawley to come on the podcast to tell...

Send me a message I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks, but don't worry I'll be back with loads more episodes choc full of supply chain goodness shortly. Listen to this short episode to find out more... Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can be...

Send me a message 5G will have a significant impact on supply chains. Public 5G networks are being rolled out right now by many mobile operators, and it's also possible to roll out private 5g networks. To find out more about the implications for supply chains I invited Karin Loidl from the Fraunhofer IIS to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation covering why 5G is so important...

Send me a message In the fresh food supply chain, almost $15bn of fresh produce is wasted annually during transit on trucks. One company founded specifically to tackle this issue is HWY Haul . I spoke to Syed Aman , Co-Founder, and CEO of HWY Haul to learn more. We had a fascinating conversation, where I learned loads, I hope you do too... If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the...

Send me a message Increasing supply chain transparency has become a priority for many organisations in the wake of the many supply chain disruptions we have seen, and the more that are to come. Consumers are also demanding more transparency so they can see where the food they're eating comes from, and if the people producing it are being treated fairly. One startup working in this space is se...

Send me a message Supply Chains are becoming increasingly digitised (hence the name of the podcast!). How can organisations utilise this to to further their ESG and Sustainability goals? To cast some light on this I invited Jeff Miller a Kalypso (a Rockwell Automation company) exec to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation, talking about how supply chains are becoming far more comp...

Send me a message Robots are becoming increasingly prevalent in Supply Chains. More so lately in the warehouse. To look more into this I invited Richard Kirker Global Solution Manager for Warehouse Management at SAP to come on the podcast to talk about what he's seeing. We had a fascinating conversation, where Richard told me robots are the new hotness now at warehouse management events, some...

Send me a message Chillers are typically bulky, noisy energy-intensive devices loaded with toxic chemicals with a very high climate change potential. We use them all the time in supply chains to keep goods in a particular temperature range. What if you could make chillers another way? That is what Phononic has done. They have created solid-state chillers which run virtually silent, using a fractio...

Send me a message If there's one part of the supply chain that can seriously do with improvement, it is the last mile delivery part. How often have you stayed home waiting for a delivery that didn't come, or didn't come when it said it would, arrived damaged, or worse still, not at all? One company aiming to fix that is FarEye . To find out more about how they're doing that I s...

Send me a message A large part of a supply chain's workload is negotiating contracts, particularly purchases. What if those negotiations could be automated? That's what Pactum does today - fully autonomous negotiations on behalf of organisations freeing up time, optimising value, and not leaving money on the table. To find out more I invited Pactumm CEO and co-founder Martin Rand to come...

Send me a message Product development is obviously a key part of supply chain. In the apparel industry communicating with manufacturers can be challenging, so enter Calico to help reduce that friction. To find out more about how this young startup Calico raised money from Serena Ventures, and is helping direct to consumer brands in the apparel industry more easily connect to their factories, I inv...

Send me a message In these times of seemingly endless disruption, one powerful strategy for riding the waves is inventory optimization. To learn more about the why's and how's of this, I invited Robert Olszak from global consulting firm RGP to come on the podcast to talk about it. We had a fascinating conversation covering the different inventory optimization options, best practices in i...

Send me a message Setting the correct price on your products sounds like it should be easy, right? Well, it is not that straightforward at all as I discovered in this episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast where I talked to Chris Mele , Managing Partner at Software Pricing Partners . We had a great conversation spanning how to create your pricing strategy, how the shift to SaaS is impacting p...