supplychainpodcast

In this latest episode of Logical Logistics, we talk about Just in Time Delivery and supply lines. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages and look at the big picture of #supplying your #business through just in time delivery.

Logical Logistics is powered by Bellair Expediting. For more from Joe Becht and Logical Logistics, head to Logical Logistics 

Since 1968, Bellair provides first class Warehousing Services, Domestic Logistics Services and International Shipping.

Bellair is large enough to handle your logistics service needs, efficient enough to care. Contact us 24 hours day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and speak to a logistics professional.

To be a guest on our podcast, email us at joe@bellair.com

Jason is the CEO of MacGregor Partners, a supply chain solutions provider that uses IT and software to help companies work faster, smarter and more efficiently. What does their process look like? They ask a lot of questions, build a bespoke solution and then train every stakeholder that’s part of the operation. They live and breathe digital and are revolutionizing the relationship between drivers, paper and staff.

According to Jason, the top three challenges in supply chain are data, systems and analytics. As a supply chain solutions company, MacGregor Partners knows how hard it actually is to implement data correctly, and how to build systems that don’t end up siloed. For this reason, they focus on Warehouse Management System (WMS) combined with analytics and visibility. MacGregor Partners’ typical clients are companies that are interested in technology and are looking for ways to implement software to optimize their distribution center.

At MacGregor Partners, Jason and his team are “dethinkers”: they don’t overthink data and focus on the journey. Their design process is very hands-on, with the team only moving onto the next functional area once the previous one has been completed and confirmed by the customer - this allows them to be much more agile and adaptable to unexpected shocks, such as Covid-19. In the future, MacGregor Partners will be focused on delivering better products, more experiments and an even more cost-efficient methodology. 

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.35] MacGregor Partners, where it all began
• [12.15] The nitty-gritty of what they do
• [17.55] Top 3 challenges in supply chain
• [23.15] How does the customer benefit?
• [33.25] The future of the company

Resources and links mentioned:

• MacGregor Partners

In this episode of Logical Logistics, host Joe Becht talks about how some companies don't treat their customers as people, only as numbers and the ups and downs of automation.

Logical Logistics is powered by Bellair Expediting. For more from Joe Becht and Logical Logistics, head to Logical Logistics 

Since 1968, Bellair provides first class Warehousing Services, Domestic Logistics Services and International Shipping.

Bellair is large enough to handle your logistics service needs, efficient enough to care. Contact us 24 hours day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and speak to a logistics professional.

To be a guest on our podcast, email us at joe@bellair.com

Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bellairexpediting/

https://www.facebook.com/logicallogisticsforbusinesses

In this episode of Logical Logistics, we discuss how imperative it is to ensure you have a dependable supply chain and distribution network in times of crisis and business uncertainty.

Logical Logistics is powered by Bellair Expediting. For more from Joe Becht and Logical Logistics, head to Logical Logistics 

Since 1968, Bellair provides first class Warehousing Services, Domestic Logistics Services and International Shipping.

Bellair is large enough to handle your logistics service needs, efficient enough to care. Contact us 24 hours day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and speak to a logistics professional.

To be a guest on our podcast, email us at joe@bellair.com

Diane has worked in supply chain for 25 years. Her career has taken her from Ireland, to Australia, China and finally California. She started her work in travel management and eventually fell in love with designing business systems, logistics and leveraging technology to improve supply chain.

Thanks to her upbringing, Diane isn’t someone who shies away from making her voice heard and being a leader. Early on in her career she worked hard to create a culture where the team provided regular feedback which in turn helped her become a better leader. Her objective has always been to find someone to replace her position once she moves on, so the team can thrive without her.

To Diane, success is her client’s success. This is what gives her a sense of fulfillment and encourages her to keep working. Her advice to other leaders is to hire people who have initiative, who are ambitious and inherently curious. She also places a lot of emphasis on being able to admit mistakes, and knowing that one cannot grow without first making mistakes. Finally, on diversity, Diane believes in picking the right candidate rather than scoring “diversity points”. Instead, she focuses on fostering open communication with other women.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.52] Diane’s goes global
• [4.40] How she adapted to working in different countries
• [6.44] Finding your voice
• [18.42] The importance of feedback
• [24.07] Advice for other leaders

Resources and links mentioned:

• Omnichain
• Women in Supply Chain Series

We are finding that a lot of supply chain software takes a lot of time for on boarding and our guest today is here to tell us about their solution that can be implemented in days! Thats right Chris from Right Sized inventory is here to tell us all about how they make that happen and what they are doing for warehouses everywhere,

Chris is the Vice President of Right Sized Inventory, an optimization software that helps companies eliminate inventory imbalances through real life simulations. By gathering the correct data all in one place, RSI helps companies get started with predictive analytics and supply chain optimization.

With safety stock being questioned these days because of Covid and organizations are looking at different solutions to help diversify their inventory such as just in case instead of just in time, Chris tells us how his clients are using the data RSI provides them with differently, and they are seeing requests they have never seen before.

The unique selling point with RSI is that they help companies manage their inventory more efficiently at an affordable price. How? They use their own patented technology that gathers and synthesizes data in a couple of hours. By using their software, clients are able to manage their inventory surplus and excess, helping them save them millions of dollars as well as improve customer service levels.

Since RSI is affordable and based on tech, they are able to work with companies of all sizes. Using one real life example, Chris explains how they decreased a client’s inventory levels by 20% and helped them save over 6 million dollars. With the Covid-19 pandemic, they are still able to help businesses prepare for when demand increases and any other what-if scenarios. For the future, RSI is focusing on growing their organic approach, partnering up with consulting firms and embedding their patented technology into their systems.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.40] The story behind RSI
• [5.30] Data and real life simulation
• [14.53 manage your inventory
• [19.12] decrease inventory levels by 20%
• [24.20] The future is collaboration

Resources and links mentioned:

• Right Sized Inventory

Mike works for Apex, the third largest freight forwarder in the world and number one forwarder transporting products from China. In 2019 they flew 500 charter flights, and have grown by $1 billion in 10 years!

Apex transports all types of products, from high tech, to retail, to ecommerce. They have charters that transport over 100,000 kilos and their planes can reach every corner of the planet. How have they adapted to the current crisis? Apex has been instrumental during the pandemic: they’ve offered space on aircrafts to government response teams, have transported PPE products to many countries and played a big role in protecting front line workers.

Do they have a secret to success? Mike says that Apex focuses on growth by adding talent that shares the same vision as them. From the words of their customers, this is what makes them a company that “always finds a way to get things done” and are able to find unique solutions to problems. Having invested in tech early on, Apex has been able to pivot more easily than other forwarders, giving them an even bigger competitive advantage. Although the future is unclear on how Covid will impact supply chain, Apex’s ambition is still to become the major freight forwarder across the globe.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.42] Who is Apex?
• [10.40] 150 Million pieces of PPE and Counting!
• [15.00] Their secret to success
• [24.05] How Apex will be helping customers post-Covid
• [29.39] What’s next for Apex

Resources and links mentioned:

• Apex Global Logistics

The biggest challenge in industrial manufacturing is customer acquisition and retention. When it comes to marketing in the traditional world of Industrial manufacturing many companies see marketing as a cost center rather than an investment. This means marketing budgets are given low priority, especially during a recession when in reality marketing should be at the forefront of any strategy because it will set you apart from your competitors and keep your brand top of mind. In the long run, this ends up being more expensive, since companies need to start from ground zero when the market picks up. Only some companies are realising that marketing is the key to future success - especially when trying to get through a revenue plateau.

Christopher realised this was an issue and started helping more industrial companies with their marketing. His system focuses on creating momentum, producing value and building a community before launching a product or asking customers to buy. Consistency and the long play is what sets one marketing strategy apart from the rest, marketing should work hand in hand with sales to keep the leads flowing in. Sales should be encouraged to showcase their thought leadership online with the help of the marketing team and together the business will have a winning strategy.

Christopher is a big believer in social and uses social media such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn (3 hashtags!) as a platform to educate, entertain and build up a consistent brand image. As consumer behaviors keep shifting, more industrial companies will have no choice but to turn to more effective marketing in order to gain a competitive edge.

Christopher is also the leader in the profile rings you see on Linkedin, he gave back to the supply chain community by doing this for professionals for free to stand out, in a time of so much noise its efforts like these that will be the most rewarded

In this episode we discuss:

● [0.35] Industrial Manufacturing
● [4.46] Top challenges in the industry
● [11.59] Winning marketing strategy
● [16.35] How different platforms provide communication opportunities
● [23.00] The carbon footprint of manufacturing companies

Resources and links mentioned:

• Nesbit Marketing
• Christopher Nesbit

Alloy was founded 4 years ago when Joel and his co-founders realized there was a huge lag between supply chain and the retail industry. From the very beginning, the company focused on customer centricity and invested most of its resources into R&D. Now, Alloy helps everything from small companies to Fortune 500s optimize their supply chain by connecting their data to customer demand. Focusing on customer experience for not only their customers but their customers, customer has been their key to success in this very competitive landscape of supply chain technology.

The main challenge when it comes to retail supply chain is the huge shift in consumer habits, partly due to e-commerce. Nowadays, consumers expect a seamless customer experience, an infinite amount of stock and personalized offers. However, realizing that that there is a direct mis match between customer demands and retail distribution, Alloy were really able to dive deep into this challenge and come up with solutions that are not seen on the market yet, that is why they have a growing base of some of the biggest names in retail. Alloy really wants to make sure that their clients supply chains are giving them a competitive advantage and they do that by helping retailers coordinate all the different moving parts of their supply chain.

The landscape and technology is constantly evolving, so how does a startup like Alloy adapt? You guessed it: collaboration. Right from the beginning Alloy was partnering with companies and made sure to be grounded to real world problems. As the number of partners and clients increased, the more they were able to take a holistic approach to resolving their clients’ pain points. Alloy’s future involves more effort on the data side through R&D, and more specialization of every element of the supply chain.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.29] Who is Alloy?
• [9.45] Consumer Habits driving supply chain
• [18.09] A customer success story
• [25.18] Data and Collaboration
• [30.10] The future for Alloy

Resources and links mentioned:

• Alloy

Today’s special episode features Scott and Greg from Supply Chain Now! Scott, Greg and Sarah have a lively discussion about whether we are seeing the death of the end-to-end supply chain. You will also hear about how the circular economy and supply chain is the answer plus how the role of sustainability will play out with consumers and the future of consumerism.

Organizations have spent a lot of time and money trying to perfect their end to end supply chain, but Greg says the circular supply chain is here to stay. The circular supply chain consists mainly of turning waste into opportunity. As the world’s resources become increasingly limited, companies are having to look for other ways to source and distribute their products and services. This, together with a huge shift in consumer behaviour towards sustainable practices, means companies will soon have no other option but to adopt a circular mindset.

How can companies adopt a more sustainable supply chain? Sarah talks about collaborating with startups in order to find innovative solutions and challenge the status quo. Scott and Greg talk about the importance of changing mindsets and focusing on customer experience. This includes encouraging suppliers to take on more responsibility and looking for materials that are economically viable, sustainable and convenient for the customer (like 3D printing, for example). Companies should put more effort into building a brand and communicating their concept and vision, as well as identifying specific ambitions and building business cases. Some best practices include educating employees, finding the right KPIs and being willing to “do good” and talk about it.

In this episode we discuss:

• [1.15] End to End has been costly
• [12.26] Consumer behavior pushes for circular
• [26.40] Circular mindset shift
• [30.11] The key drivers to success
• [36.55] Best practices for a circular economy

Resources and links mentioned:

• Supply Chain Now

Angie has worked in supply chain all her life, with her earliest career memories involving a master thesis and meeting Ted Ruhly, the CEO of Maersk. Since then, Angie has continuously sought career growth and built extensive experience within the industry. Featuring Angie in our "women in supply chain" series has a personal significance to Sarah and is a career highlight for Angie with all her hard work in helping to close the gender gap. In this episode, Angie talks about the guidance she received from her father, why she is passionate about this industry and how the people make all the difference.

Angie’s main challenge in supply chain was the pushback she got from colleagues and coworkers when she advocated for change and innovation. Angie knows that disruption is what encourages progress, but it can be difficult to implement when leaders are being pulled in so many different directions. As a woman in supply chain she has worked hard to challenge the status quo at all times in her career in order to encourage more diversity amongst male and female leaders.

What’s her advice for the younger generation? She explains that it’s worth exploring the different partnerships your universities may offer. Be willing to go to conferences and reach out to leaders, look for ways to optimize the supply chain ecosystem and consider getting into cyber security. As she says, there is a shortage of talent and therefore many opportunities for students looking to get into the industry. For Angie herself, the future is focused on finding a healthy work balance and driving innovation forward.

In this episode we discuss:

• [2.41] Sweats and the CEO of Maersk
• [7.53] Taking some major risks
• [11.30] Overcoming challenges thats career throws at you
• [16.24] Diversity in the industry
• [25.18] Next Gen of Supply Chain, what you need to know

Resources and links mentioned:

• Crowley

With procurement departments finding themselves lean and mean these days, where are you spending gaps? Are you leaving money on the table? You might be, so what are you going to do about it. Some of your biggest savings lie within your nuisance expenses like uniform, waste disposal and pest control services and you may be like many other procurement departments that only review these expenses every few years. Rich Ham from Fine Tune is here to tell us why we should reconsider that strategy and how his company helps companies save money by optimizing those difficult-to-understand expenses.

The current challenges of procurement professionals are that expense categories are segmented, some requiring much more management than others. This means that many business strategies leave money on the table, waste time and energy and don’t allocate resources adequately. With Fine Tune, companies can outsource all the complex, confusing expense management processes and focus on their core competencies and as Rich says “offloading headaches”.

How does Fine Tune do this? They partner with the right people and focus on collaboration amoung all parties. This is very apparent when Rich shares with us a real life example of a client who had 14 different suppliers with several different contracts. Fine Tune helped that company reduce their suppliers to 4 through consolidation and that resulted in a huge cost savings of 35%. Rich goes on to say that their true speciality is removing friction from procurement and operations. The result? Companies invest in the Fine Tune management program because they don’t want to let go of Fine Tune!

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.30] Where are your biggest savings
• [5.56] Where are you leaving money on the table?
• [24.15] Reducing costs by 35%
• [28.07] Removing friction from procurement
• [35.58] The future is bright

Resources and links mentioned:

• Fine Tune

What does your digital future look like? That is the question on everybody's mind as tech changes on a daily basis, In Sweetbridge's episode in 2019 Scott said the knowledge base is changing every 1.5 years.

Diane is the Vice President of Omnichain, a company that offers end to end supply chain solutions to companies looking to optimize workflow, manage different channels and orchestrate correct supply strategies. They are the partner for the future.

Currently, many team members of companies need to manually add data into systems, losing information, accuracy and time.  This is because the supply chain industry is still very fragmented, with organisations struggling to connect and collaborate. Omnichain’s platform describes itself as a digital supply chain fit for the future, thanks to its better forecasting, operations system and proactive push model. Omnichain’s solution is what distinguishes it from its competitors; no need to download or integrate anything, everything can be done directly within the platform!

Omnichain prides itself on using blockchain, a kind of distributed ledger and database that allows you to maintain and record all devices and transactions across a supply chain. Most people co-relate blockchain to crypto currency but that is not always the case. This technology allows you to hold information quickly and securely, which allows Omnichain to keep the entire supply chain management securely under a blockchain key. Omnichain’s ideal client is someone who faces the challenge of a fragmented operation and is looking for a better day to day workflow. Its solution encourages companies to go from a reactive management situation to proactive, allowing them to deliver real value from their data.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.30] A Different approach to blockchain
• [9.39] What is a digital supply chain fit for the future
• [15.17] No integration needed!
• [19.40] blockchain is perfect for supply chain management
• [25.05] The future is bright

Procurement Foundry is an online private community for people working in supply chain. Mike founded this community when he knew he needed a safe place to network and discuss challenges with other professionals, but didn’t have the time or energy to go to regular networking events. Procurement Foundry now has over 2,000 highly engaged members with 20 chapters in the world.

How can you join Procurement Foundry? If you’re a professional working in supply chain, you can head to the website and fill in their membership request form. Then, your application is vetted and processed by a team to make sure you’re not a consultant or salesman. Once in, you have access to several discussion channels, job boards and even virtual meeting rooms.

Mike says that Procurement Foundry has a huge amount of potential he hadn’t foreseen when he first started the community. First of all, the huge amount of empathy amongst the members means people are willing to share templates, strategies and advice to other professionals. Secondly, the huge amount of expertise in the community means there are plenty of talent opportunities, which translates into a great talent pool for hiring managers and great learning opportunities for students. Finally, the high engagement means that Mike is able to accumulate a lot of data on the members, which helps understand the direction in which the industry is going. If you’re all for collaboration, Procurement Foundry is the place to be!

In this episode we discuss:

• [1.35] What is Procurement Foundry?
• [6.23] Everyone wants to join
• [10.43] What we all can learned from the community
• [20.40] What can you expect, resources, content etc
• [29.33] data like you have never seen it before

Resources and links mentioned:

• Procurement Foundry

Akshay is the co-founder of Terminal 49, an online platform that helps importers, trucking companies and brokers track all their container movements. In the container world, things are still being done as they were 10 years ago. Terminal 49 aims to simplify global trade with much more efficient workflows.

Visibility is a big challenge in supply chain: truckers, shipping companies and freight forwarders don’t communicate effectively and lack collaboration. Everyone’s solving a different problem, there’s a lack of education and cooperation is non-existent. This disconnect is what Terminal 49 aims to resolve.

Akshay provides us with two excellent examples of a shipper and a broker. Before using Terminal 49’s dashboard, this shipper had several spreadsheets used for forecasting reports, ETAs and container management. When an incident happened, all information had to go through several different people in the chain. Now, with an all-in-one dashboard, the shipper can easily track every container and keep on top of demand. Oh, and all they need to do is import their spreadsheets onto the dashboard - no need to copy and paste thousands of numbers. Although the logistics world is a competitive space, Akshay says there’s a lot of room to innovate and create value, and that really, it’s still early days!

In this episode we discuss:

• [1.00] Terminal 49’s story
• [15.25] Why visibility is a challenge in supply chain
• [20.10] Successful examples of using Terminal 49’s dashboard
• [31.34] Advice for people who want to get into supply chain tech
• [33.59] The future of Terminal 49

Resources and links mentioned:

• Terminal 49

Supply Chain can change the world

Elizabeth got into supply chain after discovering her love for writing so she fell in love with the supply chain industry. That makes Elizabeth perfect for our Women in Supply Chain feature on the podcast for the month of March because

Beth believes that this industry truly has the power to make the world a better place and that is why she has stayed working with ASCM for over 16 years.

Global is where is it at

What is the future for supply chain media? Rennie believes that there’s a trend for high quality content that’s not focused on day to day tasks, but instead on more important global issues.

She’s contributed herself by working with Mr Supply Chain (Daniel Stanton) and his book titled Supply Chain Management for Dummies. Elizabeth is also very proud to have contributed in-depth interviews with successful women in supply chain, and believes these are great opportunities for women to learn from each other.

No longer the only Woman in the room

In terms of diversity, Elizabeth is so excited to see that more and more women are joining the supply chain industry. Like at one point in her career she would look around the room at conferences and could maybe count the number of women in the room on one hand.

More organizations are working to increase diversity which in turn creates a healthy form of tension created by different points of view and more innovative conversations. So, Are you looking to get into supply chain? Her advice to the younger generation is to always be open to opportunities and taking risks, you never know where it can lead.

In this episode we discuss: 

●      [1.16] Falling in love with Supply Chain

●      [4.30] Learning to become self aware

●      [12.31] The future of supply chain media

●      [18.02] The proudest moment in her career

●      [21.52] No longer the only woman in the room

Resources and links mentioned:

●      Supply Chain Management for Dummies

●      ASCM

The damage and loss of products in supply chain cost the industry billions of dollars every year. That’s a huge amount of money and waste in products that are being thrown out -  That's the issue Spotsee is tackling with their product: indicators that track and record data such as temperature, tilt and impact throughout a shipment journey. There are a lot of challenges in this area that supply chain professionals are facing, Angela talks about the top realities companies are facing and how exactly Spotsee can help you save time, money and waste.

Spotsee allows companies to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to damaged products. Instead of receiving damaged products, blaming the shipment company and filing an insurance claim, companies can now collaborate with the freight forwarders to determine why and how the damage happened and work on fixing the problem together, all based on data. These monitoring programs reduce damage to 40%, which can translate into tens of thousands of dollars saved for certain companies.

Spotsee works with several market segments as well as SMEs that are looking to grow. By having real time data on product journeys, companies waste a lot less time, energy and money fixing these issues. In the long run, this is a much more sustainable business model which can give companies a huge competitive advantage. Spotsee are also big on company culture, find out more about how they are encouraging the next generation to come and work in supply chain. Their ambition? To aggregate all the data from every journey, product and company so their customers can take real actionable steps from large-scale data analysis.

In this episode we discuss:

• [0.25] Who is Spotsee
• [9.10] Damage is costing you Billions!
• [14.30] data on your products journey
• [18.36] Who can benefit?
• [23.50] encouraging careers in supply chain

Resources and links mentioned:

• Spotsee

Meet Catapult, an intuitive digital platform that helps businesses make decisions based on freight rates. The founders were tired of the manual process of keeping track of rates through word documents, excel spreadsheets and decided to build a solution to help manage all the different rates from different carriers.

What does all this technology mean for your business? Virgil Ferreira, the CEO of Catapult joins us to talk about how their platform helps businesses see rates from different carriers including ocean, air and ground, giving logistics providers more visibility into their rates so they can increase their margins. A Challenge that logistics providers face is that they don't have access to industry data but Catapult changes that as providers can also compare their own data with industry data and see it all in a standard, easy-to-use view. The biggest challenge logistics providers face is understanding how to get the best market rate. With Catapult, businesses can use the tool to see the gaps in their system and focus on improving profit, which all providers are looking to do!

Their typical clients are mid to global sized forwarders with a large number of vendors and a large customer base. These are clients looking for technology enabled solutions and need help getting their rate management house in order. By using a rate management platform, logistics providers can apply margins where they want, map different features into an internal format and use this across different modes. As Virgil says, the main things companies should be focusing on in 2020 is understanding what the customer is expecting and encouraging interoperability across different structures.

In this episode we discuss:

• [1.47] Who is Catapult?
• [4.02] Freight Management is critical to success
• [8.12] The main challenges for logistics providers
• [15.08] Get your Freight Management house in order!
• [23.47] What you should focus on in 2020

Resources and links mentioned:

• Catapult

BEHIND THE SEAMS - Suuchi Ramesh is a software engineer with a background in supply chain, she is also the founder and CEO of a tech company that is bringing supply chain and fashion together called, Suuchi. Suuchi is the next generation technology platform for fashion, managing everything from design through distribution.

The main challenge the fashion industry faces is that the entire supply chain needs to be unbelievably fast, diversified and efficient. Suuchi helps companies get to the next level by taking care of the back end, and letting companies focus on what they do best: scaling the brand. Suuchi helps companies diversify the supply chain by digitizing the entire process, because all brands must start thinking of supply chain as a strategic competitive advantage

What sets them apart? Transparency. They’re able to track and trace every process in the supply chain, which allows them to provide their customers with truly data driven solutions. Suuchi has the flexibility to work with all size of companies and their customers use their software in a few different ways: some use their software just for supply chain, others use the software from the design of products all the way to the distribution of their products to their end consumer. Suuchi is also very passionate about helping their customers and brands become more sustainable and reduce overall waste in their businesses. When creating Suuchi, they were mindful to include in-depth data and analytics that helps to optimization sustainability and the reduction of waste strategies. Suuchi is now going into series B and expanding their reach in supply chain, all while providing smart, sustainable solutions.

In this episode we discuss:

• [2.45] Fashion and Supply Chain
• [6.32] Supply Chain is becoming the back bone of Fashion
• [10.37] Scale Your Brand
• [15.03] Transparency is key
• [19.55] Reduce waste and become sustainable

Resources and links mentioned:

• SUUCHI
• Suuchi Ramesh

Claudia is our Women in Supply Chain Feature for February and is someone who enjoys life to the fullest. Her attitude is: family first, career second and community third. She graduated in engineering, joined IBM, ran an entire supply chain, worked in GE Healthcare and is now working in supply chain for Google. Her career has been a huge adventure, and today she shares some of the nuggets of wisdom she’s learned over the years.

She’s had many challenges in her career as a female on a supply chain team, but it’s her positive attitude and openness to taking care of others that helped her get to where she is now. She’s really had to push for opportunities, and has seen the industry evolve over the 36 years that she’s been working in supply chain. Things are getting better, with now 25% of leadership positions held by women. Claudia works hard to educate leaders and encourage the right conversations about diversity and openness.

What about supply chain? Claudia explains that companies aren’t using data as they should be. She says that it’s important to get the basics first, make sure to have the right KPIs in place and then analyze the big picture. Her advice to fellow supply chain leaders is to meet with customers on a regular basis. Understand the voice of the customer and don’t always think of optimizing a function but instead, the end to end journey. Her plans for the future are to keep on learning and growing, never wasting a day and keep pushing for diversity.

In this episode we discuss:

• [4.14] Claudia says, Live life to the fullest
• [13.14] What is Supply chain at Google
• [18.42] Claudia's advice for younger self
• [26.55] Supply chain leaders, meet with customers!
• [30.34] Pushing for Diversity

Resources and links mentioned:

• Claudia on LinkedIn