October 10, 2023 • 36 mins
Vinny Licata of Fictiv discusses the state of manufacturing and how logistics teams can prepare for the market. He covers key findings from Fictiv's 2023 State of Manufacturing Report including the engineer talent shortage, AI adoption, and companies prioritizing speed and innovation. Listen to gain insight into manufacturing trends and how logistics enables product development.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumlevee.
Happy to welcome in VinnyLicata.
He is the head of logisticsover at Fictiv and we're going
to be talking about the state ofmanufacturing and how logistics
teams can best prepare for themarket.
So, Vinny, welcome into theshow.
Vinny Licata (00:28):
Thank you very much, glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Blythe Brumleve (00:31):
I have to say, for being a podcaster, I get PR
pitches all the time.
All the time, like 20 emails aday from PR companies trying to
get on the show, and most of thepitches are not very good, but
yours was very good because Ijust wanted to read it for the
audience that's listening, andthe PR pitch reads as follows
(00:54):
Following a year of economicturmoil, supply chain issues and
labor shortages, manufacturingleaders have shifted their
priorities.
As almost all leaders, 93% arepreparing for a serious shortage
of skilled engineering talentand more than half 51% are
investing in technologysolutions to drive productivity
gains, while 85% say theircompany is already adopting AI
(01:16):
solutions.
Fictiv, the operating systemsfor custom manufacturing, is
releasing its annual state ofmanufacturing report that
outlines findings on theshifting priorities of industry
leaders and the 2023 outlook.
To me, that is just a 10 out of10 PR pitch.
It comes in with data.
It comes in with something thatI absolutely need to be
covering on the show.
(01:37):
So kudos to you and your PRteam for coming up with that,
because it hooked me right fromthe beginning.
Vinny Licata (01:43):
Great, yeah, no, we're very excited to talk about
it and kind of tell you wherewe're at with the whole state of
manufacturing.
Blythe Brumleve (01:52):
For sure.
So, for folks who may not befamiliar with you, your
background, can you give us asense of how you got into the
world of logistics, becauseyou've been in it for a pretty
lengthy time, covering a varietyof fascinating industries in my
opinion?
Vinny Licata (02:08):
Yeah, so I started out in the semiconductor world.
So I've been doing logisticsnow for almost 25 years.
So we were a small company.
We were a $1.5 billionsemiconductor company.
We made wafers in the US and weshipped those wafers to our
subcons and our assembly andtest sites in Asia.
(02:28):
From there we took it.
We had distribution centers onour assembly and test facilities
, which were Malaysia,philippines and in China, and we
had two other distributioncenters, another one in China
and Hong Kong.
And when we got our productsback in we took it and we
shipped it all around the world.
We were shipping about 10,000varts a day.
I kind of stumbled intologistics with this company Back
(02:52):
when I was studying.
We really didn't have a lot oflogistics degrees, so I joined
this company.
I was able to grow and actuallylearn logistics hands-on With
that many shipments we had.
A small group of ourdepartments were small,
everything was kind ofoutsourced.
So I was managing a lot ofvendors and just, we were global
(03:12):
.
We were shipping to 46 differentcountries and we had to do it
with as few people as possible.
So again, we had technologyfrom our vendors to be able to
leverage and be able to havethat visibility.
We were delivering our productswithin four business stays
worldwide.
Fairchild was sold so I joinedDiebold Nick Storf and began
(03:34):
making ATMs and moving thosearound the country.
I also managed their partslogistics and then from there I
moved on to Johnson Controlswhere I was part of their
Sensomatic Division and whenFictiv came to me I was like,
wow, this is a very excitingcompany.
They have a lot of things goingfor them and it's a really
exciting value proposition andit's a really good opportunity
(03:58):
to be able to help define newproduct development.
Blythe Brumleve (04:02):
For sure, and I was looking at Fictiv's website
because it's a really I mean,it's a very pretty website.
I know some people will hearthe word pretty and they kind of
cringe at it, but I thought itwas a really great design.
That's probably the better wayof putting it instead of just a
pretty website.
But I thought it really brokedown.
I thought I had an idea of whatFictiv's does, but the website
(04:22):
helps a ton just to help me inthe research process of this
interview, and so maybe forfolks who aren't aware of what
Fictiv's does, can you kind ofgive us that high level view of
who they are as a company.
Vinny Licata (04:35):
Yeah, so as you said earlier, right, Fictiv is
the operating system for custommanufacturing.
We make it faster, easier andmore efficient to source our
supply mechanical parts.
So customers come in and theyupload their part design and
basically they get quotes inseconds, right, and they can
decide whether they want itclose by or they can decide if
they want it overseas.
(04:56):
They're also getting DFMinformation, which is designed
for manufacturing information.
So they understand hey, can Imanage this part over time?
And again, we're trying toreduce this new product
development cycle from weeks andmonths down to days.
So we want to free up time forthe engineers so they can focus
on new product developmentversus being in procurement.
Blythe Brumleve (05:20):
What kind of products are they?
Vinny Licata (05:22):
So there could be mechanical parts, right?
Hey, I've got this design thatI need to actually define and
see if it'll actually work.
So they'll upload their partand then we'll take it.
And we have manufacturingpartners all over the world or
you know, we have a bunch inChina, we have a bunch in the US
and in India and we'll Look atthe part, we'll define how much
it'll cost to build it and thensend it out to our manufacturing
(05:45):
partners who will build it forus.
We'll take it back and we'veset up different quality
specifications with them, makesure it meets our quality and
then we'll ship it back to ourcustomers.
And again, this happens in daysversus months.
Blythe Brumleve (06:01):
So it's a lot of machinery that maybe a part.
I was looking at this, thisTikTok shop and this guy makes
this one small part for theKitchenAid blenders and it
prevents the mixer from hittingthe equipment or the bowl and
it's helped, I guess, sort ofextend the shelf life of these
(06:21):
KitchenAid blenders with thisone little part.
Is that kind of like what youguys do with you know, maybe
some existing machinery andthings like that that maybe
there's a little small part thatcould help out that piece of
equipment?
Is that kind of like that?
Vinny Licata (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely, it could be small pieces, it
could be multiple pieces withina part.
It could be, you know, aluminum, it could be steel, it could be
plastics right?
We do injection molding, we do3D part printing and also CNC
machining, right?
So, yeah, it could be one smallpart that we're manufacturing
or it could be a whole set ofparts that we're working on and
(06:57):
we're actually looking at tryingto do, you know, build material
type activity.
Blythe Brumleve (07:01):
Oh, that's cool .
So I imagine are these fairlylarge companies that you guys
work with, or is it just maybe?
Is it also the opportunity isopen for like a small mom and
pop shop that's right down theroad and they have a really good
idea and they can upload theirdesign to your platform.
Is that also an option?
Vinny Licata (07:19):
Yeah, no, it's the whole gamut, right.
It could be one person startinga new product, or it could be,
you know, a large corporationthat says, hey, I got these
specialty parts, I need themfast.
Can you produce them for us?
So our customers are small andour customers are large.
So it really is dependent onyou know what they're trying to
produce.
Blythe Brumleve (07:39):
And so for you with being head of logistics.
What point do you come into themix is to help them with their
shipping processes, with thegoods that are being sent around
.
At what point does yourexpertise come into play?
Vinny Licata (07:55):
Yeah.
So you know, Fictiv started outas a US based company and now
they've grown where we're doinga lot of products and
manufacturing overseas.
So what we need to do is makesure hey, you know, just
shipping apart is not justmoving a box from here to there
you have customs compliance atthe export, you have it at
origin, you have it atdestination.
(08:15):
It's not only is it thematerial flow, it's the
paperwork that has to flow, it'sthe financial flow and it's
just working with all the groupsto make sure our products can
move through that cycle, youknow, in as little time as
possible.
You know our customers some ofthem, you know time to market,
getting that product out asquickly as possible, is
extremely important.
So we want to make sure thewhole logistics process is
(08:38):
streamlined, make sure that itdoesn't get held up in customs
and make sure customers can gettheir parts as fast as possible.
So it's really just making thatwhole logistics network more
robust.
Blythe Brumleve (08:49):
So on the customs side of things, do you
typically?
What are some reasons of whysomething would get held up at
customs?
Vinny Licata (08:57):
Yeah, so with the, you know you have different
tariffs that are coming in fromChina and hey, all of a sudden,
is this going to be a dutyablepart or not?
Is the classification 100%correct?
Do we need to reclassify theparts?
So you know, our customers haveto provide a lot of information
for us.
So it could be, hey, theinformation isn't quite clear
and we need to reclassify it,but it could get held up for
(09:20):
dutyable reasons as well.
So it's understanding what thatproduct is up front, making
sure we have the rightclassification so it can process
without any issues or delays.
Blythe Brumleve (09:29):
For sure I mean the least amount of headaches,
I imagine as possible in orderto keep that flow of goods
moving.
Now, from you know, there'sbeen a lot in the logistics
world I'm sure you guys areexperiencing this as well where
it's almost like this strongfocus used to be on off-shoring,
now it's on near-shoring.
Is that?
How is that affecting you?
Is it affecting you guys at all?
Vinny Licata (09:51):
Yeah, I mean, we already have a near-shoring
option.
But near-shoring is important,right, it needs to be one of
those tools that you have, butyou still need to be off-shored
as well.
So I know everybody wants tosay, hey, near-shoring is the
answer, but it's not.
It's just one of the tools thatyou need so you can stay agile.
Because everybody says theywant manufacturing in the USA,
(10:13):
but when it comes time topurchase something, you're going
to be like, wait a second, thatcosts a little too much.
So it's just having thatbalance and being able to have
the options for our customers tosay, hey, do you want it here,
do you want it there, and whattype of time frame, so we can
meet that.
Blythe Brumleve (10:29):
And then for because you guys don't just have
the offices in the US.
I believe you have fivedifferent offices globally,
correct?
Vinny Licata (10:38):
Yeah, we have offices in the US and India.
We actually have a coupleoffices in India that we support
out of, so we're reallyshipping out of all three
regions to our customers.
Blythe Brumleve (10:50):
What is, I guess, maybe some of the major
differences between shippingfrom India versus the US?
Are there any big differences?
Vinny Licata (10:58):
So it's all about the labor content and how costly
it is for the labor to be ableto support your machinery, right
?
So near-shoring is usuallytypically more costly for labor,
but when you're off-shoringthere's more cost for logistics.
Right, it costs a lot of moneyto move a heavyweight product
halfway around the world.
(11:18):
So it's again trying to findthe right balance and
technologies right.
I mean, we have manufacturingpartners in China that are
extremely good and they have areally good process for us
meeting tight tolerances.
So we need that type oftechnology to be able to support
our customers' needs.
And hey, it does take a littlelonger and it may cost more to
(11:41):
ship it, but we might have alittle less labor in that
product.
Blythe Brumleve (11:45):
Yeah.
So it's almost like you got toalmost like pick your poison,
like do you want to wait alittle bit longer and pay a
little bit less, or do you wantit quick and do you, you know,
is made in America or made inNorth America important to you?
So it's kind of like it soundslike they have to weigh those
pros and cons.
Vinny Licata (12:00):
Absolutely, you know, at the cost and the time
as well.
That's always key.
Blythe Brumleve (12:05):
For sure.
Now I want to get a little bitinto some of the key findings,
because you guys did release the2023 State of Manufacturing
Report.
I believe you surveyed around250 folks within a logistics,
supply chain and manufacturing,and so there were a bunch of key
takeaways and I was wonderingif you could give us the
(12:26):
logistics angle on how you'retackling some of these different
takeaway stats.
So one of those first takeawaystats is 93% of manufacturing
leaders are preparing for ashortage of skilled engineering
talent.
What's sort of the skinny onthat?
And then how are you tacklingit from maybe a?
I don't know if you're tacklingthat from a logistics angle,
but how are you approaching that?
Vinny Licata (12:48):
Yeah, I think you know that whole engineering gap.
Right Our product is somethingthat can help with.
Right Our company, becausewe're we can help make sure we
get design for manufacturinginformation faster and easier
for our customers.
Right, I know there's 51% areinvesting in technology
solutions so they can haveproductivity gains.
(13:11):
Right Our product, we keeptrying to make it easier to use,
more simple.
So if we can make it easier touse and more simple, right, it's
not going to take someone a lotof time to, you know, go out
there and procure this product.
We're trying to make it as easyas possible so they can focus
on their real work, not theprocurement piece of it.
Blythe Brumleve (13:31):
And when you say your product, you're meaning
like they've already have theirdesigns.
So take those designs and startgetting pricing immediately or
very quickly through the Fictivplatform, because I think you
can just upload directly thefiles right to the platform,
right?
Vinny Licata (13:48):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
It really is a neat process.
You come in, you can add thatfile.
It takes a couple seconds toadd the file and we can give you
pricing information.
You know whether it's nearshort or off short pretty much
instantaneous, and it's thattype of simplicity and we're
giving you direct feedback.
To hey, can this bemanufacturable?
(14:09):
So we're giving you a lot ofinformation very quickly and
trying to make it as easy to useas possible to try to help make
sure that if you are having ashortage of people, that they're
not wasting their time onnon-value.
Add activity like procurement.
Keep it on the new productdevelopment side.
Blythe Brumleve (14:24):
Right, because I imagine just being able to
directly upload without havingto get on a phone and have three
meetings with decision makersto see if it's a good fit, and
then go through the pricingprocess.
You just kind of leap frog allof that and just get the stuff
you need immediately right.
Vinny Licata (14:39):
Correct.
Yeah, we're talking seconds.
It really is a neat.
When I saw it and I was able todo my, I've done my own product
builds on it as well.
Blythe Brumleve (14:48):
Oh, that's cool .
Vinny Licata (14:49):
It's really fast.
Blythe Brumleve (14:50):
What kind of products are being built?
I know you mentioned machinery,but what kind of machinery is
it?
Maybe robotics?
Is it farm equipment?
Vinny Licata (14:59):
So it could be.
You know it could be a small,you know it could be caps.
That we're talking about, thatwe're manufacturing.
Oh well, I know the quiptoothbrushes.
We did a lot of activity forthe quip toothbrushes, trying to
help them get up and going andbuilding a lot of materials for
that.
So it all depends, right, itcould be small, little parts or
(15:20):
it could be larger parts.
So we're really we'restretching the gamut.
We do have some size, I think Iforget how big we go up to, but
again, we're making very smallparts and we're making very big
parts that can go intomanufacturing.
Blythe Brumleve (15:35):
For sure, and it sounds so that definitely, I
think, opens up the door for alot of different functionalities
, because, when you think aboutor a lot of different
inefficiencies or efficiencies,because, like the quill
toothbrush, for example, youprobably have to find somebody
that you know with the bristlesand that somebody for the
batteries, for the brush andthen the actual compartment that
(15:57):
it all holds into.
That's like the source for mylogistics people who don't, I
guess, maybe fully grasp thatpart of the process.
You have to source all of thosethings first and probably have
more than one source for eachone of those things in order to
develop a product or bring aproduct to life, correct?
Vinny Licata (16:15):
Correct.
Yeah, I mean it takes.
If you have a hundred differentparts, it could be.
You know, those could be comingfrom 17 different areas and
trying to bring them alltogether at the same time to be
manufactured is challenging,right it's?
Everybody thinks it's justshipping, but you have to
coordinate the pickups, you haveto coordinate the deliveries.
(16:35):
If something gets held up,you're ready to keep a line from
running.
So it's just being able tocoordinate all of those things
and try to make it as smooth aspossible.
So you know we are trying toget into more of this bill of
material so we can consolidatesome of that and make it simpler
for our own customers.
Blythe Brumleve (16:54):
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Next stat that I have from yourstate of manufacturing report
is 85% have plans to or alreadyhave adopted AI technologies to
help dry productivity andoperational efficiency gains.
I love talking about AI, so Iwould love to hear your take on,
(17:59):
or the skinny on, this fact.
Vinny Licata (18:01):
Yeah, I mean AI is the is the new word of the of
the month, right, I mean youhave Nvidia and all these stocks
going crazy because of it.
You know AI technology isimportant.
Right, you got to be able tolearn and be able to adapt.
I know our platform takes sometechnology and we're trying to
improve our, our platform to getbetter pricing, better
(18:22):
information to our customers asfast as possible.
So it's really trying to use astream line and become more
efficient so we can actually getour products fast for market.
Blythe Brumleve (18:32):
Yeah, for sure, and I would imagine, maybe on
you know, is it large languagemodel adoption that these
manufacturers are adopting, oris it more like maybe on the
marketing side of things?
Where do you think that thatthat movement in AI is happening
?
Or is it mainly on their owninternal processes for
manufacturing and maybe securingprocurement partners, things
(18:53):
like that?
Vinny Licata (18:55):
So we're seeing.
You know, if you look at thethe findings as well, 97% think
it's going to impact productdevelopment and manufacturing
functions.
So you know, the AI will beable to look at your products
and maybe be able to refine thembetter, maybe be able to make
adjustments faster than thenormal process, but also be able
to look at the manufacturingprocess and figure out what in
(19:17):
that process is causing aconstraint that can make it
easier and more simple tomanufacture over a long term.
So it's really just you know,fine tuning and making the
processes better is where Ithink AI is going to make a big
play.
Blythe Brumleve (19:31):
Yeah, for sure, anytime you can alleviate some
of the grunt work that peoplehave to do and especially give
them more time to be able tolook at things from a higher
level view and maybe have thatextra pair of eyes.
They might be digital eyes,they might, you know, be AI eyes
, but at least you have thatextra help.
I know for me.
I'm a you know one essentiallya one person marketing team and
(19:52):
it has helped me tremendously beable to streamline a lot of my
different processes, includingwith this podcast being able to.
One major thing was not havingto listen to the podcast and
hand transcribe it word by wordand pressing pause and play over
and over again, and now I canjust have software just
immediately do it in about 15minutes.
(20:13):
It saves me hours every week.
Vinny Licata (20:15):
Yeah Well, getting getting your product to market
as quickly as possible, right?
That's what we're trying to do.
Look at Tesla right, If theydidn't get their EV to market
first, right?
All of a sudden, you have otherplayers making faster inroads,
but they were so fast to market,they're able to own it for a
little while.
So that's why getting productsto market as fast as possible is
(20:36):
extremely important forcustomers, Because once you
adopt the product right, youdon't always want the knockoff.
So that's why we're trying tomake sure our platform can
provide our our customers thatquick response and quick
turnaround so they can get theirproduct to market as fast as
possible.
Blythe Brumleve (20:51):
No, no.
You mentioned earlier aboutyour experience with
semiconductors and thenobviously with a.
I like that all of that sort ofintertwines together.
But have a side question how doyou ship semiconductors?
What does that process looklike?
Vinny Licata (21:08):
Yes, so you know, the wafers are really where all
the money was at.
So our wafer shipments would be, you know, a hundred thousand
dollars worth and it'd be onelittle small box.
So it was the wafers that werealways the problematic piece.
The semiconductors are.
You know, we put those intoreels, are we put them into
tubes, and we were shippingmaybe ten thousand in a box.
(21:30):
Wow, there they were small.
We were shipping one.
I think that was one pointthree billion chips a month.
So there was a lot of chipsthat were moving in and out of
our, our factory.
So they were smaller boxesbecause the semiconductors are
fairly small we did have somelarger ones.
But moving those boxes it wasall pretty much partial but you
(21:53):
were moving, you know, thousandsof dollars in those small boxes
just over A lot of distance isprobably one of the.
Blythe Brumleve (22:01):
I don't know if you've ever seen one of those
pictures of like a truck, andthen the whole entire flat bed
is empty, except for one boxthat securely strapped in.
I imagine that that's what thesemiconductor shipping looks
like.
Vinny Licata (22:13):
Yeah, we were filling a lot of you all these
for our vendors, so those arethose on the airplane, so we had
like two or three of those forlocation.
Blythe Brumleve (22:22):
Oh, that's cool .
What about?
I know you mentioned a tm's to.
How do you ship a tm's?
Vinny Licata (22:28):
Yeah, those were going on a lot of ltl and ocean
shipments, so they were heavy,right they were.
They were hard to move around.
You didn't want to get damaged,so we did a lot of that on our
ltl network.
Blythe Brumleve (22:38):
And I imagine for those things like
semiconductors, a tm's like youalmost have to have extra
security for those type ofproducts, right?
Vinny Licata (22:47):
Yeah, our.
So our average selling pricefor our semiconductors only
about nine and a half cents.
So we weren't as secure asmaybe an intel or an amd.
Right, so we're in these.
This day and age is qualcomm,but it was.
Security was important for us,a tm's as well.
(23:07):
Right, the whole security aboutan a tm.
Was that really aboutinstallation and keeping the
whole software system secure?
So that was really where thekey part of an a tm was on the
installation, not necessarily onthe shipping side.
Blythe Brumleve (23:20):
Yeah, so not really like a whole, like
government entourage of you know, like the feds securing the
video, the vehicle it's more ofon the prelim side of things
where you make that, thesecurity adjustments.
Vinny Licata (23:32):
Yeah, it was when we went and did the install.
We'd have to actually go into asecure network, make sure that
the a tm when it was brought uponline.
That was where the big securitywas.
A was really implemented.
Blythe Brumleve (23:44):
Oh, wow, that's super interesting because I
wonder how you keep theintegrity of that of the
security there once.
I imagine once it's already setup and established, then it's
pretty like clear sailing afterthat correct.
Vinny Licata (23:56):
It was just that whole security piece and there
was a whole process to make surethat the line was secure and
that there was a tunnel that wasdirectly to the banks and be
able to get the information theyrequire.
Blythe Brumleve (24:07):
That's cool that.
Thank you for placating my myside questions.
Next step, next step that wehave that is actually related to
the state of manufacturingreport is 95% of manufacturing
leaders are struggling to solveworkforce issues.
I imagine this kind of tiesinto what the Fictiv product
does well, and that'seliminating the need for the
(24:28):
back and forth at the meetingsand things like that.
Where they have a new productthat they want to get pricing on
, they can just immediatelyupload it and get that product
pricing.
But is there anything elsethat's missing from this?
95% of manufacturing leadersare struggling to solve
workforce issues.
Vinny Licata (24:43):
Yes.
So when I was on the other sideof the business saying the
semiconductor world, right, thelogistics departments really are
concerned about gettingproducts to the customer.
So when you're an engineer in,our engineers used to come to me
hey, I need this shipment movedhere there.
Right, it didn't get quite thevisibility that maybe it should
have that had I known.
Right, that whole new productdevelopment cycle is needs to be
(25:03):
faster.
But you know, the focus of thelogistics group is really on the
other side of it getting thoseproducts to the customers.
So what we want to do on ourside is try to make it easier
for our customers so they don'thave to rely on their logistics
teams.
We want to be able to helpbring some value and say let us
take your shipment, let us worryabout getting it through
(25:24):
customs and let us try todeliver to you as easy and
seamless and frictionless aspossible.
So that's how we think we canhelp with that, you know.
Reduction in workforce.
Blythe Brumleve (25:33):
So almost like more on the freight forwarder
side of things versus like atraditional freight brokerage.
Is that accurate?
Vinny Licata (25:41):
Well, it's really just let us manage this shipment
for you, right, and let us putit on our network, and we'll get
it to you with little to noissues.
Blythe Brumleve (25:50):
And I'm sure, a lot of these companies.
They're just, they're ready tojust take that whole list of
things to do and give it tosomeone else that they trust in
order to take care of it.
Vinny Licata (25:59):
Right.
So that makes you have to makesure you have a good process and
that you have a good networkthat can deliver to your
commitments.
Blythe Brumleve (26:06):
And so for you being head of logistics, you
know, with all the turmoil thatwe've experienced over the last
few years, how are you makingsure that your logistics
operation is running as smoothlyas possible when all of these
things change on a dime, andchange dramatically?
Vinny Licata (26:23):
I think it's all about relationships that you
have with your vendor.
Right?
I've always talked partnershipsand that's it's just a word.
Right?
It's how you actually interactwith your vendors.
Right, you can say, yes, I needa, I can beat on them for price
, but that's really not whatit's about.
Right?
It's about trying to find thebalance of pricing, quality and
(26:43):
also working through issues.
We're always going to fail.
Right, shipments are going toget delayed.
It's how you react and how youcan work with your vendors to
make sure you can resolve thoseissues, because we're going to
see them, they'll something willhappen here.
But if it's how they respondand it's how you guys work
together to get that solved isreally the key.
So I'm all about making surethat I have partners I can work
(27:04):
with, that can listen to us andmake sure that, hey, if we're
not doing something as a company, what do we need to do
different so we can get thisproduct to our customers without
any issue?
Blythe Brumleve (27:14):
Yeah, definitely the proactive
approach I feel like is veryunderrated, but much needed.
All right, there's a couplemore stats that we have here for
you.
It says 2023 reveals an 11point increase from 2022 and
companies prioritizinginnovation speed as a top
priority, signaling a focus ongrowth.
So for a lot of folks, they'reterrified that we're going to
(27:37):
continue to enter into arecession and that's a whole, I
guess, set of questions on themajor, like a populist sort of
problem that's going on, butfrom the manufacturing side of
things, it actually sounds likethere's room for optimism,
there's room for growth, becausethat's what they're planning
for.
Is that an accurate sort ofassessment of that stat?
Vinny Licata (27:59):
Yeah, I mean, manufacturing is not going away.
People still need productswhere we're infatuated with the
new gadget or the new item.
So I don't think we're going tosee any downturn in
manufacturing.
It's just finding that balanceof whether you're going to be
near short, offshore, and howcan you provide that network
that your customers really need.
Blythe Brumleve (28:20):
Okay, and then final question for the state of
manufacturing report Are thereany stats that you really like,
that really stood out to you,that I didn't already mention?
Vinny Licata (28:31):
I think you covered a lot of them.
I did mention the 97% expect AIto impact product development,
manufacturing functions, but oneof the keys is just that the
agility of the supply chain iscritical.
Improving that visibility is atop priority for, basically,
whether a company is big, smallor medium size, it's just making
(28:53):
sure you have visibility andagility.
Blythe Brumleve (28:56):
For sure.
I think diversifying and beingable to stay agile, I think is
the new business norm for avariety of industries and a
variety of ways.
If you can have those twothings, I think that makes you
really strongly suited for thefuture.
Now I do have a few questionsthat I ask on the podcast that
are occurring set of questions.
(29:17):
So, if you'll placate me herefor a little bit, as you did
with the ATM and thesemiconductor question, we have
a few questions that we'd liketo target around the attention
economy and your favorite appsand things like that.
So kind of fun, kind of casual.
So first question is what isyour favorite SaaS product
that's not your own, Like a toolthat you use maybe every day,
(29:43):
that you couldn't live without?
Some people say like Slack, butit's like you can live without
Slack.
Vinny Licata (29:49):
Oh, we could not live without Slack.
Oh, really, that's a newservice that I've been utilizing
in the last six months here atFICTED, and I could not live
without that right now.
Blythe Brumleve (29:59):
Oh okay, so you're for it, I do a tremendous
amount of communication throughSlack.
That's awesome, okay, okay.
So Slack is a for sure one foryou.
For me, it feels like anothersocial media app that I have to
check the notifications, but ifyour whole organization is in it
, then it probably is toeverybody's benefit.
Vinny Licata (30:18):
Yes, we are functioning as an organization.
It takes a little bit to getused to, but it really is a good
product and we've been able tomaster it to get as much value
out of it as we can.
Blythe Brumleve (30:31):
Now I typically like to ask people like do you
have a favorite logistics orsupply chain factoid?
You've worked in logistics fora while in a bunch of different
cool industries.
Do you have a favoritelogistics fact?
Vinny Licata (30:48):
You know just that at any one point in time.
You know, when I was in thesemiconductor world, we were
managing 10,000 shipments in theair at any one point in time,
which was a lot of product forbasically an organization that
was a size of about 40.
Wow.
Blythe Brumleve (31:04):
Holy crap.
Yeah, that's a lot ofmanagement, that's a lot of
visibility needed for a lot ofthose products.
Vinny Licata (31:14):
We just had a network, a partnership in the
product.
You know if you can executeright.
Logistics is kind of an unknownor unseen right.
You're only seen when you failRight and unfortunately there's
nobody to come in and make upfor our failure right From the
logistics world.
You can make up formanufacturing failures, you can
make up for planning failures,but there's nobody to come in
(31:36):
and save you in the logisticsworld.
So it's being able to manageall of those and and be able to
do with as few people aspossible.
That, I think, is interesting.
Blythe Brumleve (31:48):
I typically will compare logistics to the
CIA, because you really onlyknow what the CIA does if there
is a failure.
Vinny Licata (31:56):
Yeah, we had a person that says well, you're
just shipping a box, how hardcan it be?
And again, if they just don'trealize all that goes into
moving something across theborder, it's like, let's see you
try it.
Blythe Brumleve (32:09):
That's why you pay us.
All right, and last funquestion what's your favorite
social media platform and why?
Vinny Licata (32:20):
I think Instagram, because I get to see my niece
right.
She lives in a different stateand we're constantly where is
she, what's she up to.
Because her mom really does agreat job of getting them well,
niece and nephew, getting themboth on to social media so we're
able to see them grow throughInstagram.
(32:41):
So it's a positive thing for us.
Blythe Brumleve (32:45):
That's awesome.
That's a good reason to keepsocial media, because a lot of
people answer that question like, oh, I can't stand social media
, but that's a very good reasonto have it.
Vinny Licata (32:55):
Yeah, and I'm not on some of those other platforms
, so I keep it.
I have a hard enough timekeeping up with social media.
It's just, it's challenging,right it's?
Blythe Brumleve (33:05):
a part-time job .
It really is.
Vinny Licata (33:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Blythe Brumleve (33:09):
All right, vinnie.
Well, as we kind of round outthe interview, is there anything
that you feel is important tomention of the Fictiv brand that
we haven't already talked about, or anything coming down the
pipeline that we should expect?
Vinny Licata (33:24):
Just you know, having agility in the supply
chain is something that'scritically important, and being
able to have partners that are,you know, have that options to
be near short, off short, andjust be able to give you the
flexibility you need as acustomer something that Fictiv
can provide and help free upsome of the time of the engineer
so they can focus on their newproduct development.
Blythe Brumleve (33:46):
Yes, keep the engineers from booking
unnecessary meetings.
Just go right to the Fictivwebsite and do an upload.
That sounds super simple and Idon't know why other companies
haven't done that before, sothat was really fun to learn.
Thank you so much for sharingyour insight.
Work and folks follow more ofyour work.
Get linked up with Fictiv.
We'll obviously add some linksin the show notes to the state
(34:08):
of manufacturing report and alsoto Fictiv.
Any other social platforms thatyou want to highlight that
you're not active on?
Vinny Licata (34:18):
I don't have anything else.
Blythe Brumleve (34:20):
Well, we will make sure that we link to the
Fictiv platforms so, for anybodywho's interested in that, you
can also download the report orfollow Fictiv.
They have a really greatYouTube channel, so I highly
suggest that and I'll make sureI link to it in the show notes.
But, vinny, thank you so much.
This was awesome to learn aboutFascinating discussion and we
appreciate your time.
Vinny Licata (34:39):
No, I appreciate Thanks for having me Absolutely.
Blythe Brumleve (34:46):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
Everything Is Logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over atEverythingIsLogisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let you all
know about another company Ioperate, and that's Digital
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Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
Welcome into another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPILogistics and I am your host,
Blythe Brumlevee.
Happy to welcome in VinnyLicata.
He is the head of logisticsover at Fictiv and we're going
to be talking about the state ofmanufacturing and how logistics
teams can best prepare for themarket.
So, Vinny, welcome into theshow.
Vinny Licata (00:28):
Thank you very much, glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Blythe Brumleve (00:31):
I have to say, for being a podcaster, I get PR
pitches all the time.
All the time, like 20 emails aday from PR companies trying to
get on the show, and most of thepitches are not very good, but
yours was very good because Ijust wanted to read it for the
audience that's listening, andthe PR pitch reads as follows
(00:54):
Following a year of economicturmoil, supply chain issues and
labor shortages, manufacturingleaders have shifted their
priorities.
As almost all leaders, 93% arepreparing for a serious shortage
of skilled engineering talentand more than half 51% are
investing in technologysolutions to drive productivity
gains, while 85% say theircompany is already adopting AI
(01:16):
solutions.
Fictiv, the operating systemsfor custom manufacturing, is
releasing its annual state ofmanufacturing report that
outlines findings on theshifting priorities of industry
leaders and the 2023 outlook.
To me, that is just a 10 out of10 PR pitch.
It comes in with data.
It comes in with something thatI absolutely need to be
covering on the show.
(01:37):
So kudos to you and your PRteam for coming up with that,
because it hooked me right fromthe beginning.
Vinny Licata (01:43):
Great, yeah, no, we're very excited to talk about
it and kind of tell you wherewe're at with the whole state of
manufacturing.
Blythe Brumleve (01:52):
For sure.
So, for folks who may not befamiliar with you, your
background, can you give us asense of how you got into the
world of logistics, becauseyou've been in it for a pretty
lengthy time, covering a varietyof fascinating industries in my
opinion?
Vinny Licata (02:08):
Yeah, so I started out in the semiconductor world.
So I've been doing logisticsnow for almost 25 years.
So we were a small company.
We were a $1.5 billionsemiconductor company.
We made wafers in the US and weshipped those wafers to our
subcons and our assembly andtest sites in Asia.
(02:28):
From there we took it.
We had distribution centers onour assembly and test facilities
, which were Malaysia,philippines and in China, and we
had two other distributioncenters, another one in China
and Hong Kong.
And when we got our productsback in we took it and we
shipped it all around the world.
We were shipping about 10,000varts a day.
I kind of stumbled intologistics with this company Back
(02:52):
when I was studying.
We really didn't have a lot oflogistics degrees, so I joined
this company.
I was able to grow and actuallylearn logistics hands-on With
that many shipments we had.
A small group of ourdepartments were small,
everything was kind ofoutsourced.
So I was managing a lot ofvendors and just, we were global
(03:12):
.
We were shipping to 46 differentcountries and we had to do it
with as few people as possible.
So again, we had technologyfrom our vendors to be able to
leverage and be able to havethat visibility.
We were delivering our productswithin four business stays
worldwide.
Fairchild was sold so I joinedDiebold Nick Storf and began
(03:34):
making ATMs and moving thosearound the country.
I also managed their partslogistics and then from there I
moved on to Johnson Controlswhere I was part of their
Sensomatic Division and whenFictiv came to me I was like,
wow, this is a very excitingcompany.
They have a lot of things goingfor them and it's a really
exciting value proposition andit's a really good opportunity
(03:58):
to be able to help define newproduct development.
Blythe Brumleve (04:02):
For sure, and I was looking at Fictiv's website
because it's a really I mean,it's a very pretty website.
I know some people will hearthe word pretty and they kind of
cringe at it, but I thought itwas a really great design.
That's probably the better wayof putting it instead of just a
pretty website.
But I thought it really brokedown.
I thought I had an idea of whatFictiv's does, but the website
(04:22):
helps a ton just to help me inthe research process of this
interview, and so maybe forfolks who aren't aware of what
Fictiv's does, can you kind ofgive us that high level view of
who they are as a company.
Vinny Licata (04:35):
Yeah, so as you said earlier, right, Fictiv is
the operating system for custommanufacturing.
We make it faster, easier andmore efficient to source our
supply mechanical parts.
So customers come in and theyupload their part design and
basically they get quotes inseconds, right, and they can
decide whether they want itclose by or they can decide if
they want it overseas.
(04:56):
They're also getting DFMinformation, which is designed
for manufacturing information.
So they understand hey, can Imanage this part over time?
And again, we're trying toreduce this new product
development cycle from weeks andmonths down to days.
So we want to free up time forthe engineers so they can focus
on new product developmentversus being in procurement.
Blythe Brumleve (05:20):
What kind of products are they?
Vinny Licata (05:22):
So there could be mechanical parts, right?
Hey, I've got this design thatI need to actually define and
see if it'll actually work.
So they'll upload their partand then we'll take it.
And we have manufacturingpartners all over the world or
you know, we have a bunch inChina, we have a bunch in the US
and in India and we'll Look atthe part, we'll define how much
it'll cost to build it and thensend it out to our manufacturing
(05:45):
partners who will build it forus.
We'll take it back and we'veset up different quality
specifications with them, makesure it meets our quality and
then we'll ship it back to ourcustomers.
And again, this happens in daysversus months.
Blythe Brumleve (06:01):
So it's a lot of machinery that maybe a part.
I was looking at this, thisTikTok shop and this guy makes
this one small part for theKitchenAid blenders and it
prevents the mixer from hittingthe equipment or the bowl and
it's helped, I guess, sort ofextend the shelf life of these
(06:21):
KitchenAid blenders with thisone little part.
Is that kind of like what youguys do with you know, maybe
some existing machinery andthings like that that maybe
there's a little small part thatcould help out that piece of
equipment?
Is that kind of like that?
Vinny Licata (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely, it could be small pieces, it
could be multiple pieces withina part.
It could be, you know, aluminum, it could be steel, it could be
plastics right?
We do injection molding, we do3D part printing and also CNC
machining, right?
So, yeah, it could be one smallpart that we're manufacturing
or it could be a whole set ofparts that we're working on and
(06:57):
we're actually looking at tryingto do, you know, build material
type activity.
Blythe Brumleve (07:01):
Oh, that's cool .
So I imagine are these fairlylarge companies that you guys
work with, or is it just maybe?
Is it also the opportunity isopen for like a small mom and
pop shop that's right down theroad and they have a really good
idea and they can upload theirdesign to your platform.
Is that also an option?
Vinny Licata (07:19):
Yeah, no, it's the whole gamut, right.
It could be one person startinga new product, or it could be,
you know, a large corporationthat says, hey, I got these
specialty parts, I need themfast.
Can you produce them for us?
So our customers are small andour customers are large.
So it really is dependent onyou know what they're trying to
produce.
Blythe Brumleve (07:39):
And so for you with being head of logistics.
What point do you come into themix is to help them with their
shipping processes, with thegoods that are being sent around
.
At what point does yourexpertise come into play?
Vinny Licata (07:55):
Yeah.
So you know, Fictiv started outas a US based company and now
they've grown where we're doinga lot of products and
manufacturing overseas.
So what we need to do is makesure hey, you know, just
shipping apart is not justmoving a box from here to there
you have customs compliance atthe export, you have it at
origin, you have it atdestination.
(08:15):
It's not only is it thematerial flow, it's the
paperwork that has to flow, it'sthe financial flow and it's
just working with all the groupsto make sure our products can
move through that cycle, youknow, in as little time as
possible.
You know our customers some ofthem, you know time to market,
getting that product out asquickly as possible, is
extremely important.
So we want to make sure thewhole logistics process is
(08:38):
streamlined, make sure that itdoesn't get held up in customs
and make sure customers can gettheir parts as fast as possible.
So it's really just making thatwhole logistics network more
robust.
Blythe Brumleve (08:49):
So on the customs side of things, do you
typically?
What are some reasons of whysomething would get held up at
customs?
Vinny Licata (08:57):
Yeah, so with the, you know you have different
tariffs that are coming in fromChina and hey, all of a sudden,
is this going to be a dutyablepart or not?
Is the classification 100%correct?
Do we need to reclassify theparts?
So you know, our customers haveto provide a lot of information
for us.
So it could be, hey, theinformation isn't quite clear
and we need to reclassify it,but it could get held up for
(09:20):
dutyable reasons as well.
So it's understanding what thatproduct is up front, making
sure we have the rightclassification so it can process
without any issues or delays.
Blythe Brumleve (09:29):
For sure I mean the least amount of headaches,
I imagine as possible in orderto keep that flow of goods
moving.
Now, from you know, there'sbeen a lot in the logistics
world I'm sure you guys areexperiencing this as well where
it's almost like this strongfocus used to be on off-shoring,
now it's on near-shoring.
Is that?
How is that affecting you?
Is it affecting you guys at all?
Vinny Licata (09:51):
Yeah, I mean, we already have a near-shoring
option.
But near-shoring is important,right, it needs to be one of
those tools that you have, butyou still need to be off-shored
as well.
So I know everybody wants tosay, hey, near-shoring is the
answer, but it's not.
It's just one of the tools thatyou need so you can stay agile.
Because everybody says theywant manufacturing in the USA,
(10:13):
but when it comes time topurchase something, you're going
to be like, wait a second, thatcosts a little too much.
So it's just having thatbalance and being able to have
the options for our customers tosay, hey, do you want it here,
do you want it there, and whattype of time frame, so we can
meet that.
Blythe Brumleve (10:29):
And then for because you guys don't just have
the offices in the US.
I believe you have fivedifferent offices globally,
correct?
Vinny Licata (10:38):
Yeah, we have offices in the US and India.
We actually have a coupleoffices in India that we support
out of, so we're reallyshipping out of all three
regions to our customers.
Blythe Brumleve (10:50):
What is, I guess, maybe some of the major
differences between shippingfrom India versus the US?
Are there any big differences?
Vinny Licata (10:58):
So it's all about the labor content and how costly
it is for the labor to be ableto support your machinery, right
?
So near-shoring is usuallytypically more costly for labor,
but when you're off-shoringthere's more cost for logistics.
Right, it costs a lot of moneyto move a heavyweight product
halfway around the world.
(11:18):
So it's again trying to findthe right balance and
technologies right.
I mean, we have manufacturingpartners in China that are
extremely good and they have areally good process for us
meeting tight tolerances.
So we need that type oftechnology to be able to support
our customers' needs.
And hey, it does take a littlelonger and it may cost more to
(11:41):
ship it, but we might have alittle less labor in that
product.
Blythe Brumleve (11:45):
Yeah.
So it's almost like you got toalmost like pick your poison,
like do you want to wait alittle bit longer and pay a
little bit less, or do you wantit quick and do you, you know,
is made in America or made inNorth America important to you?
So it's kind of like it soundslike they have to weigh those
pros and cons.
Vinny Licata (12:00):
Absolutely, you know, at the cost and the time
as well.
That's always key.
Blythe Brumleve (12:05):
For sure.
Now I want to get a little bitinto some of the key findings,
because you guys did release the2023 State of Manufacturing
Report.
I believe you surveyed around250 folks within a logistics,
supply chain and manufacturing,and so there were a bunch of key
takeaways and I was wonderingif you could give us the
(12:26):
logistics angle on how you'retackling some of these different
takeaway stats.
So one of those first takeawaystats is 93% of manufacturing
leaders are preparing for ashortage of skilled engineering
talent.
What's sort of the skinny onthat?
And then how are you tacklingit from maybe a?
I don't know if you're tacklingthat from a logistics angle,
but how are you approaching that?
Vinny Licata (12:48):
Yeah, I think you know that whole engineering gap.
Right Our product is somethingthat can help with.
Right Our company, becausewe're we can help make sure we
get design for manufacturinginformation faster and easier
for our customers.
Right, I know there's 51% areinvesting in technology
solutions so they can haveproductivity gains.
(13:11):
Right Our product, we keeptrying to make it easier to use,
more simple.
So if we can make it easier touse and more simple, right, it's
not going to take someone a lotof time to, you know, go out
there and procure this product.
We're trying to make it as easyas possible so they can focus
on their real work, not theprocurement piece of it.
Blythe Brumleve (13:31):
And when you say your product, you're meaning
like they've already have theirdesigns.
So take those designs and startgetting pricing immediately or
very quickly through the Fictivplatform, because I think you
can just upload directly thefiles right to the platform,
right?
Vinny Licata (13:48):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
It really is a neat process.
You come in, you can add thatfile.
It takes a couple seconds toadd the file and we can give you
pricing information.
You know whether it's nearshort or off short pretty much
instantaneous, and it's thattype of simplicity and we're
giving you direct feedback.
To hey, can this bemanufacturable?
(14:09):
So we're giving you a lot ofinformation very quickly and
trying to make it as easy to useas possible to try to help make
sure that if you are having ashortage of people, that they're
not wasting their time onnon-value.
Add activity like procurement.
Keep it on the new productdevelopment side.
Blythe Brumleve (14:24):
Right, because I imagine just being able to
directly upload without havingto get on a phone and have three
meetings with decision makersto see if it's a good fit, and
then go through the pricingprocess.
You just kind of leap frog allof that and just get the stuff
you need immediately right.
Vinny Licata (14:39):
Correct.
Yeah, we're talking seconds.
It really is a neat.
When I saw it and I was able todo my, I've done my own product
builds on it as well.
Blythe Brumleve (14:48):
Oh, that's cool .
Vinny Licata (14:49):
It's really fast.
Blythe Brumleve (14:50):
What kind of products are being built?
I know you mentioned machinery,but what kind of machinery is
it?
Maybe robotics?
Is it farm equipment?
Vinny Licata (14:59):
So it could be.
You know it could be a small,you know it could be caps.
That we're talking about, thatwe're manufacturing.
Oh well, I know the quiptoothbrushes.
We did a lot of activity forthe quip toothbrushes, trying to
help them get up and going andbuilding a lot of materials for
that.
So it all depends, right, itcould be small, little parts or
(15:20):
it could be larger parts.
So we're really we'restretching the gamut.
We do have some size, I think Iforget how big we go up to, but
again, we're making very smallparts and we're making very big
parts that can go intomanufacturing.
Blythe Brumleve (15:35):
For sure, and it sounds so that definitely, I
think, opens up the door for alot of different functionalities
, because, when you think aboutor a lot of different
inefficiencies or efficiencies,because, like the quill
toothbrush, for example, youprobably have to find somebody
that you know with the bristlesand that somebody for the
batteries, for the brush andthen the actual compartment that
(15:57):
it all holds into.
That's like the source for mylogistics people who don't, I
guess, maybe fully grasp thatpart of the process.
You have to source all of thosethings first and probably have
more than one source for eachone of those things in order to
develop a product or bring aproduct to life, correct?
Vinny Licata (16:15):
Correct.
Yeah, I mean it takes.
If you have a hundred differentparts, it could be.
You know, those could be comingfrom 17 different areas and
trying to bring them alltogether at the same time to be
manufactured is challenging,right it's?
Everybody thinks it's justshipping, but you have to
coordinate the pickups, you haveto coordinate the deliveries.
(16:35):
If something gets held up,you're ready to keep a line from
running.
So it's just being able tocoordinate all of those things
and try to make it as smooth aspossible.
So you know we are trying toget into more of this bill of
material so we can consolidatesome of that and make it simpler
for our own customers.
Blythe Brumleve (16:54):
Are you in freight sales with a book of
business looking for a new home?
Or perhaps you're a freightagent in need of a better
partnership?
These are the kinds ofconversations we're exploring in
our podcast interview seriescalled the freight agent
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Now I can tell you all day thatSPI is one of the most
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(17:15):
agents with back officeoperations, such as admin,
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But I would much rather youhear it directly from SPI's
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Hit the freight agent link inour show notes to listen to
(17:36):
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Next stat that I have from yourstate of manufacturing report
is 85% have plans to or alreadyhave adopted AI technologies to
help dry productivity andoperational efficiency gains.
I love talking about AI, so Iwould love to hear your take on,
(17:59):
or the skinny on, this fact.
Vinny Licata (18:01):
Yeah, I mean AI is the is the new word of the of
the month, right, I mean youhave Nvidia and all these stocks
going crazy because of it.
You know AI technology isimportant.
Right, you got to be able tolearn and be able to adapt.
I know our platform takes sometechnology and we're trying to
improve our, our platform to getbetter pricing, better
(18:22):
information to our customers asfast as possible.
So it's really trying to use astream line and become more
efficient so we can actually getour products fast for market.
Blythe Brumleve (18:32):
Yeah, for sure, and I would imagine, maybe on
you know, is it large languagemodel adoption that these
manufacturers are adopting, oris it more like maybe on the
marketing side of things?
Where do you think that thatthat movement in AI is happening
?
Or is it mainly on their owninternal processes for
manufacturing and maybe securingprocurement partners, things
(18:53):
like that?
Vinny Licata (18:55):
So we're seeing.
You know, if you look at thethe findings as well, 97% think
it's going to impact productdevelopment and manufacturing
functions.
So you know, the AI will beable to look at your products
and maybe be able to refine thembetter, maybe be able to make
adjustments faster than thenormal process, but also be able
to look at the manufacturingprocess and figure out what in
(19:17):
that process is causing aconstraint that can make it
easier and more simple tomanufacture over a long term.
So it's really just you know,fine tuning and making the
processes better is where Ithink AI is going to make a big
play.
Blythe Brumleve (19:31):
Yeah, for sure, anytime you can alleviate some
of the grunt work that peoplehave to do and especially give
them more time to be able tolook at things from a higher
level view and maybe have thatextra pair of eyes.
They might be digital eyes,they might, you know, be AI eyes
, but at least you have thatextra help.
I know for me.
I'm a you know one essentiallya one person marketing team and
(19:52):
it has helped me tremendously beable to streamline a lot of my
different processes, includingwith this podcast being able to.
One major thing was not havingto listen to the podcast and
hand transcribe it word by wordand pressing pause and play over
and over again, and now I canjust have software just
immediately do it in about 15minutes.
(20:13):
It saves me hours every week.
Vinny Licata (20:15):
Yeah Well, getting getting your product to market
as quickly as possible, right?
That's what we're trying to do.
Look at Tesla right, If theydidn't get their EV to market
first, right?
All of a sudden, you have otherplayers making faster inroads,
but they were so fast to market,they're able to own it for a
little while.
So that's why getting productsto market as fast as possible is
(20:36):
extremely important forcustomers, Because once you
adopt the product right, youdon't always want the knockoff.
So that's why we're trying tomake sure our platform can
provide our our customers thatquick response and quick
turnaround so they can get theirproduct to market as fast as
possible.
Blythe Brumleve (20:51):
No, no.
You mentioned earlier aboutyour experience with
semiconductors and thenobviously with a.
I like that all of that sort ofintertwines together.
But have a side question how doyou ship semiconductors?
What does that process looklike?
Vinny Licata (21:08):
Yes, so you know, the wafers are really where all
the money was at.
So our wafer shipments would be, you know, a hundred thousand
dollars worth and it'd be onelittle small box.
So it was the wafers that werealways the problematic piece.
The semiconductors are.
You know, we put those intoreels, are we put them into
tubes, and we were shippingmaybe ten thousand in a box.
(21:30):
Wow, there they were small.
We were shipping one.
I think that was one pointthree billion chips a month.
So there was a lot of chipsthat were moving in and out of
our, our factory.
So they were smaller boxesbecause the semiconductors are
fairly small we did have somelarger ones.
But moving those boxes it wasall pretty much partial but you
(21:53):
were moving, you know, thousandsof dollars in those small boxes
just over A lot of distance isprobably one of the.
Blythe Brumleve (22:01):
I don't know if you've ever seen one of those
pictures of like a truck, andthen the whole entire flat bed
is empty, except for one boxthat securely strapped in.
I imagine that that's what thesemiconductor shipping looks
like.
Vinny Licata (22:13):
Yeah, we were filling a lot of you all these
for our vendors, so those arethose on the airplane, so we had
like two or three of those forlocation.
Blythe Brumleve (22:22):
Oh, that's cool .
What about?
I know you mentioned a tm's to.
How do you ship a tm's?
Vinny Licata (22:28):
Yeah, those were going on a lot of ltl and ocean
shipments, so they were heavy,right they were.
They were hard to move around.
You didn't want to get damaged,so we did a lot of that on our
ltl network.
Blythe Brumleve (22:38):
And I imagine for those things like
semiconductors, a tm's like youalmost have to have extra
security for those type ofproducts, right?
Vinny Licata (22:47):
Yeah, our.
So our average selling pricefor our semiconductors only
about nine and a half cents.
So we weren't as secure asmaybe an intel or an amd.
Right, so we're in these.
This day and age is qualcomm,but it was.
Security was important for us,a tm's as well.
(23:07):
Right, the whole security aboutan a tm.
Was that really aboutinstallation and keeping the
whole software system secure?
So that was really where thekey part of an a tm was on the
installation, not necessarily onthe shipping side.
Blythe Brumleve (23:20):
Yeah, so not really like a whole, like
government entourage of you know, like the feds securing the
video, the vehicle it's more ofon the prelim side of things
where you make that, thesecurity adjustments.
Vinny Licata (23:32):
Yeah, it was when we went and did the install.
We'd have to actually go into asecure network, make sure that
the a tm when it was brought uponline.
That was where the big securitywas.
A was really implemented.
Blythe Brumleve (23:44):
Oh, wow, that's super interesting because I
wonder how you keep theintegrity of that of the
security there once.
I imagine once it's already setup and established, then it's
pretty like clear sailing afterthat correct.
Vinny Licata (23:56):
It was just that whole security piece and there
was a whole process to make surethat the line was secure and
that there was a tunnel that wasdirectly to the banks and be
able to get the information theyrequire.
Blythe Brumleve (24:07):
That's cool that.
Thank you for placating my myside questions.
Next step, next step that wehave that is actually related to
the state of manufacturingreport is 95% of manufacturing
leaders are struggling to solveworkforce issues.
I imagine this kind of tiesinto what the Fictiv product
does well, and that'seliminating the need for the
(24:28):
back and forth at the meetingsand things like that.
Where they have a new productthat they want to get pricing on
, they can just immediatelyupload it and get that product
pricing.
But is there anything elsethat's missing from this?
95% of manufacturing leadersare struggling to solve
workforce issues.
Vinny Licata (24:43):
Yes.
So when I was on the other sideof the business saying the
semiconductor world, right, thelogistics departments really are
concerned about gettingproducts to the customer.
So when you're an engineer in,our engineers used to come to me
hey, I need this shipment movedhere there.
Right, it didn't get quite thevisibility that maybe it should
have that had I known.
Right, that whole new productdevelopment cycle is needs to be
(25:03):
faster.
But you know, the focus of thelogistics group is really on the
other side of it getting thoseproducts to the customers.
So what we want to do on ourside is try to make it easier
for our customers so they don'thave to rely on their logistics
teams.
We want to be able to helpbring some value and say let us
take your shipment, let us worryabout getting it through
(25:24):
customs and let us try todeliver to you as easy and
seamless and frictionless aspossible.
So that's how we think we canhelp with that, you know.
Reduction in workforce.
Blythe Brumleve (25:33):
So almost like more on the freight forwarder
side of things versus like atraditional freight brokerage.
Is that accurate?
Vinny Licata (25:41):
Well, it's really just let us manage this shipment
for you, right, and let us putit on our network, and we'll get
it to you with little to noissues.
Blythe Brumleve (25:50):
And I'm sure, a lot of these companies.
They're just, they're ready tojust take that whole list of
things to do and give it tosomeone else that they trust in
order to take care of it.
Vinny Licata (25:59):
Right.
So that makes you have to makesure you have a good process and
that you have a good networkthat can deliver to your
commitments.
Blythe Brumleve (26:06):
And so for you being head of logistics, you
know, with all the turmoil thatwe've experienced over the last
few years, how are you makingsure that your logistics
operation is running as smoothlyas possible when all of these
things change on a dime, andchange dramatically?
Vinny Licata (26:23):
I think it's all about relationships that you
have with your vendor.
Right?
I've always talked partnershipsand that's it's just a word.
Right?
It's how you actually interactwith your vendors.
Right, you can say, yes, I needa, I can beat on them for price
, but that's really not whatit's about.
Right?
It's about trying to find thebalance of pricing, quality and
(26:43):
also working through issues.
We're always going to fail.
Right, shipments are going toget delayed.
It's how you react and how youcan work with your vendors to
make sure you can resolve thoseissues, because we're going to
see them, they'll something willhappen here.
But if it's how they respondand it's how you guys work
together to get that solved isreally the key.
So I'm all about making surethat I have partners I can work
(27:04):
with, that can listen to us andmake sure that, hey, if we're
not doing something as a company, what do we need to do
different so we can get thisproduct to our customers without
any issue?
Blythe Brumleve (27:14):
Yeah, definitely the proactive
approach I feel like is veryunderrated, but much needed.
All right, there's a couplemore stats that we have here for
you.
It says 2023 reveals an 11point increase from 2022 and
companies prioritizinginnovation speed as a top
priority, signaling a focus ongrowth.
So for a lot of folks, they'reterrified that we're going to
(27:37):
continue to enter into arecession and that's a whole, I
guess, set of questions on themajor, like a populist sort of
problem that's going on, butfrom the manufacturing side of
things, it actually sounds likethere's room for optimism,
there's room for growth, becausethat's what they're planning
for.
Is that an accurate sort ofassessment of that stat?
Vinny Licata (27:59):
Yeah, I mean, manufacturing is not going away.
People still need productswhere we're infatuated with the
new gadget or the new item.
So I don't think we're going tosee any downturn in
manufacturing.
It's just finding that balanceof whether you're going to be
near short, offshore, and howcan you provide that network
that your customers really need.
Blythe Brumleve (28:20):
Okay, and then final question for the state of
manufacturing report Are thereany stats that you really like,
that really stood out to you,that I didn't already mention?
Vinny Licata (28:31):
I think you covered a lot of them.
I did mention the 97% expect AIto impact product development,
manufacturing functions, but oneof the keys is just that the
agility of the supply chain iscritical.
Improving that visibility is atop priority for, basically,
whether a company is big, smallor medium size, it's just making
(28:53):
sure you have visibility andagility.
Blythe Brumleve (28:56):
For sure.
I think diversifying and beingable to stay agile, I think is
the new business norm for avariety of industries and a
variety of ways.
If you can have those twothings, I think that makes you
really strongly suited for thefuture.
Now I do have a few questionsthat I ask on the podcast that
are occurring set of questions.
(29:17):
So, if you'll placate me herefor a little bit, as you did
with the ATM and thesemiconductor question, we have
a few questions that we'd liketo target around the attention
economy and your favorite appsand things like that.
So kind of fun, kind of casual.
So first question is what isyour favorite SaaS product
that's not your own, Like a toolthat you use maybe every day,
(29:43):
that you couldn't live without?
Some people say like Slack, butit's like you can live without
Slack.
Vinny Licata (29:49):
Oh, we could not live without Slack.
Oh, really, that's a newservice that I've been utilizing
in the last six months here atFICTED, and I could not live
without that right now.
Blythe Brumleve (29:59):
Oh okay, so you're for it, I do a tremendous
amount of communication throughSlack.
That's awesome, okay, okay.
So Slack is a for sure one foryou.
For me, it feels like anothersocial media app that I have to
check the notifications, but ifyour whole organization is in it
, then it probably is toeverybody's benefit.
Vinny Licata (30:18):
Yes, we are functioning as an organization.
It takes a little bit to getused to, but it really is a good
product and we've been able tomaster it to get as much value
out of it as we can.
Blythe Brumleve (30:31):
Now I typically like to ask people like do you
have a favorite logistics orsupply chain factoid?
You've worked in logistics fora while in a bunch of different
cool industries.
Do you have a favoritelogistics fact?
Vinny Licata (30:48):
You know just that at any one point in time.
You know, when I was in thesemiconductor world, we were
managing 10,000 shipments in theair at any one point in time,
which was a lot of product forbasically an organization that
was a size of about 40.
Wow.
Blythe Brumleve (31:04):
Holy crap.
Yeah, that's a lot ofmanagement, that's a lot of
visibility needed for a lot ofthose products.
Vinny Licata (31:14):
We just had a network, a partnership in the
product.
You know if you can executeright.
Logistics is kind of an unknownor unseen right.
You're only seen when you failRight and unfortunately there's
nobody to come in and make upfor our failure right From the
logistics world.
You can make up formanufacturing failures, you can
make up for planning failures,but there's nobody to come in
(31:36):
and save you in the logisticsworld.
So it's being able to manageall of those and and be able to
do with as few people aspossible.
That, I think, is interesting.
Blythe Brumleve (31:48):
I typically will compare logistics to the
CIA, because you really onlyknow what the CIA does if there
is a failure.
Vinny Licata (31:56):
Yeah, we had a person that says well, you're
just shipping a box, how hardcan it be?
And again, if they just don'trealize all that goes into
moving something across theborder, it's like, let's see you
try it.
Blythe Brumleve (32:09):
That's why you pay us.
All right, and last funquestion what's your favorite
social media platform and why?
Vinny Licata (32:20):
I think Instagram, because I get to see my niece
right.
She lives in a different stateand we're constantly where is
she, what's she up to.
Because her mom really does agreat job of getting them well,
niece and nephew, getting themboth on to social media so we're
able to see them grow throughInstagram.
(32:41):
So it's a positive thing for us.
Blythe Brumleve (32:45):
That's awesome.
That's a good reason to keepsocial media, because a lot of
people answer that question like, oh, I can't stand social media
, but that's a very good reasonto have it.
Vinny Licata (32:55):
Yeah, and I'm not on some of those other platforms
, so I keep it.
I have a hard enough timekeeping up with social media.
It's just, it's challenging,right it's?
Blythe Brumleve (33:05):
a part-time job .
It really is.
Vinny Licata (33:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Blythe Brumleve (33:09):
All right, vinnie.
Well, as we kind of round outthe interview, is there anything
that you feel is important tomention of the Fictiv brand that
we haven't already talked about, or anything coming down the
pipeline that we should expect?
Vinny Licata (33:24):
Just you know, having agility in the supply
chain is something that'scritically important, and being
able to have partners that are,you know, have that options to
be near short, off short, andjust be able to give you the
flexibility you need as acustomer something that Fictiv
can provide and help free upsome of the time of the engineer
so they can focus on their newproduct development.
Blythe Brumleve (33:46):
Yes, keep the engineers from booking
unnecessary meetings.
Just go right to the Fictivwebsite and do an upload.
That sounds super simple and Idon't know why other companies
haven't done that before, sothat was really fun to learn.
Thank you so much for sharingyour insight.
Work and folks follow more ofyour work.
Get linked up with Fictiv.
We'll obviously add some linksin the show notes to the state
(34:08):
of manufacturing report and alsoto Fictiv.
Any other social platforms thatyou want to highlight that
you're not active on?
Vinny Licata (34:18):
I don't have anything else.
Blythe Brumleve (34:20):
Well, we will make sure that we link to the
Fictiv platforms so, for anybodywho's interested in that, you
can also download the report orfollow Fictiv.
They have a really greatYouTube channel, so I highly
suggest that and I'll make sureI link to it in the show notes.
But, vinny, thank you so much.
This was awesome to learn aboutFascinating discussion and we
appreciate your time.
Vinny Licata (34:39):
No, I appreciate Thanks for having me Absolutely.
Blythe Brumleve (34:46):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
Everything Is Logistics, apodcast for the thinkers in
freight, telling the storiesbehind how your favorite stuff
and people get from point A to B.
Subscribe to the show, sign upfor our newsletter and follow
our socials over atEverythingIsLogisticscom.
And in addition to the podcast,I also wanted to let you all
know about another company Ioperate, and that's Digital
(35:07):
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Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
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where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
(35:27):
Well, that doesn't happen atDigital Dispatch.
We've been building onlinesince 2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
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Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags.
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