Navigating Supply Chain Management Trends for 2024

Episode Transcript
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Blythe Brumleve (00:05):
Welcome to another episode of Everything Is
Logistics, a podcast for thethinkers in freight.
We are proudly presented by SPI.
Logistics and I am your host,Blythe Brumleve, and we've got
another special episode for youtoday, this time an appearance
on the Transformational GroundControl podcast hosted by Eric
Kimberling, who is also theowner of Third Stage Consulting.

Eric Kimberling (00:27):
So in this episode I got to stretch my
supply chain knowledge a bit,where, admittedly, I've only
recently felt comfortablesharing and actually even
developing a somewhat cohesivesupply chain knowledge set, if
that word salad makes sense, butfor fellow logistics
professionals who may want togather some additional knowledge
of outside of the logisticssector.

(00:50):
This is probably going to be apodcast for you, because when
you think about it, logisticsfeels like a huge segment.
But that whole industry, ourwhole industry, is just one
segment of the overall globalsupply chain.
And what impacts the overallglobal supply chain?
Well, geopolitical issues,trade issues, trade lanes,
sustainability, weather patterns, procurement, maritime and so

(01:14):
much more.
In fact, the more I learn aboutthe global supply chain, the
more I realize how much morethere is left to learn, which is
exciting but also makes me feellike I'll run out of time
before I can actually learn itall.
But let's try to learn it allanyways.
And if I'm off base with any ofthis thinking, if you're an
expert in any of these differentassociations within supply

(01:36):
chain, I would love to hear fromyou so I can learn even more.
Drop me a note in the shownotes where you can find my
contact information and we canset up a conversation to discuss
further.
So, with all that said, here ismy conversation with Eric from
the Transformational GroundControl podcast, talking about
supply chain trends for 2024.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
So I'm excited for our next guest, someone who's
been on the show in the past oneother time, but it's been a
while.
It's been about a year.
It was about this time lastyear, I believe that she was on
the show to talk about an introto supply chain management back
then.
But today we're not going totalk about an intro to supply
chain management.
We're going to talk abouttrends for 2024 and beyond as it
relates to supply chainmanagement.
So joining us here today isBlythe Brumleve, who's the

(02:21):
podcast host, or the host of theEverything is Logistics podcast
, as well as other businessadventures that she's involved
with as well.
So, Blythe, thank you for beinghere today.

Thank you so much for having me Excited to be
here.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Excited to have you.
This is your second time on theshow.
I know last time you were on,which is about a year ago I
think it was probably about thistime last year we had a really
great discussion.
We got into a lot of supplychain stuff and I thought it
would just be a great time forus to have sort of a checkpoint
here.
We're late in 2023.
Thought it'd be a greatopportunity for us to check in
and see where things stand inthe world of supply chain
management, where you see theworld headed with supply chain

(02:56):
management in 2024 and beyondand all this other good stuff
related to trends and justwhat's happening in the space.
But before we get into thosequestions, tell us a little bit
about yourself and yourdifferent companies that you
manage.

Sure, so I am the host of a podcast called
Everything is Logistics.
So, as you can tell, it coverslogistics and supply chain and
transportation, mostly focusedon the US market.
Now we do cover internationaltopics as well, of course, but I
started off in the freightindustry here in the US, in
Jacksonville, florida, workingas an executive assistant at a

(03:29):
3PO, which is a third partylogistics company, basically
working side by side with theexecutive team, learning how a
transportation company operates,and so because of that
experience there, I was giventhe role of marketing and
digital media manager, and so Istarted managing all of the

(03:49):
websites and marketing materialsfor that company and that was
sort of my trial by fire intothe world of logistics, and that
since has evolved into my owncompany, where the company that
I worked for before became myvery first customer.
That company is DigitalDispatch.
It's website managementsolutions for the logistics
industry.

(04:09):
So brokers, carriers, shippers,vendors, people like that
anybody who essentially small tomedium sized businesses who
need those kinds of services.
But the podcast is really mymain focus.
That's where I get to havethese awesome conversations with
people from all over the world,all over different sectors and
modes of transportation, so I'mexcited to be here.

(04:32):
I'm excited to talk about thefascinating world of supply
chain, because it really is.
We were talking just before wegot on air that there's so much
to learn within the world ofsupply chain, from a historical
perspective to just recenthistory, and even where we think
geopolitical struggles,alignments, are going to evolve

(04:53):
in the near future.
It's always evolving, it'salways changing and I think
that's why I love this industryso much.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, we were also talking about how it's likely as
possible that neither one of usor anyone in the field will
ever fully learn and master allthere is to master about supply
chain management, because itdoes change so fast.

Right, exactly I wish.
I wish I could learn it all.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Right, so how would you so you started to touch on
this a little bit then and maybejust to set the stage for the
conversation here today howwould you summarize how the
supply chain field has unfoldedin 2023 so far, if we sort of
look at just the year in reviewsort of thing?
I know it's a little early forthat, but just three quarters of
the way through what's unfoldedhere?
What are the big trends you'veseen?

So we're really coming off the downturn of the
COVID economy and sospecifically here in the United
States, there was a lot ofstimulus impact.
There are a lot of checks thatwent out to the population
within the US.
A lot of residents werebasically locked inside and
couldn't go anywhere andcouldn't do anything.
So what did they do?
They spent their money onconsumer goods, and so that had

(05:56):
a massive ripple effectthroughout the entire global
economy, global supply chain.
We were we couldn't import fastenough all of the goods that US
residents were buying, mainlybecause they were bored at home,
and so now we're starting tosee a little bit of that
pendulum shift back to whereconsumers are spending a good

(06:18):
amount of their money on all ofthese consumer goods.
That pendulum switched backover the last year or so into
experiences.
People were traveling more anddoing more experiences.
But now that pendulum has kindof swung back towards the middle
where consumer debt hasincreased.
I think it just crossed $1trillion here in the United

(06:39):
States.
So consumers are pulling backon their spending rightfully so,
and so what we're seeing ismore of a settling in to what
this new post-COVID economy sortof looks like in the United
States.
We're going back to sort of2018, 2019 levels of purchasing.
We're starting to see a bunchof.

(06:59):
Especially over the last year, alot of retailers were dealing
with surplus inventory issues.
Now those have since balancedout a little bit.
So now we're coming up into theholiday season and it's really
a wait and see game, with a lotof what the consumers want to do
, and the retailers are going toessentially react to what the
consumers want.
So they're not, they don't havethese massive, you know,

(07:22):
warehouse space filled withinventories.
I mean, even last year, lastChristmas season, we were still
selling goods that were oncontainer ships that were stuck
out on the port of Long Beachand LA, that were stuck on those
ships for eight, nine months,and so a lot of those Halloween
decorations, those Christmasdecorations that were stuck out
on the boats in 2021, thatinventory was sold off in 2022.

(07:46):
And so this has really been thefirst holiday season where
we're going to find out wherethe true economy is at from a US
perspective and then how therest of the world is going to
react as far as spending as well.
I think there's a greater fearof recessionary conditions
across the entire globe, and soit's kind of a wait and see

(08:07):
approach, both on the consumerside and on the retailer side,
and that really is what drives alot of shipments, I guess,
separate from you know.
Some of them are materials, drybulk, natural gas, crude oil,
things like that.
Those shipments are treatedvery separately from consumer
spending and so that's a wholedifferent market.

(08:28):
I don't really have theexpertise on you know, dry bulk
goods and you know crude oil andthings like that, but I do know
that some geopolitical tensionsare affecting those shipments
as well.
But here at the state side itreally is all about the consumer
and retailers just waiting andseeing.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Hmm, interesting.
So are retailers in general andis the supply chain in general
struggling less with excessinventory and sort of that
lumpiness of the supply chainthat we've had in recent years?

Yeah, they're definitely so.
They have the re a lot of themajor retailers so the Walmart,
the Target, costco's, even ofthe world they have that
warehouse space now secured, andso they're essentially what
they're doing is they're justwaiting to see what the consumer
is going to do.
I mentioned earlier about theconsumer debt that has been
increasing.
What is another factor thatreally impacted consumer

(09:20):
spending is student loanrepayments.
For those who are viewinginternationally, us has a very,
I guess, a big issue withstudent loan payments for their
college degrees, for theircollege education.
Those payments were put on holdsince COVID and now, with that
delay being removed, you'regoing to have an extra added

(09:44):
expense and so things aregetting much more expensive for
the US consumer, much more thanyou know traditionally have been
, and so you have all of theseadditional bills that are coming
down the pipeline.
So we kind of expect to haveconsumers are going to spend a
little bit less this holidayseason, but we just don't know
yet, because we don't know ifthey're going to continue to

(10:06):
rack up credit card debt, butless likely so because of all of
those external factors that arenow going to be playing a role
as far as consumer spending isconcerned.
And then you have on thecarrier and the broker side of
things, which is the truckingcompanies and the companies that
are trying to arrange theshipments from the customers to
the people who are actuallymaking the goods, the

(10:26):
manufacturers.
So you have those addedcomponents of they're also
dealing with an enormous amountof fraud that's going on.
And so anytime you see, youknow, consumers kind of
interesting, you know, from aglobal perspective when you see
the rise in consumer debt Peoplenot having access to a lot of
excess funds to be able to goand shop Then you have a rise in

(10:49):
crime, especially cargo crimerelated activities that are also
affecting a lot of brokers, alot of carriers, and it's
becoming the cost of doingbusiness is becoming very, very
expensive, and so you have allof these factors sort of
colliding in at once.
But the economy is stillespecially the US based economy,
is still doing relatively okay.

(11:09):
There are some media companies,freight waves in particular.
They have their sonar platformwhich predicts and analyzes, you
know, tender inbound rejectionshipments, things like that.
They analyze all of that dataand they kind of predict that by
Q2 of 2024 that we'reessentially going to be out of
any kind of recession.

(11:30):
There are some experts thatthink that we're going to be
done with any kind of recessionfears by the summer.
But spring to summertime islooking like when you know we're
going to kind of be back tothose pre pandemic levels and
the recession concerns are goingto be over.
So hopefully that leads toconsumer confidence increasing
and then retailers confidenceincreasing, and then you know

(11:51):
that has a ripple effectthroughout all of shipping,
whether it's the big cargo shipsthat you see out in the ocean
or if it's the down to thetrucks, to the Amazon delivery
packages that you're getting onyour doorstep, all of that has a
ripple effect.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Right right, that's super interesting.
That's an interestingprediction for for next year and
when, when things might startto settle down a bit there.
So that's, that's superinteresting.
So what other trends do you seedeveloping then for 2024 and
beyond?
You talked about?
You know what, what people arepredicting for Q2 and into the
summer of next year?

(12:26):
What other sort of big trendsor predictions do you have for
supply chain management in thenext year?

Well, I think I mean we made it a hold 12
minutes without mentioning AI.
So AI is just dominating, Ithink, every part of the
conversation in every industry,especially when it comes to the
logistics industry and justglobal transportation as a whole
there.
So, to put things inperspective for the audience

(12:51):
there, the supply chain industryas a whole has been really slow
to adopt new technology.
They made major investments inthe 90s, in the mid 90s, early
2000s, into what's called thesemassive transportation
management software, warehousemanagement software, fleet
management software.
They made all of thoseinvestments in the 90s and what

(13:12):
happens is, with a lot of thosedifferent platforms they're big,
all in one platforms designedto handle everything, all of
your data, from accounting totracking loads, to getting your
products from point A to B, ratenegotiations all of those
things were happening in oneplatform.
Now you can imagine that thatis so much data.

(13:34):
It is so much to filter through, and so for a lot of the
smarter companies here in thefreight space, a lot of them
have started to implementdifferent machine learning
technologies.
They're implementing those intotheir already established tech
stacks.
Now what we're seeing,especially that started this
year, is that some of thosesystems that were developed in

(13:56):
the late 90s, the early 2000s.
They're becoming a littleclunky.
They're becoming a little, Iguess, abrasive to further
integrations outsideintegrations with different
other technology providers.
Some of them are doing a goodjob of incorporating those
different technologies intothose massive tech stacks, but
it's really started to happenover the last year where you're

(14:18):
starting to get these not smallplayers, but these niche players
who focus on one thing Drivertracking, truck parking, you
know a maritime shipping, youknow that the amount of time
that you're waiting off of thecoast in order to, you know, get
your call into the port inorder to be unloaded, measuring

(14:40):
gas and measuring fuel not gasfuel truckers will kill me if I
say gas measuring fuel If youknow, from point A to B, how
much speed you should be doingon the highway, how much of your
speed you should be doing onthe ocean, all of these
different niche technologyplayers are now starting to come
into the fold and they'restarting to be integrated into

(15:01):
these bigger systems, and so Ithink a major trend for 2024 is
going to be the further adoptionof a I Trying to filter through
all of those different datapoints to help save their
customers money, to help savethemselves.
The logistics providers helpthem save some money anywhere
they can, because, just to giveyou a perspective, any good that

(15:21):
you have, any kind of goodsthat you have in your house
building materials, things likethat up to 50% of that products
goods are transportation relatedcosts.
So any small savings that youcan make on any part of the
transportation process has amassive ripple effect.
And so I think that we're goingto see more a I adoption.

(15:41):
We're going to see more machinelearning and we're going to see
more of these niche players andhopefully break down some of
these technological silos thatexist within all throughout
supply chain, where you don'thave just intermodal out on an
island by themselves, you don'thave maritime out on an island
by themselves, you don'ttrucking or you know even the
variety of different trucks thatare being used.

(16:03):
You don't have all of thesedifferent silos.
They can play together andintegrate much more.
We're going to see much more ofthat, not just in 2024, but in
2023 as well.
These are when companies arestarting to make those
investments, and make theirbudgets is right now.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
That's super interesting.
We're here with Blythe Brumlevetalking about supply chain
management trends in 2024 andbeyond.
We've got a lot more to cover.
We're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be back with moretransformation, ground control.

Blythe Brumleve (16:30):
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Speaker 3 (17:19):
Hello, welcome back to transformation ground control
, episode number one hundred andthirty nine.
My name is Eric Kimberly, herewith Kyler Sheetham.
You can find new episodes ofthe show every Wednesday at
transformation ground controldot com.
You can also go to YouTube,linkedin, facebook and Twitter,
where it streams every week, aswell as audio podcast platforms
throughout the world.
But the easiest way is just togo to transformation ground
control dot com and you can findall the platforms that were on

(17:40):
there.
So be sure to check out some ofthe past episodes you may have
missed as well.
We're here in the midst of aconversation with life Brim
leave talking about supply chainmanagement trends in twenty
twenty four and beyond.
Let's jump back into theconversation and here's a follow
up question.
I'm going to get to you up.
I'll put it on the screen.
I'll read in a moment.
Before I do, though, just onequick note for those of you that
are watching on LinkedIn.

(18:00):
Apparently, there's a problemwith the LinkedIn chat feature.
If you're on the, if you're onthe desktop, I don't think that
chat is working, or at leastwe're not seeing him here.
So if you, you can either go tothe mobile LinkedIn interface
or you can go to YouTube if youwant to ask questions.
So I'm not ignoring you.
If you're trying to ask aquestion on LinkedIn, just try
the mobile app on LinkedIn orYouTube if you, if you want to

(18:21):
engage with us here.
But thank you for all thequestions that are coming in so
far.
This one's from YouTube, fromAndreas on YouTube, and you sort
of answered this, but I'mcurious to maybe dive into this
a little bit more.
But is AI just a buzzword, ordo you already see real-life use
cases that really get used?
You sort of rattle off a bunchof ways AI could help supply
chain managers and supply chainsin general.

(18:42):
How often are you actuallyseeing those use cases, or how
much is it emerging, would yousay now, and what do you expect
to see in the future?

I do not think it's just a buzzword.
I think it's going to beabsolutely crucial, not just to
at the top company line level,but down to the workers that are
in the trenches.
Ai can really help a lot ofthose different processes and
decision making that is going onfrom the top down to the bottom
.
We're seeing massive adoptionhappening from the accounting

(19:11):
perspective.
We're also seeing it from thesales and marketing perspective.
I think that that's where thebigger use cases are right now.
There are other transportationcompanies I'll use one, for
example that they are taking theweather data that's available
to anyone in the United Statesor really anyone globally.
You can take that weather dataand overlay it on top of the

(19:32):
shipments that you already havewithin your system.
Now the brokers who are sittingat the phones and they're
calling the truck drivers,they're calling their customers,
they're trying to get theseshipments moved from point A to
B.
They can now see those weatherpatterns days in advance so they
can plan their equipment aroundthat, say, a major hurricane is
going to be coming through, say, the southeastern part of the

(19:54):
United States.
You likely do not want yourshipments or your trucks or your
equipment in those areas thatare going to be heavily impacted
unless you're going to bestaging them for recovery relief
.
So there's lots of differentuse cases of how AI where you
could take that broker thatperson that's sitting at the
phone making those decisions isnow able to take big pieces of

(20:16):
that decision making process anduse AI as a filter.
On top of those decision makingreally high impact, revenue
impacting decisions.
They're using these differenttools and these different ways
to sort through it massiveamounts of data, and that's
really what AI is is taking allof your data and making it

(20:37):
actionable.
And I think that that's whereyou know a lot of folks when
they hear maybe is you know AI abuzzword or maybe is AI just a
fad?
Ai has been around for a while,but in the sense of what we
were talking about with AI today, it's essentially taking large
data sets, large data sets ofthings already within your

(20:57):
organization and then figuringout how you can use intelligence
and your employees to use thatdata to make decisions faster.
So it's one of those thingsthat is going to make the entire
role evolve, where you're usingAI as almost like a co pilot in
your day to day work.
So it's not just a platformyou're going to go to, like

(21:18):
aicom and you know it buy thetool and then implement it into
your systems.
It's going to be a core part ofevery part of your job to help
you make decisions faster.
So I think, from thatperspective, we are only
scratching the surface when itcomes to transportation data,
because when you think oftransportation data and just
global logistics supply chain,it really tells the story of

(21:42):
consumer behavior all over theglobe.
What people are purchasing,what people are buying, tells us
about what their futureinvestments are going to be, and
we simply just can't sortthrough all of that data by
ourselves.
We do need the help from theseother technology players in
order to make those decisionsfaster, but it also matters if

(22:04):
you have good data, because ifyou have bad data, you're not
going to be able to make thosedecisions that are going to help
your customers get theirproducts delivered from source
to porch much more quickly andmuch more efficiently, which is
what every customer, everymanufacturer, wants in the world
is they want cheapertransportation costs, and that's
really going to be the only wayto increase productivity from a

(22:26):
logistics provider perspective.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, that's.
That's super interesting.
It's almost like there's a like, an integration or a coming
together of different types oftechnology.
Here you've got, you know, ai,internet of Things, I mean
predictive analytics, just datamanagement, all this stuff
that's sort of been buzzingaround in the background for a
while now seems like it's sortof a perfect storm of
opportunity.

(22:49):
Now, technology with all thesedifferent emerging tax,
especially with AI, ai sort oflike the capstone, that sort of
takes all that other stuff andnow makes it possible to make
smarter decisions and not justhave the data but now figure out
what you're going to do with itand make better decisions.
Now, kind of along those linesthis is from Kyler on LinkedIn
along those lines of howtechnology will improve supply

(23:11):
chains and effects of supplychain management going forward.
Her question is how areartificial intelligence
technologies being applied tooptimize supply chain and
logistics operations and whatbenefits do they offer?
You know what I'm so?
Sorry, that is not the questionI'm meant to ask.
That is a good question.
I'm going to come back to it.
Sorry for the last.
I just told you 180 here.
The one I meant to ask.
That was related to the lastone was also from Kyler.

(23:31):
But this is can you talk moreabout the need for best of breed
solutions and supply chainmanagement?
Sound like niche options, havegreat potential, but how to
influence the core ERP solution?
So you talk about AI and youtalk about these different
technologies that are becomingmore mainstream and more of an
opportunity to help improvesupply chain management.
What does that mean in terms oflike your back office ERP

(23:54):
systems and or your traditionalsupply chain management systems?
Are these going to be sort ofstandalone systems or
technologies that you're talkingabout, or do you think it
eventually gets embedded withinERP and supply chain management
solutions themselves?

There are definitely some players that are
going to be integrated intosome of these ERP solutions.
Now it remains to be seen,because there are also there's
an underlying current that hashappened within the, I would say
, the past five years, wherewhat's called these digital
freight brokerages, which ismight be a little in the weeds
for, you know, supply chainmanagement nerds out there that

(24:27):
I am one to, so I use that termaffectionately.
Now they have tried toimplement technology into a
system that is mostlyrelationship based.
So for a lot of folks if youdon't, I guess, maybe understand
the, I guess, the intricaciesof the US freight market the US
freight market is in, I imaginethis works all over the globe

(24:49):
because relationships matter,and so for a lot of these folks,
they have a direct relationshipwith the customer that's
arranging the shipments.
Now these customers have had awhirlwind of three years of
nobody even knowing what asupply chain manager role was.
They were not invited into theC suite, they were not invited
into budget planning or thingslike that, and they and they

(25:12):
should have been, you know,supply chain managers should
have had a seat at the table,because transportation costs
affect the product in good costsso much up to 50%, like I just
said, and so for a lot of thesecompanies, they have avoided
that, that issue and that roleof a supply chain manager.
Now the supply chain managerand a lot of companies has a

(25:34):
seat at the C suite table.
They're in the weekly meetingsand they're talking about the
increased role and theirincreased productivity or trying
to get to an increasedproductivity within their role,
but they're also these arepeople who are handling tons and
tons of brokers and shipmentsand relationships and they
really just are frankly tired.

(25:55):
They are essentially, you knowone very small teams, one to
five people that are in chargeof supply chain for global
companies.
So they're overworked, but theyalso want to focus on their go
to relationships.
So supply chain is very muchand always will be, a very
people first business, but theyare getting pressure from the

(26:16):
top, from their investors, frompartner companies, that they
need to start making these tech,these tech investments, and so
that's where the techinvestments are almost being
pushed off to this, not thesmaller players, but the people
lower in.
So you have the supply chainmanager, you have the logistic
service providers, you have yourwarehouse operators, you have
your procurement directors, youhave all of these people that

(26:38):
are now responsible for all ofthese different factors, and so
you have to think about it fromthe lens of what technology is
going to help that supply, thatsmall supply team, supply chain
manager team, be able to workmore effectively, be able to be
more productive.
And a lot of those folks arescared to make those large tech
investments right now because ofthe fact that A lot of these

(27:04):
companies have focused on thedigital side of things, the
digital movement of goods.
They've kind of forgot a littlebit about the relationship
aspect that you have to buildbetween customer and broker and
shipper and driver.
All of these relationshipsmatter, and so for a lot of
these digital freight brokerages, for example, a lot of them
focused on we're going to removethe person, we're going to

(27:25):
remove the truck driver, we'regoing to remove these people
from the decision making processand just digitally match a
customer to a truck.
What's been lost over the lastfive years, and what companies
are starting to realize, is thatyou need both.
You need the tech advancement,you need the tech integrations,
but you also cannot remove thehuman from the equation, and so

(27:48):
there's a lot of companies thatare struggling right now on how
do we make tech investmentswithout removing the human?
Because we've already beenburned over the last five years
for making these large techinvestments and that hasn't
resulted in ROI.
So now it's the pendulum.
We kind of talked earlier aboutthe pendulum swinging.
The pendulum is swinging backto the folks who focus on

(28:09):
relationships and that they canbuild out customized
transportation reallytransportation, I would say
solutions for these differentcustomers, based on their
specific needs.
And that's where technology cancome into play to help develop
those custom solutions, wherethe person and the people are
still at the forefront of makingthose business decisions.

(28:33):
So then, that way, the peoplewho are working in the trenches,
who are often forgotten about,those are the people that are
actually using the software.
Those are the people that areactually using these different
tech integrations and trying tofind where else they can make
those slight improvements fromnot having to make 40 calls a
day, 100 calls a day, in orderto see where freight is.

(28:54):
So now they're trying to figureout what.
What does that balance looklike?
And so I think for a lot ofcompanies, especially in supply
chain, they've been burned alittle bit in the past and now
they're trying to figure outwhere do we make the investments
from a technology perspectivethat we can get these
incremental improvements from aproductivity perspective and
then still really focus on thepeople side of things, which I

(29:17):
think has been largely forgotten, mostly because we've all been
running around like chickenswith our heads cut off over the
last few years and now thingsare starting to kind of settle
into what we think is the newnormal, and that's where
companies can now catch thebreath, supply chain managers
can catch the breath andeverybody that works underneath
them could kind of have a way tosay OK, what did we learn?

(29:39):
Where can we make theseinvestments and where are we not
going to waste a lot of timeand energy?
Because I, you know, I don'thave to explain this to you Like
you know a lot of thesecompanies, the senior VP that
maybe makes a fly by nightdecision where that software
sounds great, we're going to useit, and then they never talk to
the people who actually use thesoftware.
They never talk to the peoplethat it actually directly

(29:59):
affects, and so I think thatthat's where it's almost like
very much coming back to realityfor a lot of these companies is
that you probably overinvestedin technology solutions that
didn't have a huge ROI at theend of the day.
And then now you have toreinvest back into AI.
There's a new sort of techthing that you got to learn, but
incorporating AI into differentfunctions of the product to

(30:23):
increase productivity of yourjob will then help the people
relationship side of things, tohelp make decisions faster so
they can focus on the thingsthat they're best at, and that's
developing and furtherdeveloping those relationships
with their customers.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's super interesting.
We're here with Blythe Brumlevetalking about supply chain
management trends in 2024 andbeyond.
We'll be back with moretransformation, ground control.

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Speaker 3 (31:52):
Hello, welcome back to transformation ground control
, episode number 139.
My name is Eric Kimberling,here with Kyler Cheatham.
transformationgroundcontrolcom.
You can also go to YouTube,linkedin, facebook and Twitter
But the easiest way is just togo to
transformationgroundcontrolcomand you can find all the

(32:12):
platforms that were on there, sobe sure to check out some of
the past episodes you may havemissed as well.
We're here in the midst of aconversation with Blythe
Brumleve of talking about supplychain management trends in 2024
and beyond.
Let's jump back into theconversation and it's an
interesting perspective becauseyou're talking about not only
changing technologies orleveraging technology in a

(32:34):
different way, but it's also acultural and mindset shift, I
would imagine, to where it'saffecting us as all these humans
in supply chain management.
How are you seeing the frontline reaction to that Like?
Are you seeing the averageentry level or the front line
person that's doing a lot of thework in supply chain management
?
How do you see their jobs beingaffected?

(32:56):
Or how are they adapting tothis?
Or do you know or are youseeing enough of that front line
behavior?

The smart ones are adopting it.
Now there is obviously with anykind of new technology, there's
a little bit of apprehension Iwould say a lot of apprehension,
depending on the segment thatyou ask.
Truck drivers in particular arevery apprehensive to new
technology.
They are arguably the mode oftransportation and logistics

(33:24):
that are the most impacted bytechnology.
They have autonomous trucks,the promise of removing the
driver sort of promise to them,and so it's become a career that
they've almost had to fightback against.
Technology coming more and moreinto the truck.
Autonomous trucks probablydoesn't look like it's going to
be a thing that's going to be along term solution, especially

(33:48):
for long haul freight.
There's a lot of debate that'sgoing on around that sector.
But then, from the trucker'sperspective, they have ELD
mandates, these electronic logdevices that have been installed
in every one of their trucks,monitoring how far they're
driving their speed.
They're going that, basicallyoutfitting a semi truck with all
of these electrical componentsthat makes the job of driving a

(34:11):
truck it's supposed to for a lotof drivers.
Their sentiment is I can drivemy truck better than this tool
can tell me how to drive it.
Now there's even moretechnology starting to come in
with cameras that are inside thetruck, that are facing them,
and you have to think about itfrom the lens of the driver.
A lot of times these are theirhomes, these is where they're

(34:33):
sleeping in, where they'reundressing in, where they're
eating in, where they'reenjoying their off time in, and
so for a lot of drivers they'revery hesitant to adopt this new
technology, whereas the officeworkers it's almost very much
the same kind of apprehension toadopting technology because
they see it as this is going totake my job.

(34:54):
And we also see it in warehouseworkers as well.
With the adoption of morerobotics, more automation coming
into the warehouse, there areactual companies that have to
train their employees to see therobot as a helper.
From a psychologicalperspective, they have to
introduce this kind of trainingto say you have to see this

(35:15):
robot as a helper, not somethingthat's going to take your job.
And so there's thispsychological component with
adopting more technology intothe fields, into various
different silos within theentire supply chain.
But then you have some of thepeople who are taking these
tools.
They are taking chat, gpt andClaude and you know, I guess,

(35:37):
bard to an extent, but Bard iskind of an afterthought, I think
, for most folks who use theselarge language model type tools.
What we're starting to see,more especially at the
enterprise level for a lot oflogistics companies, is that
they are adopting their ownpersonal LL large language
models to learn off of their owndata sets for fears that their

(36:00):
data could.
You know, privacy concernsthings like that with using some
of these open source models andsome of these other, you know,
microsoft powered models, thingslike that.
So you kind of have anapprehension.
I've seen it with a lot ofmarketers and sales folks as
well.
Much less so on the sales sideof things.
It's much more on the marketingside of things.
They really fear that theirjobs are going to be taken.

(36:22):
The way I see it is that thesejobs are evolving in that you
know, using these tools, you'regoing to be able to increase
your productivity so much more,so much faster, because you're
able to sift through data somuch more quickly.
Everything is recorded.
Conversations like this arerecorded, meetings are recorded.
You can't possibly filterthrough all of that data and be

(36:43):
able to learn something from it,to turn it into something
Actionable, and so that's why Isay the smart ones are starting
to use these tools in everyaspect of their work, from email
to quoting to, you know, rfps,to customer communications, to
Reducing the amount of phonecalls that someone has to make
to the shipper, to the broker,and so we're having a lot of

(37:05):
these tech, tech advancements,but they're very much as that
other side that is veryresistant to it.
I would say drivers are the mostresistant to it, but rightfully
so.
Where it's going to impact moreAlong the lines of supply chain
is going to be those in-officeworkers, the accounting, the
marketing, the sales teams andalso the folks that that are
doing a lot of pricing, a lot ofquoting Different trade lanes

(37:28):
all throughout the globe.
What do those rates look like?
Who's the carrier?
There's all of these differentdata points.
Weather is another one,geopolitical issues All of these
different data points have tobe pulled into consideration and
it would be impossible to makeEducated guesses or educated
decisions if you're not workingwith those different data sets

(37:49):
and using technology on top ofthose data sets.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, especially when you talk about the disparate
data sets, the the stuff that'snot internal, it's not data that
you've accumulated it orordered over decades in your own
internal systems.
This is, you know, thegeopolitical stuff, weather
related stuff, economic data.
All that stuff is third-partythat you.
You've got to figure out a wayto Tie it all together with the
internal stuff that you have anda lot of these folks.

They don't have the conversations with those
workers with it, the, thebrokers that are making a
hundred phone calls a day, orthe drivers that are driving
hundreds of miles a day.
They aren't being consultedfirst for a lot of these, these
tech investments.
And so when it comes down thepipeline, hey, you got to start
using this tool.
They don't want to use it.
And then they figure out reallyquickly oh, we just wasted a

(38:34):
very large chunk of money onthis investment Because we
didn't actually talk to thepeople who are going to be using
the tool.
So that is that it sounds likesuch an easy thing.
But I think for the last youknow handful of years a lot of
folks within supply chain havebeen.
It's almost like the the shinyshiny object syndrome, where
they see the new tech tools andthey are.

(38:55):
They want to just go ahead andjust buy them without realizing
how it's going to fit into theiralready established processes
and then also from the lens ofthe workers who are actually
going to use it.
So that's why, you know, I sayright now is that there's a
little bit of apprehension Toinvest in technology solutions
unless you can prove that youcan provide an ROI or solve a

(39:16):
very specific Problem, whichsort of brings it back to where
a lot of the niche players wetalked about earlier in the
conversation where they're goingto play a really strong role.
I mentioned it kind of brieflyearlier that it you know, a
large aspect of what's going onin this industry right now Is
fraud and prevention of fraud,cargo crimes, things you know
it's smuggling across borders,smuggling into different ports.

(39:37):
A lot of these things are, youknow it's on an uptick and so
you're.
What you're starting to seemore and that has a direct
impact on bottom line in ROI Isthat a lot of these companies
are starting to invest intracking software and it goes
back to the drivers.
Do the drivers want to betracked?
You know there's differentelements with where you're

(39:58):
shipping goods.
I I just talked to an insuranceprovider on the podcast the
other day that that mentionedthat for his Drivers in Mexico
they are only allowed to driveduring the day.
They're not allowed to drive atnight because that's where
their statistics are showingthem that a majority of cargo
crime is Happening is at night.
So when they do drive on theroad, they drive during the day

(40:18):
and they do not stop.
So a lot of these differentfactors, a lot of these
different data points are goingto they should be impacting your
decisions.
But what are those niche players?
What are they?
What kind of solutions are theyoffering for the problems that
exist?
Right now?
That is directly impactingrevenue.
Fraud and cargo crime is a hugeone, especially stateside and,

(40:39):
I would imagine, across theglobe, but that is one that is
the more investment is startingto come into that mix and and
more of a stronger focus ontrying to prevent these issues,
because we talk about all ofjust the general Normal supply
chain issues, but then you layerin the fact of cargo crime on
top of it and that it directlyimpacts pricing.

(40:59):
It directly impacts consumerspending, the costs of goods.
It impacts a lot.
So that that's a big factor ofwhat's going on in supply chain
right now.
That is Trying to be combativewith technology and with
different insurance solutions,tracking things like that.
But are the drivers going touse it?
Are the broker is going to useit?
That still remains to be seen.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
So you're you're touching on a lot of stuff here,
like related to technologytrends, human adoption you
talked earlier about the dustsettling from from Covid and
supply chains just sort ofresuming back to their 2018
Normalcy, if there is such athing.
So there's a lot.
There's a lot going on here,right.
There's a lot of differentthings.
You're talking about what.

(41:42):
What do you see with all thesesupply chain managers that you
talk to every day and interviewon your podcast and whatnot?
What are the biggest thingsthat are keeping them up at
night?
You know, of all these thingsthat are going on, sounds like
they might be spread.
Then they've got a lot to a lotof balls in here.
What's keeping them?
What's keeping them up at night?
What worries them most when itrelates to supply chain
management?
Some of these trends you'retalking about?

I would say definitely.
It's almost a sentiment ofdon't rock the boat right now.
Where they have, you know, wekind of talked about, you know,
the the tech Investments thatthey've made over the last five
years didn't really come tofruition, hasn't really had a
strong ROI, and so for a lot offolks and especially what I'm
hearing, what, anecdotally, whatI'm seeing is that for a lot of

(42:22):
these businesses it's await-and-see approach.
It's a wait-and-see on howconsumers are going to be
spending, how retailers aregoing to respond to that
spending if spending Happens atall.
And then from the investmentside of things, margins are so
thin right now.
There was a huge boom duringCOVID where people were buying
stuff like crazy and shipments,and you know, I think pallets

(42:43):
went from like a hundred dollarsa piece to two thousand dollars
a piece, and so a lot of thesefluctuations that were massive
pendulum shifts and the economyhave started to settle back in,
and so we, I Think there is aalmost a desperation to find out
what is the new normal, whatdoes that look like?
So there's a hesitancy to makethose big investments right now

(43:06):
and then to have kind of await-and-see Approach on where
they want to move that thosechess pieces on their chessboard
.
And so I think for a lot ofthese folks, they just they
don't want to make the wronginvestment, because the wrong
investment could Dramaticallyimpact the bottom line and when
margins are already thin, thatwrong investment could lead to a
lot of people getting laid off.
And so I think for a lot offolks it very much as a

(43:26):
wait-and-see approach Don't rockthe boat.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
We're here with Blythe Brumleve talking about
supply chain management trendsin 2024 and beyond.
We'll be back with more ofTransformation Ground Control.
Hello, welcome back toTransformation Ground Control,
episode number 139.
My name is Eric Kimberling,here with Kyler Cheatham.
transformationgroundcontrolcom.
You can also go to YouTube,linkedin, facebook and Twitter

(43:51):
But the easiest way is just togo to
transformationgroundcontrolcomand you can find all the
platforms that were on there.
So be sure to check out some ofthe past episodes you may have
missed as well.
We're here in the midst of aconversation with Blythe
Brumleve talking about supplychain management trends in 2024
and beyond.
Let's jump back into theconversation.
How are supply chain technologysolution providers responding

(44:15):
to that concern?
Do you see them sort of getmore aggressive or finding
different angles to sell theirtechnologies to these supply
chain managers?

given that mindset, I mean for a lot of
them.
They're facing a hard reality.
It's a reality for a lot ofsoftware providers, especially
ones that were VC backed, theVCs and the venture capital
funds.
They want to see an ROI, theywant to see that there's light
at the end of the tunnel and fora lot of these technology

(44:44):
solutions that haven't come tofruition, a lot of those
companies are laying people offand a lot of that funding is
drying up.
It's not so easy to get accessto this funding to continue
building up a business to gainmarket share.
Now it's all aboutprofitability and, yeah, I mean
for a lot of small businessowners, especially medium sized
business owners, that should belike a dub moment that yes, your

(45:05):
business has to make money.
And so far, I think a lot ofthese software providers are
really starting to have theircome to Jesus moment where it's
like you got to make some toughdecisions, you have to figure
out that path to profitabilityand what that looks like.
You have to communicate that toyour funding partners and then,
from the funding partnerperspective, they don't really

(45:26):
have a lot of patience and sothey want to see that ROI, and
if they don't see it, thenyou're going to be forced to,
unfortunately, make a lot oflayoffs.
A lot of freight tech companiesin our space have dramatically
laid off a lot of their staff.
Hundreds of people just in thelast month have been laid off
from a lot of these more techfocused freight tech companies

(45:48):
and so for.
And it's not just techcompanies but also the
brokerages that invested in alot of those technology
solutions, thinking thattechnology was going to solve
all of their problems, and theyforgot the people aspect.
They forgot that it's not goingto be this sort of Scrooge
McDuck situation where you'rejust going to dive in a pile of
money every single year, thatCOVID spending habits are over

(46:11):
and now you have to be a realbusiness, you have to be
profitable.
You can't really wait anylonger, or otherwise a lot of
people are going to suffer, andso you have to write the ship
and you have to do it now, andthat's where a lot of companies
are starting to set themselvesup for that 2024.
Hopefully, success is bytrimming the fat now, and
unfortunately that's the crudeway of saying that when it comes

(46:33):
to employee jobs and thingslike that, because ultimately
they're the ones that burn orget the brunt end of it when
upper management makes baddecisions and bad investment
decisions.
But that's the thing with thesupply chain is that it's always
evolving.
It's one that's always going tobe invested in, and so the
thing with supply chain roles isthat, unfortunately, if you are

(46:56):
laid off in one area, thenthere's probably several other
areas that you could make theleap and make the jump,
career-wise and from an AIperspective.
If you are one of those folksthat were laid off and you're
not focusing on just AIoperations as a whole, I feel
like that is one area that is aglaring mistake, but it also

(47:18):
could be a great opportunity,because that's what every single
one of these companies arewanting to do right now.
They're wanting to be moreproductive and they want to cut
costs, and AI can help in bothof those areas, and so for a lot
of those folks a lot of thesesoftware companies that built up
they had a really high bodycounts inside their offices a
lot of these brokerages as wellNow it's about who can rise to

(47:41):
the top, who can use thesesolutions in order to be more
productive and to enhance theircareer, but also enhance the
bottom line of a lot of thesecompanies, because that's really
the only solution I see rightnow for a lot of these tech
companies that are forced toreally look at the bottom line
and look at their revenue, lookat their P&Ls and see where they

(48:03):
stand.
And you got to make smartdecisions, you got to get leaner
and that's where I think for alot of folks, it's the process
mapping.
It's the boring stuff theprocess mapping the software
investments and how you're goingto put AI and automation where
it makes sense that the peoplecan still be at the forefront of
those building thoserelationships, and then use this
as almost like they're superpower that nobody else sees.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
I'm going to have to disagree with you on one thing,
and that process mapping isboring.
I totally disagree with you.
I think process mapping isreally fun.

It's really challenging too.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
It is.
So do you think shifting gearsa little bit here into supply
chain management careers whichis a lot of questions we get on
social media is related to howdo I get into supply chain
management?
What area of supply chainmanagement should I focus on?
Is it a good area to focus on?
What do you see here in termsof just general career

(48:56):
opportunities?
Is it going to be more on theconsulting side, sort of the
outside third parties that aregoing to be more opportunity?
Do you think it's the internaltypes of people that can add
value internally?
Is it a combination of both?
What do you see as a trend interms of careers in supply chain
management?

As terms of careers I think I feel like I'm
beating a dead horse when I'mgoing to say this but AI
operations that is going to bethe bread and butter of a
variety of different roleswithin all of supply chain.
I mentioned from account.
This is from a US basedperspective, but we have a
shortage of accountants.
We have a shortage of CPAs.
In the United States.

(49:32):
Accounting is one of thelargest departments at a supply,
at a logistics company, at asupply chain company, the
accounting department is some ofthe largest.
We have a shortage of thosetypes of people.
We need software to come in andhelp alleviate a lot of the
overworked individuals who arealready in those roles and they
really don't have sort of areprieve or a relief to come in

(49:56):
and help them.
Besides, these different AIadoption technologies we're
probably going to see,especially from a career
perspective, as somebody who isfluent in process mapping,
someone that is fluent in alsoAI operations, where can AI fit
in?
How can we standardize our dataso that it is good for these

(50:20):
different large language models,these private ones that should
be in deployment, that should bebeing built or at least looked
into from a tech perspective ora company perspective just in
general, I think, the role of AIoperations and having someone
that has a general overview ofthat process, mapping and then
seeing where AI plays a role, Ithink there's an incredible

(50:40):
opportunity in order to be ableto be that main focal point, to
be that main person who isfocused on where can we
implement AI, where is it goingto make sense?
Having someone that is a chiefAI officer or someone who is
their title is AI operations, Ithink is going to be a massive
play and really solidify alittle bit of a guarantee for a

(51:07):
career in the near future wherea lot of these other traditional
roles are being a lot of the, Iwould imagine, the duties
within those traditional roles.
Think about the folks that arein the white collar work, the
research analyst, a pricinganalyst A lot of those different
roles are directly going to beimpacted by AI, where you might

(51:30):
have had six people performingthat job whereas you might only
need like two or three.
Now, if you use the tools likeAI, if you're in supply chain
management or if you're lookingto be in a supply chain kind of
career or adjacent, I would getit on the ground floor.
I would talk to the people thatare in the trenches that are
doing the work and then becomethe person who is the go-to AI

(51:53):
person within the company, thatyou can look at those different
process maps.
You can look at the differenttech or tech stacks that you
have right now, the techadvancements that you could be
making in the future, or inaddition to the AI
responsibilities, and how youcan figure out where it's going
to play a role in differentdepartments all across the
company, because it really isgoing to have a direct impact on

(52:16):
revenue and productivity.
If you can be that person, bethat person, dive in, bookmark
these tools, figure out how youcan use them in every aspect of
your job.
It's going to help you getthere a little bit faster.
It's not the end result.
I have to put that caveat outthere that it's not as simple as
write me a sales email to a newcustomer and chat GPT.

(52:40):
It's not that simple.
You do have to have a level ofexpertise.
That's where the higherthinking, the more of the
strategic thinking individualswho can see where it makes sense
for these AI automation,machine learning tools to come
into play.
That's where it's going toreally just almost put gasoline
on the fire for a lot of thesefolks who are looking for a

(53:01):
career that's going to have alittle bit more longevity,
whereas some of these othercareers are a little bit more in
the balance of things of whattrajectory they're going to go,
because AI is just impactingevery single role at a variety
of different levels.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
That's super interesting Now is that movement
to AI and being maybe you'renot going to be an entry level
chief AI officer necessarily,although that could be a longer
term career path for you.
I'm the sort of ties into aquestion from from Kyler here on
LinkedIn About breaking intothe supply chain management
industry and what do yourecommend to people that want to
get into logistics and supplychain management.

(53:38):
Obviously, ai is one area thatyou know.
If you know supply chainmanagement and you know AI, I
think what you're saying and Ithink what we're re on is that
that's a great, that that couldbe a great entry point.
Are there other ways or othertactics or strategies or areas
of focus that you think aregoing to be more important for
people that are entering supplychain management right now and
in addition to AI?

I mean they're not going to like this, but you
got it.
You got to get it on the groundlevel with some of these, a lot
of transportation and logisticsprofessionals.
They are in the field that it'smore blue collar.
It's hard work Getting intothat aspect of it.
So maybe like a forklift driver, maybe warehouse operations,
you could also go work for a bigbrokerage.

(54:19):
They're always, always hiringand when I say brokerage I mean
freight brokerage, the peoplethat are kind of like the
middleman who are arranging thetruck drivers and the warehouse
operators and the customers andthe manufacturers.
So being that middleman willreally give you a breath of
knowledge in all areas of thesupply chain and then you can

(54:40):
take that role and you can turnit into something that's AI
operations.
You could figure out wheretechnology plays a larger role,
but you can't know that untilyou do some of this work.
That's in the trenches.
Even if you're a softwareplayer, I would encourage you to
go to some of these operationsof where you're building that
software and seeing how they'reusing the software.
You know I was just talking toa company, the other a couple

(55:03):
months ago that they have theirdevelopment team, their
warehouse manager.
They have a warehousemanagement software system.
They went to one of theircustomers and they sat in with
their customer for a full weekand just watch, watch how they
use their tool, watch how theyuse the mobile app.
They gained so much moreinsight from watching the in the
trenches workers that they wereable to turn around and make

(55:25):
improvements to their productand be able to sell that use
case to other companies.
Now, when you have that kind ofexperience from maybe a
software vendor perspective oryou're actually the one doing
the work in the trenches, youcan then flip that into that
supply chain manager role withina customer role.
So, say, a target, say aWalmart, a Costco, you know

(55:47):
building into not Sephora butmaybe a Sephora some make up
brands a consumer packaged goodsyou know beverages you can,
once you learn the end thetrenches knowledge, you can take
that knowledge and you can goto one of these bigger companies
and become the worker on theother side where you're the one
calling the, not having to worryabout calling the truck drivers

(56:08):
and calling the warehouseoperations and making
appointments and things likethat.
So you could parlay that roleinto something where you're a
supply chain manager managerrole, into more on the customer
side of things.
So there is that evolution.
But if you want, if you're youngand if you're hungry and you
want to get it on the groundlevel, I would.
I would go to the nearestwarehouse, I would go to the

(56:29):
nearest freight brokerage and Iwould get in and I would learn
everything about the mostimportant thing the modes that
there are shipments that they'reusing, the equipment that
they're using, the commoditiesthat they're shipping.
And then, once you learn justthe basics, you don't even
really need to go to college forthis, and that's what is the
best part is that you can learnsome supply chain management Key
tools, things like that, ofcourse, in college.

(56:49):
But a lot of the learning, alot of that happens while you're
working at the companies.
You learn how the, how thesausage is made, you learn all
the intricacies and then you canparlay that into other areas
that have more longevity andhave more opportunity for maybe
what you want to do, such as AIoperations role or a supply
chain manager role.

(57:10):
But getting in on the groundlevel and the in the trenches
work is key to understandingwhere those problems exist,
because no matter if you maybeare an executive level role we
kind of hinted this earlier,earlier in the show.
You know they are making thesebad tech investments because
they're not talking to thosefolks who are in the trenches
working.
So if you're talking to thosein the trenches employees, or if

(57:31):
you're doing the work yourself,you have a much better idea of
where these tech solutions makesense.
And then you can parlay thatexperience into maybe a freight
tech role, a logistics tech roleor on the other side of things,
where you go and actually workat the, at the customer level,
at the manufacturer level, andthen you manage the shipments on

(57:51):
that side of things as well andyou manage the entire supply
chain, the source of the sourcefor your products, things like
that.
So I would advise, get in onthe trenches, learn it there
first, and then you have a muchbetter idea of where technology
and other roles what will have agreater impact, especially
while we're trying to stillfigure out what the hell is
going on post COVID Right.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
And it gives you a lot more credibility.
You know, if you want to moveup the food chain and become a
supply chain manager or a COO orwhatever, you know, whatever
future aspirations you mighthave, having that credibility at
the ground level is going to bea lot more so.
Especially great example yougave on the tech investments,
the bad tech investments.
Part of that could be thatmaybe these are guys and gals
that are too far removed fromthe front lines either.

(58:33):
They do not know, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and I'd say you know, thecollege, the university and
college route is probably good.
I guess if you want to be, youknow, consultant, certainly that
can help.
But back to your point, youdon't have that hands on
credibility necessarily justfrom having the college degree
or the university degree.

That's those curriculum.
They just frankly can't keep up, and that's you know we've
covered a lot and you knowthere's the short time talking,
but there's been so much thathas happened that has impacted
every aspect of the supply chainjourney for all of your
products, all of your goods, andit's just happened within the
last three years.
So everything we thought, weknew, you know, prior to that

(59:13):
has just been upended.
And so for a lot of thesecolleges, their curriculum just
frankly can't keep up, and sothe best way to get that, you
know, sort of trial by fireknowledge is to just go work for
these companies.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Right, great, great advice.
Now, speaking of advice justsort of a capstone question here
what, what advice would yougive to organizations?
They're still trying to chat,they're still trying to navigate
some of these supply chainchallenges today, and I think
what we're saying, and what ifwe say, is that these challenges
are not going to go away.
They're going to continue toevolve and change, but they're
not going to go away.
So what do you, what do yourecommend to an organization or

(59:47):
a team that might just bestruggling in general and
they're not really sure where towhere to start or what to do?
To kind of look to 2024, beyond.

I think you have to look internally.
You have to look at thebusiness we've been providing.
You know there's an opportunitythat has to come with the
people from within.
Where are the opportunitiesthat you have workers within
your organization that want todo something else, that want to

(01:00:15):
do something more other industryand so forth?
I think it starts from within.
It starts with the not theboring stuff, the exciting stuff
, the process mapping.
So it starts from withinlooking at your people, looking
at your tech stack, looking atyour processes and then figuring
out where those investmentsmake the most sense.
Do you need more bodies in theoffice making sales calls or do

(01:00:38):
you need that software solutionthat's going to come into play,
that's going to be able to helpyou combat fraud?
I was just talking to a companythe other day that I was
surprised that this didn'talready exist, but it's
essentially a credit score andrating for brokers and shippers,
and so, from a customer, ashipper perspective, they really

(01:00:58):
have an outside of Googlereviews and a couple of
different sort of legacysoftware systems.
They really have no idea who ishauling their freight, who is
hauling their goods, and so thegreater transparency, greater
visibility into who is haulingall of your goods, who is
involved in this processes, andso that company.
What they do is they providealmost a credit score for a lot

(01:01:20):
of these brokers and carriers.
So then that way they can makethese benchmark decisions on
what is the most profitabletrade lane.
Which ones can we focus more on?
Which carriers are the mostprofitable, they're most on time
, they're most reliable withinthose different trade lanes, and
so, having all of thatadditional data points, it just
makes a ton of sense for a lotof companies to be able to say

(01:01:42):
let's slow down, the economy isslowed down.
So you have this extra time tobe able to look at these things
more in depth.
You can kind of catch yourbreath a little bit and look at
where the investments that notonly you're going to make right
now, but possibly in the nearfuture and you can't make those
predictions, you can't makethose investments unless you're
working with the people withinyour company.

(01:02:02):
You're talking to yourcustomers.
That's one thing that I haven'tmentioned yet.
It is so vital, it's soimportant regularly having
meetings with your customers tofigure out what's going on with
them, and then that way you canplan your operations
appropriately, depending on howtechnology is being integrated
and adopted within your ownorganization.
If you have people that are slowto adopt technology but you

(01:02:24):
want to make technologiesinvestments, it's going.
You're going to have a littlebit of a more challenging time,
so it's talking to your people,figuring out what the pulse of
your own internal workers are at, where you can make some shifts
and adjustments, and thenfiguring out what those
processes look like and thenadopting AI, automation, machine
learning on top of that inorder to help you become more

(01:02:46):
profitable.
And then, if you're moreprofitable, then your customers
are going to be more profitableand it just has a ripple effect
for everybody else in society.
I mean, that's really howSupply Chain works.
Is that you can save yourcustomers a little bit of money.
Then they're going to savetheir customers a little bit of
money.
Ideally, that's the way it'ssupposed to work, but that's a
whole other conversation.
You know we probably don't havetime to get into all that.

Blythe Brumleve (01:03:12):
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 y'all know
about another company I operateand that's Digital Dispatch,

(01:03:33):
where we help you build a betterwebsite.
Now, a lot of the times, wehand this task of building a new
website or refreshing a currentone off to a co-worker's child,
a neighbor down the street or astranger around the world,
where you probably spend moretime explaining the freight
industry than it takes toactually build the dang website.
Well, that doesn't happen atDigital Dispatch.

(01:03:55):
We've been building online since2009, but we're also early
adopters of AI, automation andother website tactics that help
your company to be a centralplace to pull in all of your
social media posts, recruit newemployees and give potential
customers a glimpse into how youoperate your business.
Our new website builds start aslow as $1,500, along with

(01:04:16):
ongoing website management,maintenance and updates starting
at $90 a month, plus some bonus, freight marketing and sales
content similar to what you hearon the podcast.
You can watch a quick explainervideo over on digitaldispatchio
.
Just check out the pricing pageonce you arrive and you can see
how we can build your digitalecosystem on a strong foundation

(01:04:39):
.
Until then, I hope you enjoyedthis episode.
I'll see you all real soon andgo Jags administratio.

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