Guest: Dennis Mullahy on supply chain continuity; Walmart invests in grocery DCs; Computer vision systems see new warehouse applications

Our guest on this week's episode is Dennis Mullahy. He is the former chief supply chain officer for Macy’s and he has also worked in the supply chain operations for several other large retailers, including Ulta, Michaels, and Meijer. These days, Mullahy is an independent consultant working with a number of supply chain startups. He is also a senior advisor to Fortna. He talks to us about supply chains post-pandemic, facility designs, and maintaining supply chain continuity. 

This week we learned some new details about how Walmart, the nation’s largest grocery retailer, is rolling out a “supply chain transformation” that relies on new investments in data, intelligent software, and automation.  Walmart week opened a 730,000 square-foot perishable distribution center (PDC) in Texas, which is designed to keep its more than 4,600 stores stocked with fresh and frozen merchandise. The new facility receives and processes fresh produce, eggs, dairy, flowers, and frozen goods for delivery to Walmart stores. It does that by leveraging technology to process more than double the volume of a traditional DC, getting items onto store shelves faster than ever before.

Some recent research shows that by 2027, half of companies with warehouse operations will leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled vision systems to replace traditional scanning-based cycle-counting processes. This information comes from Gartner, and was presented at their Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona in June. AI-enabled vision systems are novel, hyper-automation solutions that combine industrial 3D cameras, computer vision software, and advanced AI pattern recognition technologies, as well as machine learning. Gartner says the technology can “radically change” the way many manually dependent processes are performed.

Supply Chain Xchange  also offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane.  It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.  Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe and to listen to past and future episodes.


Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Fortna
• Walmart opens perishable foods DC in Texas
• Seeing is believing
• Report: AI-enabled vision systems making headway in the warehouse
• Get episode transcripts
• Visit Supply Chain Xchange
• Listen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Xchange's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcast
• Send feedback about this podcast to [e-mail]

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