November 20, 2023 • 19 mins
Are you prepared to navigate a supply chain crisis? Will you crack under the pressure, or will you lead like a seasoned captain navigating through a storm? Join us as we share the mic with Jeff Zudock, a supply chain maestro with three decades of experience under his belt at ExxonMobil, now retired.
Jeff gives us a riveting account of managing a supply chain crisis when COVID-induced disruptions threatened a vital raw material's supply. The stakes were high, with potential financial losses scaling millions. But with shrewd communication and the audacity to seek alternative solutions, his team weathered the storm. Let Jeff's story inspire you and arm you with invaluable lessons about supply chain management and crisis leadership.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom Mueller (00:07):
Hi everyone and welcome to the Leading in a
Crisis podcast.
On this podcast, we talk allthings crisis management and we
deliver that throughstorytelling, lessons learned
and interviews with experiencedcrisis leaders.
I'm Tom Mueller.
On our episode today.
We're continuing ourconversation with supply chain
expert Jeff Zudock.
(00:27):
Jeff spent more than 30 yearsat ExxonMobil in commercial
roles and then later in supplychain leadership positions.
On our episode today, Jeffrecounts how he and his team
dealt with a major supply chaincrisis during the COVID pandemic
.
Jeff shares with us a greatexample and outlines key
(00:48):
leadership principles thathelped guide them through this
crisis that are applicable forsupply chain leaders and any
crisis leader.
Let's join the conversation now.
Jeff, thanks for being with us.
You've got another example hereof a supply chain related
crisis that relates to COVID.
(01:10):
Of course, everybody gotfamiliar with supply chain
issues during the COVID pandemicbecause it seemed like
everything went in short supply,starting with paper towels and
toilet paper, but then it movedon to Christmas gifts and
everything else that getsshipped into and around this
(01:31):
country.
So I know you've got a specificexample of supply chain issue
and the crisis that erupted fromthat.
Tell us that story.
Jeff Zudock (01:44):
I'll tell you this example I think is really
interesting from a supply chainperspective again, because it's
one of those situations whereyou really think you got
everything all locked up and youjust sometimes don't see these
slowly developing trends thatonce they kind of just grow to
(02:09):
the point where they're bigenough they really cause a
disruption.
So a key raw material that weuse, both the plant in the US
and plant in Europe was suppliedby, for the most part, one
supplier and this was acontractual.
(02:31):
The material was made in the USand we would ship by truck for
a plant in the US, but thesupplier would ship it via ocean
container to the EU.
In the pandemic you justmentioned that the container
(02:52):
shipping industry was completelydisrupted, and I mean
completely disrupted.
It wasn't just things weren'tgetting made and so they weren't
getting shipped, it just becamethis massive imbalance of where
the containers were becausethings weren't getting made and
(03:12):
they weren't getting shipped.
Container availability isreally what drives the ability
to be able to ship from point Ato point B to point C.
If the containers aren't in theright place, your stuff's not
going anywhere.
So what happened?
Well, this is a reallyinteresting issue because we had
(03:34):
weekly reviews with this supply.
This is our critical.
This raw material was.
We would meet weekly and wewould go over supply to both the
plants and they had prettydecent level people on their
side that were talking to us,very competent company, and we
would go through what's shippingwhen.
When is it going to arrive.
(03:54):
What do we need to adapt ourproduction for?
If there was a delay, thingslike that, right, and so we're
all rolling along happy andsmiling, right, and one of the
folks that worked in one of myteams in Europe mentioned to me
that we had gone several weekswithout the receipt of one of
(04:18):
the particular raw materialsthey shipped to.
There were two big pieces thatthey.
There were two big things thatwe shipped, and one of them was
a company.
It came to find out that theywere kind of handing off their
review of when all these thingswere going to happen to their
group that managed containershipping, and the group that
(04:39):
managed container shippingwasn't watching it,
no-transcript, thinking it wasgoing, and so they weren't
talking to the freight forwarderabout these particular
containers.
They didn't even know.
Tom Mueller (04:51):
So Jeff set the stage for us.
Then the plants running it'sgot some inventory running low.
Now what's the potentialfinancial impact of running out
of this raw material?
Jeff Zudock (05:05):
Eight figures in the long run.
I mean, if you don't have it,you're talking tons and tons of
material that you eventuallywill not sell.
I mentioned earlier, too, thatI've worked hard on making sure
that our inventories were right.
We don't hold too much, wedon't hold too little.
It's a very hard thing to do.
Once you get to that point,there's an underlying assumption
(05:28):
that all the elements that feedinto that inventory level are
going to work.
You're going to get the rawmaterials you need when you need
them.
For the most part, yeah, thiswas going to take the utility of
that plant ultimately zero.
That's how ridiculous it got.
Tom Mueller (05:50):
So you've got a supplier who's committing to you
that they are shipping thesematerials, but within that
supplier's organization they'rejust not paying close attention
to what's going out the door.
Jeff Zudock (06:02):
They definitely missed that.
The containers weren't shipping.
Yes, when the epiphany finallyhappens.
We did everything we talkedabout before we took a look at
how big the problem could be.
In this case.
It was a big deal.
What could we do to solve it?
That's the first place we went.
The supplier would not airfreight material to us.
(06:25):
Just to again qualify that alittle bit, this particular raw
material was the highestpercentage material that went
into our product.
It was almost half the amountof our product that was made up
of this.
You can imagine we used a lotInstead of air freight.
(06:47):
What we needed that in and ofitself would have been probably
millions of dollars, Definitelymany hundreds of thousands, just
to get us over a hump.
Even they were extremelyreluctant to do that.
They also said that theycouldn't find additional
containers to do it.
We actually the very first thingwe did after we formed our QR
(07:10):
team, all the other things wetalked about before you get the
right people involved, you getall the different groups
involved.
What can we solve?
What is going to be yourproduct, etc.
And what are all of that?
One of the things that we diddo is we actually rolled in our
freight forward.
We asked them for solution.
(07:33):
What do you think can happen?
We were looking for advice togive back to our supplier.
What we learned was that theport that where our plant
shipped from was different, ofcourse, than the plant where our
supplier shipped from, Becausethe plants were in different
areas.
We found out we could actuallyget containers from our port.
(07:58):
Okay, our supplier was not setup to ship from them, and all
the you know red tape and adminthat comes along with working
for a massive, you know companyKind of prevented them from
acting very quickly and startshipping out of the port that
that we shipped our stuff from.
Okay, you know, imagine if, allof a sudden, bp wanted to turn
(08:21):
on a dime and say, okay, I'venever done this before, but I'm
gonna do it tomorrow.
It never would have.
Right, no, you know, you gotnine months of stuff to go
through, right, yeah, and sosame thing here.
And so what we did was weactually got three containers
and shipped our own Wrongmaterial that we had in our
warehouse that was going to beused in the US plant, and we
(08:44):
shipped it to Europe ourselvesand we said to the supplier look
, we did this, it like two days,okay, and, and you know, we're
able to get 30 containers in thematerial over from our own
inventory which you canreplenish by truck, right?
So you know that we could do,and there was no shortage of
material, right?
(09:04):
Again, this was a logisticsdisruption, so we spent all that
money Ship it over there.
It got there within a few weeks, and so we were able to extend,
you know, our potential funerala little bit right and start
working this problem better.
(09:25):
The suppliers still had realproblems getting stuff shipped
to where we needed to ship.
Long and short of it was thatwe ended up actually running out
.
I think it was for about a weekthat we weren't able to make
the materials that we needed tomake in the US for that period.
(09:47):
And so yeah, now, we didn't runout for a month, right?
W e did shut some lines down,but then the big problem Was
that, because all this stuff wasin the queue, eventually it all
did ship, okay, and it allshipped in a plug.
And all of a sudden, we don'thave material straggling in.
(10:09):
I mean, we're getting, you know, scores of containers.
Okay, so it is showing up at thedock and we don't have any
place to put it.
We use a lot of third-partywarehousing, right, and the one
third-party warehouse that weuse for this particular plant,
actually you've wrecked it anextra building as this whole
(10:31):
thing started as we look to theview of how much was gonna come
in and we filled that entirebuilding.
You know that took a couple ofmonths to write and so for a
while you know we're looking forother warehouses.
You know what do we do to bekeep it important.
I actually had to make adecision.
Do I pay demurrageon these containers, or do I,
(10:54):
you know, go with the thirdparty?
That Is gonna cost me a lot ofmoney.
W arehousing, by the way,became extremely expensive
during the pandemic.
Tom Mueller (11:02):
Well, Jeff, for listeners who aren't familiar
with demurrage, it's essentiallyholding, paying a ship to just
lay at anchor and wait for you.
What's the scale of cost forholding a ship like that?
Jeff Zudock (11:17):
in this case, the demurrage is not on a ship, it's
actually on the container.
The answer to your question ishundreds of thousands of dollars
over the course of, we'll say,you know something, measured in
less than 15 weeks.
Okay, you know, because againthere's a, there's a flow, right
, and we're trying to figure outwhat the production schedule
(11:39):
can be so we can make, you know,pull the stuff out as quickly
as we can.
And you know how much can westore at the site?
You know, can we stack thesethings to the sky at the site?
You know just anything we cando to not incur costs.
But it was quite a bit, Therewas a lot.
Tom Mueller (12:08):
So decision making on that is that.
You know, was that fairlystraightforward process or was
that something you had to reallywrangle?
Jeff Zudock (12:17):
Well, the nice part about it was, you know, we're
keen to the supply chain partsof it, especially the movement
storage parts.
Right, I got to make thedecision right.
I mean, it was my job as mygroup.
I ran the supply chain, and sothat was up to me, and if I made
a mistake it was on me, right,you know.
But but at least we could, wecould get through it.
(12:38):
And I'm going to say I had agreat team, right, and I mean a
great team.
The folks in Europe werephenomenal.
They're in the folks in the USthat we work with too, because
some of my global jobs werephenomenal and they, I mean just
(12:58):
the, the ideas that they cameup with and, you know, frankly,
even the stewardship mechanismsthat they created on the spot to
help us through this.
We ended up using Farming andthe future, right, it was great,
the big connector this time.
And so, again, the QRT wasformed.
(13:19):
We did the same thing.
You know, this time you got todo it over a pond, and so you
know we're up early becausewe're talking to Europe, right,
and we want to give them as muchtime as we can to get them to
work through their day, right.
So it's not like we're waitinguntil late o'clock to call them.
We're working up a, you know,five in the morning, four, three
in the morning, whatever youknow, as much as we can to have
these calls and the connectivitywith the manufacturing
(13:45):
organization, in this case is isreally what helped us, helped
us through the pieces that wecouldn't do on our own.
You know, we had this terribleevent where we ran on a stop and
then, we had this, you know I'mgoing to say was almost this,
this ridiculous event where wehad just way, way, way too much
and the amount of inventory thatactually came in lasted us like
(14:07):
for months and months andmonths and months.
I mean, we were so oversuppliedand, you know, we still had
contractual requirements to takecertain amounts of material
right, and so it just keptgetting worse right.
But we ended up creating somereally like is it some great?
Logistics solutions and workingwith both third parties and
with our manufacturing folks.
Tom Mueller (14:29):
So, Jeff, if you just sort of step back and look
at the big picture again,summarizing key lessons learned
around, you know, around theleadership aspects of this and
others, what?
How would you summarize that?
Jeff Zudock (14:43):
And number one, you know, quickly assess the issue
as quickly as you can and figureout where those those key
problems are that you need tosolve first and then stick to
that plan.
In this situation I mentionedbefore you know people that work
with me hear me say all thetime you know we're on step
three, don't worry about step 19.
This was riddled with that.
Riddled with it, you know.
Oh, we can't make this.
(15:03):
All that customers got to runout.
Oh, this is it.
You know what.
You can't worry about.
That you know, because rightnow, I just got to get you know
material to plan right and soknowing which problem to solve
for second, third, fourth,absolutely critical, of course,
getting the team together rightand getting the people that can
just make decisions and moveforward.
In this case, we had no issueswith that.
None, at least on our side.
(15:24):
Our supplier had some issuesthere, for sure, and they
sometimes got a little slow, butthat was a process issue on
their end, right, trusting folksto come up with solutions, just
really letting people do whatyou know their ability and
capability allows them to do andcreate, really worked well.
(15:47):
I just some incredibly creativeideas that maybe we're sitting
there the whole time and no onereally thought about until
you're in the crisis.
But then giving them theopportunity just to do it, yeah,
sounds like a great idea.
Make it happen.
If it didn't work, and a couplethings that didn't work, that's
all right.
Move on, don't worry about it.
You know it's not like you knowanybody died or you know
(16:08):
anything like that.
There's nothing like that,right.
So, you know, give them thespace to really shine and do it
in trust, right?
But again, the other piece is toand I don't remember if I said
this in the other example, butmapping those waypoints and
checking the boxes and makingsure you are where you need to
(16:29):
be.
And if you're not, what are yougoing to do to get there as
quickly as you can?
You know, is it a problem youcan take off and get rid of?
But that stewardship of youknow, where are you?
What's the next thing you gotto do?
Where are you?
What's the next thing you gotto do?
It's really critical.
And then, from the leadershipend to when you're leading these
teams, you just you got to beconfident, right, and you just
(16:52):
have to re-zoot it, and I'mgoing to, you know, make some
coin and I don't know if any ofthe people I used to work with
are going to listen to this.
I hope so.
I'm going to send them a link.
But I had a great team and Itrust them and I knew they knew
how to do.
You know their end of what theyneeded much better than I could
(17:12):
have ever done Right, and Ijust I loved watching them do it
Right.
I it was just enjoying to seethem, you know, just dig in on
this stuff and wrangle it andsolve it.
You know and they stressed less, I think, because you know I
(17:34):
and some of the other high-levelfolks that were involved said
you know what you got it.
Make it happen, you're good.
Tom Mueller (17:42):
And you're giving them space to operate, and
that's that can be a tough skill.
You have to make the assignmentand let people deliver.
Jeff Zudock (17:57):
You're, you're, you're.
You're in the wrong job.
You're.
All you're going to do is slowthings down and actually create
more problems in the world.
Sounds like good leaders makegood teams.
You know, I got lucky.
Everybody on my team was eithera really good leader or they
were on their way to the comingone.
They were tremendousinfluencers.
(18:18):
I'll say it that way.
So, yeah, it was good, sostressful, of course,
disappointed at some points.
Yeah, I mean, you always areright, but you know the cup's
always half full.
You're going to solve theproblem.
We got good people and that'swhy, frankly, that's why I never
really worried too much aboutstuff.
Right, I hired a lot of thepeople that worked on my team,
(18:42):
okay, right, so, and I felt likeI did that, right, you know,
and so I wasn't worried aboutthem getting a solution right.
Tom Mueller (18:52):
Jeff, thanks so much for joining us.
We're going to wrap it up here,but it's been just our pleasure
talking with you today and kindof learning some leadership
lessons through the lens ofsupply chain crisis.
So thank you very much formaking time and we hope you'll
come back again soon.
Jeff Zudock (19:12):
Anytime.
Thank you very much, enjoyed ita lot.
Marc Mullen (19:15):
Thanks, jeff.
Tom Mueller (19:18):
All right.
Thanks for joining us for thisepisode of the Leading in a
Crisis podcast.
If you like what you're hearinghere, then please like and
subscribe to the podcast andgive us a five star rating, and
please tell your friends andcolleagues about us as well, and
we'll see you again soon foranother episode of the Leading
in a Crisis podcast.
Hi everyone and welcome to the Leading in a
Crisis podcast.
On this podcast, we talk allthings crisis management and we
deliver that throughstorytelling, lessons learned
and interviews with experiencedcrisis leaders.
I'm Tom Mueller.
On our episode today.
We're continuing ourconversation with supply chain
expert Jeff Zudock.
(00:27):
Jeff spent more than 30 yearsat ExxonMobil in commercial
roles and then later in supplychain leadership positions.
On our episode today, Jeffrecounts how he and his team
dealt with a major supply chaincrisis during the COVID pandemic
.
Jeff shares with us a greatexample and outlines key
(00:48):
leadership principles thathelped guide them through this
crisis that are applicable forsupply chain leaders and any
crisis leader.
Let's join the conversation now.
Jeff, thanks for being with us.
You've got another example hereof a supply chain related
crisis that relates to COVID.
(01:10):
Of course, everybody gotfamiliar with supply chain
issues during the COVID pandemicbecause it seemed like
everything went in short supply,starting with paper towels and
toilet paper, but then it movedon to Christmas gifts and
everything else that getsshipped into and around this
(01:31):
country.
So I know you've got a specificexample of supply chain issue
and the crisis that erupted fromthat.
Tell us that story.
Jeff Zudock (01:44):
I'll tell you this example I think is really
interesting from a supply chainperspective again, because it's
one of those situations whereyou really think you got
everything all locked up and youjust sometimes don't see these
slowly developing trends thatonce they kind of just grow to
(02:09):
the point where they're bigenough they really cause a
disruption.
So a key raw material that weuse, both the plant in the US
and plant in Europe was suppliedby, for the most part, one
supplier and this was acontractual.
(02:31):
The material was made in the USand we would ship by truck for
a plant in the US, but thesupplier would ship it via ocean
container to the EU.
In the pandemic you justmentioned that the container
(02:52):
shipping industry was completelydisrupted, and I mean
completely disrupted.
It wasn't just things weren'tgetting made and so they weren't
getting shipped, it just becamethis massive imbalance of where
the containers were becausethings weren't getting made and
(03:12):
they weren't getting shipped.
Container availability isreally what drives the ability
to be able to ship from point Ato point B to point C.
If the containers aren't in theright place, your stuff's not
going anywhere.
So what happened?
Well, this is a reallyinteresting issue because we had
(03:34):
weekly reviews with this supply.
This is our critical.
This raw material was.
We would meet weekly and wewould go over supply to both the
plants and they had prettydecent level people on their
side that were talking to us,very competent company, and we
would go through what's shippingwhen.
When is it going to arrive.
(03:54):
What do we need to adapt ourproduction for?
If there was a delay, thingslike that, right, and so we're
all rolling along happy andsmiling, right, and one of the
folks that worked in one of myteams in Europe mentioned to me
that we had gone several weekswithout the receipt of one of
(04:18):
the particular raw materialsthey shipped to.
There were two big pieces thatthey.
There were two big things thatwe shipped, and one of them was
a company.
It came to find out that theywere kind of handing off their
review of when all these thingswere going to happen to their
group that managed containershipping, and the group that
(04:39):
managed container shippingwasn't watching it,
no-transcript, thinking it wasgoing, and so they weren't
talking to the freight forwarderabout these particular
containers.
They didn't even know.
Tom Mueller (04:51):
So Jeff set the stage for us.
Then the plants running it'sgot some inventory running low.
Now what's the potentialfinancial impact of running out
of this raw material?
Jeff Zudock (05:05):
Eight figures in the long run.
I mean, if you don't have it,you're talking tons and tons of
material that you eventuallywill not sell.
I mentioned earlier, too, thatI've worked hard on making sure
that our inventories were right.
We don't hold too much, wedon't hold too little.
It's a very hard thing to do.
Once you get to that point,there's an underlying assumption
(05:28):
that all the elements that feedinto that inventory level are
going to work.
You're going to get the rawmaterials you need when you need
them.
For the most part, yeah, thiswas going to take the utility of
that plant ultimately zero.
That's how ridiculous it got.
Tom Mueller (05:50):
So you've got a supplier who's committing to you
that they are shipping thesematerials, but within that
supplier's organization they'rejust not paying close attention
to what's going out the door.
Jeff Zudock (06:02):
They definitely missed that.
The containers weren't shipping.
Yes, when the epiphany finallyhappens.
We did everything we talkedabout before we took a look at
how big the problem could be.
In this case.
It was a big deal.
What could we do to solve it?
That's the first place we went.
The supplier would not airfreight material to us.
(06:25):
Just to again qualify that alittle bit, this particular raw
material was the highestpercentage material that went
into our product.
It was almost half the amountof our product that was made up
of this.
You can imagine we used a lotInstead of air freight.
(06:47):
What we needed that in and ofitself would have been probably
millions of dollars, Definitelymany hundreds of thousands, just
to get us over a hump.
Even they were extremelyreluctant to do that.
They also said that theycouldn't find additional
containers to do it.
We actually the very first thingwe did after we formed our QR
(07:10):
team, all the other things wetalked about before you get the
right people involved, you getall the different groups
involved.
What can we solve?
What is going to be yourproduct, etc.
And what are all of that?
One of the things that we diddo is we actually rolled in our
freight forward.
We asked them for solution.
(07:33):
What do you think can happen?
We were looking for advice togive back to our supplier.
What we learned was that theport that where our plant
shipped from was different, ofcourse, than the plant where our
supplier shipped from, Becausethe plants were in different
areas.
We found out we could actuallyget containers from our port.
(07:58):
Okay, our supplier was not setup to ship from them, and all
the you know red tape and adminthat comes along with working
for a massive, you know companyKind of prevented them from
acting very quickly and startshipping out of the port that
that we shipped our stuff from.
Okay, you know, imagine if, allof a sudden, bp wanted to turn
(08:21):
on a dime and say, okay, I'venever done this before, but I'm
gonna do it tomorrow.
It never would have.
Right, no, you know, you gotnine months of stuff to go
through, right, yeah, and sosame thing here.
And so what we did was weactually got three containers
and shipped our own Wrongmaterial that we had in our
warehouse that was going to beused in the US plant, and we
(08:44):
shipped it to Europe ourselvesand we said to the supplier look
, we did this, it like two days,okay, and, and you know, we're
able to get 30 containers in thematerial over from our own
inventory which you canreplenish by truck, right?
So you know that we could do,and there was no shortage of
material, right?
(09:04):
Again, this was a logisticsdisruption, so we spent all that
money Ship it over there.
It got there within a few weeks, and so we were able to extend,
you know, our potential funerala little bit right and start
working this problem better.
(09:25):
The suppliers still had realproblems getting stuff shipped
to where we needed to ship.
Long and short of it was thatwe ended up actually running out
.
I think it was for about a weekthat we weren't able to make
the materials that we needed tomake in the US for that period.
(09:47):
And so yeah, now, we didn't runout for a month, right?
W e did shut some lines down,but then the big problem Was
that, because all this stuff wasin the queue, eventually it all
did ship, okay, and it allshipped in a plug.
And all of a sudden, we don'thave material straggling in.
(10:09):
I mean, we're getting, you know, scores of containers.
Okay, so it is showing up at thedock and we don't have any
place to put it.
We use a lot of third-partywarehousing, right, and the one
third-party warehouse that weuse for this particular plant,
actually you've wrecked it anextra building as this whole
(10:31):
thing started as we look to theview of how much was gonna come
in and we filled that entirebuilding.
You know that took a couple ofmonths to write and so for a
while you know we're looking forother warehouses.
You know what do we do to bekeep it important.
I actually had to make adecision.
Do I pay demurrageon these containers, or do I,
(10:54):
you know, go with the thirdparty?
That Is gonna cost me a lot ofmoney.
W arehousing, by the way,became extremely expensive
during the pandemic.
Tom Mueller (11:02):
Well, Jeff, for listeners who aren't familiar
with demurrage, it's essentiallyholding, paying a ship to just
lay at anchor and wait for you.
What's the scale of cost forholding a ship like that?
Jeff Zudock (11:17):
in this case, the demurrage is not on a ship, it's
actually on the container.
The answer to your question ishundreds of thousands of dollars
over the course of, we'll say,you know something, measured in
less than 15 weeks.
Okay, you know, because againthere's a, there's a flow, right
, and we're trying to figure outwhat the production schedule
(11:39):
can be so we can make, you know,pull the stuff out as quickly
as we can.
And you know how much can westore at the site?
You know, can we stack thesethings to the sky at the site?
You know just anything we cando to not incur costs.
But it was quite a bit, Therewas a lot.
Tom Mueller (12:08):
So decision making on that is that.
You know, was that fairlystraightforward process or was
that something you had to reallywrangle?
Jeff Zudock (12:17):
Well, the nice part about it was, you know, we're
keen to the supply chain partsof it, especially the movement
storage parts.
Right, I got to make thedecision right.
I mean, it was my job as mygroup.
I ran the supply chain, and sothat was up to me, and if I made
a mistake it was on me, right,you know.
But but at least we could, wecould get through it.
(12:38):
And I'm going to say I had agreat team, right, and I mean a
great team.
The folks in Europe werephenomenal.
They're in the folks in the USthat we work with too, because
some of my global jobs werephenomenal and they, I mean just
(12:58):
the, the ideas that they cameup with and, you know, frankly,
even the stewardship mechanismsthat they created on the spot to
help us through this.
We ended up using Farming andthe future, right, it was great,
the big connector this time.
And so, again, the QRT wasformed.
(13:19):
We did the same thing.
You know, this time you got todo it over a pond, and so you
know we're up early becausewe're talking to Europe, right,
and we want to give them as muchtime as we can to get them to
work through their day, right.
So it's not like we're waitinguntil late o'clock to call them.
We're working up a, you know,five in the morning, four, three
in the morning, whatever youknow, as much as we can to have
these calls and the connectivitywith the manufacturing
(13:45):
organization, in this case is isreally what helped us, helped
us through the pieces that wecouldn't do on our own.
You know, we had this terribleevent where we ran on a stop and
then, we had this, you know I'mgoing to say was almost this,
this ridiculous event where wehad just way, way, way too much
and the amount of inventory thatactually came in lasted us like
(14:07):
for months and months andmonths and months.
I mean, we were so oversuppliedand, you know, we still had
contractual requirements to takecertain amounts of material
right, and so it just keptgetting worse right.
But we ended up creating somereally like is it some great?
Logistics solutions and workingwith both third parties and
with our manufacturing folks.
Tom Mueller (14:29):
So, Jeff, if you just sort of step back and look
at the big picture again,summarizing key lessons learned
around, you know, around theleadership aspects of this and
others, what?
How would you summarize that?
Jeff Zudock (14:43):
And number one, you know, quickly assess the issue
as quickly as you can and figureout where those those key
problems are that you need tosolve first and then stick to
that plan.
In this situation I mentionedbefore you know people that work
with me hear me say all thetime you know we're on step
three, don't worry about step 19.
This was riddled with that.
Riddled with it, you know.
Oh, we can't make this.
(15:03):
All that customers got to runout.
Oh, this is it.
You know what.
You can't worry about.
That you know, because rightnow, I just got to get you know
material to plan right and soknowing which problem to solve
for second, third, fourth,absolutely critical, of course,
getting the team together rightand getting the people that can
just make decisions and moveforward.
In this case, we had no issueswith that.
None, at least on our side.
(15:24):
Our supplier had some issuesthere, for sure, and they
sometimes got a little slow, butthat was a process issue on
their end, right, trusting folksto come up with solutions, just
really letting people do whatyou know their ability and
capability allows them to do andcreate, really worked well.
(15:47):
I just some incredibly creativeideas that maybe we're sitting
there the whole time and no onereally thought about until
you're in the crisis.
But then giving them theopportunity just to do it, yeah,
sounds like a great idea.
Make it happen.
If it didn't work, and a couplethings that didn't work, that's
all right.
Move on, don't worry about it.
You know it's not like you knowanybody died or you know
(16:08):
anything like that.
There's nothing like that,right.
So, you know, give them thespace to really shine and do it
in trust, right?
But again, the other piece is toand I don't remember if I said
this in the other example, butmapping those waypoints and
checking the boxes and makingsure you are where you need to
(16:29):
be.
And if you're not, what are yougoing to do to get there as
quickly as you can?
You know, is it a problem youcan take off and get rid of?
But that stewardship of youknow, where are you?
What's the next thing you gotto do?
Where are you?
What's the next thing you gotto do?
It's really critical.
And then, from the leadershipend to when you're leading these
teams, you just you got to beconfident, right, and you just
(16:52):
have to re-zoot it, and I'mgoing to, you know, make some
coin and I don't know if any ofthe people I used to work with
are going to listen to this.
I hope so.
I'm going to send them a link.
But I had a great team and Itrust them and I knew they knew
how to do.
You know their end of what theyneeded much better than I could
(17:12):
have ever done Right, and Ijust I loved watching them do it
Right.
I it was just enjoying to seethem, you know, just dig in on
this stuff and wrangle it andsolve it.
You know and they stressed less, I think, because you know I
(17:34):
and some of the other high-levelfolks that were involved said
you know what you got it.
Make it happen, you're good.
Tom Mueller (17:42):
And you're giving them space to operate, and
that's that can be a tough skill.
You have to make the assignmentand let people deliver.
Jeff Zudock (17:57):
You're, you're, you're.
You're in the wrong job.
You're.
All you're going to do is slowthings down and actually create
more problems in the world.
Sounds like good leaders makegood teams.
You know, I got lucky.
Everybody on my team was eithera really good leader or they
were on their way to the comingone.
They were tremendousinfluencers.
(18:18):
I'll say it that way.
So, yeah, it was good, sostressful, of course,
disappointed at some points.
Yeah, I mean, you always areright, but you know the cup's
always half full.
You're going to solve theproblem.
We got good people and that'swhy, frankly, that's why I never
really worried too much aboutstuff.
Right, I hired a lot of thepeople that worked on my team,
(18:42):
okay, right, so, and I felt likeI did that, right, you know,
and so I wasn't worried aboutthem getting a solution right.
Tom Mueller (18:52):
Jeff, thanks so much for joining us.
We're going to wrap it up here,but it's been just our pleasure
talking with you today and kindof learning some leadership
lessons through the lens ofsupply chain crisis.
So thank you very much formaking time and we hope you'll
come back again soon.
Jeff Zudock (19:12):
Anytime.
Thank you very much, enjoyed ita lot.
Marc Mullen (19:15):
Thanks, jeff.
Tom Mueller (19:18):
All right.
Thanks for joining us for thisepisode of the Leading in a
Crisis podcast.
If you like what you're hearinghere, then please like and
subscribe to the podcast andgive us a five star rating, and
please tell your friends andcolleagues about us as well, and
we'll see you again soon foranother episode of the Leading
in a Crisis podcast.
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