August 7, 2025 • 38 mins
Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) have long been treated as an afterthought in supply chain strategy—fragmented, underfunded, and largely invisible to executive planning. But ignoring MRO means leaving millions on the table and risking critical breakdowns across procurement, inventory, and execution.
This week, host Ellen Wood speaks with Paul Noble, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Verusen, about how smarter MRO data and AI-led insights are helping leading companies modernize this overlooked domain. Paul explains how Verusen’s purpose-built platform helps teams trust dirty data, align siloed departments, and transform reactive MRO practices into a strategic advantage. He also shares what it takes to implement change across legacy systems—and why the key to better supply chains might be hiding in your storeroom.
In this episode:
- Why disconnected MRO systems cost more than you think
- How AI can drive immediate value—even with messy data
- What strategic sourcing looks like when signals are trusted
- The organizational shift required to align maintenance, procurement, and supply chain execution
This week, host Ellen Wood speaks with Paul Noble, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Verusen, about how smarter MRO data and AI-led insights are helping leading companies modernize this overlooked domain. Paul explains how Verusen’s purpose-built platform helps teams trust dirty data, align siloed departments, and transform reactive MRO practices into a strategic advantage. He also shares what it takes to implement change across legacy systems—and why the key to better supply chains might be hiding in your storeroom.
In this episode:
- Why disconnected MRO systems cost more than you think
- How AI can drive immediate value—even with messy data
- What strategic sourcing looks like when signals are trusted
- The organizational shift required to align maintenance, procurement, and supply chain execution
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A majority of the inventory that any organization folds are
slow moving, non moving, or obsolete products. Something can be critical,
but it also could be very available in your supply chain.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and
supply chain industries. I'm your host, ellen Wood Maintenance, Repair
and Operations. Supply chains often suffer from chronic inefficiencies, disconnected data,
redundant inventory, and fragmented procurement practices that during resources in
(00:35):
a road competitive advantage. Joining me today to explore how
businesses can achieve clearer visibility, optimized inventories, and stronger supplier
relationships is Paul Noble, CSO and co founder of Verison.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Welcome Paul, thanks for having me. Looking forward to taking
a deeper dive into this often overlooked part of the
supply chain.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Agreed, So before we get started today on MRO supply chains,
let's take a moment to get to know you a
little bit better. So our icebreaker question for today is
what is the best dish you can cook?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Love love to cook, break away from the grind and
spend some time there. So I would say, not any
specific dish, but you know, living in Atlanta, we have
pretty good year round weather and so I have nice
green agge smoker and blackstone grittle top setup that I
like to play around with as much as I can.
(01:34):
And so, you know, from smoking all different types of things,
we tried just about everything at this point. And grilling
it's always it's always my contribution to the meal or
the event or get.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Together that sounds fun, and especially in the summertime. You
know what is better than cooking outdoors and just getting
to enjoy well, I don't know. In Atlanta in the summer,
maybe not so much. You take your grilled food inside.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Gets a little steamy, but certainly a big part of
what I like to do and a big part of
our culture here at Verison. We even have a specific
channel on our slack called Hungry where everyone posts what
they're making they've eaten, and it's one of the favorites
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I could see that that would be a lot
of fun to to, you know, collaborate with your colleagues
and exchange recipe ideas. We have an office pot luck
once a month and so everybody just brings something in
and We have a lot of international colleagues, so we
get a lot of different tastes from around the world.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I also love to cook, and I don't know that
it's the best thing I know how to cook. I
do a lot of Italian and Asian food. We have
a fantastic international grocery here in my neighborhood, and I'm
able to find and source ingredients that normally, you know,
you wouldn't even consider looking.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
For in a regular grocery store. So that's a lot
of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Are my favorite types of foit.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
This weekend, I'm actually making an Italian dish from an
old cookbook that my dad gave me. It was one
of his cookbooks. He gave me my love of cooking
and love of food, and it's an old I don't
even know if people know who he is anymore. Jeff Smith.
He used to have the TV cooking shows back in
the eighties when it was him and Julia Child and
(03:24):
pretty much no one else on PBS. And there's a
recipe out of one of Jeff Smith's cookbooks, his Italian cookbook,
that I'll be making this weekend, and it's a chicken
rou Lade and it just it looks really basic, but
it sounds like it's going to be really really good,
so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Those are some of the best dishes, right, I mean,
if I'm talking Italian, and regardless of what level of restaurant,
you know, three star, four star, Michelin rated, whatever you
want to say, I'll always gravitate to a good spaghetti
and meatballs dish.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
As much fun as it would be to talk about
food all day long, that is not the topic of
our conversation today. Today we're talking about MRO supply chains,
and these have historically just been overlooked. They were just
part of, you know, the cost of doing business. They
weren't really seen as anything such as a revenue driver
(04:25):
or you know anything.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Really, it was just a.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Need whatever you need to do to keep things up.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah, yeah, a necessary evil.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So talk to us about your approach to some of
those common MRO challenges we talked, like redundant inventory, fragmented procurement,
siloed operations.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
What does that look like from your perspective?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and it's not too dissimilar to how supply chains
were looked at overall up until you know, the pandemic
era where supply chain became a great competitive advantage and
you know, and organizations begin investing in technology across their
supply chain overall, because it's all about really understanding where
(05:15):
you're at, what levers you can pull to move move
to the right balance of working capital without introducing risk,
you know, and so you know, from an m RO perspective,
it's certainly that you know that bucket right. Most organizations,
(05:35):
based on the challenges they have with systems and data,
the processes of individuals working together. We often say, uh,
the m RO takes a village because you have maintenance
and operations, you have procurement, you have finance, and all
of it's there to make sure that you're you know,
producing whatever product that you go to market with.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And so.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Bringing those together and giving an organization full visibility of
where you're at, but what opportunities there are in the data,
presenting it to people, allowing them.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
To align and break down you know.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Solution and just organizational silos really helps set a target
and drive transformation in this era in this area of
supply chain. And so you know, that's what we we
do for our customers. And you know, when I founded
the company really saw it as an opportunity where organizations
are blocked by dirty and untrustworthy data.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So if I can't trust the data, how do I
trust the outcomes?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You can't, So we you know, we plug in and
give that full visibility, but also bring trust in what
we've trained from a very purpose built AI solution that
can read data but then also present it to the
outcomes that matter for organizations. So it's this combination of
(07:00):
what do we see in the data? What do people
know that they would never put in an ARP or
an EAM or procuretive based system, which is a lot
that goes into our ability to understand why do I
inventory something and where and that why do I buy
and where from? So that you can really control that
(07:21):
costs and then you know, really get to a better
target where the company should be from a working capital
at risk perspective.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Absolutely, And that's I think that has its basis in
any supply chain project. It's getting that data, that first data,
because you can't do anything else unless you have a
complete and accurate version of vision of the as is situation.
And how do you ensure accurate data capture from the beginning.
(07:52):
Is it just a matter of you know, sitting down
with them and saying, look, you have to you have
to make sure you have clean data. I don't care
how clean you think it is, it's not enough.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It was actually part of our the success and the
speed speed to value that we drive is because we
can work with existing data, even in its dirty and
incomplete form. We can look at materialized data free text purchasing.
And the model that I mentioned earlier that was our
(08:22):
first innovation was what if we could go in and
start garning inventory and procurement and you know, risk management
outcomes across an m RO supply chain without having to
lead off with you know, a nine to twelve month
data cleansing project.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And so the various in.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Material graph is now the world's largest MRO knowledge base
where we've controlled the training so that when we go
in we can read this data very accurately out of
systems of record, whatever Frankenstein the organization's running, and give
it a brain and then start.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Saying, hey, these.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Are opportunities that you know, low hanging fruit that you
can take advantage of. That goes with you know, setting
proper min max levels at an item level, at a
facility level, but then also opening up opportunities to run
network scenarios. Ultimately, we want to give a full view
of what does the organization need that satisfies the item
(09:22):
level individual need at the plant level, and that's often
very complex and very difficult. But the training that we've
done and the amount of data that we've seen immediately
gives us trust so that within a ninety day period
we can light that up and we can start getting
to work with our customers and they can utilize us
as a partner and a tool to accelerate that execution
(09:45):
so they can see both economic savings but also operational efficiencies,
opportunities for process improvement, and that that really helps drive
a sustainable, sustainable transformation part of the spy chain.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Now, I like that you said it integrates with Frankenstein
Systems because that happens overtime. Companies invest in different technologies
as they're able to, and sometimes it is very customized
and cobbled together.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
It's not an easy.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Plug in, and for the platform to integrate with it
very easily and be able to pull that data is
so huge. Can you share some examples of how you've
leveraged the AI portion of that for that inventory and
predictive maintenance.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Sure, So any organization we go to, like we have
a lot of SAP customers, Oracle customers, Maximo, Hexagon, Koopa, Riva,
and we take data from each of those systems, depending
on again, what that Frankenstein looks like. We've built in
you know, simple processes so that it's not your traditional
software implementation where you know, you agree to buy Varison
(10:58):
and then it takes you know, six to nine months
to you know, for a custom implementation, we've been able
to identify you know, standard tables that nearly every customer has,
which gives us information on not only material naming and
detailed data, but movement history, supplier history, things of that
(11:20):
nature that will train a model on top of the
material graph and allow of four organizations to really configure
it to their organization. And so by doing that, we've
built in simple ways to do it right. So now
takes that you know, traditional system integrator six months to
stand up a software solution across supply chain takes us
(11:45):
you know, forty five or sixty days depending on you know,
where in line we are with it, but gets it
in and allows people to start working on it, so
that that simplicity and taking that from months.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
To hours over that period of.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Time is a big advantage and making you know, as
partner defines like the ideal supply chain project, you know, value,
low effort, low risk. We've we've built this solution aligned
to that. It's powered by you know, AI native uh
technology cause we were like the joke that we were
(12:23):
AI before it was so cool, and that's that's allowed
us to have this foundational intelligence that we're now layering
on agents and and ways to uncover and remove manual
processes and a very transactual part of the supply chain.
So it keeps doing more and more for our customers,
(12:45):
and more and more of that will be well be
automated and because you know, closer and closer do autonomous awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So let's talk a little bit about supplier relationships because
you mentioned that earlier specifically like strategic sourcing versus just
transactional procurement. You need a thing, you go buy it.
Whereas you know, having that relationship with suppliers insures you
have more importance in their eyes, that it raises your
(13:12):
stature just a little bit. If there's a strategic relationship
there in place.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
What does your tool do to.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Help develop those or you know, build that kind of
of relationship with with multiple partners.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
We began looking at this, you know, once we could
understand everything that an organization used came from industrial distribution
and manufacturing supply chain prior to founding the company, which
you know, allowed me to see the pain and feel
the feel the challenges that existed there. Then we ultimately
went out to solve with Verison. And for so long,
(13:50):
especially in the m RO part of the supply chain,
procurement and sourcing, we're reacting, you know, they were they
were trying to figure out what relationship and ships they needed,
how could they secure supply, and it oftentimes was against
just historicals or inaccurate demand. So one of the reasons
that we started with really understanding and really understanding what
(14:15):
organizations need and do inventory optimizations because it right sizes
demand and then we can get that demand down to
the item level, so I know what to buy. If
I know what my people need and they say, yes,
this is what I need, it builds trust between these
two parts of the organization that are often misaligned on
incentives and allows you to build trust that you'll have
(14:39):
what you need, but also do it from a strategic
sourcing perspective. Right, So a lot of our key stakeholders
are procurement leaders that are charged with and this is
an ongoing trend of organizations looking to procurement to be
the champion, be the owner of these improvements and be
able to.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Serve their state colder.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So by building trust and identifying purchasing and sourcing to
what demand you are you actually sourcing against, it greatly
improves the execution of which suppliers am I buying from?
So we've we've taken that and stepped it up to
(15:22):
the next level where item level data cleansing is no
longer really a prerequisite. Better data is always better. We
did a study across our customer base, which you know
is over three dozen global one thousand organizations. We manage
over twelve billion dollars and spend, and we started to
(15:43):
look at, you know, why does every organization categorize differently?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Right? There are global standards.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
In terms of uh, you know, we we aligned to UNSPSC,
and we can we can bucket these contracts and how
they buy and that identifies where there's tail spend where
there's leakage, and gives data to a supplier that they
can go say, all right, now, I know what you need,
so let me secure that for you, rather than just
(16:11):
guessing based on what you've needed in the past. So
those elements and how those associations of how those are
influencing one another are really important to be able to
empower and allow these parts of the organization to work together,
but then ultimately inventory better and spend better.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
One thing that I've been hearing you say a couple
times in this conversation is these different siloed business units
within an organization, And historically that has been a major
stopping point at roadblock hindrance when it comes to getting
any type of project, system wide project off the ground
(16:52):
because you've got too many different stakeholders with too many
different needs and requirements. So what kind of process do
you use when implementing within those client organizations to help
with that change management and encourage that employee engagement and
the leadership buy in.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We do start even before we sign a customer. We
you know, get eyes on the data. We put a
really nice and accurate business case together of what we
see from their data. And that allows us to de
risk the investment of partnering, but also gives us some
targets that we can set as we as we get
all those things stood up. And because we're a software
(17:31):
organization and you know, we have a product that helps
support this, we have a great customer success organization that's
assigned to each customer. So they go in and they
train each of the individual users based on whether a
company's centralized or decentralized, as well as meet regularly with
(17:51):
leadership to say, hey, here's the opportunities we see, here's
what you've done, but here's the new opportunities that have
opened up based on based on usage. So, like many things,
it's communication. But that also allows us to you know,
to do multiple what what are typically multiple projects that
have to be siloed in themselves and prioritize and you know,
(18:15):
kind of slow rule so to speak, allows you to
do those in parallel, so we can we can do
multiple things. And that's a bit of the visibility we
get give our customers and and partners, and then ultimately
you know, transfers and translates to suppliers that get that information. Again,
it takes a village, so we want to enable that
(18:36):
entire supply chain, so we can say here's where you
need more, here's where you need less, here's what you
can repair, Here's where you have you know, tail spend opportunities,
purchase price variants, and that all can run in flight
with one another and doesn't need to be sequential anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That's huge just in the project execution. Sure surely drives
a lot of the buy in that it can be
done on that quicker timeline, but also that it's addressing
their specific needs as as you're going through it, and
it's not like I have to wait for my need
to be addressed towards the end of this project. And
(19:14):
it's a nine month project, so I've got to deal
with the mess in the interim and all of the
confusion and complication that trying to get this off the
ground is going to create. So you know, that's that's
got to be huge. So what is what is a
typical timeline for one of your projects?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So you know, we we work on the annual subscriptions.
Most of our customers enter into multi year agreements because
once we've right size an organization or get you know,
get a great windfall of economic savings. The big thing
is that we're learning from all those interactions, right, and
(19:51):
so as people change, as business changes, you know that
that is also where we're using deep learning and intelligence
and different mind models to not only automate portions of
that manual work, but also sustain that that advantage that they've.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Gained right the momentum.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, they can continue that rather than ending the project
and going back to where they were over a couple
of year period of time. And that's been very prevalent
within MRO for decades and why you see so many
organizations on a different page. So as we've developed Verison,
we looked at, you know, regardless of what you.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Do, whether you make food or automotive.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Parts or cars or you you know, drill for oil,
MRO as m ROS MRO based on some foundational fundamental
things and then they we can configure to different industry.
So we've created this vertical agnostic system, agnostic tool that
can allow us to speed that process up and get
(21:00):
customers going into an engagement knowing what their targets are.
And we actually put guarantees on those things because we know,
you know, once we see the data, we're very accurate
and being able to go execute that and then be
able to, you know, within that sixty to ninety day period,
light up an entire business unit, an entire country, whatever
(21:24):
it may be, or an entire company depending on the
level that they can handle.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
From a change management perspective. All that said, it's.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
A very short speed speed to value that allows you
to either put that to the bottom line or reinvest
it in other adjacent projects like EAM or other things
like that, where we've been able to partner with different
system providers consultants so that we're at the table with
(21:55):
these different stakeholders internally and externally really drive in the chink.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
So what are some.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Of those measurable outcomes KPIs I mean you were talking about,
you know, having tangible savings. Obviously that's that's a big one.
Everyone likes dollar signs, but you know, to really demonstrate
the effectiveness is it you know, is it inventory turnover?
Is it you know, the the cost savings? Is it
(22:26):
just the ease of finding what they need when they
need it? What what are some of these you know,
benchmarks that the companies are expecting.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
To achieve driving economic value certainly always top of them, and
so We certainly are very good at finding money for organizations,
and it starts with you know, understanding the data very quickly,
categorizing that appropriately and then applying it to inventory optimization
(22:54):
so we can set demand. So we're most mature in
that perspective or that that part of thisly chain.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
So if we go reset min.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Max reorder point levels down, next time they order, they
don't order the old level, so there's cost avoidance there.
And then we you know, we're getting feedback as we're
presenting what's in the data, right, so we go from
here's what we're seeing in the data that made us,
you know, drive this decision. We've added some explainability AI
(23:24):
that says it's simply right, so it's not a black box.
Here's why we've made this recommendation. You can accept it,
where you can disagree with it and tell us why.
And we learned from that why. And then we look at,
you know, from those verifications, when will it hit the
P and L where are you using things that you
(23:46):
know they look dead but are used at other plants
that you're procuring, and just look at this entire network
scenario so it unlocks you know, cost avoidance and then
hard dollar cost savings to the P and L and
then we take that those verified demand signals and then
apply that to you know, most commonly purchased price variance
(24:08):
and tail spent.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So our customers will.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Inform us, you know, we've we've selected motion industries for
these three categories. So we'll look at those three categories
and we'll say, all right, what percentage of your spend
over the last year has gone on contract or off contract?
And here's how you can you know, funnel the tail
to your strategic suppliers, which empowers them.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know, it's mutual.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Value, so the flier doesn't know the user in many
cases doesn't know all the things and items that they're
spending on and off contract.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
So by by making.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That visible, it really drives not only inventory and working
capital holding costs and savings, but it also helps drive
compliance and cost savings from a procurement perspective, and in
many cases saves a lot of internal resource time having
to spin up RFPs arbitrarily, arbitrarily just to you know,
(25:10):
we got to put this out to bid so we
can get cost savings. That's a really intensive process and
so if we can avoid that, if you like your supplier,
but just need to empower them with more accurate information
so that they can serve you better. You know, that's
what we ultimately want to do across the various MRO categories.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, it seems just intuitive that given the data driven approach,
this solution is scalable. You know, it could whether you're
dealing with one facility or two facilities, ten facilities, one
hundred facilities. Scalable is there? But what about adaptability and
resiliency with industry shifts or differing client expectations, you know,
(25:53):
as as time goes on, And I know I'm thinking
about it just because it happened two days ago. There's
a tornado that came through our community, and you know
that is a natural disaster that's going to necessitate you know,
the type of you know, heavy duty repair that's not
planned for. So what what kind of adaptability does it
(26:17):
have or does it enable for your clients?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Significant amount. Like one of our most popular use cases
or features in the platform is search. Right, so it's
very in an ERP or EAM or procure it pay
kind of a clunky search experience, and so we identify
that most people have uncertainty over order or add new
materials from you know, non strategic sources because they can't
(26:45):
find it in their network. So we make it very
easy to find what's available in the network in an
emergent situation that could be natural disasters, changes in the market,
so they're able to at least see what's available internally
before they run a fire drill externally. Additionally, we've been
(27:05):
working with a lot of organizations as they bring and
stand up new facilities. You know, what assets am I
using at these new facilities? Where am I using those assets?
Am I existing facilities? Where do I have things that
I can transfer? And on the flip side of that,
if I'm shutting down a facility, where can I redeploy
(27:25):
things that I already have to my existing facility network,
so that we're not just going and buying everything for
that new asset, right, So it's its combination of those
different things and being able to have that visibility and
understanding of the materials at the item level, not just
the category level, allows us to do it. So we
(27:48):
continue to go deeper and add more layers to it.
One AI that we've just released that we're turning into
an agent is Criticality so again we studied our customers
and the data showed that a majority of the inventory
(28:08):
that any organization holds are slow moving, non moving or
obsolete products. They were brought in at some point because
you know, these are insurance items, we bought a new
asset whatever, We got to hold these because if.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
We don't have them, it'll go down.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Now, that could be very true and very accurate, it
often isn't because it's a subjective opinion. You know, what
one person thinks is critical, another person thinks could be
a non critical item. So we try to right size
that and establish the right criticality metrics based on why
the organization deems something critical. So off of that we're
(28:47):
able to say something can be critical, but it also
could be very available in your supply chain. So obviously
we start with the most critical items and say why
are you holding two years when you could really get
it in two days if you just share that with
your supplier. Right, So it's simple. Things of your critical
items can be very critical but also be very available,
(29:09):
so don't hold so much. And so again, over time
that contributes to the right sizing of you know, and
build and trust building across the organization. So that maintenance
doesn't hoard parts as much as they tend to do.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
You know, this makes me laugh because I think about
my own personal supply chain as a mom and a wife,
and you know those things where you like, something that
you use all the time is on sale, so you
buy it in bulk and you have a lot of it,
but then you're stuck with the storage cost and the
lost opportunity cop of what else could I be doing
(29:46):
with this space if I didn't have ten fifteen boxes
of the same cereal that I know my kids will eat.
But the grocery stores down the road, I can go
get another box if I need to. The only reason
I have this much is on hand is because of
a particular thing that happened.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
It was on sale.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
So I mean, that's that's interesting because you know, for me,
I think about that as a space constraint in my home.
But for an organization, when we're talking about you know,
facilities and space that they need for housing their own inventory,
for their product, for their materials.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
They need to spend that hoarding light bulbs.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, exactly, And that's and that's you know, you hit
the nail on the head there, because manufacturing square footage
is very expensive, and if I can put another asset
and manufacture more products, I can make more revenue and
not just sit on you know, potentially obsolete parts and
things of that nature. And so you know, by doing that,
(30:46):
and then also a big portion of what we're getting
to is, you know, really it's not about controlling your inventory.
It's really about securing supply. And so as we can
extend the network and under you know, an organization can
understand what they need and then get their strategic suppliers
that information of what you know of what they need
(31:09):
to hold for them. Your securing supply outside of your network,
you can get suppliers to hold that for you and
not bring it onto your books before you need it.
And so that network extension, network resiliency from a buzzword
perspective is really important, right, And that's what we're aiming
to do is kind of get outside and extend the
(31:30):
network and again mutually beneficial suppliers sell more and can
offer better service and those things that they're charged to.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Do guaranteed client contract, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Being blocked by data and blocked by uncertainty and lack
of trust. So you know, that's really some of the
core principles that we've we've built into Verison and that
also we you know, meet with clients all the time
and customers and then get their partners at the table.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Think if we're all at the table, it's easy to
clarify who plays what role and we can be valuable
to the entire network.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Well, and we've been talking mainly about manufacturers distributors that
have this internal MRO supply chain, because when you have
a facility, you have to maintain it. That's just the
nature of the beast. But what about companies or businesses
and organizations that are in the business of maintenance and
repair and operations. I'm thinking utilities companies. I know when
(32:32):
we first spoke, I mentioned my husband used to work
for Comcast, and so you know they have the warehouse
full of all the materials that the technicians could need
throughout the day, and based on their work orders, they
would you know, go and submit the requisition for whatever
information or whatever materials they needed. But how do you
(32:52):
work with those types of organizations or should I say,
do you work with those types of businesses that that
is their business is doing this for another client?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, we do have external partners. One that we announced
recently is a company called ATS.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
They're a you know.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Outsourced maintenance organization that can do near term, short term
or full time maintenance services take over the store room
and you know, again they're bound by data what's repairable
versus what are you buying news, so we can tell organizations, hey,
you're you're buying all this planned and unplanned maintenance. All
(33:33):
these planned and unplanned maintenance parts. You could repair those
that will help save money and also build predictability into
when when those things are maintained so you don't have
the surprised outages. And then we also work with you know,
companies that don't produce a hard good, but they produce
energy and they produce you know, need to keep a
(33:54):
grid up and running or a network up and running
like your example, where do we have these things across
the network and how can we run the network models
for hub and spoke or virtual storerooms so you don't
have to physically move things and keep things central, but
you know where they are. So that's all a component
(34:15):
of you know, additionally, some of the silos and things
that we're working on breaking down because a lot of
times those parts of the organization don't really talk to
each other from a data perspective, right, it's you know.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I need this, these are the work orders.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I'm going to buy everything I need for the work
order without looking internally to say.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh, we already have half of it, right.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
So then you only complete sixty seventy percent of the work.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You have all this excess.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
It goes back into inventory and then you see you're
holding costs spike. So yeah, it's it's very applicable and
again something that we support a handful of organizations and
partners on.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So before we finish our conversation for today, what would
if you had one customer story that just kind of
encapsulated the best case scenario you could possibly have as
your case study, like your number one? What would that
story be? Tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, And we've had this kind of scenario or story
line up more and more as we've matured, Right, year
over year, we continue to add more capabilities that brought
you know broadly.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Go across the supply chain.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
But you know, I think the biggest, biggest aspect of
that starts with again getting in aligning with you know
it and business stakeholders lighting that, you know, getting all
of the data up and running and having that visibility.
What we've been able to accomplish is being able to say, all, right,
(35:56):
now we know we know what you have.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
After this business unit or collectively these fifty to seventy facilities.
We start seeing good momentum on what's been really exciting
and where it's going. As I've mentioned, you know where
you add agents into the fold and start automating more
and more. We've been seeing a handful of customers that
have been with us for a year, two years or
(36:23):
more start trusting the AI right and so they know
that if we present them an opportunity, eighty percent of
the time, they're going to say yes. So if it's
a non critical item under two thousand dollars, they can
push a button and accept all those recommendations and it
becomes more and more automated based on the training, so
(36:45):
that frees up their people to do more strategic things.
So you know, that component is really exciting. And then
and then how that again influences things that we're building
for the procurement stakeholder that can help manage that side
of the house more effectively. We support them very much today.
(37:07):
But you know, there's a handful of these types of
stories where it's great because trust is central to everything
we do. Empowering people is a big component of what
AI is. You know the place it's going to have
in the supply chain, and we're seeing that come to
fruition with the trust of well, yeah, I trust Verison
(37:29):
to just make the recommendation and we'll take it without
four outcomes and stock outs and things of that nature.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
So it's clear this conversation is just really beginning, and
I look forward to seeing all the things that you
guys are coming up with as you continue to innovate
and improve your platform for your clients. Thank you so
much Paul for joining us today sharing your insights.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Appreciate the opportunity and enjoy the conversation with'sward of doing
it again sometimes.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Of course, to our listeners, if you found today's episode valuable,
please be sure to share Speaking of Supply Chain with
your colleagues, follow us wherever you get your podcasts, and
until next time, keep that inventory moving.
A majority of the inventory that any organization folds are
slow moving, non moving, or obsolete products. Something can be critical,
but it also could be very available in your supply chain.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and
supply chain industries. I'm your host, ellen Wood Maintenance, Repair
and Operations. Supply chains often suffer from chronic inefficiencies, disconnected data,
redundant inventory, and fragmented procurement practices that during resources in
(00:35):
a road competitive advantage. Joining me today to explore how
businesses can achieve clearer visibility, optimized inventories, and stronger supplier
relationships is Paul Noble, CSO and co founder of Verison.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Welcome Paul, thanks for having me. Looking forward to taking
a deeper dive into this often overlooked part of the
supply chain.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Agreed, So before we get started today on MRO supply chains,
let's take a moment to get to know you a
little bit better. So our icebreaker question for today is
what is the best dish you can cook?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Love love to cook, break away from the grind and
spend some time there. So I would say, not any
specific dish, but you know, living in Atlanta, we have
pretty good year round weather and so I have nice
green agge smoker and blackstone grittle top setup that I
like to play around with as much as I can.
(01:34):
And so, you know, from smoking all different types of things,
we tried just about everything at this point. And grilling
it's always it's always my contribution to the meal or
the event or get.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Together that sounds fun, and especially in the summertime. You
know what is better than cooking outdoors and just getting
to enjoy well, I don't know. In Atlanta in the summer,
maybe not so much. You take your grilled food inside.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Gets a little steamy, but certainly a big part of
what I like to do and a big part of
our culture here at Verison. We even have a specific
channel on our slack called Hungry where everyone posts what
they're making they've eaten, and it's one of the favorites
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, I could see that that would be a lot
of fun to to, you know, collaborate with your colleagues
and exchange recipe ideas. We have an office pot luck
once a month and so everybody just brings something in
and We have a lot of international colleagues, so we
get a lot of different tastes from around the world.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I also love to cook, and I don't know that
it's the best thing I know how to cook. I
do a lot of Italian and Asian food. We have
a fantastic international grocery here in my neighborhood, and I'm
able to find and source ingredients that normally, you know,
you wouldn't even consider looking.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
For in a regular grocery store. So that's a lot
of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Are my favorite types of foit.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
This weekend, I'm actually making an Italian dish from an
old cookbook that my dad gave me. It was one
of his cookbooks. He gave me my love of cooking
and love of food, and it's an old I don't
even know if people know who he is anymore. Jeff Smith.
He used to have the TV cooking shows back in
the eighties when it was him and Julia Child and
(03:24):
pretty much no one else on PBS. And there's a
recipe out of one of Jeff Smith's cookbooks, his Italian cookbook,
that I'll be making this weekend, and it's a chicken
rou Lade and it just it looks really basic, but
it sounds like it's going to be really really good,
so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Those are some of the best dishes, right, I mean,
if I'm talking Italian, and regardless of what level of restaurant,
you know, three star, four star, Michelin rated, whatever you
want to say, I'll always gravitate to a good spaghetti
and meatballs dish.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
As much fun as it would be to talk about
food all day long, that is not the topic of
our conversation today. Today we're talking about MRO supply chains,
and these have historically just been overlooked. They were just
part of, you know, the cost of doing business. They
weren't really seen as anything such as a revenue driver
(04:25):
or you know anything.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Really, it was just a.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Need whatever you need to do to keep things up.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah, yeah, a necessary evil.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So talk to us about your approach to some of
those common MRO challenges we talked, like redundant inventory, fragmented procurement,
siloed operations.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
What does that look like from your perspective?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and it's not too dissimilar to how supply chains
were looked at overall up until you know, the pandemic
era where supply chain became a great competitive advantage and
you know, and organizations begin investing in technology across their
supply chain overall, because it's all about really understanding where
(05:15):
you're at, what levers you can pull to move move
to the right balance of working capital without introducing risk,
you know, and so you know, from an m RO perspective,
it's certainly that you know that bucket right. Most organizations,
(05:35):
based on the challenges they have with systems and data,
the processes of individuals working together. We often say, uh,
the m RO takes a village because you have maintenance
and operations, you have procurement, you have finance, and all
of it's there to make sure that you're you know,
producing whatever product that you go to market with.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And so.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Bringing those together and giving an organization full visibility of
where you're at, but what opportunities there are in the data,
presenting it to people, allowing them.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
To align and break down you know.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Solution and just organizational silos really helps set a target
and drive transformation in this era in this area of
supply chain. And so you know, that's what we we
do for our customers. And you know, when I founded
the company really saw it as an opportunity where organizations
are blocked by dirty and untrustworthy data.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So if I can't trust the data, how do I
trust the outcomes?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You can't, So we you know, we plug in and
give that full visibility, but also bring trust in what
we've trained from a very purpose built AI solution that
can read data but then also present it to the
outcomes that matter for organizations. So it's this combination of
(07:00):
what do we see in the data? What do people
know that they would never put in an ARP or
an EAM or procuretive based system, which is a lot
that goes into our ability to understand why do I
inventory something and where and that why do I buy
and where from? So that you can really control that
(07:21):
costs and then you know, really get to a better
target where the company should be from a working capital
at risk perspective.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Absolutely, And that's I think that has its basis in
any supply chain project. It's getting that data, that first data,
because you can't do anything else unless you have a
complete and accurate version of vision of the as is situation.
And how do you ensure accurate data capture from the beginning.
(07:52):
Is it just a matter of you know, sitting down
with them and saying, look, you have to you have
to make sure you have clean data. I don't care
how clean you think it is, it's not enough.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It was actually part of our the success and the
speed speed to value that we drive is because we
can work with existing data, even in its dirty and
incomplete form. We can look at materialized data free text purchasing.
And the model that I mentioned earlier that was our
(08:22):
first innovation was what if we could go in and
start garning inventory and procurement and you know, risk management
outcomes across an m RO supply chain without having to
lead off with you know, a nine to twelve month
data cleansing project.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And so the various in.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Material graph is now the world's largest MRO knowledge base
where we've controlled the training so that when we go
in we can read this data very accurately out of
systems of record, whatever Frankenstein the organization's running, and give
it a brain and then start.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Saying, hey, these.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Are opportunities that you know, low hanging fruit that you
can take advantage of. That goes with you know, setting
proper min max levels at an item level, at a
facility level, but then also opening up opportunities to run
network scenarios. Ultimately, we want to give a full view
of what does the organization need that satisfies the item
(09:22):
level individual need at the plant level, and that's often
very complex and very difficult. But the training that we've
done and the amount of data that we've seen immediately
gives us trust so that within a ninety day period
we can light that up and we can start getting
to work with our customers and they can utilize us
as a partner and a tool to accelerate that execution
(09:45):
so they can see both economic savings but also operational efficiencies,
opportunities for process improvement, and that that really helps drive
a sustainable, sustainable transformation part of the spy chain.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Now, I like that you said it integrates with Frankenstein
Systems because that happens overtime. Companies invest in different technologies
as they're able to, and sometimes it is very customized
and cobbled together.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
It's not an easy.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Plug in, and for the platform to integrate with it
very easily and be able to pull that data is
so huge. Can you share some examples of how you've
leveraged the AI portion of that for that inventory and
predictive maintenance.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Sure, So any organization we go to, like we have
a lot of SAP customers, Oracle customers, Maximo, Hexagon, Koopa, Riva,
and we take data from each of those systems, depending
on again, what that Frankenstein looks like. We've built in
you know, simple processes so that it's not your traditional
software implementation where you know, you agree to buy Varison
(10:58):
and then it takes you know, six to nine months
to you know, for a custom implementation, we've been able
to identify you know, standard tables that nearly every customer has,
which gives us information on not only material naming and
detailed data, but movement history, supplier history, things of that
(11:20):
nature that will train a model on top of the
material graph and allow of four organizations to really configure
it to their organization. And so by doing that, we've
built in simple ways to do it right. So now
takes that you know, traditional system integrator six months to
stand up a software solution across supply chain takes us
(11:45):
you know, forty five or sixty days depending on you know,
where in line we are with it, but gets it
in and allows people to start working on it, so
that that simplicity and taking that from months.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
To hours over that period of.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Time is a big advantage and making you know, as
partner defines like the ideal supply chain project, you know, value,
low effort, low risk. We've we've built this solution aligned
to that. It's powered by you know, AI native uh
technology cause we were like the joke that we were
(12:23):
AI before it was so cool, and that's that's allowed
us to have this foundational intelligence that we're now layering
on agents and and ways to uncover and remove manual
processes and a very transactual part of the supply chain.
So it keeps doing more and more for our customers,
(12:45):
and more and more of that will be well be
automated and because you know, closer and closer do autonomous awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So let's talk a little bit about supplier relationships because
you mentioned that earlier specifically like strategic sourcing versus just
transactional procurement. You need a thing, you go buy it.
Whereas you know, having that relationship with suppliers insures you
have more importance in their eyes, that it raises your
(13:12):
stature just a little bit. If there's a strategic relationship
there in place.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
What does your tool do to.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Help develop those or you know, build that kind of
of relationship with with multiple partners.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
We began looking at this, you know, once we could
understand everything that an organization used came from industrial distribution
and manufacturing supply chain prior to founding the company, which
you know, allowed me to see the pain and feel
the feel the challenges that existed there. Then we ultimately
went out to solve with Verison. And for so long,
(13:50):
especially in the m RO part of the supply chain,
procurement and sourcing, we're reacting, you know, they were they
were trying to figure out what relationship and ships they needed,
how could they secure supply, and it oftentimes was against
just historicals or inaccurate demand. So one of the reasons
that we started with really understanding and really understanding what
(14:15):
organizations need and do inventory optimizations because it right sizes
demand and then we can get that demand down to
the item level, so I know what to buy. If
I know what my people need and they say, yes,
this is what I need, it builds trust between these
two parts of the organization that are often misaligned on
incentives and allows you to build trust that you'll have
(14:39):
what you need, but also do it from a strategic
sourcing perspective. Right, So a lot of our key stakeholders
are procurement leaders that are charged with and this is
an ongoing trend of organizations looking to procurement to be
the champion, be the owner of these improvements and be
able to.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Serve their state colder.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So by building trust and identifying purchasing and sourcing to
what demand you are you actually sourcing against, it greatly
improves the execution of which suppliers am I buying from?
So we've we've taken that and stepped it up to
(15:22):
the next level where item level data cleansing is no
longer really a prerequisite. Better data is always better. We
did a study across our customer base, which you know
is over three dozen global one thousand organizations. We manage
over twelve billion dollars and spend, and we started to
(15:43):
look at, you know, why does every organization categorize differently?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Right? There are global standards.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
In terms of uh, you know, we we aligned to UNSPSC,
and we can we can bucket these contracts and how
they buy and that identifies where there's tail spend where
there's leakage, and gives data to a supplier that they
can go say, all right, now, I know what you need,
so let me secure that for you, rather than just
(16:11):
guessing based on what you've needed in the past. So
those elements and how those associations of how those are
influencing one another are really important to be able to
empower and allow these parts of the organization to work together,
but then ultimately inventory better and spend better.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
One thing that I've been hearing you say a couple
times in this conversation is these different siloed business units
within an organization, And historically that has been a major
stopping point at roadblock hindrance when it comes to getting
any type of project, system wide project off the ground
(16:52):
because you've got too many different stakeholders with too many
different needs and requirements. So what kind of process do
you use when implementing within those client organizations to help
with that change management and encourage that employee engagement and
the leadership buy in.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We do start even before we sign a customer. We
you know, get eyes on the data. We put a
really nice and accurate business case together of what we
see from their data. And that allows us to de
risk the investment of partnering, but also gives us some
targets that we can set as we as we get
all those things stood up. And because we're a software
(17:31):
organization and you know, we have a product that helps
support this, we have a great customer success organization that's
assigned to each customer. So they go in and they
train each of the individual users based on whether a
company's centralized or decentralized, as well as meet regularly with
(17:51):
leadership to say, hey, here's the opportunities we see, here's
what you've done, but here's the new opportunities that have
opened up based on based on usage. So, like many things,
it's communication. But that also allows us to you know,
to do multiple what what are typically multiple projects that
have to be siloed in themselves and prioritize and you know,
(18:15):
kind of slow rule so to speak, allows you to
do those in parallel, so we can we can do
multiple things. And that's a bit of the visibility we
get give our customers and and partners, and then ultimately
you know, transfers and translates to suppliers that get that information. Again,
it takes a village, so we want to enable that
(18:36):
entire supply chain, so we can say here's where you
need more, here's where you need less, here's what you
can repair, Here's where you have you know, tail spend opportunities,
purchase price variants, and that all can run in flight
with one another and doesn't need to be sequential anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That's huge just in the project execution. Sure surely drives
a lot of the buy in that it can be
done on that quicker timeline, but also that it's addressing
their specific needs as as you're going through it, and
it's not like I have to wait for my need
to be addressed towards the end of this project. And
(19:14):
it's a nine month project, so I've got to deal
with the mess in the interim and all of the
confusion and complication that trying to get this off the
ground is going to create. So you know, that's that's
got to be huge. So what is what is a
typical timeline for one of your projects?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So you know, we we work on the annual subscriptions.
Most of our customers enter into multi year agreements because
once we've right size an organization or get you know,
get a great windfall of economic savings. The big thing
is that we're learning from all those interactions, right, and
(19:51):
so as people change, as business changes, you know that
that is also where we're using deep learning and intelligence
and different mind models to not only automate portions of
that manual work, but also sustain that that advantage that they've.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Gained right the momentum.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, they can continue that rather than ending the project
and going back to where they were over a couple
of year period of time. And that's been very prevalent
within MRO for decades and why you see so many
organizations on a different page. So as we've developed Verison,
we looked at, you know, regardless of what you.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Do, whether you make food or automotive.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Parts or cars or you you know, drill for oil,
MRO as m ROS MRO based on some foundational fundamental
things and then they we can configure to different industry.
So we've created this vertical agnostic system, agnostic tool that
can allow us to speed that process up and get
(21:00):
customers going into an engagement knowing what their targets are.
And we actually put guarantees on those things because we know,
you know, once we see the data, we're very accurate
and being able to go execute that and then be
able to, you know, within that sixty to ninety day period,
light up an entire business unit, an entire country, whatever
(21:24):
it may be, or an entire company depending on the
level that they can handle.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
From a change management perspective. All that said, it's.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
A very short speed speed to value that allows you
to either put that to the bottom line or reinvest
it in other adjacent projects like EAM or other things
like that, where we've been able to partner with different
system providers consultants so that we're at the table with
(21:55):
these different stakeholders internally and externally really drive in the chink.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
So what are some.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Of those measurable outcomes KPIs I mean you were talking about,
you know, having tangible savings. Obviously that's that's a big one.
Everyone likes dollar signs, but you know, to really demonstrate
the effectiveness is it you know, is it inventory turnover?
Is it you know, the the cost savings? Is it
(22:26):
just the ease of finding what they need when they
need it? What what are some of these you know,
benchmarks that the companies are expecting.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
To achieve driving economic value certainly always top of them, and
so We certainly are very good at finding money for organizations,
and it starts with you know, understanding the data very quickly,
categorizing that appropriately and then applying it to inventory optimization
(22:54):
so we can set demand. So we're most mature in
that perspective or that that part of thisly chain.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
So if we go reset min.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Max reorder point levels down, next time they order, they
don't order the old level, so there's cost avoidance there.
And then we you know, we're getting feedback as we're
presenting what's in the data, right, so we go from
here's what we're seeing in the data that made us,
you know, drive this decision. We've added some explainability AI
(23:24):
that says it's simply right, so it's not a black box.
Here's why we've made this recommendation. You can accept it,
where you can disagree with it and tell us why.
And we learned from that why. And then we look at,
you know, from those verifications, when will it hit the
P and L where are you using things that you
(23:46):
know they look dead but are used at other plants
that you're procuring, and just look at this entire network
scenario so it unlocks you know, cost avoidance and then
hard dollar cost savings to the P and L and
then we take that those verified demand signals and then
apply that to you know, most commonly purchased price variance
(24:08):
and tail spent.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So our customers will.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Inform us, you know, we've we've selected motion industries for
these three categories. So we'll look at those three categories
and we'll say, all right, what percentage of your spend
over the last year has gone on contract or off contract?
And here's how you can you know, funnel the tail
to your strategic suppliers, which empowers them.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know, it's mutual.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Value, so the flier doesn't know the user in many
cases doesn't know all the things and items that they're
spending on and off contract.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
So by by making.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That visible, it really drives not only inventory and working
capital holding costs and savings, but it also helps drive
compliance and cost savings from a procurement perspective, and in
many cases saves a lot of internal resource time having
to spin up RFPs arbitrarily, arbitrarily just to you know,
(25:10):
we got to put this out to bid so we
can get cost savings. That's a really intensive process and
so if we can avoid that, if you like your supplier,
but just need to empower them with more accurate information
so that they can serve you better. You know, that's
what we ultimately want to do across the various MRO categories.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, it seems just intuitive that given the data driven approach,
this solution is scalable. You know, it could whether you're
dealing with one facility or two facilities, ten facilities, one
hundred facilities. Scalable is there? But what about adaptability and
resiliency with industry shifts or differing client expectations, you know,
(25:53):
as as time goes on, And I know I'm thinking
about it just because it happened two days ago. There's
a tornado that came through our community, and you know
that is a natural disaster that's going to necessitate you know,
the type of you know, heavy duty repair that's not
planned for. So what what kind of adaptability does it
(26:17):
have or does it enable for your clients?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Significant amount. Like one of our most popular use cases
or features in the platform is search. Right, so it's
very in an ERP or EAM or procure it pay
kind of a clunky search experience, and so we identify
that most people have uncertainty over order or add new
materials from you know, non strategic sources because they can't
(26:45):
find it in their network. So we make it very
easy to find what's available in the network in an
emergent situation that could be natural disasters, changes in the market,
so they're able to at least see what's available internally
before they run a fire drill externally. Additionally, we've been
(27:05):
working with a lot of organizations as they bring and
stand up new facilities. You know, what assets am I
using at these new facilities? Where am I using those assets?
Am I existing facilities? Where do I have things that
I can transfer? And on the flip side of that,
if I'm shutting down a facility, where can I redeploy
(27:25):
things that I already have to my existing facility network,
so that we're not just going and buying everything for
that new asset, right, So it's its combination of those
different things and being able to have that visibility and
understanding of the materials at the item level, not just
the category level, allows us to do it. So we
(27:48):
continue to go deeper and add more layers to it.
One AI that we've just released that we're turning into
an agent is Criticality so again we studied our customers
and the data showed that a majority of the inventory
(28:08):
that any organization holds are slow moving, non moving or
obsolete products. They were brought in at some point because
you know, these are insurance items, we bought a new
asset whatever, We got to hold these because if.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
We don't have them, it'll go down.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Now, that could be very true and very accurate, it
often isn't because it's a subjective opinion. You know, what
one person thinks is critical, another person thinks could be
a non critical item. So we try to right size
that and establish the right criticality metrics based on why
the organization deems something critical. So off of that we're
(28:47):
able to say something can be critical, but it also
could be very available in your supply chain. So obviously
we start with the most critical items and say why
are you holding two years when you could really get
it in two days if you just share that with
your supplier. Right, So it's simple. Things of your critical
items can be very critical but also be very available,
(29:09):
so don't hold so much. And so again, over time
that contributes to the right sizing of you know, and
build and trust building across the organization. So that maintenance
doesn't hoard parts as much as they tend to do.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
You know, this makes me laugh because I think about
my own personal supply chain as a mom and a wife,
and you know those things where you like, something that
you use all the time is on sale, so you
buy it in bulk and you have a lot of it,
but then you're stuck with the storage cost and the
lost opportunity cop of what else could I be doing
(29:46):
with this space if I didn't have ten fifteen boxes
of the same cereal that I know my kids will eat.
But the grocery stores down the road, I can go
get another box if I need to. The only reason
I have this much is on hand is because of
a particular thing that happened.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
It was on sale.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
So I mean, that's that's interesting because you know, for me,
I think about that as a space constraint in my home.
But for an organization, when we're talking about you know,
facilities and space that they need for housing their own inventory,
for their product, for their materials.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
They need to spend that hoarding light bulbs.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, exactly, And that's and that's you know, you hit
the nail on the head there, because manufacturing square footage
is very expensive, and if I can put another asset
and manufacture more products, I can make more revenue and
not just sit on you know, potentially obsolete parts and
things of that nature. And so you know, by doing that,
(30:46):
and then also a big portion of what we're getting
to is, you know, really it's not about controlling your inventory.
It's really about securing supply. And so as we can
extend the network and under you know, an organization can
understand what they need and then get their strategic suppliers
that information of what you know of what they need
(31:09):
to hold for them. Your securing supply outside of your network,
you can get suppliers to hold that for you and
not bring it onto your books before you need it.
And so that network extension, network resiliency from a buzzword
perspective is really important, right, And that's what we're aiming
to do is kind of get outside and extend the
(31:30):
network and again mutually beneficial suppliers sell more and can
offer better service and those things that they're charged to.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Do guaranteed client contract, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Being blocked by data and blocked by uncertainty and lack
of trust. So you know, that's really some of the
core principles that we've we've built into Verison and that
also we you know, meet with clients all the time
and customers and then get their partners at the table.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Think if we're all at the table, it's easy to
clarify who plays what role and we can be valuable
to the entire network.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Well, and we've been talking mainly about manufacturers distributors that
have this internal MRO supply chain, because when you have
a facility, you have to maintain it. That's just the
nature of the beast. But what about companies or businesses
and organizations that are in the business of maintenance and
repair and operations. I'm thinking utilities companies. I know when
(32:32):
we first spoke, I mentioned my husband used to work
for Comcast, and so you know they have the warehouse
full of all the materials that the technicians could need
throughout the day, and based on their work orders, they
would you know, go and submit the requisition for whatever
information or whatever materials they needed. But how do you
(32:52):
work with those types of organizations or should I say,
do you work with those types of businesses that that
is their business is doing this for another client?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, we do have external partners. One that we announced
recently is a company called ATS.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
They're a you know.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Outsourced maintenance organization that can do near term, short term
or full time maintenance services take over the store room
and you know, again they're bound by data what's repairable
versus what are you buying news, so we can tell organizations, hey,
you're you're buying all this planned and unplanned maintenance. All
(33:33):
these planned and unplanned maintenance parts. You could repair those
that will help save money and also build predictability into
when when those things are maintained so you don't have
the surprised outages. And then we also work with you know,
companies that don't produce a hard good, but they produce
energy and they produce you know, need to keep a
(33:54):
grid up and running or a network up and running
like your example, where do we have these things across
the network and how can we run the network models
for hub and spoke or virtual storerooms so you don't
have to physically move things and keep things central, but
you know where they are. So that's all a component
(34:15):
of you know, additionally, some of the silos and things
that we're working on breaking down because a lot of
times those parts of the organization don't really talk to
each other from a data perspective, right, it's you know.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I need this, these are the work orders.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
I'm going to buy everything I need for the work
order without looking internally to say.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh, we already have half of it, right.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
So then you only complete sixty seventy percent of the work.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You have all this excess.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
It goes back into inventory and then you see you're
holding costs spike. So yeah, it's it's very applicable and
again something that we support a handful of organizations and
partners on.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So before we finish our conversation for today, what would
if you had one customer story that just kind of
encapsulated the best case scenario you could possibly have as
your case study, like your number one? What would that
story be? Tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, And we've had this kind of scenario or story
line up more and more as we've matured, Right, year
over year, we continue to add more capabilities that brought
you know broadly.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Go across the supply chain.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
But you know, I think the biggest, biggest aspect of
that starts with again getting in aligning with you know
it and business stakeholders lighting that, you know, getting all
of the data up and running and having that visibility.
What we've been able to accomplish is being able to say, all, right,
(35:56):
now we know we know what you have.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
After this business unit or collectively these fifty to seventy facilities.
We start seeing good momentum on what's been really exciting
and where it's going. As I've mentioned, you know where
you add agents into the fold and start automating more
and more. We've been seeing a handful of customers that
have been with us for a year, two years or
(36:23):
more start trusting the AI right and so they know
that if we present them an opportunity, eighty percent of
the time, they're going to say yes. So if it's
a non critical item under two thousand dollars, they can
push a button and accept all those recommendations and it
becomes more and more automated based on the training, so
(36:45):
that frees up their people to do more strategic things.
So you know, that component is really exciting. And then
and then how that again influences things that we're building
for the procurement stakeholder that can help manage that side
of the house more effectively. We support them very much today.
(37:07):
But you know, there's a handful of these types of
stories where it's great because trust is central to everything
we do. Empowering people is a big component of what
AI is. You know the place it's going to have
in the supply chain, and we're seeing that come to
fruition with the trust of well, yeah, I trust Verison
(37:29):
to just make the recommendation and we'll take it without
four outcomes and stock outs and things of that nature.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
So it's clear this conversation is just really beginning, and
I look forward to seeing all the things that you
guys are coming up with as you continue to innovate
and improve your platform for your clients. Thank you so
much Paul for joining us today sharing your insights.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Appreciate the opportunity and enjoy the conversation with'sward of doing
it again sometimes.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Of course, to our listeners, if you found today's episode valuable,
please be sure to share Speaking of Supply Chain with
your colleagues, follow us wherever you get your podcasts, and
until next time, keep that inventory moving.
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