Supply Chain Revolution

Did you know that human-made materials now outweigh Earth's entire biomass? The human footprint in the world in 2020 is greater than the impact on the planet of all other living things, research suggests. 2020 has been the "Year of the Pledges". From setting 2030 to 2050 goals and claiming carbon-neutrality, one thing is for sure...you can pull up to many tables, but which ones? Has this been the year of social and green washing and what can we expect in the new year? James George from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has taken over the Supply Chain Revolution® in this special holiday edition - Episode 49. We explore BOLD topics and trends in 2020 and what is front of mind in circularity, sustainability, and supply chains in 2021, including: IWhy we buy stuff & the Minimalist Challenge. tInclusive sustainability, what does it mean? ’Price parity at the shelf and sustainable brands. sAll carbon is not created equally: the equation doesn't work in carbon offsets and neutrality. Conscious consumerism. aHow can you get people to care, more, about sustainability? And an inspirational message in the rise of empowerment where how you show up in the world matters. Do people ever go back and check build sustainability commitments? According to James George, carbon offsets and “net zero” may be a license to get yourself out of a sticky situation; all carbon cycles are not created equal. We talk about 'the minimalist challenge' - removing stuff that doesn’t spark joy; when you get to day 16, things start to get clearer and you decouple the "need" for stuff; Sheri explores why we buy things and what's behind mass-consumerism. Lastly, how can we actually get people to care? 2020 has been the rise of empowerment in many ways. Where and how you show up in the world matters. You have control over what you do and mobilizing can be transformative. We all have a sphere of influence. How will you use yours in 2021? To Learn more about James and the Ellen MacArthur, please visit the links below: James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-george-20995b75/ EMF: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & https://www.supplychainqueen.com

This is a story that is unique and one that needs to be evangelized. Layla Shaikley, co-founder of a tech start-up that has seen explosive growth in logistics tech and AI-driven optimization within last mile stumbled into supply chain. She actually has a background in architecture and design. As an Iraqi woman, she wanted to make mobility safe during the most recent Iraqi war. It was during an elective class in the media lab at MIT (while she was getting her 2nd masters degree) that a seemingly small class project - "how to change 1 billion lives with technology" - would change the course of her life forever. In addition to being absolutely brilliant and an advocate for women in STEM, Layla is passionate about normalizing Hijabi in our domain and helping college graduates and millennials land the job of their dreams. She has a massive TikTok and Instagram following with millions of views (username @laylool). Layla believes that drivers have a really HARD job and so many focus on the last mile, but what about the last 100 feet? Layla believes that the future of work is still human and the driver's experience IS the customer experience in many ways. In Episode 48, you'll learn about Layla's passion in customer service and solving wicked problems in logistics, problems that are relevant when we imagine the future of work, autonomous supply chains, drones, and autonomous delivery. She shares outcomes from customer stories of dramatic effects realized in CO2 reduction when using Wise Systems' AI-enabled optimization. The expectation for enterprise applications is that they are as seamless like in the consumer world. Layla unpacks Dominos and Zappos examples where customer loyalty comes from good customer experience. She also describes diversity as a business imperative and insights as an SAP.iO foundry superstar (shout out to John Licata)! We have a huge industry with rapidly evolving needs. Where do you stand on innovation and embracing diversity for better product design and customer outcomes? To anyone listening and/or reading this, Layla is hiring. Send her a DM on TikTok (she gives a shout out on how to land a job in this episode too). To learn more about Layla and Wise Systems, visit: wisesystems.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/lshaikley/ To learn more about SAP.io, visit https://sap.io/ Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & https://www.supplychainqueen.com

This is an ACTION-PACKED EPISODE! Epsiode 47 is part 2 of a series where Sheri Hinish (SupplyChainQueen) chats with a thought leader and supply chain advocate, Dr. Yossi Sheffi from MIT who has been teaching, learning, building, authoring many publications, including a new book 'the New (Ab) Normal' in a conversation that pushes boundaries highlighting areas that many in supply chain and technology shy away from discussing...getting real on transformation, innovation, and disruption. In part 2, Episode 47, we'll explore doubling down on technology for transformative change. From AI, digital twins, and a deeper dive in human behavior, Dr. Sheffi gives you the steps to risk management and recovery in COVID and beyond when designing for resilience. Topics in this episode include using AI to shape human behavior, the technology investments you should make in supply chain, steps to digital resilience learned in COVID, education needed to connect consumer behavior and sustainability, ESG prosperity and a PoV on BlackRock, plastic impacts on climate change reduction, LCIA and the impacts of meat-consumption, a word of CAUTION when using AI and machine learning in supply chain optimization & planning, and lastly lessons learned from his career as a Rebel in supply chain and logistics. To learn more, visit https://sheffi.mit.edu/ and https://www.amazon.com/New-Ab-Normal-Reshaping-Business-ebook/dp/B08JHXQG1L/ Be sure to follow and subscribe to the Supply Chain Revolution wherever you get your podcasts.

Excellence does not happen by accident. Supply chains are answering the call during COVID and will continue to do so as a new vaccine comes to market. But how do we keep the momentum of speed, flexibility, without cutting corners? In a 2-part series, Sheri Hinish (SupplyChainQueen) chats with a thought leader and supply chain advocate, Dr. Yossi Sheffi from MIT who has been teaching, learning, building, authoring many publications, including a new book 'the New (Ab) Normal' in a conversation that pushes boundaries highlighting areas that many in supply chain and technology shy away from discussing...getting real on transformation, innovation, and disruption. In his new book, the New (Ab) Normal, Dr. Sheffi describes how supply chains - by and large- responded to the challenges during the COVID pandemic. Civilization depends on supply chains to convert the planet’s bounty into products and deliver those products affordably to 7.8 billion human beings. Sheffi exposes the critical role supply chains play in helping people, governments, and companies to manage that bounty. The book draws on executive interviews, pandemic media coverage, historical analyses, and themes from his books, "The Resilient Enterprise" (2005) and "The Power of Resilience" (2015) to suggest how companies become more resilient facing uncertainty. This must-read book helps companies and entrepreneurs adjust to a fast-evolving economic landscape. We dig into the concept of resilience, but more importantly what should we expect in 2021? What's in store for retail, omni channel and ecommerce? Fundamentally, The New (Ab)Normal is about businesses trying to create a better future in a time of extreme uncertainty. We explore incrementalism which is stifling supply chain innovation and perpetuating the 'we've always done it this way' paradigm. The problem is we iterate in a linear, bad system. And there are no good choices in a bad system, only choosing between less bad. When we think about extending traditional planning boundaries and the buffet of 2020 supply chain buzzwords, are businesses missing an opportunity to be truly disruptive, to embrace circularity, new business models, and innovation? Why does the incremental approach, even when gaps are highlighted by COVID and climate change seem to persist? From non-linear thinking, to sustainability, producer responsibility, and the value action gap in consumption, we unpack the opportunity in building back better. What will it take to build the supply chains of 2030? *Hint: science is the connector and technology is the accelerator. In part 2, Episode 47, we'll explore doubling down on technology for transformative change. From AI, digital twins, and a deeper dive in human behavior, Dr. Sheffi gives you the steps to risk management and recovery in COVID and beyond when designing for resilience. To learn more, visit https://sheffi.mit.edu/ and https://www.amazon.com/New-Ab-Normal-Reshaping-Business-ebook/dp/B08JHXQG1L/ Be sure to follow and subscribe to the Supply Chain Revolution wherever you get your podcasts.

Dr. Garry Copper, neuroscientist turned sustainability technologist and circularity advocate had a pivotal moment - that our field is one-noted and we need to build a reuse bridge to capture value left in materials to transition to a sustainable world, a fly-wheel of wealth for communities who have been left out in the linear economy. Led by curiosity and studying how people remember and forget, he stumbled on CE, and his life was changed forever. He is the CEO of a Chicago-based technology start-up Rheaply that helps manage material flows and the life cycle of assets in the circular economy through reuse, realizing the 4.5 trillion dollar opportunity.  I met Garry a few months back at a Green Biz event and had chills after hearing him evangelize how the "circular economy can only be realized when it’s real for everyone, and everyone can participate. Materials flow everywhere.” I was blown away as he described his purpose "to make his story not remarkable,” empowering more people and particularly women of color to participate and not just be a passive stakeholder in making our communities sustainable. Rheaply is a part of Circular-City Chicago in tri-sector partnerships including local non-profit community champions. We pull on the threads of digital divide and food sovereignty, and hydroponic farming in Chicago too. The future is bright. In Episode 45, he explores his journey as someone who wants to make an impact, and a black man in an almost exclusively white environment for most of his career. His dream for Rheaply is to operationalizing a net-zero waste strategy and help businesses be efficient in a COVID world by reducing holding and carrying costs, capturing material value and leveraging spend avoidance. However, we diverge and in a provocative discussion to explore the business case “let’s keep our marketplace on Earth” (not to be missed)! As we unpack the business model emergency for circularity, the big question emerged…has COVID accelerated or decelerated climate and sustainability transition? We talk about recent weather disruptions and fires in California, and the burning question is “can you do business when folks can’t go outside?” The Earth is the business case. It’s not climate change, it’s a climate emergency. We also talk about doing the right thing particularly when it comes to social responsibility in forced child labor and the black lives matter movement. Do either of these pressing social issues really “need” a business case or is this a space to step up and be good stewards in business? One of Rheaply’s key partners is SAP and Rheaply is currently in the SAP.iO Foundry. Big shout out to John Licata at SAP.iO. Garry explores his journey as a start up founder with lessons earned for other technologists. Also shout out to John Holm, a friend of Supply Chain Revolution from Pyxera Global, and a Circular Cities-Chicago advocate. Also, shout out to Harold Chapman for all the work you do to feed and teach the students in Chicago that there is sustainable way to live, eat, and learn.  To learn more about Dr. Garry Cooper, visit https://rheaply.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrycooperphd/ To learn more about the Supply Chain Revolution, visit supplychainqueen.com or supplychainrevolution.com

The wastes from plastics and electronics are putting increased pressure on the recycling industry and reverse supply chains. Despite massive initiatives by public and private organizations, recycling rates remain low and progress remains slow. Estimates suggest there are 400 million tons of plastic produced each year, which is projected to more than double by 2050. Around 40% of plastic packaging is said to be landfilled, and another 32% leaked into the environment and not reused, according to the World Economic Forum. Nine-tenths of all solid waste in the United States does not get recycled. While landfills are among the biggest contributors to soil pollution (roughly 80% of the items buried in landfills could be recycled), our take-make-waste mindset and transition away from a linear economy presets a transformative opportunity. What’s the business case for change, for moving toward a sustainable and circular world? Recycling is a difficult business. The whole process is full of inefficiencies, has many stakeholders, and a lack of digital data to track a product's journey from creation to destruction. The challenge for the recycling business is supply chain visibility and traceability. In Episode 44, Sheri Hinish chats with Stan Chen of RecycleGo. Stan is a 2nd generation recycler and believes there is a way to make supply chains sustainable and scale the circular economy- particularly how we use and source plastics- using disruptive innovation like blockchain, and data analytics. This episode was recorded just days after the US presidential election and Stan explores his experience as a 1st generation Asian American, growing up in the midst of racial change and while honoring his father’s legacy as a Taiwanese recycler. Irvington, N.J.-based recycling technology solutions provider RecycleGO is using Hyperledger Fabric, an open-sourced blockchain framework, to build a platform for any type of recyclable material to be tracked throughout its lifecycle. If you’re interested in learning about the impact of plastics, micros plastics, social environmentalism and its impacts, and innovation in recycling using technology like blockchain, this episode is for you.  We also dive into the importance for making the business case in sustainability investments and the ROI period. The power of your purse is real and there’s never been a better time to invest in your future. Benefits of using a SaaS, blockchain solution for recycling like RecycleGo include: 1.    Cross-organization supply chain recycling tracking that enables data transparency and provenance 2.    Tracking individual plastic items across their lifecycles to create incentives that reward manufacturers for designing easy-to-reuse or recycle plastics. Because reuse and recycling of products is so essential to the creation of sustainable supply chains, this data will be invaluable for businesses that make eco-friendliness a top priority. 3.    Providing better recycling incentives for consumers to reduce accumulated plastics in oceans and mass-ingestion of microplastics worldwide. To learn more about Stan Chen and RecycleGo, visit https://recyclego.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanchen/ To explore provocative PoVs, visit supplychainqueen.com and supplychainrevolution.com

Experts predict that retail ecommerce sales will reach $4.13 trillion in 2020 and it is expected that mobile commerce will take a market share of e-commerce of 72.9% by 2021. As we enter the holiday season navigating COVID, retailers face unprecedented opportunities to reimagine brand experiences and bridge the storefront’s physical to digital continuum. While adapting an agile supply chain, increasing conversion rates, reducing wastes, including decreasing returns are front of mind, 1 company is transforming virtual shopping, where the online shopping experience is made human, again. Meet HERO (usehero.com). In Episode 43, Sheri Hinish (SupplyChainQueen) joins Natasha Franzen, COO of HERO an SAP.iO Foundry superstar. With customers like Levis, Nike, Jonathan Adler, Herman Miller, Rag & Bone, and countless others, HERO is bringing next level human commerce to retail with conversational commerce to help stores unlock their competitive edge. Stores create 1 in 10 of the world’s jobs, more than any other sector. HERO exists to not only keep these stores and their employees at the heart of communities and the economy, but to empower them with the technology that unlocks their unique advantage over the e-commerce giants. Whether in-person, via text, chat or video, HERO is empowering store associates to thrive during COVID injecting gamification and the human layer into the store, complementing the convenience of online shopping, even during periods of low foot traffic. To learn more about HERO, visit usehero.com or https://sap.io/ who is helping innovators inside and outside of SAP build products, find customers, and change industries. Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & https://www.supplychainqueen.com

Every tech company wants to tell you what their AI can do. Patterns help us make sense of the world and can help us overcome the impossible tasks we face each day in supply chain orchestration. From understanding gaps and influences, AI creates more intelligence in how to detect, understand, and pull parts of the patterns together that build an ecosystem. Through the lens of business transformation, a common challenge for many is knowing what levers to pull strategically, reinventing portions of their business in a digital way. The biggest issue is not tech, it's the lack of skill and culture needed to scale disruptive change. In Episode 42, Sheri Hinish welcomes Jennifer Bryne, digital empowerment evangelist and rebel who is exploring the next chapter in her career after retiring from Microsoft as the US Chief Technology Officer. Jennifer is now working with start-ups, giving back in. the tech community, and writing her first book. She has a fascinating career path starting in non-profit management and social services, then transitioning to cybersecurity sales and engineering teams. Learn from Jennifer as she shares her experience leading, developing, and executing vertical industry and go-to-market strategies, while managing global alliances and partner ecosystems. In this Episode, we explore the keys to accelerating your success in AI Digital transformation, the future of work and AI, patterns in change management that can be applied to solve supply chain/human/and business problems, and key tips that have helped Jennifer in her journey as a woman in STEM for career advancement, and positioning herself for leadership roles. To learn more about Jennifer Bryne, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-byrne-talks/ Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & https://www.supplychainqueen.com

The purpose of a supply chain is to move goods and services around the world to meet user demand. And over decades, we’ve built coupled-networks based on principles of regionalization or centralization of function, location, and cost efficiency. COVID is an example of the uncertainty supply chains face on a day-to-day basis derived from old-school thinking and design.  Imagine a world where supply chains are flipped upside down, a world where we send files, not parts? A world that empowers the end consumer to produce what is needed on-demand through cloud based technology, including recycling on site in a circular transition? In Episode 41, CEO of Ivaldi (Espen Sivertsen) joins Sheri Hinish to talk about the future of digital supply chains, on-demand additive manufacturing and the business case for change, industrial sustainability, and the power of diversity in technology. Espen is part of the SAP.iO Foundry bootcamp and shares observations he’s gathered from Silicon Valley and beyond, that diversity fuels innovation. Segments Ivaldi serves include maritime, industrial, mining, energy (gas turbines and power plants), and automotive.  One of Espen’s guiding quotes are “we did not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” He also dives into the sustainability aspects on on-demand, additive, local manufacturing environments through digital distribution. Digital distribution is the process of sending digital part files to local manufacturers for on-demand production and distribution. Digital distribution bypasses physical distribution limitations such as sourcing disruptions, carry costs, late shipments, minimum quantities, obsolete inventory and environmental contamination by storing parts in a virtual warehouse and only manufacturing parts when and where they are needed through a distributed network of local manufacturers. As production tools such as 3D printing, robotic fabrication and other CNC systems get faster, better and cheaper, an increasing range of parts can be cost-effective to manufacture on-demand. Digital distribution is fundamentally changing supply chain dynamics as user-needs supplant centralized manufacturing limitations as the driving force in the industry. This episode is part of a new partnership highlighting innovation and diversity in supply chain start ups at SAP.iO. To learn more, visit https://sap.io/ Shout out to John Licata for making the introductions! To learn more about Ivaldi, visit https://www.ivaldi.io/ Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & https://www.supplychainqueen.com

Did you know that if you add up the cats and dogs in the United States, they’d represent the 5th largest population of protein consumption in the world? When it comes to pet supply chains and sustainability, there is typically 1 sector called "pet services and products”. This one sector, encompasses dozens of other industries that have many categories in human supply chains. For example, apparel, food, medicine, and healthy/beauty are considered dramatically different industries in the human world, but we buy good and services for our pets in all those areas and more.  The environmental impact of the pet sector is huge. Did you know that 300 million pounds of packaging is sent to land fill each year? Finally, the pet industry has often overlooked and serious social sustainability challenges as well. Pet ownership has been directly linked to home ownership, but with systematic racist policies historically making home ownership out of reach for communities of color, what are the Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion implications of the industry itself? Why aren’t people aware or talking about this?  In Episode 40, Sheri Hinish discusses massive opportunities in pet sustainability, in caring differently for our furry friends, with MelissaBauer from the Pet Sustainability Coalition. PSC has a super cool origin story starting with Chris Bentley. A lover of life and an environmentalist at heart, Chris Bentley has spent several decades looking for ways to minimize his environmental footprint. Based in Colorado, Chris was active in the entrepreneurial business community where he saw the Natural Foods movement adopt Organic Certification and the Outdoor Industry collaborate to build innovative sustainability tools. With over 25 years of success in the pet products industry, first with Aspen Pet and then with Only Natural Pet and “I and Love and You,” he knew there was an opportunity to drive impact in an industry he had grown to know and love. Together with fellow sustainable business leader Marty Grosjean at Only Natural Pet, Chris partnered with sustainability icon Hunter Lovins at Natural Capitalism Solutions to develop a suite of sustainability tools that could provide their respective companies the resources they needed to implement sustainable business processes. The outcome of this project was a world class toolkit built by Natural Capitalism Solutions that had far reaching potential. The new vision for these tools was to serve as a transformative catalyst that would enable the entire pet industry to engage more positively with the environment and communities where they do business. When complete, Chris, Natural Capitalism Solutions, the Outdoor Industry Association, and 25 business leaders met at Global Pet Expo 2013 where they formed a new nonprofit collaborative that would share tools and resources to encourage adoption of sustainable business practices. KD Frueh at KONG Company, Tony de Vos at Cardinal Pet Care, Jim Thomas at Petco, Spencer Williams at West Paw, Stephanie Volo at Planet Dog, and Aaron Lambstein at Worldwise joined Only Natural Pet and I and Love and You to become Founding Members of the Pet Sustainability Coalition. These 8 Founding Members continued to make large financial contributions for five consecutive years that served as the Coalition’s primary revenue and lifeblood! To get involved and learn more about Pet Sustainability Coalition, visit https://www.petsustainability.org Find us, connect, and explore at https://www.supplychainrevolution.com/ & Sheri Hinish at https://www.supplychainqueen.com