Host Mike Grain sits down with Dr. Glenn Richey from Auburn University about supply chian implications to on-shelf availability. In this part 1 episode, Mike and Glenn discuss topics including:
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening,
Mike Graen:wherever you happen to be this fine day, we are coming to you
Mike Graen:with another Conversations on Retail focused on on shelf
Mike Graen:availability. And I have the pleasure of talking to Glenn
Mike Graen:Richey, I guess your first your official name is Robert Bland
Mike Graen:Richey Jr. Right? So we'll have to, we'll have to unpack that a
Mike Graen:little bit. Because that's like 18 first names, but that's ...
Mike Graen:we'll get to that in a second. But Glenn, why don't you go
Mike Graen:ahead, and you're unmuted. Tell us a little bit about yourself
Mike Graen:and a little bit of background of how you came to get into the
Mike Graen:supply chain area?
Glenn Richey:Yeah, yeah. Kind of an interesting thing. I think
Glenn Richey:it's like, most people, Mike, it's, I didn't find supply chain
Glenn Richey:and found me as kind of the way, way those things happen. Yes,
Glenn Richey:yeah. So so I'm Glenn Richey, I don't go by Robert only because
Glenn Richey:that was my father's name. And now my son's name. The Scottish
Glenn Richey:heritage, you know, I guess we're not very creative we use a
Glenn Richey:lot of first names. Actually, these are last names, all my for
Glenn Richey:all of my first name, looking names or last names from that
Glenn Richey:part of the world. So I got into Supply Chain Management after
Glenn Richey:undergrad like a lot of people do. I thought I was going to end
Glenn Richey:up being a sales career somewhere, my family kind of had
Glenn Richey:a tradition and history of being in those types of jobs. And it
Glenn Richey:was a time period and in the early 90s, when things were
Glenn Richey:pretty rocky in sales, and the economy was doing some different
Glenn Richey:things. And I was at a management trainee program after
Glenn Richey:doing some work and co ops within manufacturing. And I was
Glenn Richey:just sure I was going to end up out of that break program in
Glenn Richey:sales and ended up in purchasing. Right, so ....
Mike Graen:The other side of the desk?
Glenn Richey:Yeah, exactly. Which was, which is kind of a
Glenn Richey:shock, right. But what was great experience genuine parts
Glenn Richey:company, SP Richards company put me through the basis for about
Glenn Richey:nine years in the wholesaling realm where we did a lot of
Glenn Richey:retail consulting with small to mid sized retailers also, did
Glenn Richey:some Fillion supply for major players like those folks up in
Glenn Richey:Bentonville? So, but yeah, that's kind of where my history
Glenn Richey:took me. So happy that it did. It's been a fantastic career to
Glenn Richey:be in. Now, I might not have said that in 2020, during the
Glenn Richey:COVID disruption crisis, but I mean, supply chain managers,
Glenn Richey:their job is to try to fix those types of problems. So we had
Glenn Richey:some of those revealed at the time.
Mike Graen:Nice. You know, I actually it's funny that you say
Mike Graen:that because I do a lot of guest speaking at the University of
Mike Graen:Arkansas supply chain with Matt Waller and Brent Williams, and
Mike Graen:Donnie and all those folks. And I usually have the first
Mike Graen:question is like: how many of you have ever heard of supply
Mike Graen:chain before 2020? Not a lot of people raise their hands, right?
Mike Graen:And most of them over supply chain career path people. If
Mike Graen:there's anything that good that came out of COVID, everybody
Mike Graen:understands supply chain is important. The only thing that
Mike Graen:came out of that, but there was a whole realization that said,
Mike Graen:hey, supply chain is important. And we take it for granted. And
Mike Graen:there's opportunities in the supply chain area. So I'm not
Mike Graen:sure that you guys put that together as a recruiting video,
Mike Graen:but it did certainly drive a lot of interest of people who have
Mike Graen:gone from what the heck of supply chain to Wow, it's really
Mike Graen:important because there's containers in the middle of the
Mike Graen:ship that can't get unloaded. And, man, we got to figure out
Mike Graen:this stuff. So you know, in some respects, it was it may be a
Mike Graen:blessing in disguise. I mean, I would never want to say a global
Mike Graen:pandemic is a blessing for sure. But it did people help people
Mike Graen:realize the importance of supply chain. Right.
Glenn Richey:I think that's totally true. And you know, it
Glenn Richey:also showed us some of our weaknesses and those types of
Glenn Richey:things, global displacements and the kind of the distances, and
Glenn Richey:you know, some of the type products that are difficult to
Glenn Richey:get -pharmaceuticals come to mind as one of those areas that
Glenn Richey:was really problematic and maybe not talked about as much as it
Glenn Richey:probably should have been. So yeah, Mike, I, you know, on a
Glenn Richey:normal day, I don't get a call asked to speak to Congress. But
Glenn Richey:that does happen after we screw up the supply chains globally
Glenn Richey:for a couple of years. So I will say that one of my comments to
Glenn Richey:them and one of my very first comments to them similar to what
Glenn Richey:you're saying is to tell them that there is no "the supply
Glenn Richey:chain," right. This is a massive network and web of different
Glenn Richey:organizations that come together to get the product where it
Glenn Richey:needs to be. And if it was 'the' supply chain, the two of us
Glenn Richey:could fix it, but that's a problem.
Mike Graen:Great perspective. Great perspective. Well, let's,
Glenn Richey:Okay, well, yeah, so I've worked a number of
Glenn Richey:let's unpack a little bit about you. And I told you I was going
Glenn Richey:to ask this question because this is really a trick question
Glenn Richey:if I don't say, so you have been part of the supply chain and
Glenn Richey:obviously part of Auburn University for a while. You've
Glenn Richey:universities now. A couple of them have pretty good football
Glenn Richey:got a lot of associates and colleagues and family etc. Get
Glenn Richey:tell one thing about that about yourself that maybe a lot of
Glenn Richey:people don't know, I think this would be interesting.
Glenn Richey:teams. Right. So that that makes for a kind of interesting
Glenn Richey:transition when you move from Oklahoma to Alabama to Auburn,
Glenn Richey:which I think some people would call me, you know, Benedict
Glenn Richey:Auburn, for that move from Alabama to Auburn. But, you
Glenn Richey:know, this sports are a big thing on university campuses,
Glenn Richey:and and I've been involved to some degree or the other,
Glenn Richey:probably most of my colleagues don't know that I started my
Glenn Richey:college career at South Alabama as a soccer player. I don't look
Glenn Richey:Soccer?!
Glenn Richey:like that today.
Glenn Richey:I was a goalkeeper at the University of South Alabama to
Glenn Richey:start, start my career. But there's a bit of irony there.
Glenn Richey:Because when I ended up at the University of Alabama, a couple
Glenn Richey:of years after being on staff there, a guy named Nick Saban
Glenn Richey:asked if I would be able to step in and maybe do some recruiting
Glenn Richey:for the football program at Alabama. So I'm a former college
Glenn Richey:soccer player who did recruiting for football at the rival school
Glenn Richey:from where I work today.
Mike Graen:Oh, my gosh. All right. So when - for those of
Mike Graen:you don't know, you want to talk about a rivalry. Alabama versus
Mike Graen:Auburn is one of the most noted out what side of the field do
Mike Graen:you sit on Mr. Richie?
Glenn Richey:I mean, you know, I always love to root for
Glenn Richey:Auburn. But sometimes when it comes to point, you got to stay
Glenn Richey:with the people that brought you there my undergraduate degree
Glenn Richey:from the University of Alabama, so, so yeah, and then you gotta
Glenn Richey:have Oklahoma in there, too. It's very confusing, very
Glenn Richey:confusing for me, and for a lot of people here too.
Mike Graen:Fascinating, fascinating. Well, that's
Mike Graen:awesome. What a great, what a great soundbite. We're gonna get
Mike Graen:into supply chain supply chain is really the purpose of the
Mike Graen:topic here. But I love to ask this question every time I talk
Mike Graen:to somebody, because in it in terms of being a supply chain
Mike Graen:professional, you're also a customer, you go into stores
Mike Graen:every single day to buy things you want. I spent a lot of time
Mike Graen:in Home Depot and Lowe's, because I'm just kind of like
Mike Graen:that kind of stuff. And there have been times where I have
Mike Graen:looked for a specific wrench or a specific part for a specific
Mike Graen:project, and they don't have it. And I've told those stories
Mike Graen:multiple times how frustrating that is from a customer
Mike Graen:experience. So walk us through, I'm sure you've had an
Mike Graen:experience over the last six to 12 months where you went into a
Mike Graen:store expecting to pick something up, and you were
Mike Graen:disappointed. Please don't say who it was. I don't need that I
Mike Graen:don't need that alpha, you can just you know, if it was if it
Mike Graen:was a big box retailer that does do it yourself, you say one of
Mike Graen:those big box retailers, as much as you can tell us because
Mike Graen:you're a customer as well. I'd love to hear your side of the
Mike Graen:business being disappointed at the store shelf.
Glenn Richey:Well you know, all of the supply chain work we do
Glenn Richey:whether it's whether it's research or teaching these days,
Glenn Richey:it all starts with the customer, you know, and and the old days
Glenn Richey:of shoving it down people's throats just just doesn't work.
Glenn Richey:And it puts companies in a really poor financial position.
Glenn Richey:So So you know, when I when I get I'm probably hypercritical
Glenn Richey:about this stuff, Mike, because I go in and go where's the damn
Glenn Richey:stuff that ought to be here. It's a guy that spent a good bit
Glenn Richey:of his career in wholesaling, you know, on shelf availability
Glenn Richey:is is key for us. You I mean, we are the ones expected to make
Glenn Richey:sure that the products there. So I'm talking about 99.9, 99.6%
Glenn Richey:inventory, accuracy and availability at all time. And
Glenn Richey:those were the old standards. And so when I walk into the
Glenn Richey:retail venue where I used to do a lot of consulting and can't
Glenn Richey:find whatever it is, yeah, I do get upset. And I also know from
Glenn Richey:the research, that that's the trigger point where people
Glenn Richey:decide to buy elsewhere. And so if you're running that brick and
Glenn Richey:mortar facility, like you were just talking about whether it be
Glenn Richey:this do it yourself or that do it yourself, if the product is
Glenn Richey:not at one and you find it at the other, you're you're pretty
Glenn Richey:much destined to go back to that store where you found the
Glenn Richey:product the last time and that means the store that had the
Glenn Richey:basket of product has lost all of those orders from that
Glenn Richey:customer. And we all know the cost of trying to reconvert
Glenn Richey:customers, my issues and the ones that I run into tend to
Glenn Richey:happen in the grocery business more than anywhere else. It's a
Glenn Richey:place that I think most of us go to weekly or at least every
Glenn Richey:couple of weeks. I'm gonna just go every couple of days and I've
Glenn Richey:done a lot of Supply Chain Finance teaching and the in the
Glenn Richey:grocery food business. So yeah, I'm the one that does most of
Glenn Richey:the shopping in this family and, and when the product is not
Glenn Richey:there, you know, you're irritated, especially when it's
Glenn Richey:some of these companies that specialize in organic products
Glenn Richey:or specific health oriented things that you're going. And if
Glenn Richey:they don't have it, the only other place to take a look is
Glenn Richey:online, right. So you make that tradition to see if it's online,
Glenn Richey:the brick and mortar store works kind of as a showroom, which is
Glenn Richey:not what they want to do. And probably the worst of all it is,
Glenn Richey:is that, you know, all of the quality that we add from the
Glenn Richey:supply chain really deals with demand and supply balance. And
Glenn Richey:you can never get to the demand and supply balance if you don't
Glenn Richey:know what you didn't sell. So during my comprehensive exams in
Glenn Richey:my PhD program at Oklahoma, the Dean slipped a little question
Glenn Richey:into my oral exams that I didn't know it was him; Dean Robbie
Glenn Richey:Evans, great guy, super helpful. And the thing just said, you
Glenn Richey:know, 'how do you account for lost sales in a grocery setting
Glenn Richey:due to poor inventory accuracy?' And I wrote this thing, Mike,
Glenn Richey:this must have been seven or eight pages thing? And the
Glenn Richey:answer to the question was: you can't, right. And so I, you've
Glenn Richey:spelled this out in the oral thing and everything and Dean
Glenn Richey:Evans looked at me and said: 'Do you believe that shit?' So that
Glenn Richey:was the kind of real-life practical type of professor I
Glenn Richey:had to become after that discussion. And you don't,
Glenn Richey:right. So if that bottle of kombucha that was hot last week,
Glenn Richey:doesn't get sold doesn't end up on the shelf? And who knows how
Glenn Richey:many you missed? And so what do you do? Do you the extrapolate
Glenn Richey:and go long and hope you're right that you missed a bunch of
Glenn Richey:sales? Because unless the customer comes up to the front
Glenn Richey:desk, you just don't know. So, you know, we went through, we
Glenn Richey:went through a period in the 90s, where it seemed like
Glenn Richey:everybody was going to low inventory, closer at the retail
Glenn Richey:impact, they have fewer items on the shelf and tighter type
Glenn Richey:inventory and rely on the suppliers to fill quickly. And I
Glenn Richey:think we found, you know, during the COVID crisis that we weren't
Glenn Richey:as streamlined and healthy as we thought we were, which puts the
Glenn Richey:retailers at extreme risk, right. So yeah, so that's the
Glenn Richey:kind of crazy stuff that goes through my head when my favorite
Glenn Richey:bottle of kombucha is not on the shelf at the grocery store.
Mike Graen:Right. So when so unpack that one. I'm gonna I'm
Mike Graen:gonna I'm gonna double-click. Okay, so that, I don't even know
Mike Graen:what kombucha is. I guess that's ... Is that ikea sauce? Or a
Mike Graen:liquor?
Glenn Richey:It's a drink. It's a drink. Yeah.
Mike Graen:Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Kombucha.
Glenn Richey:A probiotic drink. Yes.
Mike Graen:It must be. It must be an Auburn thing. I don't know
Mike Graen:what that we don't drink that here in Arkansas. That's all I
Mike Graen:can tell you. I don't even know what it is. But alright, so it's
Mike Graen:not there. What do you do?
Glenn Richey:Yeah. So I mean, the first choice is, you know,
Glenn Richey:do you swap to another brand? Okay, and, you know, I picked
Glenn Richey:that category, because the brands are very different.
Glenn Richey:There's a lot of loyalty specifically to different
Glenn Richey:products in that category. And so if it's not there, I mean,
Glenn Richey:this is a consumable that you really can't buy on the
Glenn Richey:internet, right? It's a refrigerated product. And so
Glenn Richey:you're gonna go somewhere else to try to find it. And, you
Glenn Richey:know, you're the customer, if they can't find it becomes
Glenn Richey:completely frustrated, at least, you know, a stain on the on the
Glenn Richey:business, right? So the other thing that potentially could
Glenn Richey:happen is now that I've come in on Wednesday, and it's not
Glenn Richey:there, and I come back here on the next Sunday, let's say
Glenn Richey:Saturday, Sunday, and I see that it's there, then maybe I
Glenn Richey:over-buy right. Maybe too much. So now you're not gonna see me
Glenn Richey:for a couple of weeks on that item. And you also don't know
Glenn Richey:how to forecast for the next several weeks will be while I'm
Glenn Richey:not buying and other people may or may not be so so yeah, if
Glenn Richey:it's not there, lots of bad things happens.
Mike Graen:Got it. Got it. I want to I want to I want to
Mike Graen:double-click on something you just said here. And I think as I
Mike Graen:think through it and again I am not a academic trained
Mike Graen:professional I would love to I'm I'm a Glenn Richie wannabe your
Mike Graen:a Matt Waller wannabe kind of day. But when I simple mind, I
Mike Graen:kind of think of if the store needs product. Okay, well, first
Mike Graen:off, just because it's in the store doesn't mean it's on the
Mike Graen:shelf. And so there's a whole okay, I may have 27 cases of
Mike Graen:sitting in the back room, but they're not a sales floor, you
Mike Graen:might as well be out of stock. Because the kiss of death is
Mike Graen:asking an associate, 'well let me go back in the back room and
Mike Graen:check.' Oh, I wait for this is going to take forever, right?
Mike Graen:But the triggers to deliver product to the store if it's
Mike Graen:kind of a replenishment process is three fold. Three pieces of
Mike Graen:very simple data that I think of: number one, how many do I
Mike Graen:have? Right? Number two: how many do I think I'll sell today?
Mike Graen:That's kind of the forecast And the third one is: if I order it
Mike Graen:today, how long before I get it? So I'm sure there's 500 other
Mike Graen:ones you would say. But let's just say that those are the
Mike Graen:three. To talk to us a little bit, you said inventory
Mike Graen:accuracy. And you and I were working on some stuff prior to
Mike Graen:this call that unfortunately, got put on hold right now. But
Mike Graen:it will try to measure the impact of inventory accuracy to
Mike Graen:sales. Talk to us about the impacts of things like, okay,
Mike Graen:Grant, those are the three, how much do I have? How much am I
Mike Graen:going to sell? And when I'm going to get it, I would think
Mike Graen:when I'm going to get is probably the most reliable? What
Mike Graen:are the challenges of trying to get an accurate sales forecast
Mike Graen:and an accurate on hand?
Glenn Richey:I mean, that's, that's the you and I both know,
Glenn Richey:that's, that's, that's a crazy question, right? Because there's
Glenn Richey:so many things at play. And you know, when you think back, you
Glenn Richey:know, when I think back to the late 80s, early 90s, still had a
Glenn Richey:lot of specialty shops, right? You mentioned some hardware
Glenn Richey:stores earlier, lots of those mall hardware store, small
Glenn Richey:office product stores, and the owner could walk through in the
Glenn Richey:afternoon and go need this need that need this need that. And
Glenn Richey:then the refill would be typically be overnight, which
Glenn Richey:which was a really nice situation, now you've got these
Glenn Richey:stores that have 200,000 square foot, and who knows how many
Glenn Richey:SKU's, you know, continually influx growing and, and
Glenn Richey:shrinking and doing like the accordion to try to figure out
Glenn Richey:what the right mix is. And so as we add and make those things
Glenn Richey:more complex, we end up in a situation where it's more likely
Glenn Richey:that we're going to have missed sales. And so you know, you've
Glenn Richey:kind of put that in your head, I remember some of these
Glenn Richey:hypermarket type type stores trying to do home delivery or
Glenn Richey:you know, direct pickup and finding out that the customer
Glenn Richey:ordered 10 items, and only seven are in stock. And even though it
Glenn Richey:looked like the items were in stock, well, those blue T shirts
Glenn Richey:were actually all extra small or something like that. So those
Glenn Richey:needs and consistencies, and the customer wanted, was not there.
Glenn Richey:So I mean, all of those things have to get come together, Mike,
Glenn Richey:they gotta be synchronized. You need to have a good business
Glenn Richey:partner that can be with you on the forecasting and say, you
Glenn Richey:know, kind of know your actions, know your activities. And you
Glenn Richey:know, all the tech that we use is very important. But there's
Glenn Richey:also managerial decision making that comes within those
Glenn Richey:forecasts. And and we got to have people there, high people
Glenn Richey:involvement, to make those types of decisions. Otherwise,
Glenn Richey:somebody comes in and makes a big order. It's a one time
Glenn Richey:thing, we repeat it now we have money tied up in something we
Glenn Richey:can't sell, which is the other side of of kind of this
Glenn Richey:discussion.
Mike Graen:Great point. Well, so how does somebody from a
Mike Graen:procurement buying potential selling role suddenly flip the
Mike Graen:script and go into the supply chain? What was it about the
Mike Graen:supply chain that intrigued you to go and get a degree and then
Mike Graen:basically spend your most of your professional life focusing
Mike Graen:on supply chains?
Glenn Richey:Yeah, and it's been most of my life has been
Glenn Richey:tied towards it, you know, it. I mean, I was lucky enough, I
Glenn Richey:guess, to get tied with with Genuine Parts Company, which is
Glenn Richey:an outstanding distribution, business very, very cost
Glenn Richey:focused, and very, very service quality oriented. So a good
Glenn Richey:portion of my training came, you know, from that experience with
Glenn Richey:that company that kind of opened my eyes to these crazy
Glenn Richey:distribution networks, all the relationships between business
Glenn Richey:business, to business, marketing, business, business
Glenn Richey:management. And I can also see, I guess, at the time that the
Glenn Richey:world was changing, that that the information Tech was
Glenn Richey:becoming much stronger, people were starting to move more
Glenn Richey:towards e commerce, not that not that they were even there, but
Glenn Richey:But certainly, they were moving towards e commerce when I
Glenn Richey:started to get involved in this. And on the finance side of
Glenn Richey:things, people were saying, we're cutting out the middleman,
Glenn Richey:we're gonna get rid of wholesalers, this is how we're
Glenn Richey:going to save money. But the reality of the supply chain
Glenn Richey:network was there's no way that could happen. Because there were
Glenn Richey:too many customers at the end, right? So you can have major
Glenn Richey:manufacturers delivered to, you know, a major retailer, but you
Glenn Richey:probably can't have major manufacturers deliver every
Glenn Richey:customer, right? And so I kind of saw that activity going on
Glenn Richey:the rise of third party players and, and got really interested
Glenn Richey:in it and, you know, then sometime along the way, I
Glenn Richey:decided I'd leave the real world and study from the other side,
Glenn Richey:right? And so, I mean, I think it's a it's a dynamic field,
Glenn Richey:it's always changing. And, you know, as somebody that that
Glenn Richey:started this thing out as a goalkeeper, you're trying to
Glenn Richey:keep all the balls out of the net, but in play, and and at
Glenn Richey:least, you know, have your head on a swivel so you can see what
Glenn Richey:the next disruption is what the next problem is.
Mike Graen:Awesome, awesome. Well, this, this particular
Mike Graen:channel, and frankly, a lot of what I do is all focused on
Mike Graen:shelf availability and people like well, supply chain on shelf
Mike Graen:availability are the same thing? Well, no, they're not. Because
Mike Graen:Because I would argue you can have a very perfect set up
Mike Graen:supply chain that delivers product to a store. But because
Mike Graen:of operational challenges, it's not where it's supposed to be.
Mike Graen:So I'm going to exclude those for a second. But as we think
Mike Graen:about on shelf availability, the supply chain, and I don't know
Mike Graen:if you've ever seen those videos, I saw it a few times
Mike Graen:I've given in classes, which is how a number two pencil is made.
Mike Graen:Have you ever seen this?. And it's got 40,000 people working
Mike Graen:together and trying to figure out how to get rubber from here
Mike Graen:and metal from here and lead from here. And you go, how do we
Mike Graen:have any pencils at all? I mean, he's like, just so complicated.
Mike Graen:But that's a small fraction of the complexity of the supply
Mike Graen:chain. So what is a supply chain? How that was I think
Mike Graen:about all the different ways that customers can buy omni
Mike Graen:channel brick and mortar, combination of pickup and MOPIS
Mike Graen:and ROPIS, and all those other kinds of real things with which
Mike Graen:is buy online, pick up in store and then doing research. What
Mike Graen:role does the supply chain play in making sure that products
Mike Graen:available for the customer no matter where however they want
Mike Graen:it?
Glenn Richey:Yeah, I mean, the I would say that we have, you
Glenn Richey:know, forecasting techniques that involve cooperating with a
Glenn Richey:lot of different players right in I think that's, that's really
Glenn Richey:key is to have. And we call it collaborative planning for
Glenn Richey:forecasting and replenishment, right? When in supply chain, we
Glenn Richey:can make an acronym out of anything. So CPFR is is is what
Glenn Richey:we talk about there. And, you know, people treat it as a real
Glenn Richey:kind of strong, specific program. But if you can think
Glenn Richey:about it, you know, you get the heads together across the
Glenn Richey:different levels, what the manufacturer is able to do, what
Glenn Richey:the distribution network is able to deliver in the amount of time
Glenn Richey:that's available. And of course, there are lots of different
Glenn Richey:options, and then what the needs are at the end. So I mean, you
Glenn Richey:need the retailer to be able to predict what they think the
Glenn Richey:sales will be so that the manufacturer can get all of
Glenn Richey:those different lines of product in place. So think about that
Glenn Richey:funnel, you just talked about that pencil, and all the
Glenn Richey:interconnections for that pencil all come back to what the
Glenn Richey:customer does on the end, right. And so it's really the customer
Glenn Richey:the triggers that work but in order for the product to be on
Glenn Richey:the shelf that works gotta be in process before the forecast is
Glenn Richey:even made. Right? So those things need to be ongoing
Glenn Richey:updated. Good contact. I mean, there are great companies out
Glenn Richey:there, you know, that are doing this, this type of thing. I know
Glenn Richey:that my son will actually be in Bentonville for a couple of
Glenn Richey:couple of months. This summer actually working with our RFID
Glenn Richey:lab for Walmart. So Walmart RFID. Lab. Some interesting
Glenn Richey:stuff. Yeah. So maybe I need to look ly the look them up. I've
Glenn Richey:spent a few years by the 22. Working on RFID for Walmart. So
Glenn Richey:let's either be doing up there. There. I'm not 100% Sure. Maybe
Glenn Richey:it's maybe a little bit incognito. But oh, that's true.
Glenn Richey:That's true. It's all about getting the different
Glenn Richey:technologies in place so they can support decision making. And
Glenn Richey:you know, well that's fantastic and bad. That's so that's
Glenn Richey:certainly what they're what they're known for.
Mike Graen:Well, but I can tell you, he's gonna have you calling
Mike Graen:the hogs from Auburn when you do that.
Glenn Richey:I've already got enough programs I got a root for
Glenn Richey:right now, Mike, don't do that.
Mike Graen:Nah, I think we didn't add another one. Because
Mike Graen:I still haven't. I mean, now we're gonna really go off
Mike Graen:tangent. Is your mascot a tiger or an eagle?
Glenn Richey:Oh, here down here. Yeah.
Mike Graen:Which one is it? Pick one!
Glenn Richey:That's right. I mean, or ...
Mike Graen:Which one is it?! We have a Razorback. Now I don't
Mike Graen:know what a Razorback means. But a Razorback hog is our is our
Mike Graen:mascot. We have one. You're the only university I know that has
Mike Graen:two.
Mike Graen:Yeah,
Glenn Richey:Yeah, I will tell you that I plugged in some of
Glenn Richey:this stuff into one of the AI things and was like, Okay, why
Glenn Richey:is the Auburn's mascot the tiger? This is probably six
Glenn Richey:months ago. And part of the AI spit out was that it's related
Glenn Richey:to the number of tigers that are in the Alabama and Georgia
Glenn Richey:region. Which obviously is not true. But it's a little bit of
Glenn Richey:both, you know, it's a little bit of a more is more is better?
Glenn Richey:I don't know.
Mike Graen:I love it. All right, well, so talk to us. We
Mike Graen:just we basically feel like it feels like we're on the other
Mike Graen:side of the global pandemic. But as I kind of set up before the
Mike Graen:global pandemic was horrible in a lot of different ways. A lot
Mike Graen:of people passed away and a lot of people were just absolutely
Mike Graen:scared to death and all kinds of supply chain challenges too. But
Mike Graen:it did make people aware of this thing called the supply chain.
Mike Graen:So what are we out of that now? Is that hold we back to whatever
Mike Graen:normal looks like that's kind of like four years later. What are
Mike Graen:your thoughts on that?
Glenn Richey:Yeah, I feel like it depends on the product line,
Glenn Richey:right? We've seen some some products, heavy manufacturing,
Glenn Richey:that kind of thing and really move and adjust and try to be
Glenn Richey:better in terms of responsiveness and then we see
Glenn Richey:some others that have kind of gone back to business as usual,
Glenn Richey:hoping that things go back to business as usual. You know, I,
Glenn Richey:when I think about this, and this is a part of my research
Glenn Richey:agenda is that I feel like we underestimated risk, which is
Glenn Richey:quite obvious. And all of this, this chase toward optimization
Glenn Richey:of pricing. So you start looking for partners regardless of where
Glenn Richey:they are in the world, regardless of the political
Glenn Richey:risk, regardless of the economic risk, and try to come up with
Glenn Richey:the low landed cost coming from wherever to you know, and so a
Glenn Richey:lot of that drove us to suppliers in China, they have,
Glenn Richey:you know, good, good quality support from labor, they can
Glenn Richey:make some good products. You know, I know early in
Glenn Richey:manufacturing for China, they were making Christmas tree
Glenn Richey:lights, right. And if you think a thing that upsets customers
Glenn Richey:when you lose one of those lights set. And so nowadays,
Glenn Richey:they're producing all kinds of things, right that customers
Glenn Richey:love. But that stretched at stripe and stretched us to a
Glenn Richey:position where if their government makes a decision, it
Glenn Richey:impacts all of our different supply chains that run through
Glenn Richey:there. Not to mention the other things that we saw health
Glenn Richey:related issues, they're having some labor related issues now.
Glenn Richey:So So in all honesty, we need to do re-shoring and find better
Glenn Richey:backups and alternatives. And Mike you may remember, you know,
Glenn Richey:in the early 90s, we were on a three call at least system with
Glenn Richey:most of our suppliers, you had an A customer out there that
Glenn Richey:would fill 75-80% of your stuff, you'd have a 50 to 20 right,
Glenn Richey:with a B customer, a supplier, sorry, and then you'd have
Glenn Richey:somebody at the bottom that's getting 3-5%. And it's healthy
Glenn Richey:competition that want to move up that ladder. And your systems
Glenn Richey:are all in place so that if one of those messes up, you can flip
Glenn Richey:the switch and bring more in from the other. Now, obviously,
Glenn Richey:there's contracting, there's capacity issues and that type of
Glenn Richey:thing. But it at least gives us some some level of support. So
Glenn Richey:we get to see more movement movement to that. Yeah, the bad
Glenn Richey:news for Western countries is that the Chinese businessman
Glenn Richey:realize this quite some time ago, probably a couple of five
Glenn Richey:year plans ago. So I think we may have even talked to spend
Glenn Richey:some time in Africa every summer working with researchers and to
Glenn Richey:help with supply chains in Central Africa. I go down to the
Glenn Richey:breakfast each morning. And there'll be, you know, heavy
Glenn Richey:duty, high quality business people from China, and they are
Glenn Richey:talking to several different local Africans at each table. So
Glenn Richey:it might be five on one here five on one, they're looking for
Glenn Richey:opportunities to spring up businesses, in locations that
Glenn Richey:are nearshoring, to places like the United States and Europe. So
Glenn Richey:that's an area I think that Western countries need to be
Glenn Richey:more involved, especially the United States, and certainly in
Glenn Richey:Latin America. And if we really want to see that move away from
Glenn Richey:the disruption we ended up in, we need to become more
Glenn Richey:responsive, right? We need to be thinking about flexibility,
Glenn Richey:adaptability, agility, and improvising when we need to,
Glenn Richey:those are the things where the focus needs to be not consistent
Glenn Richey:optimization of our costs. And, and so I think we'll figure that
Glenn Richey:out, you know, Brian Gibson and I have have written a few things
Glenn Richey:for Accenture that I think are helping train some purchasing
Glenn Richey:agents to think a little bit more broadly along those lines.
Glenn Richey:And of course, then there are all kinds of other issues that
Glenn Richey:come into play, like regulation, sustainability, and those types
Glenn Richey:of things that we'll have to see. But I don't think we're out
Glenn Richey:of it until the network's been redrawn. And then after the
Glenn Richey:network's redrawn, it has to continually be adjusted. Right.
Mike Graen:So I wouldn't wish this on anybody. But if 2025 We
Mike Graen:have another global pandemic, are we in a better position than
Mike Graen:we were in 2020? Are we still in the same?
Glenn Richey:I mean, I think I think we're in a better position
Glenn Richey:largely because strategically decision makers and supply
Glenn Richey:chains have had to go out and look and see what the options
Glenn Richey:are now, whether they've made the change or whether they've
Glenn Richey:been able to build infrastructure and or a new
Glenn Richey:place to, to source product, or how about a new issue in terms
Glenn Richey:of labor actually training these people up so they can do the
Glenn Richey:work in these parts of the world where we really don't always
Glenn Richey:always get product, or our huge important issues. So yeah.