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Supply Chain Implications to OSA with Glenn Richey (Part 1)
Episode 1326th June 2024 • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast
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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:

  • Supply chain management and inventory accuracy.
  • Supply chain complexity and collaboration and product availability.
  • Supply chain resilience and nearshoring after global pandemic.

Transcripts

Mike Graen:

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.

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