In this inspiring episode of Logistics With Purpose®, hosts Enrique Alvarez and Kristi Porter sit down with Marcia Brey, Vice President of Logistics at GE Appliances, to explore how one of America’s most recognized manufacturers delivers an appliance every ten seconds while keeping people, purpose, and customers at the center of every decision.

With more than 30 years of experience in supply chain and logistics leadership, Marcia shares how GE Appliances manages the complexity of serving millions of consumers through a vast network of factories, suppliers, distribution centers, and delivery partners. She explains why operational excellence begins with execution, communication, and empowering employees closest to the work to make decisions that improve customer outcomes.

The conversation also dives into GE Appliances’ “Zero Distance” philosophy, a leadership approach focused on staying closely connected to customers, communities, and frontline employees. Marsha discusses how this mindset helps the organization navigate disruption, respond to changing market conditions, and foster a culture where people feel engaged, respected, and empowered.

Beyond business performance, Marsha highlights how logistics can be a force for good. She shares the story behind GE Appliances’ partnership with the American Red Cross, including the creation of a mobile laundry trailer that provides clean clothing to families affected by disasters. Through this initiative and others, she demonstrates how logistics expertise can restore dignity, strengthen communities, and create meaningful impact far beyond the movement of products.

The episode also explores leadership lessons, the future of American manufacturing, innovation, resilience, and why purpose-driven organizations can create both business value and positive societal outcomes.

If you're passionate about supply chain leadership, logistics innovation, manufacturing, customer experience, employee engagement, operational excellence, or purpose-driven business, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How GE Appliances delivers an appliance every ten seconds while maintaining a customer-first approach

• The three leadership principles Marsha believes are essential for managing complex logistics operations

• Why empowering frontline employees leads to faster decisions and better business outcomes

• How the “Zero Distance” philosophy helps organizations stay connected to customers and communities

• What resilient supply chains look like in an era of constant disruption and uncertainty

• How logistics capabilities can be leveraged to support disaster relief and community impact initiatives

• Why bringing manufacturing closer to customers can drive innovation, responsiveness, and long-term competitiveness

• The leadership mindset required to build high-performing teams and purpose-driven cultures

Additional Links & Resources:

Learn more about Logistics With Purpose®: https://logisticswithpurpose.co/

Subscribe to Logistics With Purpose®: https://logistics-with-purpose.captivate.fm/listen

Learn more about Vector Global Logistics: https://vectorgl.com/

Learn more about GE Appliances: https://www.geappliancesco.com/

Connect with Marcia Brey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-brey-1511451a

This episode was hosted by Enrique Alvarez and Kristi Porter.

Welcome to Logistics with Purpose presented by Vector Global Logistics in partnership with Supply Chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact. Join us for this behind the scenes. Glimpse of the origin stories, change, making. Progress and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn't just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now, here's today's episode of Logistics with Purpose.

Welcome, welcome, welcome. My name is Enrique Alvarez and I'm the host of Logistics with Purpose, the only podcast focused on the supply chain's positive impact.

And today we have an incredible guest. I'm excited to be here for this new episode and as always, I'm with my good co host, Kristi Porter. How you doing today, Kristi?

Good morning, Enrique. I know you are traveling at the moment, I'm in a new location, but the thing that always brings us together is a good conversation.

And so we are delighted to be here with today's guest.

We have been anticipating this for quite a while now and when you're talking to high level busy individuals, scheduling is no joke, especially in today's age, even when we work from home. So we are delighted to welcome Marcia Bray to the show. She is the Vice President of logistics at GE Appliances, a hire company.

Marcia brings over 30 years of experience in supply chain and logistics and her impact goes way beyond the business world. She currently serves as executive board member at the American Red Cross Kentucky region.

Her dedication and leadership have earned her new from the Enterprising Women award, business firsts 40 under 40 and the step award from women in Manufacturing, as well as the prestigious Clara Barton Volunteer Award from the American Red Cross. Marcia, we're so excited to have you here today.

And of course we encourage everybody to go on and not only listen on your favorite platform, but go watch because Marcia is in like their social media super show place. She looks like she's in an amazing kitchen where everybody gets to tour the appliances and things.

So we feel like we're a little bit on a morning show here.

I love it. I love it. Well, good morning. We are, but thank you, Christy and Enrique for having me on. Very excited to be here with you.

Well, we're delighted to learn from you, so let's jump right into it. So I think the year is, you know, we all use appliances every day, which means we also take them all for granted and we see them as simply products.

But of course, as we all know here and our audience knows, behind every delivery is an enormous operational ecosystem. Factories, warehouses, transportation, Networks, forecasting, and of course people.

What has leading operations at scale taught you about how interconnected everything really is?

Yeah, well, what you said is so true. And I know every day we work really hard to get Mrs. Jones her dishwasher on time in full, exactly how she wants it.

But behind that, what lot of people probably don't see is that we're making millions of appliances every year across our 11 factories in the United States. We have thousands of suppliers sending us millions upon millions of parts to make that happen. We manage our warehouse network in the United states.

We have 14 appliance distribution centers and we have over 100 final mile delivery agents as well that we're managing. So there's a lot that goes behind just getting one dishwasher to one location every day. We're delivering an appliance every 10 seconds.

And so it is a lot that is happening and it takes a coordinated effort among a whole lot of people.

So we have over 15,000 employees at GE Appliances that are working hard to deliver the appliances and laundry products and now air conditioners and small appliances, water heaters, lots of the products for the home. That makes things better for our, that makes things better for our consumer. So, so lots, lots going on.

But it's the excitement, I think, of the complex problem solving and the what seems complex to be able to make it simple. And we don't want Mrs. Jones to have to think about any of that as we deliver for her.

Well, it's just unbelievable that it's like one appliance every 10 seconds. I mean just imagine that that's a lot of appliances.

You know, we're really proud to be the number one appliance company in the United States. And we take, take that with a lot of responsibility.

You know, one of the reasons I love working at G Appliances is because all the hard work we do goes into products that people are using every day in their home. And we want to be part of the families, you know, across the United States. And it means a lot to us.

An American company, we've been around over a hundred years and to be able to have our products continue to grow in innovation and to be products that consumers want part of their, to be part of their lifestyle just is really important to us. And so, so it's a lot of fun. I wouldn't work anywhere else.

Wow, what a testimony.

Well, and agree with great power comes great responsibility.

So as vice president of logistics, you lead the entire customer and consumer facing side at GE Appliances, from strategy to forecasting to warehousing and of course, we all know that we live in a very dynamic world these days. As we're taping this episode, there's hundreds of things happening, both geopolitically and geographically as well.

What does it take operationally to keep something that complex running effectively? What would be your top three things that actually make everything you do work the way it does? Which is amazing.

Yeah. You know, I would start with execution. You know, we. We have standard operating procedures and KPIs, how we measure every second of what we're doing.

Are we on track or are we not? And one thing I'll say is we aim for perfection in supply chain, but reality is, that's not what actually happens.

And so the goal is to be able to identify problems as soon as they pop up or as soon as there's an indication that something might be wrong. And how do we then take action to address that?

We have to have great execution, like I mentioned, but we also have to have great communication, I would say is the second thing across our supply chain.

So with our internal teams making sure that we know what's happening, but also with our customers and our consumers and making sure that we're communicating with them. And the third thing, Enrique, I would say, is really empowering our employees closest to the work to be able to make the decisions that they need.

When they identify a problem, it does no good to have to wait for a manager or a leader or someone to come and address what's happening. We want to empower the people closest to the work to be able to make the decisions. And so it's really important for me that we have.

We have, you know, we're communicating appropriately of what our goals and objectives are, what the potential risks are, and that everybody in logistics is aware of that so that they can quickly respond. You know, we call. Our parent company calls this Zero distance, and it's an application of this.

We use zero distance all the time, meaning how can we make sure that we're as close to our customer, as close to the environment and things that are happening as possible, and that we're empowering the people closest to the work to be able to make the big decisions. And I think that's what makes us so effective.

Because by doing that, it's not only that we're getting the best decisions, we're getting people's heart and mind involved in those decisions on a regular basis. It's really logistics is about people in the end, and it's the heart of the people that make make a difference.

No it's amazing. I like the zero distance concept and as you mentioned, it's just being close to what matters most. And what matters most is people.

No, this is, this is great. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I also love that third point.

I'm glad you expanded on it because I was going to ask you to if you did not, because I think that is probably something that maybe people wouldn't expect in such a enormous company as ge.

And so the fact that you are empowering people that are closest to the customers, I think that says a lot about your team and your culture and your priorities. So thank you for explaining on explaining that for us. So let's look at the other side of the coin when it comes to that.

Where do you typically see large scale supply chains today? Whether it's within your own or as you kind of, I know you're watching trends all the time as well.

Where do you see those break down and how do you and your team specifically avoid those pressure points either proactively or what you've learned from the past?

Sure. So I think if anybody who's in supply chain would say that the idea of a stable supply chain like just doesn't exist.

Ever since COVID I think we've all been waiting for things to even out, but it just isn't like that. So it's, you know, you just have to accept it.

You can complain about it or you can say we're going to evolve our supply chain to be able to adapt to the environment that we're in. And that's what we've done at GE Appliances. So I think there's external factors and there's internal factors that drive that type of disruption.

And how are we ready for both on the external front, Obviously you have geopolitical items going on, you have weather, you have, you know, the consumer confidence. Right. Happening right now. That is really throwing forecast off.

And so for us, it's not a matter of being having our predictions of what we think is going to happen be exactly right, but it's understanding what we think might happen and then being ready for, you know, variability and making sure our supply chain has options that we can move from plan A to plan B to plan L and K, you know, all the way down the line. And we have really expanded our capabilities to be able to respond in that manner.

So we have made huge investments in our factories, we have made investments in our warehousing system. You know, we have recently announced a 3, we're investing even further.

A $3 billion announcement was made about Improving and increasing our factory capacity here in the United States. For our warehousing specifically, we have increased the capabilities or the options of how we deliver to customers.

So instead of just having one way, we have multiple ways. We're investing in rail and intermodal as well as truck. We're finding partners in all three of these transportation capabilities.

So my motto is there's always a way. If there's a problem, we already have an option and a way that we can shift and pivot in order to make sure that we're addressing those issues.

So it's about flexibility and being nimble and just not stressing over things that happen the way we want them to. Well, they're just not going to. Right. And, and you just, you adapt to that environment.

Well, the good thing is that are in our industry supply chain, there's rarely any stress or such a laid back environment.

I know, it's, it's just you come to work in a Zen moment all the time.

Nice industry.

I don't, I'm not going to know what to do. You mentioned I've been in the industry 30 years. Every now and then I think about what would I do if I retire?

And I'm like, I don't know if I, I can get the adrenaline rush out of my system that I.

No, it's, it's, it's crazy.

Right?

Same in February. And they seem to live such relaxed lifestyles. And on one hand I thought, wow, this is a wonderful. I could really get used to this.

And on the other side I thought I'm way too high strung to live there.

Right. I totally under, I totally get that it's nice to visit, but. Yeah, yeah.

I tend to gravitate back to where's, where are the crisis and rise and problems that I can help our team avoid.

Absolutely. It's a good thing to kind of do for one or two days, maybe a week or two.

And then after that you're probably going to be very bored and are going to want to come back to our crazy industry. But you mentioned before, and I just want to get my notes right here, that GE Appliances operates 14 manufacturing facilities and plants.

Is that correct?

We have 11 factories in the United States and we have 14 warehouses, 11.

Manufacturing plants and 14 warehouses. That's what it was in North America. And of course all the systems are interconnected.

You talk a little bit about all the investments that you have done and we'll touch a little bit up on that in a second. But what do you think is the key? Because you have so many things, so many variables happening at the same time.

What separates your organization from others in terms of adapting to this kind of ever changing landscape, especially in North America. And with everything that's happening in North.

America, I'll go back to zero distance.

So it's interesting, our CEO about, I guess it's been four years now, came to me and he said, I want to separate our supply chain into two pieces and I want you to lead the customer, consumer facing pieces of supply chain. And I want you to report into our chief commercial officer. And at first I was like, do you not like me? Like what?

I love our sales team, don't get me wrong. But I was like, I don't understand why I wouldn't stay directly reported, you know, reporting with my manufacturing and sourcing team.

And I'll tell you, I think that's what really differentiates us is when we say that we are close to the customer, we are close to the customer. Every day I am working with my peers who are the vice president of sales, the vice president of marketing. It is our product leadership.

And so because of that, our CEO was really, really smart in helping me hear problems directly from our customers. And now I can take what I know in supply chain and come up with new. It's not just making our existing processes better.

It's about creating new processes that our customers need. So for example, in our builder channel, our vice president of our contract sales, Dan Goldstein, takes me out now on bids with new customers.

And as we're competing against, you know, we're bidding new jobs and so forth, and I can see and understand what they need. And especially post Covid, the builder world is crazy right now, right? I mean, you think we're, we're crazy at appliances.

They have unbelievable amount of variation and cost and uncertainty happening to them.

And so with appliances being the last thing to go into the, you know, a new construction, new home, you know, a new apartment complex, we need to be as flexible as possible. And we weren't, you know, when it, four years ago, when I started going out, I'm like, you know, we could be a lot better.

And our sales team just didn't know how to frame those questions in a way that our supply chain could catch it, you know, and then address it.

But, but being there, being boots on the ground, being on the job site with a hard hat, being out there, seeing what's happening, I can take my team out there and we have developed new processes, new strategies so that we will be the most flexible appliance company when it comes to helping our builders be successful. And we've done it and we're getting great reviews that we're hearing.

You know, that's the best compliment you can get is customer saying, wow, you really came through for us. And I can trust GE Appliances is going to be here when I need you and to help me be successful in my business.

And so that's what I think separates us, is our intense focus on our customer and our consumer and our willingness to reinvent ourselves and, you know, to try something brand new on behalf of our customer.

It's, it's refreshing that you're mentioning this because it's a very clear, very specific example of something that, because everyone talks about being closer to the customer and it just sometimes feels like it's a little bit more marketing than truth.

But you clearly report to someone different, the chief commercial officer, as opposed to operations, which most companies probably still see supply chain in. So that's, it's refreshing to hear. And of course it has. It has yielded amazing returns and good results for you guys. So congratulations.

Yeah, I feel like it's almost a little bit of your.

And your team also introduced solutions like disaster response command trailer and the mobile laundry unit in partnership with the American Red Cross. I see you're wearing red today. These are not traditional supply chain initiatives. We are traditional industry.

Just in general with supply chain, you are with home appliances, but this is really what purpose in action looks like. So I know that that cause already has a special place in your heart. But what did it take operationally to design and deploy these situations?

And then tell us a little bit more about what it means to you.

Sure, yeah. You know, GE Appliances, we continue to invest, as you said.

You know, we're, we're not a venture capitalist.

So every penny is purposely put towards, you know, our strategy, our Hoshin, our future, where we want to go and how we want to continue to support our customers and our consumers. So when we approached them and said, look, I know you've earmarked all this money, I would really.

Can we invest in a home laundry trailer that I see such a need for.

And I think it's such a great partnership with the American Red Cross and with GE Appliances to be able to provide clean clothes during a disaster when there's so many people impacted living in shelters and just to give them a little sense of themselves to be able to, to be able to have clean clothes. I can tell you it's just a human element that sometimes is overlooked when there's long term disaster needs.

You know, I had the great honor of being the chair of the board for our Kentucky chapter of the American Red Cross. And I was in that position when the tornadoes hit western Kentucky several years ago.

And I went to the disaster site, I got to see the shelters, I got to talk to the people who were living there, the families that were there. And that's when it really hit me of, you know, there's more we can do at GE Appliances. And so I brought that vision back.

We have such great people here at GE Appliances who listened and who believe in supporting what our employees are passionate about, especially when it comes to the community and giving back. And they carved out money. We were able to work with our suppliers. This hasn't just been GE Appliances.

This has been a community effort of GE circle of influence to be able to make this happen. So Montado Trailer is one of our customers who makes RV trailers. We called them and said, hey, would you want to do this project with us?

We called our warehouse team and said, would you be willing to store this trailer once we make it and can you help make sure it's ready to go? You know, do the basic, just maintenance to make sure it's there.

And then our transportation carriers, we caught a carrier and said, hey, would you be willing to locate this trailer wherever the Red Cross says they need it within 24 hours of response? And everybody said yes and jumped in.

And what was neat too was, you know, in GE Appliances, we reached out to our other partners because logistics couldn't just build this trailer. I needed our design team, our technology team came in and said, okay, how do we put eight of our com?

We have this really cool product that we just launched about two years ago called the Combo Washer Dryer. It's perfect for an application like this. So it's a one and done. You put your close in. It's a full size. It can fit a comforter.

So it's not a small, like European version. It actually dries. So for those is different. Yeah, yeah.

And it uses a heat pump technology, but we wanted so and it can wash and dry clothes within two hours. So you put your clothes in, put detergent in, hit start, come back in two hours, and it's done.

So we built an RV trailer with all of those teams involved, figured out how to put eight of the combo units in an RV trailer with a small sink and one of our water heaters. And we partnered with the Red Cross and now we have a mobile laundry trailer. And so as you can tell, I'm really passionate about this.

It's so great to take something that your skill set and your products that you build and use every day and then to be able to offer to the community when they need it the most. I just can't tell you how meaningful that is. Yeah. So I'm really proud of it and super proud of it.

I mean, we probably have over 50 people at G Appliances who have come together to make that happen. Super legal.

That is incredible. Of course, we're very passionate about this as well. I think purpose and culture is one of our favorite topics.

So thank you so much for bringing it up.

I want to ask you, speaking about this, what do initiatives like this reveal about the role logistics can play and of course, restoring dignity and stability during crisis situations. And then also what has or have projects like this done to.

To your team internally and to the organization and strategically, how does this reflect into a competitive advantage that the GE must have for doing things like this for the community?

Yeah. So I think to your first question, the skill set of logistics is so more than just getting product from point A to point B. It is.

It is understanding what the customer, consumer wants and what is the best way to do that. So it is so much more than just a one decision. It is multiple decisions, taking into account the current environment, what's happening, and so forth.

So it takes a village. Right. And it takes that knowledge and experience to be able to make that happen.

But I think the human side, Enrique, what you're talking about is really important. It's about how do you really engage the whole person, their heart, their.

Their passion about what it is we're doing and empower them to play a part of a bigger, bigger project or a bigger piece like. Like. Like what we did with the home laundry trailer for the American Red Cross. And for them to feel that sense of pride that they're.

They're contributing to helping someone who's at their worst moment to be able to be better, to know that someone cares and there's someone behind the scenes who is rooting and supporting them and doing what their skill set allows them to do to be successful. Right. It's how we unlock the ability and the potential for people with their skill set to help others and in this case, during a disaster.

But there's lots of examples, Enrique, of how we as business leaders can help our employees do their best, be their best for those in the community. And it's making those connections. And I think as leaders, it's our response. It's not just, oh, that's nice to do, it's our responsibility to do that.

And that's what I love, that G Appliances enables me and empowers me, if you will, or gives me, like, I don't even feel like it's permission. Of course they're going to let us make sure that we offer that opportunity to all of our employees.

As you said, your passion definitely comes through. You've talked about your history with GE and that you can't imagine working anywhere else. So I'm curious.

You know, you started as an intern, which is you really have an incredible story with ge. So what drew you there in the first place and what has kept you there?

Yeah, well, so I started off in school thinking I would be an engineer for life. So if you notice in my background, I have two Masters of Engineering degrees, one in mechanical engineering and one in quadrille.

And you probably think, who does that? And it's like, well, people who love engineering and think that that's really going to be the scope of their career.

I was fortunate enough to get on the Edison engineering program when I started at GE Appliances. That program really helped me grow and expand my love of problem solving.

It also, though, I think working in a larger company, there's so many great people at G Appliances who are interested in young talent and are willing to take the time to mentor, coach, even informally pull you aside, you know, at meetings or, you know, at volunteer events that we do and talk to you and just help encourage you and help you see what you maybe can't see in the moment, help you see where your career could go if you wanted it to. And that is really what has helped me so much.

I never thought I would be a vice president of a, you know, large $10 billion, $11 billion company, but I am so proud to be where I am today.

But I, I am here because of how many people have helped support me and have encouraged me and have given me hard feedback, who challenged me, who gave me jobs or let me have a chance at a job that I wasn't qualified for. But they, they took a chance on me and that's what I want to do for others as well. So.

So I am here because of a lot of shoulders and lifting that people did to help me be here. A lot of hard work. I don't want to diminish that at all. I am just so grateful of what I get to do every day. It's so much fun.

It's problem solving on the nth level. And really that's the foundation of how I started. And that's what I'm still incredible.

Wow. Well, congratulations first and foremost for a very successful career.

I'm sure a lot of people listening are taking notes and so I wanted to ask you two things.

The first one is what shaped your interest even before you became an intern with GE Appliances, Someone a mentor, something, what shaped your interest in solving problems through systems and operations?

And then for people that are just starting their careers, maybe people that are just going for their first summer internships this summer, what would you tell them to do? What are some of those pieces of advice that have led you to this amazing career that you continue to grow every day?

Well, thank you. I. Yeah, I. So what got me interested, I was never a girly girl growing up.

And I appreciate my parents who never, although my mom, my mom got the girly girl and my sister, so she's the dresses, you know, she's artistic and she's super and I love, I love what she does. But we are polar opposites.

And my parents were very encouraging when they realized early on that, you know, I like to take my Barbie dolls apart and I like to, you know, the vacuum cleaner was usually in pieces. And my parents were very encouraging. Although I will say my mom was.

Would have encouraged me or wanted me to put things back together more than I just took them apart. But I love just trying to understand how things worked. And I was also fortunate enough I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up.

And my grandparents had a farm. And my grandfather also, he was a welder, a blue collar welder.

And he at a very young age, when I was very young, and I would follow him out on the farm. There's always something broken on a farm and kind of like supply chain, there's. You got to go buy, you know, something that's working.

And so he would take me out and he encouraged me. He taught me how to weld at a very. Believe it or not, I did take a welding class later on and I got my certification. It's not updated now, but.

But he introduced me to tools and to how to. How to fix things and. And he also introduced me to. In the community with him.

He would bring his toolbox and we would go help a neighbor at a farm maybe who was having trouble. And so anyway, that's what. I love that. And I thought, gosh, if I could.

It's amazing to have a job that kind of goes back to what you love to do as a child anyway, you know, like that, that curiosity. And so to answer your second question, for those who are in, you know, internship. So for be curious.

I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was doing my internships out of college. I didn't know where I wanted to focus. So I tried as many things as I could. I tried manufacturing, design, engineering, sourcing.

I ended up in warehousing. I loved. I knew. I knew as soon as I landed in warehousing, I was like, oh, this is.

And those other things, though, gave me perspective and it helped me see the system. And I'm so glad. I have had so many different roles across the entire spectrum of GE appliances.

And I think it's that curiosity, but it's always that problem solving, but it's how to connect the dots of how a business and a company works. And especially through the eyes of a customer, your customer. And always going to see like that is. That is probably one of my biggest.

What I tell the young ones today, be curious and go see if you don't understand what's a problem or what's happening, you're not going to solve it in a conference room.

You have to go and see what's actually happening and listen more than you talk, listen to what people are saying and explaining to you about problems. And those are things I still do today. So it's that I don't think that's advice that like ends.

I think it's advice that you continue to grow and establish.

Well said. I mean, your grandfather sounds like an incredible person. What was his name?

Ray Casabella. God rest his. I love.

Thank you to Ray.

Yes, he's absolutely wonderful. I would not be where I am today without him. And you know, at that time too, women doing those types of things.

And I love that my grandfather, I never thought that, like, I never felt that's a Girl, she shouldn't be, you know, whatever. My grandfather was like, put your mud boots on and gloves and we're going to go out and, you know, work in the. I'm like, yeah, let's, let's.

And, And I think that gave me a lot of confidence early on that when I started to. In. In 30 years ago working in engineering and I started to hear some of the, I'll say prejudices or just biases around.

Are you sure you can do that or is this really what you want to do? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, I've.

I've thought about this for a long time, for a lot of my childhood, and I'm so grateful to have parents and, And Ray.

Well, I'm sure. I'm sure they both must be very proud of you and it must have been a lot of fun for him as grandfather as well.

And in addition to your family, you also mentioned the mentors you've had in your career. I feel like mentoring is an incredibly powerful thing. It doesn't get talked about enough.

It's very hard to think about when we live very busy lives as well. But I think no person who's achieved any amount of success got there without a mentor.

So I'd also love to hear about one of your mentors that you'd love to highlight and what you learned from them.

Sure. Well, probably I've had so many, so I feel bad highlighting just one, but nothing you can do two.

You can do whatever. I'm not going to limit you.

Okay. All right, well, well, let me. I'll do it really quick, but I'll. I'll highlight three if you'll let me.

So my, My very first boss at G Appliances, his name was Mike Byerly. He was a great influence on me.

And early in my career, actually, I had moved out of his organization and was in a different organization, but I was presenting to the vice president of technology and at a big company, especially about 25 years ago, it was very antagonistic, if you will, when, when you were talking about problems, there were a lot of a. Personalities. I'm an introvert. It was. I would. I was overwhelmed anyway, and I was nervous and so I'm presenting and I lost total control of the room.

Was in the room. And he. So they're the, the. They're all yelling at each other, whatever.

He pulls me aside in the meeting and he said, marcia, he said, you know this better than anybody in this room. Take charge of this room. He said, you got it. Take a Deep breath. Try again. And I was like, okay, I will. And I came back and I.

And I got him back on track, and I did. I shared it.

And I remember that has stuck with me because he could have talked in the room, like, spoke up and said, hey, I think Marcia knows what she's talking, you know, whatever. And. And instead, he gave me the opportunity. He had me refocus. Take a deep breath, just reset yourself and try again.

And that confidence that he had in that moment, I remember thinking, I can do this, and it is my project. And gosh darn it, you all don't know what you're talking about. I do. I ain't gonna say. So I. He. He instilled in me that ability.

So it's like giving someone a fish and teaching them the fish. In that moment, he taught me to fish, and that's what I hope to do with other. Other people.

Second, Melanie Cook, who at the time was our vice president of sourcing, and she was a formal mentor of mine, and we were talking careers, and someone had mentioned me becoming a plant manager, and I had not worked in manufacturing in 20 years. At that point in my career, I was very engaged with the factory. I was the quality manager at the time.

My passion was we were insourcing our bottom freezer refrigerator from a Asian supplier into the United States. And I was so passionate about, we are going to make this work, and I am going to. I want to help any way I can. And so I was telling her about.

Someone said, oh, you should be plant manager. And I told him no. I was like, no. Like, there's no way. Like, I don't have the background to do it. She got all over me, and she's like, why not?

What are you thinking? You know, what. What would you do? She asked me, what would you do if you're a plant manager? And I was like, 1, 2, 3. She was like, go right.

She said, leave right now. You go right back. March in there and tell them you want that job. Wow. And I remember being like, almost like, really?

And I did, and I became plant manager. And it's.

That has been probably the crucial turning point in my career of understanding supply chain, understanding logistics, being that because we make things at geoploc, you have to. You have to know that role. And I'm so grateful for her and for the hiring manager who I originally said no to.

And then he hired me anyway, so thank you for. For seeing that. And then the third one I'll share with you is Mark Shirkness. When I. When I came to warehousing, I worked for Mark.

And Mark taught me that you could love people and still be great at your job. You can be kind and encouraging and motivating without. And get dramatically different results without having to be belligerent and angry.

And I remember thinking when I saw Mark, because it just wasn't my personality to like, if I ever yelled at somebody, maybe I could come across as, you could take me legit. But I felt so bad afterwards, like, I'll never be a leader. I just. Because that's what GE wants. And it was the old style, you know, of leadership.

It's much, much different now, but I remember Mark Shirkness being that type of. I thought you are a different style of leadership. And it gave me something that I could more build off of my style of leadership.

And I felt confident that I can do this. And so anyway, mentors give you lots of perspective, not only externally, but internally about yourself.

And they help you think and ask questions that you wouldn't have. You wouldn't have asked yourself anyway. And that is what I have gained so much from wonderful mentors that I've had here at G. Excellent examples.

Thanks. Yeah, thanks for sharing and thanks for highlighting the three mentors and of course, everyone listening. Just be open to having mentors.

They're really critical in your success and your career and to grow as individuals. So, so perfect segue to the next question I had for you.

So you talked a lot about leadership and this different type of leadership that I guess Mark saw in you, what belief you hold about leadership. That kind of. It's true. And you have found it to be true throughout your experience.

Yeah. You know, I think there's several things around leadership. One is you have to know and understand what your KPIs are like. You have to know the job.

You have to know what customers want, what your business wants from you. And if you don't know, you need to go learn and understand.

When I became plant manager, the first thing I did is I went out into the factory and I started learning jobs. I was, I was an hourly operator. I did almost every job that was out there.

And if any of the hourly operators who are wonderful, very supportive of me being like, why is the plant manager out here trying to hang doors on a refrigerator? I was not good at it. And it gave me an appreciation and empathy about the work and, and, and, but it also helped me develop connections.

If I have a problem or a question, who do I go to? I have also become a lot more Confident that I don't have to have all the answers. You know, early in my career I thought, well, gosh, if I ever.

Not that I ever thought I would become a vice president. But for those who do, they must be really smart, you know, to be able to answer everything all the time. That's not how I lead.

You know, my belief in leadership is that we empower the people, like I've mentioned before, closest to the work, to make sure that they can make the decisions that they need. Now I'll review it, we will go over it. If there's a problem, we'll address it.

But my belief is that the people are our strength and that's our, our ability to, to be able to find their ideas and thoughts and pull them all together makes our business stronger, much stronger than anything that I can come up with.

Now.

Don't get me wrong, I have to give direction. I have to be able to say we use Hoshin. If you're familiar with the lean practice and tool. I'm a big Hoshin. Hoshin Connery is the full term.

But it's the idea of what is it that we want to achieve in a one year goal and how do we cascade those sub goals and objectives to every employee in our organization and how do we allow them to have a voice to say what risk, what concerns, what other ideas do they have so that we put our strategy together? It has an ability to encompass everybody.

And I think that's another key leadership advice or trait that I would share is that how do you engage everyone in your organization to have a voice and to hear what they're hearing, to see and understand what's really happening, because you can have the best standard operating procedures. But everyone knows that SOP is as good maybe the first second that you launch it.

And as soon as people start using the process, they start tweaking and there's a, you know, blue line, black line if you, the hop, you know, methodology. I love that analogy of yes, there is the standard of what should be happening, but here's what's really happening.

And you have to know what's really happening to understand where we need to address those problems we talked about to get in front of them before our customers even feel them or consumers even feel them. That's how we see it. But the people closest to the work, they see that Delta, they see that difference.

And that is what I want to make sure is that this is a team effort and that you're part of a team. You're part of how we can be greater as a company because every one of our team members matters.

And that's what, you know, I, from a leadership standpoint, that's what I worry about every day is does everybody on my team feel engaged and feel empowered to have a voice?

And even if we don't go with their suggestions, they understand and they feel respected that they're going to keep moving forward with us in the direction we need to go.

And that means just what makes work so fun is when you get that, that team collaboration and that, that everybody, everybody driving towards that same goal.

Fantastic. And I'm curious to kind of, you may have alluded to this or you may want to expand on something, but what is it? What is it?

Do you think people consistently get wrong in logistics and supply chain leadership? I feel like you do probably, maybe because it is a traditional industry.

You probably have an idea in your head of what leadership looks like, or you and your young career thought, I'm not going to be this type of leader or I may not ever reach this level. So what is something that you see that people should actually sit up and take notice of? That maybe is a misconception.

I think if people think about logistics as being a node in the supply chain alone, I think that is a misconception because especially logistics. Logistics is connected so many ways into every part of our company.

I have learned that over the last three, four years as I've been part of commercial. It is embedded in commercial.

Now, I wouldn't have said that before and I see it now because, you know, when you talk to customers, they talk about their supply chain. They want to talk not about just product and our great marketing and our great brands. They want to talk supply chain.

And I, I think that people need to think about logistics as not just a no, but it is an integral part of how businesses run.

And it is a strategic, it is for us a strategic advantage of what sets a business or a company apart is your logistics arm and what that team is doing. And that's where, you know, I would go back to something.

If you don't feel like that, if you feel like, yeah, we are, it's just a node and people are like, we made the product. It's logistics systems that get it to where it needs to be.

Like, go see, have your logistics team go see other parts of the business, have other parts, have your sales team go into your logistics world, dramatically change the way people talk and the vocabulary and the connections that'll be made. And I think that is really, is really Important. And I think as the leaders of logistics, you have to know the system.

You have to know more than just being great at warehousing and transportation and fulfillment. You know, in my case, forecasting. That can't just be your whole world. Yes. We have to be experts in that. That is the foundation of where we start.

But if you don't understand what is happening in your suppliers, at your factories, if you don't understand how what your customers and consumers have shifted and what's important to them, you are totally missing and will be blindsided by problems that arise that you're not even measuring. You don't even have KPIs around. And so that would be my suggestion.

I love it. And I think it goes back to what you said earlier about your reporting lines. Right. I mean, you. This is a brilliant idea. It's very straightforward.

And I think it's actually a great way to guarantee that supply chain logistics and operations understand the customer. Because you're reporting to the commercial side of the organization, which is, again, a brilliant strategic move on GE Appliances. Part.

Well, ask you also, we're talking about leadership. You've also led a lot of personal initiatives.

You've been very involved in volunteering with refugee families in the, at the University of Louisville. You've been with the American Red Cross. You're helping with the disaster relief efforts.

Now, one of the things I feel like we've been coming back to over and over again is the human side of logistics. And so I kind of wonder, again, there's sort of a perception of logistics, and then there's kind of what's underneath logistics, which is the people.

So what do you feel like could happen if more people embraced, like, what they could do with more meaningful logistics? And the human side, how do you feel like an organization could change?

Well, you know, I think people underestimate how much their world is impacted by logistics. All you have to do is drive down a highway, right? And there are semi trucks going by. You see the rail cars, you see the intermodal containers.

People don't realize something you want or need is in. That is in there. And it came from somewhere and it's going someplace.

And, and that, that's, you know, when we talk about logistics, what I mean by that is it doesn't. Justice isn't just a business skill set. It's not just something in business. It's what makes our world happen.

It's what makes your life every day happen. It was what allows you to have the coffee that you want or the you Know, the car that you drive and the gas that you put in your.

Although maybe very expensive right now, but that's what allows the world right, to happen. So, anyway, I think I wish people could see how amazing logistics is and what it does.

In some ways, you don't want people to think about it because you want them to, you know, feel I can get what I want when I need it. Right. And that, that is my goal, as I don't want you to have to think about logistics. But. But I do think there's a lot to it.

And I think the people behind the scenes that make all that happen every day, they are putting their heart and soul into it. They're putting their expertise, because like I said, we would all love Plan A to work every time. It's not. It's just not going to.

And so, so to have the people who are problem solving for us on behalf of us every day I think is pretty amazing. But I think the other side of it, when you talk about these nonprofits, Red Cross especially, they are a logistics nonprofit.

If you think about what they do, they're moving people and equipment or, you know, tools into disaster areas. So while people are leaving disaster areas, the Red Cross is moving into a disaster area. They don't know what they're going to find.

When there's floods, there's not streets, sometimes when a tornado comes through, buildings are devastated.

They have to figure out within 24, 48 hours how do they safely mobilize, you know, all of that, all of those things to be able to immediately start providing their mission, their service, which is to alleviate human suffering in the face of a disaster.

They have to then also have the funding behind it, by the way, which is why it's so important to donate to the American Red Cross ahead of time so that they're capable and ready. You know, we always will take donations anytime, but it's so important to donate money or blood or any of those things.

Those are all logistics elements that make sure that when the time comes and it will, that those, you know, services are available because they have put so many things in place and are ready. The preparation that goes into disasters is incredible. Like, if you all.

If the general public knew how many warehouses the Red Cross is operating right now, how many for free, like, they're finding places that they can.

They're so good judicially, they use their $90 cents of every dollar that is donated to the Red Cross goes directly to the mission because they are working with their partners like GE Appliances, to find places that they can use their infrastructure so that when disaster happens, that they can mobilize and move right away.

I'm talking a lot about the Red Cross, whether you're talking about refugees, which I'm also very passionate about, of making sure that they can get off to a good start when they legally come into the United States. How do we set them up so that they become productive citizens in the US Those guys. A lot of logistics goes into it.

I don't mean to repeat myself, but I think the humans that are behind logistics in general, that passion that they have for what they do translates so naturally.

Yeah.

Into these nonprofits.

And so, like I said, it's making that connection and allowing these wonderful skill sets that we have in logistics to be able to support those in our community who need it the most.

Well said. G Appliances has also championed broader community initiatives around sustainability, inclusion, and disaster support, as you just mentioned.

How do you see those values reflected in your operational culture and not just the corporate messaging?

Well, you know, like I said, when you talk about GE appliances, you know, I've been here 33 years. The reason I stay is because of the people. And it's people helping each other, just like I've had so many people help me in my career.

And it's that same passion that extends to our communities. And how do we enable what our employees are so passionate about to also come through in our communities?

We just launched our Good Things for Life foundation that I am really excited about. So this is a non for profit. It allows us to expand and formalize what we've been doing in the community for decades and decades.

Amazing.

Our foundation focuses on STEM education and workforce pathways, food access, housing security, and disaster response. So, you know, it's our ability that we can take the thousands of hours.

And so by putting a little more structure around all of the good things that we do with this nonprofit, with this foundation, it allows us, I think, to do even more, that our nonprofits can see the foundation, they can apply for grants, they can work with our GE employees.

What I love about GE Appliances is if you have a passion like I do, you know, for a particular non profit, especially if it fits within the pillars that we're aligning this foundation around, we. We want those employees to lead their efforts, their projects, with their nonprofits that they care about.

And so that's what I think is great about G Appliances. It's not. I mean, certainly we, we want to provide Support where we think appliances fit the best and and so forth.

But we really want to feed our passion from our employees in that and be behind. So it's kind of the company standing behind our employees, working in the community and giving back.

Thank you.

That's incredible to hear. Love hearing behind the scenes of these companies that we all know and probably own something.

But hearing more about the people behind them is always so exciting. Well, not that GE as micro. We've been looking a little micro at ge. I want to pivot out a little bit macro now. GE has been around for 100 years now.

You've been in the industry for 30 years. There's a lot of things that have changed just in the past six years.

So speaking more broadly to appliances and manufacturing, especially given the different roles that you've had, what are one or two changes that you'd like to see the industries make right now?

Right. So I think probably the biggest thing and what we're focused on is bringing manufacturing back to the United States.

And it's something I am passionate about. I'm from Louisville, grew up in Louisville. It's so exciting to see such a big company be right here in my backyard. Literally.

I mean I grew up like three miles down the street from Appliance Park. So my life and my knowledge of appliances has, you know, it's just been part of who I am.

And I think the more that we can bring manufacturing back to the United States and I'll hit on that zero this problem again.

Our zero distance make the product and have the people who design the product, make the product, be in the communities that use the product that you make. And that's another aspect of zero distance.

And so the more we can bring manufacturing back into the United States, that is what I think is going to be stronger for everybody.

I mean it's a. I give the example around G Appliances, but I really feel strongly about that across the United States, American made products for Americans just makes sense and it ensures that we can move faster when there's a shift or a change, we can develop new technologies faster because we're right here in the communities that we live in. And it's. I just think it's going to continue to grow.

And at G Appliances, as we mentioned, the investments that we've made already, but we, we are putting our money where that comment is. You don't take billions of dollars and invest them in a new factory. So we're here at Appliance park today.

I'm presenting from our headquarters Link two right now is being completely gutted out and we're bringing in manufacturing for our laundry center, which is so exciting. So we're going to have a whole new factory in a million square foot building here this time late next year.

So we'll have even more product coming out of Louisville, Kentucky for our appliances. I will mention as well, earlier this year we announced manufacturing water filters in Louisville, Kentucky.

It happens to be in Building 4 here at Appliance Park. Nobody manufactures water filters in the United States at all.

They all come from overseas and we're the first manufacturer to figure out how to do it. And you know, that's an example of, you know, you could sit there and say, nobody, nobody does this. It's not possible.

You can't do it cost effectively. Well, our team's figured out how to do it cost effectively here.

And it's so cool to see things that we never thought could as a possibility be manufactured in the United States.

And if you ever get a chance to come here, this water filter factory that they created is amazing and great technology and being able to match demand with supply, so much easier because it's right here. It's right here in the United States. It just makes a lot of sense. Very cool.

Absolutely.

And it's always great to hear from innovation and of course it's even better to hear from companies that don't think, think that everything's possible. And I think it sounds like that's one of the things that GE appliances hold very dear.

And it's great that you're leading the way to that kind of very creative and innovative future. Marcia, you build a career at the intersection of engineering, logistics, leadership, and of course service.

And service is very, very important to a lot of people out there. And it sounds that it's been very important not only to your successful career, but then also to the strategy that GE Appliances is implementing.

If someone's listening right now and they will create this, both excellence, operational and also have impact and meaning. And because I know that sometimes it's hard to prioritize those two, sometimes people feel or might feel that you have to pick one.

Do you become this type of leader or do you become a more purpose, service oriented leader?

What are the two, three things that, that you can suggest to them or that they should prioritize right now to become this more inclusive, more service oriented leadership and have both?

You know, I think the first thing I'll say is that you're never done learning to be a great leader or to be a better leader. I don't consider myself to be a great leader. I think I'm better than what I was last year and last decade.

And you know, I'm always striving to be better. There's always something to learn about myself as well as about how I can more effectively lead my team.

And I think that curiosity and passion for learning and self reflection and growth.

To be humble when you make mistakes and to, you know, to really listen when others give you advice and to ask for advice no matter where you are in your career, I think is always, is always really is always good. So I would just start off with that mindset. I think there's a mindset to what you said or you know, to the answer to your question. With that mindset.

I do think there's actions that you can take to then build on that leadership. I think the first is knowing your system, knowing your business. Know the system, know what your customers want.

I always talk about there are three key people. All employees are important and all of our people are great and all. I know.

But there are three key people that you need to have your pulse on all the time. The first and foremost is your customer and consumer. You got to know what they want, what their problems are, are they happy with you or not.

Because your KPIs that you think you're measuring internally are not necessarily their KPIs. You better know what it is that they see they are defining success by.

And don't assume that what they said last year is what their success is this year. Know your customer number two is the sales team. And maybe it's because I sit with sales now. Our sales team is our brilliant of our business.

I have so much appreciation for what they do. When a customer, consumer is upset or mad, they are the ones who are the first ones to hear that feedback.

And we need to empower them to know that they can take action or who to go to. Like we, we have to support our sales team and we have to make sure that we're listening and understanding their world.

And the third, because I'm a manufacturing company, are hourly employees. They have to have a great day every day. They are building our products.

The millions of products that we are producing every day is being made by the hands, brains and hearts of thousands of employees right now that we need to make sure that they are set up for success. And we want them to have an environment that they love to come to work in, that they're proud to work in.

And we need to make sure that the parts and processes and equipment that they're using is top notch, and we need to keep working on behalf of them so that they can build great quality products for us every day.

So I think those are what I would say are my, you know, key things that I would suggest for people when it comes to continuing to develop your leadership.

Well, thank you so much for this behind the scenes tour of GE for helping us see more about the culture, more about the people, about you and your insights.

So as we wrap up here, one of the questions we love to ask people, and I think you're a perfect person to ask, what does the phrase logistics with purpose mean to you?

So I think we covered this.

In some ways, logistics with purpose is really about how we execute for our customers and consumers, how we support our teams, and how we protect the trust of the people who give us their business and use our products every day.

As you mentioned before, every decision that we make in logistics has a ripple effect throughout the entire company, and we have to be cognizant of that. So when we talk about purpose in logistics, we need to act with discipline, but we have to keep our heart in mind as well.

We want to always act with speed, but we don't want that to sacrifice quality for safety. And we want to make sure that we're giving the best cost possible and the best service and it isn't.

And I think people take the easy road when they say, do you want cost or service? If you look hard enough, there is an answer that you can find both. And I think that's what purpose means.

It is making sure that what we do is right every day for our employees and for our customers. Thank you.

Well, Marcia, thank you so much. Thank you so much to Julia and everyone else that made this conversation possible as well. Because it's been a del conversation.

You've actually brought up a lot of very, very interesting points. I actually was trying to keep up with some notes and comments, so thank you so much. How can our listeners connect with you?

And of course, how can they learn a little bit more about GE appliances?

Sure. So our website is geappliances.com and we would love to connect with you.

You can find us online, you can find us on LinkedIn and then I am on LinkedIn as well and would love to connect with your listeners.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. This was a conversation worth waiting for. Took us a while to get scheduled, but this was wonderful.

Thank you so we appreciate you, Marcia. Thank you so much to our audience who diligently tunes in to have these conversations with us and hopefully you're learning a lot and as well.

So if you'd like to learn more about how logistics can be a force for good, remember to subscribe to the podcast. Watch it on YouTube. Find us on your favorite platform on social media. We're out there. Come and find us.

We're delighted to hang out with you and through enough bad news in supply chain. So stick with us and let's hear some positive news. So stay tuned and we'll see you in two weeks for another terrific episode.

Thanks so much, everybody.