Art of Supply
Episodes
Playing the "China Card" in U.S. Ports
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
80 percent of all ship-to-shore (S2S) cranes at ports in the United States - and 75 percent of all S2S cranes in the world - are made by just one comp...
Net Zero in New York? JBS Accused of Greenwashing
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On February 28, 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued JBS, the largest meat company in the world, for civil fraud. James is accusing the ...
Even with +1, China is still #1
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"China's supply chain has gone through significant, transformative changes in the last five years. For executives or engineers, designers or buyers, w...
What You Don't Know Can Hertz You
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October of 2021, Hertz announced that they would purchase 100,000 Tesla Model 3's for their rental fleet, followed by 175,000 from GM, and 65,000 f...
Treasure Hunting with TJX
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The global off-price apparel and home fashion market is estimated to be worth $900 Billion. While retailers like Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond faltered...
Three Strikes for the New Baseball Uniform
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In early February, news hit that there was a problem with the new Major League Baseball uniforms. Redesigned by Nike and made by Fanatics, the new uni...
Surviving the Supply Chain Arena
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The ...
Time to Return to Just-in-Time?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Wisdom is given equally to everybody. The point is whether one can exercise it." - Taiichi Ohno, The "Ten Precepts" The supply chain profession has r...
Case Dismissed: Byron Allen v. McDonald's
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On February 2, 2024, news broke on one of the court cases we've been following for a while. In May of 2023, two of the companies owned by Byron Allen,...
Killer App: The UK Post Office Scandal
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today's digital age, jokes are often made at technology's expense. Computers don't like switching from one virtual meeting platform to another. Som...
Savings v. Safety in Aircraft Manufacturing
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On January 5th, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 left Portland, Oregon en route to Ontario, California. Just minutes into the flight, the Boeing 737 Max 9 ...
The Drone Final Mile Becomes Reality
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted that drone deliveries would be a reality in five years. More than 10 years later, they are still largely...
Weight and Value x Distance: Studying Global Supply Chain Use and Cost
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2023, Sharat Ganapati, an Assistant Professor of International Economics at Georgetown University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the Nationa...
High Stakes in the Red Sea
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On New Year's Eve, weeks of rising tension in the Red Sea reached a boiling point. Houthi militants tried to board the Maersk Hangzhou just one day ...
Introducing Art of Supply
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Effective today, Dial P for Procurement is the Art of Supply. Rather than being a change in content, this rebrand brings the name and brand identity o...
2023 Dial P for Procurement Year in Review
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Looking all the way back to the beginning of the year has a way of putting everything into perspective. The individual and cumulative impact of all of...
Troubling Times for Electric Trucking
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With all the recent buzz about electric vehicles (EVs), not to mention the push towards sustainability and emissions reduction, it was only going to b...
Reading FedEx Ground the RICO Act
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, is usually associated with organized crime. It was used in 1992 to bring...
Will the world fiddle while Bangladesh burns?
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The People's Republic of Bangladesh in Southeast Asia is the second-largest exporter of ready-made garments in the world. The ready-made garment secto...
The White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Did you ever think we'd be talking this much about supply chains?" - President Biden On Monday, November 27, 2023, President Biden announced the crea...
Where are they now?
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The stories we cover on Dial P for Procurement are pulled from the headlines, but some have more 'legs' than others. Just because a story, person, or ...
Supply Chain Post Mortem: Convoy
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Convoy was a digital freight brokerage founded by former Amazon executives to digitally revolutionize a high-transaction, low-profit space. Investors ...
Is it the most wonderful time of the supply chain year?
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
According to the National Retail Federation, 43 percent of people started doing their holiday shopping in October, leading the NRF to predict a year-o...
Coca-Cola's Project Last Mile
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Coke is everywhere. In fact, when I travel to the developing world, Coke feels ubiquitous. [...] If we can understand what makes something like Coca-...
The LEGO Sustainability Saga
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2012, LEGO made a commitment to make all of their bricks out of sustainable materials by 2030, just in time for the company's 100th anniversary. As...
Negotiating Lessons from Hollywood Labor
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The last two years have brought us many news stories about labor unions throwing their weight around. First there was the fear that the railway work...
Smucker's + Hostess = Supply Chain Synergy
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In early September, J.M. Smucker announced that they had struck a deal to acquire Hostess, the 130 year old maker of treats like Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Din...
Books As a Proxy for Free Thought
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed." ― Benjamin F...
The Competitive Expectations Behind the Google Antitrust Trial
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Google is currently being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Not since they went after Microsoft ...
Getting a Kiss From a World Class Supply Chain
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After years of pandemic-fueled spikes in demand for chocolate and salty snacks, Hershey's supply chain hit the wall. During The Hershey Company's se...
The Cold, Hard Facts About Cold Chain Logistics
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
News stories have a way of going from the front page to the scrap heap, and even the spotlight focused on the supply chain over the past few years cou...
Nerves of U.S. Steel
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"You can't unscramble eggs." – J.P. Morgan There are few companies in the United States as storied and historic as U.S. Steel. Dating all the way ...
Dodging the Urban Doom Loop
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, he writes about the flywheel effect, a prosperous cycle of work and change that eventually picks up speed ...
Who is to blame for Yellow's demise?
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On July 30th 2023, Yellow Freight announced that they would cease operations after 99 years in business. Chapter 11 bankruptcy followed just one week ...
Restoring Business Imagination Through Nature
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"For men like Ford, Firestone, and Edison, whose success in the world had given them access to any thing they might want, these impressions [of the gr...
The Problem with Performative ESG
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There is something troubling going on in the ESG movement. Recent news stories on ESG investing, the status of Chief Diversity Officers, and Pride mon...
Tesla Takes the Socialist Pledge
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China is one of the most important consumer, industrial, and raw materials markets in the world. They also happen to be a bad actor in terms of enviro...
Public Education as Corporate Social Responsibility
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Skills gaps are a huge and costly problem in the corporate world. According to Talent Guard, skill gaps currently cost the U.S. economy around $13 b...
Tracking Procurement from Industry 1.0 - 5.0
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mankind has been on an industrial evolutionary journey since 1760. Starting with the steam engine, we have progressed through hundreds of years of inn...
Russia's Wagner Group as Rogue Supplier
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On June 23rd, news broke that the Wagner Group, a private militia operating on behalf of Russia in the war with Ukraine, was staging an armed rebellio...
R.I.P. Great Resignation (2020-2023)
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We have seen many trends come and go over the last few years, and most of them stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Great Resignation, a surge in p...
Meet Digit - The Future of Warehouse Automation
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Agility Robotics recently released the latest version of their humanoid warehouse robot: Digit. Digit is 5 foot 9, weighs 141 lbs, and can carry up ...
Are contracts obscuring U.S. child labor in your supply chain?
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Human rights concerns are at the top of the priority list for supply chain and procurement professionals. Among the most horrifying human rights abuse...
Dove's Real Beauty Campaign: Evolution of a Social Message
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2004, Dove revolutionized skincare marketing by launching their 'Real Beauty' Campaign. Celebrated for the decision to represent women of all shape...
Artistic Revolutions: Comparing the Impact of Photography and Generative AI
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many professionals are worried about the risk associated with advances in generative AI like ChatGPT. Predictions have been made about who and what wi...
The Laws of Supply and Demand Meat at Tyson Foods
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith described the 'invisible hand' ...
A GAAP in Judgement at Kraft Heinz
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Procurement is used to being under pressure to deliver savings, but is that pressure enough to make procurement break the law? That is exactly what ha...
JPMorgan Chase Stops the Financial Contagion
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1907, J.P. Morgan was called back from a trip to help stop a series of bank runs on Wall Street. After watching a string of insolvent banks fail, h...
Supply Chain Cyber Attack: Expeditors and iRobot
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cyber attacks have been on the rise since 2020, occurring with increasing frequency and having a more detrimental impact to the companies affected. Cy...
Bed Bath & Beyond's Decline from from Superstore to No-more
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in New Jersey in 1971. Popular for its effective use of the 'superstore' concept, packed stores, and 20% off coupons, th...
Negotiating The Big One: UPS and the Teamsters Labor Union
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The labor contract between UPS and the Teamsters union is the largest private collective bargaining agreement in North America - and it expires on Jul...
The Power and Danger of Asking Good Questions
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 5th century BC, Socrates was teaching the Athenian people to think for themselves. He taught by asking questions: What is truth? How do you kno...
Loss Aversion Theory and the Collapse of SVB
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On March 10th, there was a run on Silicon Valley Bank. Days of concerning news and regulatory filings from the bank caused depositors to panic and wit...
Case Dismissed: Spencer Patton Prevails Over FedEx
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In August of 2022, the relationship between FedEx Ground and their network of delivery contractors looked like it was about to implode. Led by major c...
Data and Derailment in East Palestine, OH
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On February 3rd 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. 38 cars derailed, 11 of which contained hazardous materials, and 5 of...
The Next Phase of Dial P for Procurement Begins
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing that is simple is real, and nothing that is real is simple. Procurement and supply chain professionals excel at solving problems like supply...
Real World Advice from a Life Well-Lived
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all have advice from a trusted source that we carry with us everywhere and always. For Dial P host Kelly Barner, much of that advice came from her ...
2022 Procurement & Supply Chain News in Review
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
2022 was a wild year… The speed and complexity of the world seem to keep increasing. The news stories that made headlines this year seemed to defy p...
Speculating About the Future of Taiwan
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The world is so complicated today… we could play the 'what if' game all day long. • What if the railroad workers push back? • What if retailers ...
Winter is Coming: Trouble in the Energy Supply Chain
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Energy costs are surging, partially because of a lack of supply and partially about the constraints placed on the movement of existing supplies. The N...
Tracking Recent Layoffs: It's Getting Bad Out There
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last week's business news was all Twitter all the time. With Elon Musk as the new owner of the company, and the company losing $4 Million per day, som...
NATO Discovers a Classic Strategic Sourcing Dilemma
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
NATO was formed in 1949, in the aftermath of World War II, to ensure peace in Europe. Under article 5 of the treaty, an attack on one member nation is...
The Downside of Supplier Diversity at McDonald's
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's a reason that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and there are many examples of this principle playing out in business today. Man...
Can the EU Function as a Single Market in an Emergency?
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On September 19th, 2022, the European Commission released a proposal for a new Single Market Emergency Instrument. The instrument, which is effectivel...
The Rise and Fall of Apple Procurement VP Tony Blevins
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Procurement never makes the news, but when we do, we don't hold anything back. Case in point: a viral video featuring (former) Apple Vice President of...
Tentatively Making the Trains Run on Time
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Global supply chains are decidedly intermodal, and rail plays a much larger role than many people may realize. The potential for a rail workers' strik...
FedEx Ground's Contractor Woes
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
FedEx has been in the news a lot lately, and for all the wrong reasons. They are facing a challenge from many of the 6,000 contractors that handle the...
Banned Books Week 2022: Fighting for Intellectual Freedom
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Banned Books Week is an annual effort to call attention to censorship and intellectual freedom. This year it runs from September 18th through the 24th...
Taking a Thoughtful Approach to Relentless Improvement Featuring Tom Burke with ButcherBox
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although the most memorable shortage of 2020 was toilet paper, there was a span of time in the spring and early summer when the food supply chain was ...
Intent v. Effect of Uyghur Forced Labor Regulation
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which took effect on June 21, 2022, is aimed at stopping human rights abuses taking place in the Xinjiang Auto...
Looking at ESG Investing with a Critical Eye
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs are at the top of many C-suite agendas, and they have held their place despite economic challenge...
Can These Supply Relationships be Saved? Featuring Philip Ideson
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With today's challenging economic conditions, all companies are under pressure to remain profitable and hit earnings expectations. Retailers may be fe...
Sustained Empathetic Leadership in Turbulent Times
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Empathy is frequently cited as one of the most important qualities in hiring, management, and corporate culture in general. Empathy peaked in 2020 as ...
Does the CHIPS Act provide the Helpful Incentives the U.S. needs?
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On July 27th, the Senate passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. It is now awaiting President Biden's signature. Proponents of the bill say it will ...
Why is Fuel So Expensive?
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is fuel so expensive? Consumers have been feeling the pain at the pump for a while, and now large companies like Amazon and Walmart are adding fue...
Guarding Private Incentive to Innovate featuring Patent Attorney Wen Xie
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On June 17, 2022, the member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) accepted a proposal made by the U.S., E.U., India, and South Africa that ...
Refillable v. Recyclable: The EPA Takes on Domestic Production
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Corporate sustainability initiatives are critical to the health of our planet – but the distance between objectives and regulated execution on a det...
Heavy Traffic and Human Trafficking at the U.S. Border
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you joined Art of Procurement and Supply Chain Now for the 2022 Supply Chain and Procurement Awards, you know that we partnered with Hope for Justi...
American Supply Chain Revolution
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and t...
Leverage on 18 Wheels: The South Korean Driver Strike
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In late January 2022, hundreds of heavy-duty trucks headed for Ottawa, Canada. They parked in front of the national legislature building and in nearby...
The Resurgence and Economic Impact of Supplier Diversity Programs in America Featuring Ken Yearwood with McKinsey
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Supplier diversity is not a new corporate initiative. In 1968, General Motors started what is generally recognized as one of the first supplier divers...
Race Against the Clock: Getting the Grain Out of Ukraine
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although no one expected it, the war in Ukraine is now approaching the end of its fourth month. Refugees continue to flee the country and calls for we...
Is the WTO Jeopardizing Innovation by Failing to Protect IP?
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The innovation we saw play out in the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines was evidence of the power of modern medicine when combined with the de...
Losing the Plot: Social Mission v. Business Fundamentals
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
ESG – or environmental, social, and governance – programs are high visibility opportunities for companies to grab headlines, earn goodwill and bra...
Does it Matter if We Go Into a Recession?
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recessions are more common than most people realize. We have had 12 recessions in the last 75 years and 4 in the last 30. Some were caused by wars, an...
Hunting for the True Source of the Baby Formula Shortage
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner makes a thorough and data-driven examination of the current baby formula shortage. Although the earl...
Preparing for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and Regulations Featuring Constantine Limberakis with riskmethods
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Governments and regulators across the globe are stepping up their oversight of corporate operations so they can drive more ethical and environmentally...
Elon Musk Bought Twitter. What Happens Next?
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner answers the question so many of us have been thinking since the news broke on April 25th that El...
Hey CEOs – Love the One You're With
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner wonders whether CEOs have to – or even can – love their customers. What does that require from e...
Don't say Digital: A Hitchhiker's Guide to the New Economy
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner thinks back through one of the core concepts from the March livestream featuring Koray Kose and Rik ...
Boots on the Ground in Shanghai, China feat. Jeffrey Goldstein, President of ONWARD Global
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The distance between the United States is far, and that statement remains true whether you are describing geography, culture, or business practices. B...
Are Inflation Expectations a Self-Fulfilling Prophesy?
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner gets back to basics to address one of the dominating news stories and business concerns today: infla...
Escaping the Clutches of the Old Economy by Building Supply Ecosystems with Koray Kose and Rik Vera
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
People and companies talk about technology constantly, but they don't know what to do with it. Fortunately, procurement is in a position to be an init...
Building Out Business Diversity Programs with Constance Jones from NMSDC
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner shares a special interview with Constance Jones, Senior Director of Network Delivery Services at NMS...
Does the Development of Expertise Naturally Lead Us to Fail?
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner takes two ideas, both desirable, and asks if they can co-exist. One is paradigm shifts, and the othe...
Corporate Involvement in Ukraine in the Era of ESG
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this first Dial P audio podcast, Kelly Barner takes the newspaper dominating conflict in Ukraine and looks at the active role some companies and le...
The Prepared will Prevail: Investing in Collaborative Supply Chain Resilience
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Supply chain risk management is at the top of every corporate priority list right now. And while businesses have never had a time free from risk, the ...
Supplier Diversity Comes to the Forefront: The 2021 State of Supplier Diversity Report w Neeraj Shah
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the initiatives to grab the headlines over the last two years, none has united the global business community like the call for Diversity, Equit...
P is Also for Payments and (Credit Card) Processing with Jim Luff and Kris Lance
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dial P regulars know that when you 'dial p' you get procurement - usually. But sometimes, p is for payments and credit card processing. Keeping in min...
Delivering an Experience that Builds Strong Relationships
13 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone wants their customers to have a good experience but being able to live up to that standard consistently and at scale is not easy. Ideally, so...