FutureChain

Listen to this informative podcast where Meagan Cunningham of FutureChain interviews Saket Saurabh, an entrepreneur with a passion for data and infrastructure who co-founded Nexla — a provider of reliable, consistent, and trusted data products. Learn how today’s best-in-class data technologies have revolutionized supply chain management from an entrepreneur and data scientist’s perspective.Timestamp:01:23 How Saket’s Passion for Data Integration Started03.07 Saket’s Experience Working with the World Bank04:57 Challenges of Data Integration (Poshmark Success Story)07:51 How Integration Makes Analytics Better for Companies — “Three Things”10.03 What Is Data Streaming?12:33 What Is the Interface for Engineering if Hard Coding Is Not Required?15:38 What Levels of Errors Are You Seeing from Your Data Monitoring?18:26 What Impacts Data Integrity — and How?20:45 On the Insights Nexla Delivers to Poshmark23:25 Describing the Ideas from the Flow of Data Pipelines — Analyses to Insights to Decisions24:29 The Future of Spreadsheets — Will They Stay?26:40 What Does Data Integration Make Possible in Terms of AI?29:11 Who Benefits Most from Nexla’s Solution — Engineers, Data Scientists, or Executives?

Listen to this informative podcast where Meagan Cunningham of FutureChain interviews Saket Saurabh, an entrepreneur with a passion for data and infrastructure who co-founded Nexla — a provider of reliable, consistent, and trusted data products. Learn how today’s best-in-class data technologies have revolutionized supply chain management from an entrepreneur and data scientist’s perspective.Timestamp:00:00 Introduction01:23 How Saket’s Passion for Data Integration Started03.07 Saket’s Experience Working with the World Bank04:57 Challenges of Data Integration (Poshmark Success Story)07:51 How Integration Makes Analytics Better for Companies — “Three Things”10.03 What Is Data Streaming?12:33 What Is the Interface for Engineering if Hard Coding Is Not Required?15:38 What Levels of Errors Are You Seeing from Your Data Monitoring?18:26 What Impacts Data Integrity — and How?20:45 On the Insights Nexla Delivers to Poshmark23:25 Describing the Ideas from the Flow of Data Pipelines — Analyses to Insights to Decisions24:29 The Future of Spreadsheets — Will They Stay?26:40 What Does Data Integration Make Possible in Terms of AI?29:11 Who Benefits Most from Nexla’s Solution — Engineers, Data Scientists, or Executives?30:40 Outro

A Textiles engineering professional specialising in advanced e-textiles and Smart textiles.Episode Notes:00:08 – Introduction02:18 – Hobby or Personal Passion04:04 – RFiD Thread Overview05:14 – Challenges in Retail 202107:50 – Challenges in Garment Recycling 202109:21 – Barcodes & RFID Challenges10:18 – What is RFiD Threads12:50 – RFiD Threads Adding Value to Manufacturing14:26 – RFiD Threads Adding Value to Retail18:29 – RFiD Threads Adding Value to Brands19:13 – RFiD Threads Adding Value to Customers20:06 – Adding Value to the Circular Economy22:01 – Global Recognition for RFiD Threads23:00 – What Adetex ID Can Offer23:22 – Current Manufacturing Plans23:47 – Ramp up Plans Post Investment24:06 – RFiD Threads USP24:43 – Additional About RFiD Threads25:33 – Textile’s Supply Chain28:09 – What Makes Technology Smart33:33 – How The Technology Achieve That Goal35:12 – Closing Thoughts

Listen to the visionary for the only automotive trade association that represents OEMs, suppliers and mobility companies. Get the inside track on the evolution of internal combustion (ICE) supply chains to electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) supply chains.Episode notes:3:31 the automotive supply/value chain. Operating at the intersection of innovation, production and policy.4:55 semiconductor supply shortage impact on automotive supply chains resulting in loss of 1-2M units of production (after auto production had ceased completely in 2020).8:28 reinforcing US domestic semiconductor/automotive supply chains to address disruptions.9:53 evolution of industry to electrification and autonomy.10:20 shift from drilling for oil, to mining for minerals.11:21 impact on exhaust systems, fuel systems and emissions.13:38 impact on labor.15:12 policy critical to this transition.16:14 regulatory blueprint to drive adoption of EVs & AVs.18:12 fleets as a ‘vehicle’ to scale new markets.19:22 adoption will come from a combination of regulation and economic factors. 20:02 Automatic Driver Assist Systems (ADAS). 22:02 building an EV charging infrastructure. 24:21 new supply chains for EVs/AVs and the batteries that power them.27:10 domestic supply chains for lithium-ion/solid state batteries (Panasonic, LG Chem).31:35 total cost of ownership threshold, “cost-parity” and “convenience-parity”.33:24 timeline for scale. 35:25 global leadership for US in AVs.37:12 sensors and ADAS technology for vehicle safety.39:12 environmental impact/sustainability of sourcing.40:45 competition between US and China for OEM production of EVs.42:26 global competitive landscape for AVs, US needs to seize its technology advantage. 44:00 innovators in EV and AV space achieved through partnerships (convergence of mobility and technology).47:10 GM’s and Honda’s investment in Cruise, Ford’s investment in Argo, Toyota partnering with Uber.48:07 AI as a key technology input for AVs through awareness and perception algorithms (enables accessibility as well).49:33 FCC needs to address importance of connectivity (V2V critical).51:19 achievability of Paris Climate Accord GHG/emissions goals depends not just on the automotive industry but the entire ecosystem (grid resiliency, reimagined supply chains, industrial retooling, workforce evolution, consumer awareness, access/affordability).53:12 Biden administration, Gina McCarthy communicating the needs for reduced emissions and transition to electrification.53:40 Autos 2050 conference on the intersection of innovation and policy to address environmental, economic and safety goals.

How Bid Ops has automated supplier negotiations and brought artificial intelligence to supply chain management. Strategic sourcing trends for 2021 and so much more!Episode notes:John Cooper/Industrial Exchange on increased SKUs increasing management costs 7:12. ‘Spend fragmentation’ 8:17. Volatility and disruption 8:43. Massive congestion at ports 9:07. Instability associated with economic inequality 9:46. Strategy for identifying mission critical processes 10:09. Increasing optionality and process speed 10:52. How AI can automate supplier negotiations 11:33. Smart defaults 13:38. Cunningham’s law 14:06. Default pricing 15:23. Winners curse 16:23. AI and ML make automating intelligent price recommendations at scale possible 16:50. 2-5x cost saving 18:23. Adaptive target pricing 18:31. How behavioral economics informs the development of AI 20:49. Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow” 21:14. Fair Markets and Ariba 22:29 Leading with ‘best outcome’ 23:39. Inefficiencies in supplier negotiations 26:09. Adverse and auspicious selection 26:41. Sourcing enablement 28:39. Sourcing collaboration 31:31. Criteria for selecting strategic sourcing solutions 35:26. ROI from Bid Ops solutions 41:15. UCB Biopharma 45:40. BASF chemical manufacturing 48:15. Holman ARI Automotive 50:29. Bell Food and Beverage 52:18. Consumer Packaged Goods 53:14. The importance of a digital strategy 54:34. Embracing the cloud 55:34. Prepare for volatility 58:45. Optionality + Agility = Resiliency 1:04:22. Agility 1:08:07. Building deeper supplier relationships 1:09:56. The rise of sustainability as a business imperative 1:13:08. EV sustainable procurement  (Lordstown and Nikola) 1:16:39. The most talented workers are drawn to companies with a mission for social good 1:17:28. CSR measurement companies EcoVadis and IntegrityNext 1:18:25. Role of data management in AI 1:20:42. Coupa and Netsuite ERP solutions 1:27:53. Procure to play companies SourceDay and Procurify 1:28:07.

Randall Pappal, veteran of OEM (GM) and Tier 1 supply chains talks about the global automotive supply chain.Episode notes:Shape’s role in the Automotive supply chain 3:05. Body exterior supply chain 4:14. GM supply chain 5:22. Automotive supply chains in Mexico (Nemak, Metalsa, Vitro) 6:15. Automotive supply chains in Asia 7:53. Single sourcing 10:23. Obstacles to nationalizing supply chains 12:11. Continuous improvement, lean manufacturing and Kaizen 12:44. ROI from process methodologies 14:17. Supply chain management solutions (Plex) 15:17. AI/ML critical to solutions 16:15. Metrics to evaluate success 17:01. Digitization 17:40. Pandemic influence on elevating supply chain as a business concept 18:15. Economic outlook for automotive industry 20:02. Policy to foster development of electrification and autonomy 21:29. Shape’s role in new markets 22:46.

PeakSpan supply chain and procurement growth-stage investment strategy. Episode notes: PeakSpan mission 6:37. PeakSpan supply chain technology platforms 9:54. Efficiency targets for investments 13:46. Distinction in investments at 3-5M vs 25M+ 17:29. Value of Zenefits, Netsuite and Oracle perspective 18:27. Why supply chain? 21:01. Cold chain 23:35. Front of the house vs back of the house software adoption 28:03. Omnichannel 29:10. Valuing cost-saving as much as revenue generation 29:40. Importance of data 32:42. Coupa spend management 34:50. ERP market penetration 36:33. Logistics value 38:49. Importance of Labor 42:06. Thesis for XOi investment 46:09. Trends to watch for in 2021 50:54.

Master class on innovation. Footwear and apparel supply chain to surprise and delight customers 2:47. Innovation at PVH to build in sustainability to dress shirts with Unify 3:55. Influence and negotiation to build global supply chain for 10M units of “whiter white” fabric 7:23 (largest sustainability success story). ROI of top line sales and market share 8:07. Challenge of operating in real time addressed by influence from “legal to landfill” 10:11. Apparel and footwear as a relationship business 12:03. KPMG model to drive innovation connected to strategy, mission and vision 12:30. Consumer centricity 17:20. Ecommerce penetrations of 20-30% 18:43. COVID impact on supply chains 19:48 (cancellations, sell-offs of raw materials, closure of factories, pent-up demand). Responding to increased demand from K-shaped recovery 25:23. Dollar General opening 1,050 doors to address value end of consumer-base 28:15. Concept of circularity 28:48. The “messy middle” 29:20. Digital transformation through connected product and connected experience 29:54. Product as a service as illustrated by Lululemon’s white space division/acquisition of Mirror driving new revenue streams 35:55. AI & ML in supply chains is ubiquitous as illustrated by Stitchfix demonstrating that brands know their consumers 41:29 (Shelly Palmer futurist). Super Apps in China demonstrating tradeoffs of privacy vs convenience 44:43. Singulaarity ushering in AI 45:49 (Tim Urban podcast “Wait, but why?”). Supply chain ecommerce solutions, including social prospecting, to identify consumer intent 53:04. Supply chain optimization tools (C3, IBM Watson), including automated manufacturing to lower operational costs 56:52. Speed over cost 1:00:24. Circularity as illustrated by fast fashion making new fiber from old fiber 1:02:09. Upcycling 1:05:32. Value chain of the future to meet customer expectations 1:06:25. Ambient computing (EA, FIFA, Adidas & Google gamification) 1:10:22. Strava 1:13:13. COVID as an accelerant for supply chain innovation powered by 5G (voicification, shoppable closets, real-time holograms in store, etc.) 1:15:12. Importance of closing the digital divide 1:18:44.

Episode Notes:Retail supply chains 3:56.Omni-channel for top-line growth 6:49.Holiday retail 7:58.Optimizing processes for demand forecasting 8:42.AI analysis for demand planning/forecasting 9:47.Curbside retailing 11:21.Supply chain optimization 13:30.Right product, price, inventory 14:41.Leveraging existing investments in tools and solutions to maximize ROI 15:34.Internal processes vs external partners 19:10.Finding ‘best of breed’ solutions to offer customers omni-channel options 20:35.Breaking down the omni-channel experience 22:17.‘Headless approach’ 26:26.Digital transformation for frictionless commerce 27:16.Importance of “fixing” data 27:58.Case studies (improved efficiencies resulting in savings of $4M/yr) 30:51.Exposing inventory to a customer, wherever they are 33:07.Importance of platforms over point solutions 33:47.10x ROI targets 36:28.Pandemic impact on retail 37:13.Differentiating against Amazon 38:32.Transforming malls into online marketplaces 39:30.

Early and late-stage supply chain investing in software and hardware. LeanLogistics 2:24. Kiva Systems (robotics) 2:55. Steelwedge (supply chain planning) 3:09. Optiant (inventory planning) 3:20. Macropoint (supply chain visibility) 3:28. Llamasoft 3:34. Shipmonk 3:41. Pre-COVID investing climate 4:59. Virtual brokerage of freight 5:23. Ecommerce logistics 5:28. Blockchain, robotics 5:30. Flexport valuation $1B Softbank investment 5:38. AI/ML supply chain decision-making for optimization/efficiency investment theme 6:12. COVID impact on investing 7:35. Crisis, normal, crisis product development cycle 8:39. Supply chain disruptions/adjustments to COVID 10:22. Shifting sourcing and distribution 10:37. Real time data challenges for legacy systems 11:27. AI/ML decision-making systems sitting on top of legacy systems 13:20. LeanLogistics first Saas/TMS solution 14:36. Different ERP systems for different functions 16:01. AI/ML impact on supply chain, FANUK robots building robots 17:00. Levidata using AI to identify pricing seasonality 18:15. Wise Systems 18:47. Criteria for assessing investments 20:35. True Load Time 21:37. Investment assessment, existing vs new companies, post-COVID 24:31. “Don’t listen to Steve Jobs” 26:02. 12-month trends 29:02. Taking care of the workforce 30:29. Forecasting a challenge in this climate 31:46. Ecommerce is 40% of retail in UK 32:18. $20B invested in supply chain, $27B in AI, last year 33:15. AI importance to autonomous vehicle functionality 34:46. Elevation of supply chain leadership 36:32. Importance of organizational inclusivity 38:09. Winners and losers going forward 39:39. Is globalization dead? 42:10. Domestic labor can compete when industry is labor-intensive 42:48. TSMC US manufacturing for Apple chip 44:42. How will immigration limits impact supply chains? 49:01. Strategic reserves over nationalization of supply chains 53:27. Investment focus going forward: real-time data; accelerating process automation; execution and planning apps; AI/ML-based tools; sustainable and resilient supply chains; integrating robotics and AVs into supply chains 55:15.

COVID-19 has reset the bar for food chains. Consumer confidence in the safety of our food chains is damaged, both in terms of those buying products and those manufacturing the products (think meat). The US FDA has gone all in on their New Era of Smarter Food Safety plan, which pushes technological advances and requires significant traceability reporting across 16 categories of fresh foods. Many countries are using this FDA work as a template for their own regulatory bodies, including Australia and the EU. Persequor is co-leading a new effort at USC to drive technology and food safety.Persequor overview 3:14. How the food supply chain has been disrupted 3:51. Job losses and gains 5:10. Bullwhip effect 5:58. Food regulation 6:52. Uniform global set of standards for tracking and tracing 10:49. Consumer confidence in food safety impacted by education on risks 13:19. Pork production in Europe and how it differs from US 15:15. USC consortium for food safety 17:09. Restoring consumer confidence in Europe 18:01. Food manufacturing plant changes to adapt to COVID, most significantly impacted by regulation 22:26. FDA Smarter Food Safety Plan for 16 food categories 23:42. Technological advances from FDA plan, slow in food supply chain 24:58. Traceability in food safety planning 28:07. Sharing data across supply chain 30:11. EU “Farm to Fork” framework adopted from FDA 32:06. Australia adopting FDA framework 33:01. GS1 and EPCIS traceability 34:25. UN Sustainable Development goals, food waste 35:06. Developing countries rapidly adopting digital 38:41. Avoiding recalls with tracking and tracing 39:39. Legacy vs. new SCM tools 41:50. Importance of change management and leadership in adopting solutions 44:07. Five ‘Moonshots’ bit.ly/3bGcA22 (p72) for improving supply chains in a post-COVID world 46:33.

Dr. Manjeet Singh, DHL’s Director of Global Operations Science and Analytics, talks about how machine learning and artificial intelligence are changing the world of supply chain management.Episode Notes:Convergence of data collection, processing power, techniques resulting in products like autonomous vehicle, SIRI and the jobs to support them 3:44. Meta data and raw data 6:38. There will never be full autonomy 7:38. DP DHL 9:18. DHL Supply Chain 9:48. Retail supply chain 12:10. DHL locating facilities to respond to Retail demands 13:17. Robotics for picking (Lead Me, Swarm) 15:00. Picking productivity 17:46. Managing transportation 20:31. Supply chain planning 21:05. USPS for last mile 21:53. My Supply Chain for tracking 23:02. Autonomous fleet trials 24:18. Ecommerce capacity and labor 25:33. Machine learning, advanced heuristics software 32. Idea toolkit to optimize picking 34:16. Value of training associates 39:37. Labor shortage 41:21.Carton Optimization Process developed through collaboration with academia 43:28. Consolidating training 47:44. D3TO platform to consolidate shipments 51:36. Supply Chain Guru from Lamasoft for network optimization 55:30. Apian, JDA 55:54. WMS Manhattan, JDA, SAP. Predictive/prescriptive analytics 57:16. Continuous optimization 1:00:36. Digitization 1:02:02. ROI, profit sharing with customers, 20-40% improvement in picking productivity 1:09:04.

Beyond COVID-19: how will healthcare providers leverage AI and analytics to minimize "supply chain disruption"​ in the post-pandemic era?Episode Notes:Supply, device and testing demand 4:10. Emergency Response Inventory Services Fulfillment Provider model 9:45. Financial epidemic caused by supply chain disruption 12:04. Amazon as a potential services fulfillment provider 14:04. McKesson, Amerisource, Bergen and Cardinal Health 16:15. Financial liquidity, Cares Act 20:09. Using predictive analytics, special analytics and machine learning for forecasting 23:30. Amazon fulfillment 24:18. Shaping demand 24:38. N95 Project 27:13. Blue Wonder 30:07. SAP, Oracle, Epicore, Infor/Lawson and Altryx 30:21. Tableau, Qlik and Power BI 31:31. Lean methodologies and six sigma 31:54. AI, analytics and integrating systems 33:16. KPIs to match business priorities 35:28. Altryx webinar on how to use descriptive and spatial analytics to locate hospital, inventory, testing center 41:13. Asset utilization 43:07. Using forecasting to repurpose empty hospital beds 44:45. Using spend analytics to identify most valuable suppliers 46:28. Using predictive analytics for collaborative demand forecasting 49:18. Using analytics to understand maverick buying 52:30. Using analytics for continuous improvement 54:34.LinkedIn article: https://rb.gy/n9r9f7.

Nicolas Vandeput is a supply chain data scientist specializing in demand forecasting and inventory optimization. Episode Notes:Data science in SCM 4:56. Small data 6:09. Historical sales/stockouts/marketing expenses data 6:40. Importance of data culture 9:11. Challenge of developing in house machine learning expertise 11:32. Statistical models for determining demand patterns 12:12. Open source, Python and R 14:47. Forecasting models 17:24. Building your own machine learning model 18:08. Overfit 18:49. Underfit 22:10. Selecting KPIs 23:04. Mean supply error 24:48. Bias 25:01. Forecast added value 26:02. Code used in production 30:15. Process of machine learning 30:38. Unsupervised learning 33:52. Norwegian car sales35:35. Off-the-shelf solutions vs having models built 38:22. What are outliers in the COVID-19 pandemic 42:21?Inventory optimization 45:24. ROI from machine learning 47:57.

Dr. Farid Harche formerly of British Telecom, Wipro, IBM and DHL talks about artificial intelligence in SCM.Episode Notes:Digital transformation in SCM 5:04. Machine learning and deep learning 10:30. Priority should be to organize data 13:03. Fail rate on solutions as high as 80% 13:35. Recommended SCM solution: C3.AI 14:53. Bias in data 19:10, 32:09. Data sovereignty 21:39. Blockchain 21:54. The importance of standards over regulation 23:33. GS1 25:14. Humans have a role to play in teaching AI systems to manage unknown risks 35:32. Cost-saving ROI 37:00. Supply chain will self-operate 49:47.

Ashutosh Prasad, founder and CEO of KoiReader Technologies, talks about operational automation and edge computing.Episode Note:i2 supply chain system 13:30. Supply chain fragmented from a process & systems perspective 15:19. Arrival of NVIDIA, open source, AI 15:54. Edge computing 17:57. CargoWise 19:36. ROI of AI-based systems 22:10. Lean innovation 23:48. Auto classification of shipping goods through natural language processing 26:04. Warehouse automation inventory cycle counting 26:56. KoiReader’s edge computing platform 31. Applied AI 31:33. Contrast with H2O.AI 32:51. Operational intelligence 34. Operational automation 37:25. Making receiving process contactless 37:56. AI cameras 38:52. Applying operational intelligence to solve legacy problems 41:50. Analyzing TBs of warehouse data per second through computer vision 45:11. 5G/IoT future 48:31. Service vs. product approach 51:08. Partnering with customers 1:00:07.

Brian Reed of GEODIS discusses supply chain management solutions.Episode Notes:Planning and forecasting 4:47.Goal of building a platform 23:48.Blue Yonder, i2 25:01. SAP, Oracle 24:43. ROI: 25:03. 3PL, 4PL 31:56. Blockchain 36:45. ML, AI 40:06. Importance of service (GEODIS, Ernst & Young) with tools 55:12.

Jeremiah Pomerleau uses his experience with GoPro as a case study on building out procurement, logistics and global trade systems.Episode Notes:Procurement 1:59. Air and ocean freight cost reduction 45-50%. Trade lane 7:44. Total Landed Cost 14:47. Trade compliance cost 24:32. Freight payment provider 28:19. Visibility/supply chain event management system 36:13. NetSuite 38:55. One Network 39:31. Excel for independent analysis 40:27. Shopify 41:42. FedEx Delivery Manager, UPS My Choice 41:55. G-Suite, Slack to inform ERP sourcing 42:33. Dashboard for 4 supply chains, 65! KPIs at Puls 44:37. Objectives and Key Results platform: Integration of G-Suite with Tableau for real time reporting 46:05. ROI 48:04. Forecasting impacting fulfillment 50:16. Collaborative, Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) 51:16. Break 52:14. Global Trade, import/export agencies/compliance (Export Control Classification Number) 52:39. The future of SCM solutions 1:05:27. NetSuite/SAP/Oracle visibility modules 1:06:03. Online marketplace for freight negotiation 1:07:07.

Mike McComb, VP of Sales at Pitney Bowes for Global Ecommerce discusses what role Pitney Bowes plays in industry supply chains.Episode Notes:Ecommerce growth 4:35. Challenges for PB and shippers/brands/retailers/marketplaces 6. How fulfillment companies are responding with technology to deal with costs, labor, efficiency 8:20. Reverse logistics 11:30. SCM tools and platforms 16:30. FourKites aggregates transportation data 16:44. Fenix Commerce pre-shopping cart sku-level view 17:10. KPIs (uptime, tracking, timeliness, transaction time, continuous improvement) 20:56. Actionable insights 23:08. Predictive analytics, heatmaps for fulfillment 23:25. Payback 27:12. Lift 28:08. Future of SCM (WMS, robotics) 29:48. Break 32:14. Retail case study (Dark Store, Nordstrom) 32:54. Apparel (Rent the Runway, Le Tote) 34:45. Telco (flexible release dates for phones) 35:15. Health and wellness (influencers, direct to consumer) 37:42. Net Promotor Score 40:28. 60% mobile purchase rate 41:00. Decision making systems 45:51. ‘Eco-conscience’ brands 49:10.

Chris Winston discusses his personal and home care product experience with J.R. Watkins and Clorox.Episode Notes:Clorox supply chain 14:10. Supply chain management solutions used 22:30. Netsuite 24:50. Shopify, Magento 25:17. KPIs 26:15. Customization 27:14. ROI 28:12. Future of solutions 30:19. Break 31:14. Impact of tariffs on global CPG supply chain is to move away from China 31:36. Impact of COVID-19 on supply chain 35:40. Domestic suppliers building capacity 37:10. Demand for handwashing liquid 39:41.