BONUS: Indictment in the 2022 Tractor Trailer Human Smuggling Case
Art of Supply
When we cover a news story on Art of Supply, we stick with it, even when it seems to have gone cold. In late August, we got an update on the case of the 53 migrants who lost their lives as a result of illegal attempted smuggling over the Mexico border back in 2022. On June 27th, 2022, an abandoned tractor trailer was found near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The truck had mechanical problems and it had been abandoned by its driver. A local worker heard cries of distress and opened the trailer door. What he found would go on to be declared the deadliest example of migrant...
info_outline
Liverwurst, Listeria, and Liability: Food Safety at Boar’s Head
Art of Supply
When something goes wrong in the supply chain, it is never good news. It always leads to disruption, often costs a lot of money, and sometimes people get hurt - or worse. In July of 2024, the USDA suspended production at a Boar’s Head processing plant in Jarratt, Virginia. A listeria outbreak, the worst such outbreak in over a decade, had started in the plant. The facility has been closed indefinitely, leading to over 500 layoffs of union employees, but that wasn’t the worst of the fallout. Before the outbreak was over, over 7 million pounds of meat were recalled, 59 people were...
info_outline
The Power of Visualization in Freight Optimization and Resilience with Ruud van Dijk
Art of Supply
“Humans are so much more effective in processing something visually than, let's say, a table or two pieces of text next to each other. If you see it on a map, you can say, okay, this line goes like this, the other goes like this. I can make the connection in my head very easily that, okay, this is what changes. And it also makes it very easy to sort of have an opinion on it, because it clicks in your head quite easily.” - Ruud van Dijk, Commercial Director, Routescanner We routinely talk about the complexity of global supply chains - here on Art of Supply and in the wider business...
info_outline
Consolidating the USPS Final Mile
Art of Supply
The United States Postal Service occupies a unique spot in the supply chain. On the one hand, it is a federal agency, tasked with delivering mail to every home, business, and P.O. box 6 (and sometimes 7) days per week. On the other hand, it does not “generally” receive taxpayer funding; it must meet its mission by selling postage and services. Thanks to this middle space between the worlds of public service and private industry, transformation is a massive challenge - even when successfully driving financial and operational change is a matter of long term survival. In this episode of...
info_outline
Creating a B2C to B to C Improvement Cycle at Walmart Business w/ Ashley Hubka
Art of Supply
“Most fundamentally, strategy is about asking good questions, creating alternatives, and then making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. [...] It's a place where you have a 360-degree view of a business.” - Ashley Hubka, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Walmart Business Corporate and consumer buying started and developed on separate tracks, and while there are some things that procurement has learned from and embedded in the B2B experience, others will always be beyond reach. What would happen if you took a consumer shopping experience and expanded it to...
info_outline
Part 4: Head-to-Head Comparison of Candidate Policies
Art of Supply
In the final part of this four-part special series, we compare and contrast the actual policy positions of Democratic Candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Candidate Former President Donald J. Trump. With less than two weeks until election day, procurement and supply chain professionals must have plans in place for the eventuality of either candidate being voted into office, focusing on the areas where they agree as much as where they differ. Listen in as Kelly Barner describes where the two major party candidates actually differ (and where they have a lot in common)...
info_outline
Part 3: Republican Candidate Former President Donald J. Trump
Art of Supply
In part three of this four-part special series, we will cover the policies and plans of Republican Candidate former President Donald Trump. Former President Donald Trump is 78 Years old, and a former businessman/real estate developer as well as the former host of The Apprentice. He became the nominee on July 18, 2024 when he accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention Listen in as Kelly Barner explores his policy positions and platform: Detailed positions on global trade and China The lack of detail regarding his position on emissions and the environment Strong...
info_outline
Part 2: Democratic Candidate Vice President Kamala Harris
Art of Supply
In part two of this four-part special series, we will cover the policies and plans of Democratic Candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Vice President Kamala is 60 Years old and a former Senator and Attorney General from the State of California. She became the presumptive Democratic nominee on July 21, 2024 when President Biden suspended his campaign for re-election, and the official nominee on August 22 when she accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Listen in as Kelly Barner explores her policy positions and platform: Detailed plans for renewable energy and...
info_outline
Part 1: Playing Politics with Supply Chains
Art of Supply
There are two weeks to go until the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. Interest, speculation, and tension have been building all year. Most news coverage of the election is intended to sway voters, hyperbolic to a fault, and not tailored to the specific information needs of procurement and supply chain professionals. What we really need to know is what each major party candidate has said and what likely outcomes that would lead to. In this four-part special series, we will cover the policies and plans of Democratic Candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Candidate Former President...
info_outline
Tips for Surviving in a Brave New World
Art of Supply
‘Brave New World’ was published by Aldous Huxley in 1932, right between two World Wars and during a time of accelerated scientific discovery. It comes as no surprise, then, that this fictional dystopian society 600 years in the future had adopted Henry Ford as their spiritual leader. 92 years later, we find ourselves in another time of rapid technological advancement, innovation that often seems to be on a collision course with the most fundamental structures of society. What can re-reading ‘Brave New World’ today teach us about change, innovation, chaos, and opportunity? More than you...
info_outlineRed Lobster, the largest seafood chain in the United States, declared bankruptcy on May 19, 2024. As of the filing, they had 551 locations operating in 44 states, but underperforming locations have already started to close.
What brought about the bankruptcy of the restaurant chain that rapper Flavor Flav describes as “one of America's greatest dining dynasties”? It wasn’t all-you-can-eat shrimp, as some have suggested, but it may very well have been endless real estate costs.
In this week’s episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner walks a mile in Red Lobster’s shoes:
- Tracing their rise as an innovative dining concept, the first restaurant to advertise on national television
- Evaluating the impact that a ‘sale leaseback’ of their real estate had on the chain’s long term profitability
- Questioning the rationale of being owned by their largest seafood supplier, and all of the complications that accompanied this circular relationship
Links: