Orchestrating the Chaos of Retail Fulfillment w/ Mike Robinson
Release Date: 08/08/2024
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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)...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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_outline“Every time I don't have a delivery truck stop in front of your house, 800 grams of CO2 is never created.” - Mike Robinson, Head of Retail Solutions and a Founding Member at The Eighth Notch (T8N)
The ecommerce boom of the last few years has led to new business models and consumer experiences, but it has also added to the number of packages being delivered each day. Does the number of packages correlate to the number of items ordered? No, it does not.
Placing an online order for 7 items of clothing from one company could result in 1 package, or 2, or 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. More packages means more tracking for the consumer, more risk of porch pirates, more doorbell rings, more packages sitting out in the rain. It also increases the number of delivery trucks on our streets, the emissions from those trucks, and the amount of packing material.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner interviews someone who is willing to propose a solution.
Mike Robinson is Head of Retail Solutions and a Founding Member at The Eighth Notch (T8N). He has deep retail experience including time at Macy’s and as an advisor to The Gap. Now he is attacking the chaos of retail fulfillment.
Listen to this episode to hear Mike explain:
- Why retail fulfillment is currently so fragmented
- The range of benefits associated with synchronizing the post-checkout customer experience
- Changes in thinking and customer conditioning that will need to take place before these benefits can be realized
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