Author: Josh

Introduction Humanitarian logistics jobs have been on the rise with the increase in global conflict and climate related crises. As Europe and the Middle East continue to be war torn, essential infrastructure is destroyed and requires urgent recovery materials and personnel. Large scale relief efforts require a lot of different skill sets and the ability to manage public and private sector vendor relationships. It requires a willingness to go above and beyond normal supply chain management, operations, and logistics and to leave one’s comfort zone. If you have logistics experience and a strong desire to help out others, you [...]

Introduction Competition for top tier talent continues to be an issue, especially in supply chain. Employers are striving for balance between attracting the best talent and using innovative employee retention strategies to fill out their org charts. Things like employee engagement are increased while employee turnover is reduced with these work-life balance and employee retention strategies. Since the world was turned upside down in 2020 with a Pandemic, there has been a back and forth between employee and an employer driven work world. In 2020, the pendulum started out in favor of employees as fully remote workplaces evolved out [...]

Introduction Economic levers being pulled by manufacturing companies in 2024 involve marketing and volume plays. Companies don’t have the power to push prices like they did in 2020 and later. Those margins are now fixed. Unlike a lot of the tech world, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies don’t have the option really to reduce labor costs in any meaningful way to recoup margins without also compromising production. They have hence turned to investing these price hike profits in marketing to increase brand awareness. Supply chain pressures easing have allowed a lot more flexibility in how these organizations use their [...]

Introduction According to Bill Thayer, “Logistics is the part of retail where you can truly be very collaborative.” Thayer’s company Fillogic has developed a process and practice he dubs “channel free logistics.” We talked to Thayer on our most recent podcast about how he developed this concept as well as how he came to learn about the importance of logistics practices in the effectiveness of retail operations. One thing we came away from was his insistence on the criticality of relationships and collaborations in creating more effective logistics modes. We also discuss how Fillogic has been able to engage [...]

This article is a companion piece our Leadership Podcast, "The Art of Leading Other Leaders."  Introduction Your supply chain career will advance much faster once you master the art of external vendor management and can balance that with your internal priorities and obligations. The most successful leaders in supply chain are those that  conduct the symphony of interdependence in balancing and managing internal relationships and obligations with long term partners. Some people thrive on leading internally and find career growth there. Some people do better handling vendors, third party suppliers, and other external relationships. The people that can have [...]