Building a Career in Manufacturing Leadership – with John Peoples

[00:00:00] Mike Ogle: Welcome to the Supply Chain Careers podcast, the only podcast for job seekers, professionals, and students who are focused on career enhancing conversations and insights across all aspects of the supply chain discipline. This podcast is made possible by SCM Talent Group, the industry leading supply chain executive search firm.

Visit SCM Talent [email protected]. In this episode of the Supply Chain Careers podcast, we speak with John Peoples whose supply chain career began with a leadership development program at Ford. Then on to supply chain positions at Halliburton and Coca-Cola. Then most recently at Domino’s as a supply chain operations director, where John had responsibility for ensuring that over 1100 stores had what they needed to serve their customers.

Listen, as John talks about the value of frontline operations experience [00:01:00] and working with people to meet metrics that align with strategic initiatives here, John’s passions within his supply chain career related to team communications, culture, caring, collaboration. And one of his most rewarding experiences at a startup site.

John also discusses safety, not just physical, but the value of mental and emotional safety in a high performing organization. He also shares his advice related to networking, mentoring, and three focus areas that have led to his success.

[00:01:30] Rodney Apple: I am your podcast co-host, Rodney Apple, and I’m your podcast co-host Chris Gaffney.

John, welcome to the Supply Chain Careers podcast. We’re very excited to have you on the show today, and we’re looking forward to learning more about your. Career journey and some of the pivots you’ve made along the way and advice you have to share with our audience To get started, we would love to learn how you, what sparked that career path into supply chain and what were some of those key moments that kind of led [00:02:00] you down the manufacturing side?

[00:02:02] John Peoples: Yeah. First of all, thank you Rodney, and thank you Chris for just allowing me this opportunity. I have been following you all for a while, so listening to many of your episodes in the podcast. So I’m excited to feel honored that you’ve asked me to be a part of this. But to answer your question, how did I even start in supply chain?

I would tell you it was not my initial aspiration coming out of college, Florida, in and where I got a degree in economics and business. I was thinking I was going to go into. The cushy world of wearing a shirt and tie every day and maybe in the sales, and then even really had aspirations to go to law school and be a sports agent.

That was my initial aspiration, but they gotta start working. And being from Detroit, the opportunity came to go into automotive with Ford Motor Company, where I started out as a, in a leadership development program. Rodney and Chris. I didn’t even really like cars like that. So you say, how did you get into [00:03:00] automotive?

And I would say that automotive found me and that was my introduction to supply chain. And I would tell you, being 23 years old and having a two-way radio handed to you and you’re working in a area, maybe a million square feet, plant building cars and unionized environment, and they say, here you go. And they’re trying to have to figure it out very quickly.

Early on, I would say what inspired me. It was just the people, right? The, it was a microcosm of the world inside of those walls, inside of the plant, and just seeing a car go from a piece of sheet metal to two or three days later is now going off of assembly line. That’s where I got inspired and in my curiosity led from there.

And then that was where I was able to really, at Ford Motor Company, learn about production lines and building and developing teamwork and collaboration. [00:04:00] From there, I moved into oil and gas supply chain, still building in that manufacturing sector and really learning those lean manufacturing concepts.

Then had the opportunity to continue to build on my career and go into beverage manufacturing and then food manufacturing. So I would say all in all supply chain kind of found me coming outta school. It started to become the buzz word and I was like, oh, I think that’s what I meant. Supply chain and. My curiosity, or I even would say my passion came from one when I was at Ford and realizing that I am part of a process that gets people moving from A to B and how do we do that so they have a safe vehicle and they can start to move.

Through their endeavors, working every day and doing things in their community. That’s really important. And then going into food and beverage manufacturing, we all have to eat. And being a part of that process that I’m providing [00:05:00] sources of food that people enjoy, that’s where the passion started to really come in.

John,

[00:05:06] Chris Gaffney: when you and I met at Koch, you were in a leadership position in the plant, if I recall. I think somewhere out West Cincinnati. Cincinnati. Okay. People look at those, those senior leadership positions in a facility, whether it be a production manager or or leading the facility. You’ve done that in multiple environments and I think a lot of people are always curious if I’m gonna aspire for a role like that is what does that day look like?

And I’m curious. If there’s certain aspects that are common in these different environments and then some things that may be unique to the industry.

[00:05:45] John Peoples: Yeah, so Chris, I would tell you I’ve had the opportunity to lead in automotive manufacturing, oil and gas manufacturing, and then food and beverage manufacturing, and a lot of similarities.

Most [00:06:00] importantly. When you’re in those roles in in plant leadership or manufacturing leadership, it’s very dynamic, right? It’s changing, not just by the day, sometimes by the hour, because you are making a product, whatever you know that may be. And so it has the opportunity where you have to look at. I would say strategic initiatives when you’re in those leadership roles, but also understand the day-to-day operations.

So a lot of it is looking at metrics are you performing to and driving metrics on a daily basis. Sometimes our basis by period by month. And then a lot of it is also engagement with people. How do you spend your time engaging with people? For me, it’s always been about being on the floor when I have those opportunities.

Talking to people, these are individuals that are doing the actual work. You’re trying to provide a guide rail for them to be successful in the work. And so it’s a lot of time spending time with individuals on the floor, [00:07:00] finding out what’s going on, meeting with leaders, supervisors, floor operators. And then just trying to drive that continuous improvement every day.

But it starts with communication, right? I find myself trying to have opportunities as much as I can to be out on the floor communicating, and you’re learning out there. You’re using individuals that do the work, that are the professionals, the subject matter experts. To learn from them and how you can remove obstacles from them.

So if you’re interested in being in an environment that’s constantly dynamic, constantly changing, and a lot of challenges, then that is I think something that where manufacturing leads to you potentially having career opportunities. And so that’s what it’s done for me.

[00:07:43] Chris Gaffney: And if you look back over those multiple settings, what are the most rewarding times when you’re in those type of environments?

John?

[00:07:51] John Peoples: Oh man, it’s been, it is been many in many, but they probably all will focus on Chris, the collaboration of teamwork, right? When we are able [00:08:00] to take a problem that we’re trying to solve and take individuals from different sectors and build a team and then push through a certain barrier or hurdle, and using everybody’s intuition, everybody’s input, and then solve that problem and hack success.

That to me has always been the most exciting and most rewarding. And then secondly, I would say. As that team building momentum is happening, it’s seeing individuals start to get light bulbs in their head and then start to see their aspirations move forward because of what we’ve done as a team, and then be able to help them in their individual aspirations, get to their career goals and meet their North Star.

So that’s where I get my passion from throughout supply chain.

[00:08:52] Rodney Apple: John, one of the couple of questions that we get from the recruiter chair as we support a lot of clients, a lot of [00:09:00] industries, multi-site manufacturing. Number one is we, I’d love to get to that plant manager role. You know, folks wanna tend to climb the ladder in that direction.

And then once folks get to that level, they look at what’s next. And if they’re staying in that manufacturing zone, it’s often multi-site. So I’d love to hear your perspectives on the core. Differences comparing contrasting single site versus multi-site, how did you make that jump yourself? And then what are some of those complexities that you run into those dynamics?

[00:09:31] John Peoples: Yeah, great question because even though there are similarities between running a site and then multiple sites, I think the biggest difference is single site. You’re really focusing on. Tactical operation and execution. You’re spending a lot of time that daily engagement with your team at that site, and then multi-site.

You’re really trying to be a roadblock remover, [00:10:00] right? It’s really at that level, giving accountability to your site leaders, providing them resources to be successful. But then it’s also about how do you standardize initiatives? How do you standardize routines that you put in place? But still have the flexibility to know what each site may have, its differences that they need.

And so I think those are the differences. For me, it’s letting leaders be leaders, right? You try to bring the brightest and the smartest and most empowering leaders that you can let them lead without micromanaging, but then providing them a roadmap. A guide for them to do that, and I think those are the major differences.

Now, multi-site, you’re more strategic, but you still have to be flexible to know which sites that you need to provide additional support.

[00:10:49] Rodney Apple: And as a follow up, have you been involved with, whether it be startups or or, that’s a whole nother dynamic, right? You have a startup facility as well as a turnaround.

[00:11:00] Those are, to me, when we get requests for that on the recruitment side, that’s a special set of skills. I.

[00:11:06] John Peoples: Yeah, I would say my most, one of my most rewarding experiences in my career thus far has been blessed to do a startup site, right? So this is taking it from the ground up, concrete laid on, on, on the ground, four walls being put up, equipment being installed, and then people, right?

And so why it’s so rewarding? Because when you’re doing a startup, it’s really about building a culture and how do you want that culture to look? Feel and operate so that you’re still hitting the bottom line. And so you are at a place where you have the opportunity to really mold this operation. It becomes almost like your baby.

You’re forming it. And so being able to have that opportunity, it was a startup because it’s now about. The people really, you’re trying to drive what you want the culture to look like, and [00:12:00] you’re getting that input from them. So I have found in startups, it’s really important to build an empowering team and to be able to get that input from them.

And then setting the tone very early on. I’m competitive, so it’s like from a sports analogy, doing a startup. I don’t want to come out like a. Expansion team, right? I wanna be able to compete early on. And the only way that you can do that is building a culture that’s fostering empowerment, collaboration, and operational excellence.

So that has been the fun part about doing a startup. But I’ve also been in in turnarounds, and that still is a part of culture setting. And when I looked at turnarounds, I spent a lot of time. Listening first, trying to understand what some of those obstacles have been, what are some of the pinch points have been, and then finding where there’s commonality amongst the team, and then working through that, using that [00:13:00] commonality to work through problem solving, and then building and fostering that culture of engagement, excitement.

We have the ability to change where we are. To get to where we want to get to and be able to see maybe frowns on the face to smiles and excitement on the face. So those are the differences, and I get empowered where I should say I get passionate about both settings for me.

[00:13:23] Rodney Apple: Love it. Love it.

[00:13:27] Mike Ogle: During this short break, we recognize that this podcast is made possible by SCM Talent Group, the industry leading supply chain executive search firm visit, SCM Talent Group. At SCM talent.com.

[00:13:45] Chris Gaffney: John, when we first met at Koch, I think it was in the mentoring setting. I don’t know if it was formal, informal, and I was probably supposed to be the mentor, but I probably learned as much from you in our interactions. One of the things that was super clear from [00:14:00] day one, that was your commitment to development, right?

You were pretty voracious in terms of learner and saying, how do I get better? You’ve clearly climbed a lot of rungs on the ladder, and if it shoots and ladders, you’ve jumped from one ladder to another ladder, right? And continue to ad advance. If you think about, that’s not easy to do in manufacturing leadership, right?

Because in Chutes and Ladders you can fall, and we know a lot of people who did that too. If you think about, looking back on kind of the strategies or actions that have been successful for you and or as you’ve coached others, proven to be pretty durable. What do you tell others about how you were able to make all those moves up the ladder?

[00:14:41] John Peoples: Yeah. It’s always fun to have retrospection and look back. For me it’s, I can’t even believe to say this, it’s been 25 years, right? Started for a motor company to where we are today, and to look back and think about where were those areas or what are those things [00:15:00] that helped me matriculate in my career.

For me it, it centered on a couple things. One, it is about results. You need to be able to understand where you’re trying to drive towards and then how do you hit the results. That’s number one. Can you deliver results and not just deliver results? How do you deliver results? For me, I have tried to use empowerment building teams, collaboration and having fun doing it.

Secondly, what I would say is leadership and people development. Right. I’ve always found ways to, I said in earlier, my last name is Peoples, and it’s not Chancellor Happenstance. I’m passionate about people. I’m passionate about helping them find their North Star. I’m passionate about trying to remove roadblocks for them to be successful, and so I’ve always looked for ways to do that in my career.

But most importantly, it is been about networking, right? And visibility. [00:16:00] I learned early on there’s this saying, I think my dad first told me, I. He said, it is not all who you know. It’s also who knows you. And so during those Coke days, Chris, I learned how to take the opportunity to find individuals that were at senior leadership levels like yourself and knew that they knew where their North Star was and we’re headed there.

And then find those opportunities to, to connect with them, whether that, I think for us, you had came to the site to speak or we were talking about some continuous improvement. And it was just being like that uh, kid that sees his, his star athlete come in and just wants to be around him. I found an opportunity to connect with you and Ms.

Bolden said, Chris, would you be my mentor? I. And you obliged and we set times to do that. So it was really being intentional and strategic about finding individuals that are in areas and spaces that you have aspiration to [00:17:00] be in. And being bold. Some people may say, Hey, I’m an introvert. I. And I don’t talk to people like that.

I don’t easily meet people like that. Then I say think big about it, but start small. Maybe there’s someone in your cubicle next door that you can have a conversation with that knows somebody that can help you do whatever that may be that you’re trying to do. But you always trying to find those opportunities through regular conversation to engage with people that are doing where you wanna go most of the time.

I almost say 99% of the time people are happy to help and to mentor and to develop, but be strategic and intentional about it. And that’s what’s helped me so far in my career.

[00:17:43] Chris Gaffney: Yeah. I’ll put a fine point on something you said is in those days and people who know me, I’m always happy to provide any kind of coaching and feedback for somebody if they want it, but I don’t go beat in the bushes.

But if you come to me, I’m gonna say yes. You took the initiative and [00:18:00] one of the things that I say to the students that I talk to is, the world belongs to hustlers and hustlers. Get up early. Hustlers are first hustlers, ask. And I mean that in the most positive way, but it’s taking that initiative and I think, John, you’ve always, that’s been a trademark for you.

[00:18:17] John Peoples: No, I appreciate it. I, I still do that. And I really stand by, I, I’ll say this. We’ve all heard the term, your network is your net worth. And when I think about that term, I’ve used it, but not just in a financial way of thinking. Intellectual capital is just important as monetary capital. And I’ve tried to use that network to say, who are those individuals in the space I’m in that are where I want to be, but even outside of the spaces that I’ve been in that I can connect with, that I can network.

But then I always try to bring it back to, as much as this individual or individuals are giving me, make it a point of what [00:19:00] is it that I can do to help them and, and serve them. So it becomes a two-way street and building that network.

[00:19:06] Rodney Apple: Yeah, that’s the key for sure. It’s gotta be two-way. The moment you come in, me versus you, it’s, it just doesn’t, it doesn’t hit as well.

[00:19:14] John Peoples: Absolutely.

[00:19:15] Rodney Apple: So John’s switching gears and I’m going back into my mind with conversations I’ve had with at times working on various food and beverage plant manager searches, as an example. And we’ll get this tight profile where the hiring manager is saying that they absolutely need to have beverage experience.

Sometimes they’ll get into certain categories or certain equipment and technology for the general manager role. And in my mind I’m thinking it’s the general manager role and the people under that individual should be the technical experts. So anyway, that’s a, it’s a back and forth struggle sometimes, but I’d love to hear your perspective on that.

We can just either compare food. Versus beverage, do they fall under that CPG ca industry [00:20:00] segment? But I’d love to hear your take on that. What are some of those fundamental differences when you think about the processing, the equipment, the goals, the challenges, and what’s your philosophy on if you can do food, you can do beverage or vice versa?

[00:20:12] John Peoples: Yeah, so I would say that one there, there’s so many similarities there probably. More similarities than differences when you talk about food and then beverage manufacturing, and probably a lot of similarities. When I think about coming from auto industry, even oil and gas manufacturing over to food and beverage, there were still some core competencies and principles that we use.

Lean manufacturing transcends across many industries and in spaces. But probably some of the differences that I’ve seen and know to be in food versus beverage manufacturers is normally a little bit more highly automated. You’re looking at a speed and how fast those machines can get [00:21:00] cans or bottles out if you’re talking about a, a filler line, whereas.

In food. It sometimes is a little bit more manual at times in terms of some of the processes, but again, similarities are gonna be similar. When you talk about process control, when you talk about efficiencies, main differences, I think food has a little bit more stringent. I. Requirements as you talk about food safety.

’cause now you’re talking about multitude of different ingredients going on, allergens that could be impacted. So I think it’s a little bit more stringent on that food safety side, but. There’s so many similarities on both, right? Are you food safe? Are you keeping your people safe? Are you looking at where their bottlenecks in, in, in operations?

Or are you able to remove those bottlenecks? But in all, both of ’em, it, it takes a tremendous amount of, I would call supply chain coordination, right? To be able to, to be successful in, in those [00:22:00] food versus beverage. But I think those differences you’ll see is just in. Governmental requirements are a little bit more stringent on, on, on the food side.

And you may see a little bit more manual operation on the food side too.

[00:22:14] Rodney Apple: Yep. What are your thoughts, Chris? Anything to add? No,

[00:22:18] Chris Gaffney: it’s

[00:22:18] Rodney Apple: a

[00:22:18] Chris Gaffney: great question. ’cause we’ve seen people go from one side to the other. I, and I guess to me there’s other dynamics to it in terms of whether you’re in a brand owned environment or a third party.

Environment and both are shifting that I think create their own challenges to it. But bottom line is, in all of those operations safety matters first. In all of those operations quality matters next. And I think after that. It’s employee engagement because there are not enough people to do these jobs.

And in most markets someone can walk from you and go down the street and get same [00:23:00] pay or better pay. So it’s gotta be a great place to work. And to me only then you’ve gotta say, how do we make sure we can be effective every day, which is run the schedule. And then after that, we’ve still gotta say, then how do we get more efficient?

And I’m not the expert at it, but to me those things are always gonna be. In common. And I think beyond that, all of the technology and processing, processing, processing, packaging work can be learned if the, that, and again, John, I’m the outside in guy, so you can say, Chris, you got it wrong, but that’s how I would simplify.

[00:23:35] John Peoples: No, you, you have it right. You hit the nail on the head in those environments. First is safety. Right? And you mentioned that. And not just physical safety, Chris, it’s also about. Mental and emotional safety, right? When you think about when we went through the pandemic four years ago. We just didn’t have to protect individuals physically because of what we were going [00:24:00] in.

You had to find ways, how do you emotionally support people to be safe and that they’re working in a good head space. And then obviously quality is. Utmost important when you’re talking about putting any type of beverage or food product in your body, in in your system. Always learn. Quality can be something production.

Yeah. It may get you reprimanded if you’re not hitting, but quality may get you a lack of looking for a new opportunity. Amen. And so having quality, safety, and quality, I would not even say one. Two, they’re parallel with each other in terms of their importance. All of that starts with engagement and empowerment, empowering your team, right?

You can look at certain sites or organizations, and I have, I’ve tried to measure and just look at, okay, what’s their safety record start off like, and then where has it climbed to? Or where has it gone down? That could tell a sign [00:25:00] of what that empowerment is like in that organization. What is that engagement like?

’cause when people feel safe. Physically and emotionally, they will work safe, but then you’ll see the output, kind of copy that.

[00:25:14] Chris Gaffney: I think that’s a bet, and you always have to make that bet, and I think most of the people we know who made that bet end up winning more often than not. Absolutely. John, we talked about networking and when I was in a big company, I was a believer in it.

One of the things you realize once you move from company A to company B is that internal network. Is not always as transportable as you might like. Then I learned and coached people, you’ve gotta invest in both the internal and an external network, and I think you’ve seen all of that. What, what are your tactics or techniques to manage that effectively in terms of your advice to others in, in, in that, and then in your mind, how has it really made a difference for you?

[00:25:58] John Peoples: Yeah, I would tell you [00:26:00] I have a passion for networking. I have a passion for connecting with people and relating with people. So sometimes some people may think it comes a little easier for me, but I would tell you it’s been a game changer. I. In my career, having the opportunity to, when we were working together at Coca-Cola to connect with you and get guidance and mentorship from you, even to this day, has been in invaluable.

But I would think, I would say throughout my journey, it was about building relationships, forming mentors, connecting with peers, those that. Are doing things that I either aspire to do or even not aspire to do. Learning from them, taking those opportunities where I can get guidance from them has opened doors that I would not have been able to do on my own, and it is been able to help me navigate through challenges that I would not have been able to do on my own.

So it’s been paramount in my career [00:27:00] success to find opportunities to network and like I said. Small organizations, larger organizations, there are always people around that are con, that we are connected with, right? Whether we think they’re our best coworker, friend at work, how do you find a way to connect with them?

We all have something that we relate to each other in and with, and if you can start there as your baseline and then. Say, okay, where are there opportunities to learn from this individual, share information from this individual partner and collaborate with them. I think that can help grow your, your grow and expand your opportunities by doing that.

So that’s what I’ve used to be like my guiding light, whether it’s a smaller organization or a larger organization. And then I would say. Opportunities like LinkedIn now that we’ve, we what have LinkedIn for the last 10, 12, 13 years. People are really [00:28:00] using LinkedIn. Tremendous resource to connect with individuals that are in spaces that you’re in.

And I would tell you people love to have the opportunity to give guidance and mentorship, but so many folks are just scared to reach out. I’ve used opportunities like that in LinkedIn as well.

[00:28:20] Rodney Apple: John, would you say there’s anything specific for our audience that’s either, either working in manufacturing now or aspiring to, to move into that area?

We are starting to see a lot more activity and there’s talent shortages all over the place, regardless of industries. So I think networking is, we know the benefits. There’s tremendous benefits and I do see a lot of folks that. They, they shy away from it. I think the number one mistake people make is networking the moment they need a job, right?

I’ve been given a pink slip, or my plant is shutting down, and then they’ll start networking and you want to have that network already established, but so you can lean on it right away. So are there any, whether it be [00:29:00] associations or any other avenues that, that maybe you have leveraged or you’re aware of that we could share with our audience?

[00:29:06] John Peoples: Yeah, I’m gonna tell you the biggest one is using LinkedIn. And LinkedIn, you can, it could be your one stop shop, so to speak, because there are networks within that network of LinkedIn that you can reach out to, that you can find. Almost any and every subject matter in every industry is going to have a LinkedIn presence.

I’ve used LinkedIn, and then what you start to find is those individuals that you may have in common within your network is. Don’t be shy to reach out to them, send them an engagement email, start to foster and build a relationship. And you would be surprised when a person can pick up the phone and say, Hey, I do know somebody that’s doing A, B, and C.

That probably would be a good resource for you to connect with. And then there you go. One leads to three. Three leads to four. So I would say LinkedIn is, just [00:30:00] start there and then obviously you can go into other areas there. A lot of supply chain conferences, if you’re in supply chain, that one can go to be a part of.

I take advantage of going to those conferences when the opportunity allows itself. Meeting people and connecting. There was a gentleman I met at the last one I went to that was the former Chief supply chain officer for the Clorox company, Rick McDonald. And it was just not being afraid to go up and have a conversation with them.

And then that led to a, a sit down conversation virtually, but it’s not being afraid. At the end of the day, other people have gone through what you are going through or have, are going to go through, and they can give you a nugget and wealth of information.

[00:30:48] Chris Gaffney: John, one of the, the keys here in, in any of these sessions is moving from leading yourself to leading others.

And I recall early in my career, most of us came out of school [00:31:00] in an individual contributor position, but right away then. You were pretty quickly in a situation if you’re going into supply chain where you might be working with frontline associates, folks on the shop floor in a plant. I mean his truck drivers six months outta after I got outta school, and there might have been a little bit of training there, but some cases it was a while before there was anything formal.

When you then move up to leading other professionals, like shift supervisors and then leading a department, et cetera. The complexity gets to be infinitely greater. I’m curious for you in terms of what are the things that have proven successful for you to get results through others, right? So to get productivity delivered, et cetera, and maintain that safety and quality GMP and all that other stuff.

What are the things that you think are the best nuggets for you in terms of success successfully leading in an operating environment? Yeah,

[00:31:54] John Peoples: so Chris, I learned this very early on in my career, probably day one at my time at Ford [00:32:00] Motor Company, when I was given my two Ray radio and saying, this is your zone, engine line and frame line.

He, here’s your team, here you go. And I had a frontline team leader name. His name was Mark Hickman. And Mark asked me, I remember, how old are you? And I said, 20, 23 years old. He was like. Wow, I have more time here working than you have living. So I quickly realized how do I engage and build the trust with somebody has been doing this for 23 years, where he looks at me as someone that’s here to support him.

So the very first thing that I saw that’s gonna be important was. Finding ways to relate to individuals no matter what level of leadership they were in. And then driving whatever performance that needed to be driven through building and developing relationships, finding commonality first, right? [00:33:00] People have more in common with each other than they don’t have in common.

And finding that, and then building that a, a level of trust with those individuals. But the trust comes because. People need to know that you do care. You’ve heard the same people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. And so that is where I have taken that from a production supervisor to senior leader level roles.

People don’t care what you know until they know what you care. So find a way to remove roadblocks. If you think about there’s this. I guess you would call it graph or picture that people sometimes see, and it’s a pyramid. And at this pyramid we’ll normally see like the CEO at the very top of the pyramid, and then you’ll see all the way down to the frontline employees at the bottom.

And you would think looking at this pyramid, wow, the CEO has a lot of people that work for him or her. [00:34:00] Early on, it was told to me and it made sense. And even more sense. Now, the higher in leadership that I’ve gone is to turn that pyramid upside down. And so the higher that you move up realize that’s the more people that you actually work for.

And so our jobs as leaders is to start to remove roadblocks and obstacles. So the folks that are actually doing the. Heavy lifting work are successful, we’re able to provide strategic plans, but being able to empower those at every level to be successful, that is what has been my nugget and of being successful early on, and it still is today.

So every level that I’ve gone up, it puts me in mind like, these are the people that I work for. I have to find ways to remove obstacles, provide guidance for them, mentorship for them, and give them the resources [00:35:00] to be successful every level. That’s been what I’ve been passionate about and have tried to do.

[00:35:07] Rodney Apple: I love it. It’s not the way it always is as we know, but that is the way it should be. That’s how I look at it too.

[00:35:14] Mike Ogle: During this short break, we recognize that this podcast is made possible by SCM Talent Group, the industry leading supply chain executive search firm. Visit SCM talent [email protected].

[00:35:30] Rodney Apple: Uh, John, you touched on continuous improvement earlier, lean and Six Sigma tools, methodologies.

We, we know it’s not about the, all about the tools and methodologies, it’s about the people and the change and sustaining the culture of continuous improvement. And that’s back at Koch. I had these CI teams and it was, it was so impressive to see how. These teams started at corporate and then they grew out into the factories, the large factories.

You had your regional CI and then you had ’em at, we installed them at the [00:36:00] plant level, and it was so successful. I was asked to fill CI roles for some of the other functions outside of manufacturing and supply chain. We had somebody for hr. That would come into even in our talent acquisition department.

And do you know some workshops, which I found fascinating, so it’s spread across the whole business, but I’d love to hear your perspective on continuous improvement and how have you leveraged it throughout your career to enhance your own leadership?

[00:36:26] John Peoples: Yeah, so when I think about continuous improvement, it probably was.

Maybe about five years ago, four or five years ago, I heard this phrase and I got it from a football coach. Many people know my nephew played football for the University of Michigan, go Blue, Donovan Peoples Jones, and I remember hearing a coach at the time and then even my nephew and his teammates use this term of getting 1% better.

Every day incrementally better every day. And they’re talking about in their craft of playing the game of football. [00:37:00] But that stuck with me to say that most people, every time they get to work or whatever their endeavor is, they wanna get better. They wanna be the as the best that they can be. So continuous improvement, that’s really what it’s about.

How are you finding ways to using tools? Taking resources to get incrementally better in every day, and people wanna see that they, their success is related to probably what they’re doing. And it’s paying off by the work of continuous improvement. When a team can go from, you know, average and then become one of the top in their sector, their space, their plant, their amongst their plants, that’s rewarding for individuals.

So it’s finding ways, how do we do that? And then obviously it’s driving the business, which is important, right? It’s why we’re here. It’s to drive business. So continuous improvement has always been something that I’ve used in [00:38:00] my personal life, and then being able to bring those tools to work to get better.

Because I believe that individuals, they wanna be better, they wanna be the best that they can be. They want to be a part of teams that are the best that they can be, and then being able to use tools like continuous improvement to drive those results. And then we start to see, man, this kind of makes my job a little bit easier every day.

And of course you wanna find ways that, that you can do that. So that’s why continuous improvement and continuous improvement methodology has been so important to me. I don’t just use it at work. When I first learned about five s 25 years ago, it was like, okay, how do I five s my. How you’re my, the kitchen drawers.

How do I find this To make sure there’s a place where everything and everything is in its place. These are things most people use every day. They just don’t know as part of a continuous improvement methodology to make our lives better, to make our work better. And that’s been my moniker with using [00:39:00] continuous improvement in my career.

I’m passionate about it and I use it in my personal life, and that’s what we should all be about. How do we get better every day?

[00:39:08] Chris Gaffney: John a, a big part of our audience are folks who have aspiration, right? They’re making the effort outta their own time to listen to a podcast or watch us out there. I. They’re trying to get the nuggets right, so they’re listening and saying, what can I learn from John?

For those who have that aspiration to lead a site or ultimately multi-site, or ultimately run the big show, what kind of skill, key skills or experiences should they focus on developing and whether it’s things we’ve already got on the list, plus a few others that you think are the difference makers, what hits your list?

Yeah,

[00:39:42] John Peoples: Chris, I’m one of those people that listen to the podcast and try to get nuggets all the time too. I, I think I would boil it down to these three, three things, especially if you’re going into supply chain and operations and manufacturing or any entity within supply chain. Having a curiosity [00:40:00] type mindset, right?

Being curious, wanting to learn, wanting to know what does this do? How does this do it so that when you start looking at the technical and operational knowledge that. Is needed. It’s stemming from your curiosity, and that curiosity will lead to some of the. Innovation that’s needed in these roles. So understanding process optimization, understanding lean principles and concepts, understanding financial acumen.

Those are the things that help drive the results. Number two, leadership and people skills, right? You have to have the ability to lead teams, influence teams, influence stakeholders, drive engagement. Build a environment that fosters collaboration and inspiration, and then thoroughly strategic thinking and adaptability, right?

You have to be able to have a strategic mindset because supply chain is. [00:41:00] We know it’s evolving, and so you have to be a change maker and be open. That change is going to happen within supply chain. Trying to stay ahead of the curve, embracing technology, and that adaptability part is just being flexible because you’re gonna be in an environment that change sometimes by the hour, by the minute.

It changes through. World events like we all saw with if covid. And so you have to be able to have that ability to be a adaptable and flexible and then problem solving, right? If you want to be in an environment where you’re going to be problem solving every day, I would say supply chain is probably a area that you may want to wanna consider.

So those three things, technical and operational, knowledge, leadership and people skills, and then strategic thinking and flexibility. Very

[00:41:52] Chris Gaffney: good. John, when I talk to some of the folks that we’ve worked with who are more senior in their career, some of them have a bit of [00:42:00] anxiety around where the next generation of manufacturing leadership is gonna come from, that it may not be as attractive a career path as it was versus the pipelines that we saw we came up.

What is your take on that and your coaching on that?

[00:42:16] John Peoples: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a good point. Good question. I think I’ll always stick to. The world is always changing, right? And how we looked at things 20 years ago or even five years ago also changes. There is a group of individuals and people that I think are still excited about supply chain.

When you start looking at some of the universities that you now see courses in curriculum called Supply Chain Management and, and Chris is working with Georgia Tech. I would say 30 years ago, that was just becoming a buzz word, so yes. You may not see in the same way that we saw individuals going into to, to supply chain, but I think [00:43:00] there’s still a group that are passionate about it.

Supply chain, the terminology may change a little bit. How we do business changes a little bit, but there are still a group of individuals I think that are excited. There’s still engineers that want to figure how to make things or make them better. They’re still individuals that are excited about procurement.

And there’s still individuals that are excited about making things. I always tell individuals and especially those that are coming outta school and I, when I try to explain what supply chain is to ’em, anything that we have, whether it’s our clothing to our computers that we use, any tangible item, somebody has to make it.

And there’s a whole process that goes into things being made right from raw materials, who’s ordering the raw materials. Somebody can have a whole career in that, whether it’s the [00:44:00] manufacturing side, and then you start talking about engineering quality, and then somebody has to be able to get that product from point A to point B.

So you start talking about transportation and distribution and warehousing. I think there are still. Individuals that are excited about supply chain just needs more exposure in how we’re doing it in the 21st century. I’m

[00:44:24] Chris Gaffney: glad to hear

[00:44:24] John Peoples: that. Thank you.

[00:44:27] Rodney Apple: Yeah, it’s, it is real interesting as we see a lot of folks about to exit out of the workforce in our baby boomer generation.

Next four or five years, a generation will hit full retirement age. And so as we talk to people, one of their biggest concerns to Chris’s point is that where are the next leaders, the future leaders in manufacturing come from? And then we know the tariffs are designed to help bring back more manufacturing to the United States.

So I think it’s gonna be really interesting when you throw that dynamic in as well. You just saw Apple announce what, a [00:45:00] half a billion dollar. Excuse me, half a trillion dollar investment in the next several years to build more manufacturing, um, facilities. Eli Lilly just did the same thing and they’re probably gonna see more of that and I’m over here like, where are they gonna find these people?

[00:45:17] John Peoples: Yeah. I think they’re still that, that population that are going into those areas or what will probably happen is. Individuals start to pivot where they start to see opportunities. Okay, maybe they started their career in one place early on and had aspirations to do something else like me, and then they pivot when they see here’s a opportunity to go into supply chain and have a successful career.

[00:45:46] Rodney Apple: Yeah. It e. E, exactly. And one of the other things we like to talk about, or we’ve talked about recently is. Can’t, you know, folks that really want to get up and run the show, run the supply chain. If it’s in a company that does manufacturing, it’s [00:46:00] almost paramount to get that experience. So for our listeners, that may have gone up the technology or the analytics track or even procurement you, if you want to be that.

Chief Supply chain officer or head of supply chain, it’s, we’re hearing that you need to take that route through the field, through the operations to help broaden your experience and leadership experience to move up to that level. Any thoughts

[00:46:24] John Peoples: there

[00:46:24] Rodney Apple: yourself?

[00:46:25] John Peoples: No. Rodney, I, I totally agree with you and, and.

To get the opportunity and experience of being at the front line, being where things are getting made, and with those individuals, whether you want a career in supply chain or you decide to go into another space, it will be tremendous for your career because you’re learning how to engage in a very dynamic world where things are changing by the minute, by the hour, and so you’re having to learn how do you problem solve with the team that has.

Many different factors that they’re [00:47:00] faced a against, right? And there are concepts. I will tell you if you’ve worked in supply chain, you’ve worked in manufacturing and you’ve worked in a plant that you’re going to take to other areas, whether you stay in supply chain or not. Very early on in my four days, I remember having a conversation.

I think it was my mother and I was like, I don’t like this. I don’t like working different shifts every day when you’re 23 years old or working different shifts and going from midnight to afternoons. And she was talking to someone, I think they were a senior leader at an organization and they were saying, how’s John doing?

And she was like, oh, he’s working at 40, a supervisor. He doesn’t necessarily like it yet. And they said, tell him if he can be successful in the plant. He can be successful anywhere, and I took that with me 25 years ago because of the dynamics that happen in a plant that give you some strengths and core ability that other people just don’t gain.

[00:47:56] Rodney Apple: Yeah. I’ve said, and I’ve always looked at it [00:48:00] as you, you have pretty much the end to end supply chain inside of those four walls. I’ve always said the supply chain in a box, and it’s not limited to the box. Obviously you gotta get raw materials out and product finished goods out the door, but you do get those fundamentals and then you can expand it from there.

So

[00:48:16] John Peoples: yeah,

[00:48:17] Rodney Apple: absolutely. We’ll wrap up with one more question. If you had either one piece, maybe two pieces of advice that you would offer, ’cause I do think manufacturing, it’s gonna see a big comeback in the USA. And is there anything you would offer up to those that are maybe finishing up college, thinking about where they may wanna start their career or they know that they’re gonna start out in the plant environment?

[00:48:39] John Peoples: Yeah, I would say one, be curious. Embrace continuous improvement every day, continuous learning as well. And have a mindset where you are also having a continuous learning in your personal life, right? Having that, that cur curiosity, [00:49:00] um, that lead you to. Seeing different things. Curiosity actually leads to innovation, right?

Every product that we have has come because somebody was curious about something, and then that’s where innovation came. So having that curiosity as a mindset, I’ll also say if you have the ability to. Be agile in your thinking, in agile in your way that you attacked processes every day. Keep that in mind, right?

Because supply chain is definitely cost for agility and being agile. And then lastly, it’s what we talked about earlier. Seek mentorships, seek advisors, and I would say there’s a difference between a mentor and also an advocate. So you wanna be able to have both. Mentors are people that can help, like for Chris, give me advice, show me how to do things, maybe connect me [00:50:00] with individuals, have different conversations with, and then there are individuals that are advocates, which may even be your boss or your leader.

Where now they’re in a room speaking on your behalf and when you’re not. When you’re not there. So having both of those in place and at every level that you go to look for those opportunities where you can build advocates and you can build mentorship, I think that adds value to one, having a successful career.

[00:50:26] Rodney Apple: Perfect. Awesome. Yeah. And network early and network often, right?

[00:50:31] John Peoples: Absolutely.

[00:50:32] Rodney Apple: Alright, so John, we’re going to just do the quick closing and then I’ll stop the record button. Okay. Alright, so John, this has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the Supply Chain Careers podcast today and sharing your career journey and all these nuggets of wisdom with our audience.

Thank you.

[00:50:51] John Peoples: Rodney and Chris again, I can’t thank you enough on for inviting me to this opportunity. You guys keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll keep listening to your [00:51:00] podcast. You’re providing a wealth of information to those in supply chain, so thank you.

[00:51:06] Chris Gaffney: Great to reconnect John, for sure.

[00:51:09] John Peoples: You

[00:51:09] Chris Gaffney: too.

[00:51:13] Mike Ogle: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Supply Chain Careers podcast. Be sure to listen to other episodes and sign up to be notified when future episodes are released as we continue to interview industry leading supply chain experts. This podcast is made possible by SCM Talent Group, the industry leading supply chain executive search firm.

Visit SCM Talent [email protected].