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Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be.

Scott Luton and Marty Parker here with you on Supply Chain now.

Welcome to today's live stream.

Hey, Marty, how you doing today?

I'm doing great, Scott.

Beautiful weather outside.

Falcons are going to win the game tonight.

There's Georgia just won.

I couldn't be happier.

Oh, my goodness.

Well, hey, I love your outlook on life and I'd say you're right about two out of three things.

I've got it here, man.

I've got it.

All right.

Bold prediction.

Falcons take tonight's game.

But folks, it is a gorgeous day in Georgia, gorgeous day in metro Atlanta and we got a big, big episode of the Buzz where every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news developments across global supply chain and business news that matters is what we like to call it.

And folks, the Buzz is powered by our friends at autoscheduler AI who's on a mission to make your warehouse operations smarter, more efficient and adaptable.

You can learn more at autoschedular AI.

So, Marty, we've got an outstanding big show teed up here today.

We're going to be talking about effective leadership both on those good days and those bad days.

We're going to be touching on big energy concerns that are critical to to powering supply chains everywhere.

We're going to get a preview of the holiday spending season as well as sharing and talking about an interesting interview, a Ford CEO Jim Farley, all that much, much more.

And Marty gets even better because in about 10, 12 minutes or so we're welcoming a special repeat guest, great friend of the show, Guy Katon with Texas, who's going to be sharing a variety of items with us including how to optimize your approach to automation.

Marty, it should be an outstanding show here today, huh?

Yeah, looking forward to it.

Look forward to learning a lot.

Honestly, same.

I get a certification every Monday, folks, between my co host, my esteemed co host and our great guests and of course our audience out there, it's a great show here today.

So two things before we get going.

Give us your take in the comments.

Whether you're tuned in via LinkedIn, YouTube X Facebook, Twitch, no matter.

Let us know what you think.

And if you enjoy the show today, we'd love for you to share it with a friend and or your network.

They'll be glad you did just like Trisha.

Happy buzzday all.

If you comment, let us know you are watching and are tuned in from.

Okay, so Marty, really quick, I got three things we're gonna knock out.

Poor guy joins us.

But what's the score going to be tonight with the Atlanta Falcons game and I forgot who they're playing.

Buffalo.

Buffalo.

Oh my gosh.

Falcons are winning 24, 21.

Last minute field goal.

Okay, I'm writing that down.

I'm writing that down.

And if that is any work, shouldn't say that.

That'll make it like 65 to nothing.

I owe you a Diet Coke if it's anywhere close to your prediction.

Okay.

All right, folks, let's knock out three things on the front end of the buzz here today, powered by Auto Scheduler.

And I want to start with a great addition, Marty, of our almost weekly newsletter with that said, which published over the weekend.

Now Marty, we featured your Been There, Done that Leadership perspective in this edition and in your guest blog, I'll call it that, we led with in this edition.

With that said, you spoke about a few elements that are critical to how leaders overcome setbacks and bad days.

Marty, share a couple of key thoughts that you wrote about.

So I think the biggest thing, Scott, is that we've got to be clear and concise as leaders in our communication.

We have to tell our people they're doing a good job, but we also have to give them feedback when they're not doing such a great job.

And I've found leaders afraid to do that.

And they'll come to me, hey, I want to fire this person.

And I'll say, how long has it been that you've been having ongoing conversations?

Oh, we talked about it about three years ago and it drives me absolutely up a wall.

And I'm like, no, you, you won't be firing somebody.

You're going to be having a performance consequence management conversation.

So we need both.

We need to be giving encouraging feedback.

I love handwritten thank you notes because they've got kind of a personal touch to them.

But we also, as quickly as we can, have to be clear and concise with about their performance and how they're doing.

Well said, Marty.

Well said.

There's a whole bunch more folks you have to check out this edition of.

With that said, you can learn more.

And two quick thoughts.

I love how we quoted you here right where you shared.

When people understand the full picture, they can help solve it.

When they're kept in the dark though, they just feel managed and no one wants to really Feel managed, right, Marty?

Yeah, they'll, and they'll fill in the blanks, Scott.

They'll sit by the coffee pot and make all kinds of wrong assumptions about things.

And you, you, you want to be really clear with that.

They understand what's really going on.

That's right.

Well said.

And lean into those tough conversations which Marty was mentioning earlier.

So folks, check out.

With that said, make sure you subscribe.

It comes out just about every single weekend and it's usually packed full of not only actionable perspective, just like Marty walked us through, but live events, data points, interviews, you name it.

So check that out.

Okay, so Marty, speaking of things so folks can't miss with that said, but they also can't miss Manifest folks.

Manifest 2026 is on your radar yet.

We had a terrific time at this event earlier this year back in, I guess it was late January, I think it was.

Regardless, in a few months we're gonna be back with all the movers and shakers in industry in February in Vegas.

Manifest Vegas brings together the most comprehensive ecosystem of innovation and transformation and supply chain logistics, delivering unmatched opportunities to learn, connect and innovate.

And if you're doing those three things, you're probably on the right path.

Learning, connecting and innovating.

So join us February 9th through the 11th, 2026 in Las Vegas to experience unparalleled access to the technologies, trends and connections shaping the way the world moves.

It'll be here for you know it dropping a link so you can learn more and hopefully register right there in the comments.

Marty, when is the last time that you went to Vegas?

And back when I was in the corporate world and a fun tip, I was a member of Gold's Gym and I went and worked out a couple of the different gyms near there.

I tell you, the best looking people on earth because they have to be in great shape.

And so I didn't want to work out.

I just wanted to sit there and for a look at everybody.

And so you know, I'm not a gambler.

I don't do a lot of the other stuff but boy, did I have fun at the gym.

Oh, you know what, the people watching, regardless where you do it, the people watching in Vegas is the best of the best.

I was just there last week and it really, it doesn't change.

And folks, a lot of people are saying that it's a ghost town these days for the trade war, which we can touch on in a second and other reasons, but it was, I saw no signs of slowing down I didn't spend a whole bunch of time in casinos, but everywhere else, plenty, plenty of people.

All right, so Marty, we're about to bring on gun in just a second.

But before we do, I just mentioned the ongoing trade war is the gift that unfortunately keeps on giving.

And as you shared and appreciated show, every time you join us, Scott just has to talk about tariffs.

Well, I've got to ask you this Marty.

We all saw the news, especially the market, certainly saw the news late late last week.

White House recently announced an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese imports on November 1.

As I mentioned, the markets have been reacting wildly and I bet that's not the only thing bouncing off the walls.

What's one quick thought you would share with folks in light of this heavy new move which of course comes in response to China announcing further restrictions on rare earth exports.

Your thoughts, Marty?

Yes.

You know I haven't been on here with you since June or early.

Yeah, I guess June.

And back then I said it was all about uncertainty, we needed things to stabilize and unfortunately they haven't.

One thing is set on Friday, something else is set over the weekend, A third thing happens on Monday and supply chains don't work like that.

You know, it takes hundreds of days to respond and react.

And so, you know, we just whatever it's going to be, we need it to settle down so we can make great long term decisions.

Well said, Marnie, well said.

And folks, we're dropping a link to that.

I'm sure y' all caught it.

We have the smartest audience in all of global supply chain so they're already analyzing, I'm sure.

But if you're late to the party, you can check out the link that our team shared which goes more into depth via our friends at Supply Chain Dive.

Now I would just add to what Marty shared, folks.

Hopefully y' all have invested in innovative tech so you can run millions and millions of what if scenarios as it goes back and forth and we're not sure drift are going to stick.

What the counter is, you name it.

Hopefully you've got plenty of sourcing agility.

So you got some bad 4x4 tires on your sourcing platform and there's many, there's a long, much longer list.

But you're leaning into our ecosystems and hopefully flexible, innovative supply chain ecosystems because your partners, hopefully you trust the relationships you've been building and investing in are going to help us get through even the most uncertain of times.

Yeah, it's a great point.

Just to comment, we don't have to beat the terrorists, nobody's going to beat the tariffs.

What you have to do is beat your competitors.

If you can be better with better automation, better systems like Ghee will talk about later, you can beat your competitors because they may not be doing the same thing.

So true, Marty.

And it reminds me of we were talking about big bad bears in the pre show and there's always been that running joke that if you're in a group of folks and a bear comes chasing after you, you don't have to be the fastest one, you just don't.

You just have to not be the slowest one.

Right.

And kidding aside, there's opportunities in every challenging and uncertain environment.

So lean in to your supply chain ecosystem for sure.

Okay, Marty mentioned our special guest here today, great friend of the show.

We've known Guy for quite some time.

He's doing big things out in industry.

We're delighted to have them here on the Buzz, powered by our friends at Auto Scheduler.

So Guy Katon is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in the technology field, specializing in supply chain logistics, retail, automation and fulfillment.

He holds a master's degree in international relations and get this, a dual citizenship in the EU and the usa, which gives him a global perspective and a diverse network of contacts and partners.

He's got his finger on the pulse, folks.

He serves on the leadership team with Texas, which is a leading provider of world class solutions for complex supply chain challenges.

Let's welcome my friend G. Coton, Vice President of industry and global alliances at Texas.

Hey.

Hey Guy.

How are you doing today?

Doing well, Scott.

Marty, good to see you guys.

It is wonderful, Marty.

I'll tell you what, he is always one of the most dapper gentlemen out in industry and he's not letting us down again today.

Marty looks like a billion dollars, doesn't he?

Absolutely love it.

I just love it.

Well, I was going to wear a tie, but I figured that might go too far.

Next time.

Oh God.

Next time.

Next time.

All kidding aside, it's great to have you back.

We were talking in the pre show.

We first met way back at Modex in I want to say 2019.

Guy, you have not aged a single day ever since.

I'm very jealous.

But we got a lot of good stuff to get to here today.

I want to start with a fun warm up question.

So, Marty and Guy, today here in the US Is Columbus Day.

It's also the birthday of the US Navy.

How about that?

And this is where we're going to land on here.

It's National Delivery Driver Week this week right here in the U.S. of course, that celebrates all those incredible professionals that make things happen, deliver meals, packages, and so much more conveniently to our front door each and every day and twice a day, sometimes thrice a day, thanks to somebody here at the Luton household.

But I digress.

Here's my question for you, guy.

What is one of your favorite recent delivery experiences?

Yeah, no, I think it's a, it's a really interesting.

I know there's, there's a day or a week for everything nowadays, but this one, I think, of course, for all of us in supply chain, speaks to us.

So the one for me, and I think this is one that we can talk about more in terms of the concept.

But I remember a couple years ago back when I used to order an iPhone every time it came out.

Yes, I'm one of those people, but I remember, you know, they would deliver it to.

At the time, I lived in a condo downtown Boston by Fenway Park.

And you know, we didn't have a doorman or anything.

We just had mailboxes and they would just drop packages off in the vestibule.

And of course, you know, like, some of us suffer.

We had porch pirates would come and sometimes take your stuff.

And I remember, like, I was getting the new iPhone and my Delivery person for FedEx, she was great.

And she actually called me and said, hey, I want to drop this off.

I'll make sure you're home.

And actually, I was actually not at the condo at the time.

I was actually literally down the street.

And I just remember it was, it was something really.

I think it was, it was a good customer service because she knew what the package was, right?

It was an unmarked brown box.

But we all knew the shape, the size, the timing, there was probably going to be something electronic, probably from Apple.

And she knew that, hey, just leaving that package, you know, in the vestibule with no one there, I was at risk.

And she did a great job.

And she called me and I remember being like, wow, this is really great customer service.

And she said, listen, I'll.

I'll come back when you're home.

Make sure you get it.

I'll give it to you.

Make sure it gets in your hands only.

And that's what happened.

And I think that, to me is an example of the importance of these last mile delivery people, because they're the ones who are truly giving you the last customer experience you're going to have.

Right?

They might be the only people you touch from the air Quote brand you're buying from.

And I think that's something that's really valuable.

It's something that as we get more and more of these third party delivery systems, it's interesting, like how can we replicate, replicate that with these people?

But that was my experience.

I loved it.

I love it, Guy.

And you're so true on so many different accounts.

Marty, same question to you.

What's one of your favorite recent delivery experiences?

I'm a little embarrassed because these was so related to supply chain and mine isn't.

But my students have made me a playlist on Spotify called Marty's Driving Home Rack.

Nice.

Keep me awake during my 90 minute commute.

And so one of my drivers came up playing a Drake song.

And I knew the Drake song way too sexy because of this playlist.

And so we were dancing together, you know, and I love it.

He high fived me and I don't even want to say the carrier because he might like get in trouble or something, but I've gotten in trouble with that playlist by the way.

But anyway, it was great.

Just like he said, we made a connection and you know, had a great experience because of such a great driver and such great music.

I love that.

If only we had the doorbell camera because I would love to see that moment with Marty and that delivery driver.

And Martin, Amanda, Trish are getting the kick out of it behind the scenes too.

You know, we got so much to celebrate and be thankful for.

We really do.

And along these lines, Guy and Marty.

I saw a great read that I was writing about on LinkedIn the other day.

I'm see if I can pop it up here.

So I think this is from the New York Times, I think might be the Wall Street Journal.

Anyway, there was a phenomenon taking place across New York City where there happened to be a lot of Mamadou's that were delivery drivers, especially with food delivery.

And it created a buzz and almost a mythic superhero status of the legendary Mamadou.

And really the cool thing here is after folks realized that it was not one super delivery, it was an army.

But it really helped drive recognition and appreciation for what these incredible people do every single hour and the risk they pose.

I mean, they're, you know, streets traffic, unhappy consumers at times, and they just keep doing what they do.

And we have so much to be grateful for.

And I'm glad this is the first time that this week has hit my radar, but it can never.

We should be doing this a thousand years ago.

So I'm very, very appreciative and great to have both of y' all share your examples and favorite delivery moments.

Okay, so Guy and Marty, we've got a lot to get into here today on the Buzz, powered by our friends at Auto Scheduler.

And we're going to start with.

Yeah, more, more concerns.

There's plenty of them.

Huh?

Let's see here.

We're gonna start with energy concerns that leaders have across the supply chain ecosystem.

Now, as reported here by Supply Chain Dive, the good folks over at Prologis surveyed over 1800 global executives this past August, right.

On a wide variety of topics.

I'm gonna cherry pick a few here.

Prologis says that supply chains are going through the biggest reset in a generation fueled by three critical factors.

Energy reliability, AI and location.

Of all those industry executives surveyed, nine out of 10 said they experienced energy related disruptions in the last year.

And 83% say that power reliability will drive the next major supply chain crisis.

About 75% said power requirements at their facilities will increase by 10 to 50% over the next five years.

And you all know the likely culprit for that, right?

It's wonderful to see the great, incredible things that AI is doing out in industry, but man, it takes real power to make it happen.

So AI, energy requirements, a big factor.

Guy, your comments on these survey results.

Energy, you name it.

Yeah, not surprising, Scott, you know, you, you just, you hit the nail on the head, I think, when it comes to power across the board, let alone in supply chain.

But in everyday business, right, AI is a big culprit.

There's some interesting articles that come out recently, not even that recently, but from Alphabet, Facebook, etc, who have basically taken all their ESG initiatives and threw them out the window.

Why?

Because of their AI initiatives.

And AI is eating the world from the perspective of power and electricity.

So what I always tell people when I talk about AI too is to think about that sort of unintended consequences of when you go into ChatGPT or Cloud or whatever and you ask it, oh, like rewrite this memo for me.

And you're like, oh, it's so great and such a great tool.

And it is.

But think about what are the consequences that we're driving by using or relying on AI at some level when really we should be doing some of this with the supercomputer between our ears.

And I think that's only going to become more and more of an issue across supply chain and our businesses.

So.

You know, in that article too you mentioned, Scott, like the first two are connected power and AI and I think, you know, as we become more and more digital as well, you know, that's requiring electricity as we start looking to harness and harvest more data from our supply chains, that is really asking for a digitization, which is electrical, which means it's power, etc.

And I think that's the part that, you know, as we move forward with this, we really do have to consider what is this impact going to have on our environment, on our power grid, on our usage.

And let's face it, our power grid was not built, you know, to run supercomputers 24,7 to figure out through Gronk, like how to write a better memo.

So much there to comment on.

Marty, before I invite you to share your perspective, I just want to lay out.

That's a great final point, folks.

We already had infrastructure challenges, including the power grid before the golden age.

That's such a great call out.

Marty, your thoughts on these findings and just your thoughts in general?

Yeah, so.

And I'd add robotics, IOT and all the other stuff that are putting pressure.

I don't know, I'm optimistic for a strange reason.

You know, there's a lot of that same technology that's helping us figure out how to do better.

Nuclear power, potentially fusion power, all the green power, things that are getting better and better.

So, you know, I saw an article, that terrible 1972 movie that terrified us all about nuclear power.

That movie not come out.

And we had continued on our path with nuclear, we probably wouldn't be talking about climate change challenges.

So, you know, as long as we're thinking about the technology for generating energy in the same way and applying those tools to that, better, we might catch up and figure it out.

There might be a period where it's a little scary, but I don't know, optimistic about our ability to do that.

I like that.

I am also practically optimistic.

But it sounds like all three of us are also grounded in the current reality.

But Marty, you make a great comment.

Because the same technology that's powering innovation everywhere else that's using more energy is the same innovative technology that energy industry will be using to find new efficiencies and hopefully infrastructure gains.

And I want to mention this.

So Jeff Bezos, his crystal ball has been pretty good, huh?

He projects that in the next 15 to 20 years that there will be solar powered megawatt data center in low Earth orbit that will run 24, 7, of course, powered by the sun.

That is an intriguing thought that here in the modern space age that we're in Space economy.

If we could figure out the anti collision technology which we're going to need in space before people put a trillion dollar data center up there, we can figure that out.

I could really see major, major potential that might offload some of the growing demand, which I believe one group, I can't remember the name, which group is International Energy Commission, I think, anyway, they're projecting that just in the next three, four years that global electricity demands rise 4%, which basically is how much electricity Japan uses in a full year.

So we're basically getting all of that demand onto the current global infrastructure.

Wow.

All right, Guy and Marty, I like how both of y' all think very practically and optimistically.

I'm going to take a hard left turn here.

Y' all ready?

Hang on to your socks and your hats because we're, we're talking softer stuff here.

We're talking about the holiday season and it's tough to believe we're in mid October.

That's crazy to me.

So how much money will Americans be spending online for the holiday season?

Well, as reported by cnbc, more than last year.

But the overall growth rate is going to decrease quite a bit.

Data by Adobe analytics says that US consumers are expected to spend 253.4, don't forget that, $4 billion this year online for the holiday season.

Now that's a jump of 5.3% over last year's numbers, which you think is good.

Right.

But it's considerably below the 8.7 jump from the previous year over year.

Right.

And it's far below the 10 year average of 13% growth each year.

Now in the water is wet category, consumers are said from the data are said to be looking for deals.

Is that ever not the case?

Right Guy, what do you see?

What does your crystal ball see?

And will the Caton household be spending more than last year online?

I think we always do.

I think to your point, Scott, like the Kota household sometimes gets one or two deliveries a day from our friends at Amazon or whatever else we go to.

So maybe we're the wrong household to survey on this one.

But I think the numbers are interesting.

Marty mentioned it in the beginning talking about the tariffs where the tariffs, you know, the three of us here I think are already confused by them and we live in supply chain so we already have an understanding of how this impacts business the most.

Like that.

I'll pick my mother.

My mother will not understand as much and I think the majority of those out there are going to read headlines around tariffs and that's going to pull back discretionary spending.

We're already seeing that and we're seeing the prices or the cost of things like eggs and groceries have not come down as much as we were promised they would.

So I think you combine all those together and now all of a sudden you're going to see sort of a pullback and discretionary.

I think that consumers are looking for deals.

Like you said, that's like saying water is wet.

I think unfortunately, or fortunately or what have you, speaking as a consumer, it's great.

But speaking from the retail perspective, right, they've kind of harmed themselves with having just massive discounts and sales on a regular basis.

I've spoken about this at length and over the time is, you know, in the past we always had, okay, like you're going to have your holiday season, then you have your post holiday sort of sales to flush out inventory and then you might have a couple more sales throughout the year.

Now it feels like every week someone, some retailers having some massive sale.

And of course it's been driven by like Singles day in China, by Amazon Prime Day.

I remember way back when when Old Navy had dollar flip flop day, which drove massive Sal Navy.

Right.

So this mindset for us as consumers has been entrenched.

Unfortunately, you know, that genie is out of the bottle.

So retailers have sort of done themselves a disservice and now we're seeing in the numbers.

So you add that to the fact that I think discretionary spending is going to be pulled back.

There's a lot of, as Marty mentioned, a lot of confusion and unknowns.

What about these tariffs?

What does that mean?

Are they on today, are they off tomorrow?

Are they at 100%?

Are they at 20%?

Are they being pulled back?

Oh, well, for these retailers are.

Okay?

So I think the confusion is going to create a situation where the average consumer is going to say, you know what?

And I think to some degree we see this with B2B as well.

We've got money, we're going to hold on the sidelines for a while before we figure out what's really going on.

And I think we're going to see that in this holiday season.

And unfortunately, I don't see the end of it.

Right.

It's going to bleed over to 20, 26 and then we're going to see it around things like Valentine's day, Easter, right, etc.

So I think this is unfortunately the trend for the near term.

Okay.

We need a good practical dose of pessimism as well.

But I would largely agree with you Guy and Marty, he mentioned some of your earlier thoughts various times in his response.

What about you?

What are you seeing, Marty?

Talk about pessimistic.

My daughters have asked for LASIK surgery and a robotic automated cat litter cleaner thing.

And for, you know, what we usually do is hey, we just stretch that out over a bunch of Christmases, which of course never happens.

All I want is a humble Labubu.

That was all I want.

I did the, you know, I did the labubu thing on UGA's channel.

Turns out it was a Levit.

I want a little, I want a real Labubu and somebody needs to find one for me.

I'm going to send this to my kids so they know what to get.

And of course they think I've lost my mind.

You know, it's interesting going back to one of the points that Guy made, smearing on steroids, right?

Rather than having, you know, all the big deals and the, and a major volume in a month or six weeks or whatever yet smearing effect which is just spread those discounts, those sales year round.

It's a great call out.

And Marty, I'm going to get your gift wish list.

All right, next up, another left hand turn.

We're going to be talking automotive now, folks.

Semaphore.

I'm not sure if it's on your radar, but it's still relatively new digital media platform and it's become one of my favorites in the last year or two.

And this is a great piece that illustrates why I think they do a lot of great reporting, accurate reporting and interesting and timely reporting.

So this is a great interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley as shared by good folks over at Semaphore.

One of Farley's main messages, he's on a mission to spread that we have really disrupted our essential economy here in the U.S. now he defines that economy as quote, everything we build, move and fix.

Farley points to workforce shortages, tons of needless bureaucracy and worsening productivity.

Now I should point out Farley and Ford also want to sell a whole bunch more trucks, vans and commercial vehicles that the essential economy requires.

Right?

But that disclaimer aside, Jim Farley says his four dealerships get this, they have a 6,000 person shortage of technicians in their service departments.

Wow.

That doesn't surprise me a bit though because as it be the trades or manufacturing or warehousing, we've got a lot to do in order to do a better job of communicating the opportunities there.

And as we also all know, the workforce challenges is what's driving a lot of the automation.

So, guy, your thoughts on Jim Farley's message?

And there's a lot more to this interview, folks.

Go check it out.

The essential economy and some of those challenges there.

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

You know, 6,000 technician shortage, I think that's a massive number.

But we see that across the board.

I mean, I think in logistics, right?

I think the last I saw around, you know, shortage for truckers is in the, on the hundreds of thousands in terms of the shortage.

And we can argue a lot of different things.

Why is that?

Is it because it's not enough labor?

Is it because some of the regulations make it harder for more and more truckers?

So I think that's absolutely essential.

And at the end of the day, you know, the economy is still driven by people, still driven by labor.

Labor being there at all levels, right from the very top, all the way down to all through the organization and manufacturing, distribution, etc.

So I think from that perspective, you know, this is really telling.

And you know, I think part of it too, some of the actions that are happening today with around labor, I think puts more strain on that with regards to where we find good workers, we find people we can train.

And I will say, touching upon automation, I think sometimes the C suite looks at automation and robotics is sort of a panacea that, oh, well, we're not going to be able to hire people.

Let's just go out, buy a bunch of robots, not realizing that those robots might not necessarily A, be able to do the job or B, might not be able to do the job without labor.

Right.

Robot's still a tool that has to work alongside labor at some level to accomplish the goal.

So I think those are things we need to think about and I'll take a positive spin on it.

I think what this shows is that there is still a lot of jobs available out there.

There's a lot of opportunity.

I think the question is from a supply chain perspective, from an employment perspective is how do we A, promot these opportunities to people, then B, how do we train the people for the jobs and then C, how do we ensure those people have sort of a career path within the, the chosen field?

They have to go from point A to B to C. And I think those are things that sometimes we fall short on.

And I think that's an opportunity for us as here in North America, to start doing a better job with.

And I, I will also say, like automation is not the panacea, it's just another tool to help, but it's not going to replace some of this labor.

That's right, guy.

Excellent perspective as always.

The right tool at the right time for the right problem that's well defined, that has a strong business case.

Great point.

Marty, your thoughts here on this interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley via semaphore.

Yeah, so I see the problems he's talking about, and one solution.

I was recently at King Swine's supplier summit, and we were at their new Grillo's factory in Columbus, Ohio, with the government officials that sort of help pave the way and coordinate all the resources and so, you know, solving labor shortages.

Companies aren't going to do that and government isn't going to do that by itself.

So I think there's a coordination issue there.

I teach my students that, hey, I'm a capitalist, but capitalism never built a bridge and never build a road and never build a port.

And so we are going to need more students that are going into things like trade schools, which I know the Trump administration has been emphasizing, and we're.

But it's going to need to be coordinated effort with, you know, industry and government.

And right now it just seems like we hate each other, you know, and so it was really nice to go to Kings Hawaiian and meet these officials that love a private company and the private company love them, and they want to sort of work together on these things.

Marty, good stuff there.

And by the way, King's Hawaiian Ghee, have you ever had on those King Hawaiian rolls?

Oh, my gosh, we're gonna have to.

And Marty, how come we didn't get any samples?

I. I was about to say, like you could.

I'll give you my address if, you know, you know, some.

Ship me a box of Kings Hawaiian.

I. I'll gladly take it.

I have some of their super secret little bites, you know, they're coming out with.

Do you know the ones I'm talking about?

The little pretzel bites?

No, but it sounds delicious.

Yeah, they're King's Hawaiian.

Sweet.

But they've got little leprechauns that glue salt on the outside of them.

They're phenomenal.

They're hard to find.

Well, they're coming out with a new one that is a jalapeno version and a cinnamon roll.

They are the bomb.

And they can't keep them in stock.

They're out of capacity.

Wow.

Okay, well, so I hope we.

I'll try to find you some.

Scott, please do indeed.

Be hard to get to Boston, but next time I see you Scott, I'll try to get you some.

And you know what, who knows, we may bring their fearless supply chain leader on a future show.

We shall see.

But Marty, sounds like a great experience up there at Kings Hawaiian.

And I love any event where the supply chain ecosystem can get together and deepen those relationships, exchange, you know, perspective and ideas, you name it.

Very valuable events.

Let's see here.

I've got a quick resource I want to share, but before I do, one of our favorites is here with us, T Squared, who holds down the fort for us on YouTube.

It's going back to the delivery driver conversation we're having.

And he says an informed and burned customer is a dangerous customer.

Reviews with facts are doing a number on a bunch of businesses, especially with how packages are being delivered.

And he says hello, FedEx, UPS, USPS, T squared.

Hope finds you well up there in Baltimore and keep the good stuff coming.

Okay, resources folks, as we move right along.

You know we love sharing trusted resources.

Big news from our friends at auto scheduler Keith Moore and the team rolled out.

Get this, a free warehouse agent.

And it's available to any and all.

If you want help forecasting labor against demand or analyzing load boards and thinking through labor shifts or drafting comms for carriers or crunching numbers, analyzing data, all that stuff.

Maybe picking the Falcon score tonight, as Marty says, it's gonna be 24, 21 with an Atlanta win.

Whatever the case, use the warehouse decision agent for free.

Do all of that in minutes, maybe even seconds rather than days.

You can learn more at via that QR code there or the link we're dropping in the comments.

Okay, guy, this next segment, I'm looking forward to picking your brain and getting Marty's thoughts on your perspective.

Here we're dialing in on messages, ideas, innovation and perspective you've been sharing with industry leadership all year long.

I want to start with this.

Lots of complexity.

Oh my gosh, tons of complexity, new complexity and exciting complexity.

It comes with growth.

And then of course, a lot of not so much fun complexity.

It comes with some of the many of the challenges out there across global supply chain.

And sometimes it's a complexity we create on our own.

So why and how does all this complexity kill clarity, which of course is so critical to growth and improvement.

Your thoughts, Keith?

You know, it's a really interesting question and I'm sure Marty can speak to this.

I think we could write a PhD dissertation on this, if not more so for the sake of time.

The complexity comes in large part, I think, when you think about Complexity, it comes from, unfortunately, from the people within it.

And we make things more complex because we feel like we have to.

And I think sometimes we make things more complex because, well, we have to create all kinds of systems, checks and balances because, you know, part of it is a fear of what if something wrong happens and we have no one to sort of look at and say what happened?

I do think, and I think we only amplify this when it comes to our supply chains.

Why?

Because now you're having multiple systems and networks that are tying to other networks and systems.

So it only just becomes a bigger and bigger issue.

I do think from a positive perspective where I look at complexity, sometimes it's about communication and a lot of times about communication, right.

If we play sort of the old, you know, beer game and supply chain, you see the complexity arises because we don't have a good clear communication between different nodes.

So to me, I think as we're becoming more digital, as we become more cyber, if you will, and we exchange data in a more clear way now, that's still long ways away.

I certainly don't mean to say it's.

It's already here, right.

My goal or my belief is that that complexity will start to get flushed out of the system a bit because instead of playing the telephone game or instead of assuming something, we'll have communication of visibility into the network to understand.

You know, I asked my supplier for 15 widgets and they only have capacity for 10, but they promise 15.

But I can see in the system, because I have good clean data, that they can only provide me 10.

So instead of me having an issue after the fact when they don't deliver, I can go to my secondary supplier and make up that difference.

And again, that.

Removing that, that unknown, that fog of war, if you will, which then leads to complexity, in my opinion, I think is going to help that.

Now the personal people side, like people trying to add more layers, that's going to be hard to break.

I think that's just human nature, unfortunately.

But again, with better communication, better data, better visibility, I think we're going to start to bring down some of the complexity.

Are we going to eliminate it completely?

Absolutely not.

But it's really sort of.

To me, I think that's the promising part of all this, is that as we become more digital, as we become more, more transparent with one another within a system, we'll have less complexity.

We might have other issues, but I think the complexity side, because of visibility will start to go away.

What's old is new.

Again, right.

Communication, Communication, communication.

And even in this golden age of supply chain tech is still a great challenge.

Marty, your thoughts on what we heard there from gi?

Yeah, just to follow a little bit of what Guy was talking about.

We get in our own way.

And so I'll go into companies and sales and marketing hate each other.

And sales and marketing don't like supply chain and operations and accounting doesn't want to pay expense reports.

And I've been in a 12 person company once that was siloed.

Those are things that we as people create ourselves.

So we got to get out of our own way and not allow sort of poor leadership practices.

I'll just give an example with Texas.

And I know a company that was struggling with, with the use of it.

And it was as if the Incredible Hulk had taken all of their materials, thrown them up in the air and then just let them land randomly in the warehouse.

And it was a pick and pack.

And I'm like, are you kidding me?

I just followed a forklift and driving miles and miles and miles and miles every day for no reason.

That is self imposed complexity.

So a lot of times, you know, it's no knock on Jim Farley, but we're looking outside to sort of blame other things and other people.

When most companies I go into, there's plenty of opportunity to get out of Runway.

Outstanding, Marty.

And most folks don't know that the Hulk was a demand planner early in his career.

And secondly, you know, there's an old phrase and it's cliche, everybody knows it out there.

But it's so apropos with all the complexity and all the big challenges outside of our control.

Out in industry, we got to keep the simple stuff simple.

And that's kind of one of the points both of you all making different takes on.

But it's so easy.

Marty, that 12 person company with big old silos, that is such a great example.

And we do it to ourselves.

Stop doing that.

We gotta stop doing that.

Okay.

Sorry.

I was gonna say Scott.

One thing to Marty's point, like I've dealt with companies where you literally have the CEO who has to approve every PO.

It might be a $20 PO for a magazine subscription to a 2 million dollar spend.

Got it.

But $20, seriously?

Or in other cases, I know a CEO when, you know, they go away on holiday in the, on the summer, which is great, good for them.

But they're like, I have to prove every PO and everything else, but I'm not going to communicate because I'm on vacation.

It's like, well, wait a minute, like how are you gonna have your business run if yes, you want that control, but then you're not creating a system to allow things to happen because you're on holiday.

Like to your point, Marty, like a lot of this is self inflicted and it's frustrating to see because you realize from the outside, guys, guys and gals, seriously, like if you just talked, you would figure this out in two seconds.

What are we doing here?

That's the question we all gotta be asking, right?

In these kind of situations.

So a mantra that I have used for a long time that I stole, I'll keep it real here.

I stole it from my dear friend Ray.

I in fact wrote that yellow book right there.

Simplify, standardize, automate.

Simplify, standardize, automate.

It's mantra that I've used and I've tried to live and lead by for a decade or two, right?

Not just I try to practice what I preach.

What's your take on the critical things that we've got to do?

Kind of along the lines of that mantra before we automate your thoughts?

I think that mantra is, you know, the two terms before automate are spot on.

You know, I think automation at times, as I mentioned earlier, is seen as sort of a panacea.

Like, well, let's just automate everything.

Let's bring robots in, let's, let's bring an AI and do everything through, you know, the ghost in the machine, so to speak.

Without realizing that, wait a minute, we've got to boil it down to what is the fundamental problem we're trying to solve, right?

How do we simplify this?

And yes, there are big problems, but then there are smaller problems that make up that big problem.

So how can we isolate those and figure out what are the tools and what are the processes we can take to solve those problems?

And I think that's the sort of the way we need to approach this.

I see too often, you know, if we look at automation and we look at robotics in the warehouse, I've come across way too many situations where I get told, well, we just want robots.

And then I asked the second question, which is, well, why?

And then you get that sort of blank look on them and it's like, well, everybody else is doing it, so we should do it too.

And it's like, well, that's the wrong answer.

You know, we need to understand what are you trying to solve within your warehouse.

Is it a picking issue?

Is it a put away issue, Is it a cycle count issue?

Is it Just a point to point movement issue.

You know, where is the bottleneck and what's happening?

And then let's try to isolate that, let's simplify it and let's try to solve it.

And then if automation is the right answer, fantastic.

Maybe it's not.

Maybe it's just a process issue, maybe it's a personnel issue, maybe you're sliding your warehouse improperly.

So I think to some degree that mantra is spot on.

Because before you start automating, automating is a tool, right?

It's a tool.

It's like saying, hey, I, I need AI.

And it's like, well, what are you trying to solve?

Or you know, I, I have a great cartoon I think, Scott, that you shared with me, right, where it's like someone standing with a hammer, it says I found the solution to our problem, but the problem is all a bunch of screws.

So it's like, wait a minute, like I need a screwdriver, not a hammer.

So I think that's the same problem here.

The question again, the issue though, back to what Marty said earlier, sometimes it's self inflicted, right?

It's like we get wrapped around the axle and I've seen this a million times.

You know, I worked at Forester late 90s during the dot com boom.

And I remember companies coming in saying we want a website and do E commerce.

And I'd be like, well, why?

Well, because Amazon's doing it.

Yeah, but you sell water like you literally are in the water purveyor, like you're, you're shipping bottles of water.

Ecom is not for you do.

Yeah, but we're gonna do it.

And it's like, okay, like it's your money.

But I think that's the problem.

Sometimes we get in our own way as opposed to having those conversations about what's the problem we're trying to solve.

Are there sub problems?

What are the solutions available?

Automation may be one of them, but maybe there's other solutions that aren't as sexy but are going to get you the right place faster and more efficiently.

And a lot of times maybe even cheaper and even cheaper and with less, less of a friction issue or adoption issue or whatever.

Marty, I'll tell you, industry needs to hear Guy's last response to that question and embrace it.

Because we see so much of that shiny object syndrome where business leaders, they see AI doing all this stuff.

We just got to have it, invest it and throw it over the fence and aggravate the heck out of your team.

And also not Getting results.

But Marty, your thoughts here?

Yeah, I go all the way back, believe it or not, to company strategy.

A lot of companies don't even understand what kind of company they are.

I teach a simple model.

You know, are you an innovator, a customer centric company, or a cost leader?

The supply chain of Spirit Air and Delta aren't the same.

The supply chain of Walmart and Lululemon aren't the same.

And so many companies don't even understand ultimately what they're trying to accomplish because they haven't gotten that out.

And then I use an ancient tool, Pareto, ancient.

In the lean world, I tell people that's the most important tool.

Work on the things that matter.

We work on so many things that, that don't matter.

And by matter, I mean win in the marketplace, make money in the marketplace, and they just forget that.

And so ultimately, as a coo, I'd be asking, well, how does that robot help me make money?

What checks am I not going to be cutting or how much more revenue am I going to make?

And if you can't go back to the strategy now, there may be a customer centric strategy and a metric around that, but eventually that leads to revenue.

Right.

And higher gross margins and things like that.

So my biggest thing is even companies understanding what they do and making sure their people understand that as they're making these kinds of decisions.

Billion dollar advice.

That's right.

And gosh, when you help your teams see the strategies and the bigger picture, I'll tell you, you're going to be blown away with some of the ideas they're going to come back with.

But you mentioned Pareto, named after Vilfredo Pareto, the famed Italian economist, mathematician, and many, many other things.

I wonder if he knew hundreds of years ago that his name would still be relevant and tied to a fundamental business principle that's still very valid, you know, generations later.

I'm kind of curious, is there a Luton Law out there that's gonna be sticking in a few decades?

I am no mathematician, so maybe not.

But anyway.

All right, so let's do this.

Guy and Marty, there are quite a one, two punch here.

I feel like I'm getting at least an associate's degree, if not a four year degree from our conversation here today.

But I want to shift gears here actually before we take a peer into the supply chain.

Dogs.

Supply chain guy, really quick, what are some of the cool things that you and the team over at Texas have been up to?

You know, there's a lot of things we're working on.

But I think some of the really exciting stuff more recently is focusing on within the healthcare side.

They're like pharmacy.

And I think this is really interesting supply chain challenge because I think the pharmacy supply chain is fundamentally shifting from what it was, you know, five, six, seven, 10 years ago.

And I think the problems, not the problems, but the opportunities we're seeing is to some degree pharmacy is starting to cross over into what retail is, which is we as consumers now expect to be able to get prescriptions when we want, delivered to our home, fulfilled the way we want.

And that's putting a lot of pressure on the pharmacy supply chain to understand how to respond to that.

So that's one area that I think there's a lot of really interesting work going on that we're in the midst of.

And I'm really excited about that because it's a space where supply chain to some degree took a back seat.

You know, supply chain was always, yes, from the manufacturing side, important, but to that last mile, I mean, you mentioned it, Scott, right.

This is, this is a last mile delivery week.

And I think that's one area where you're going to see a lot more innovation, if you will, and a lot of challenges because of course, you know, shipping a T shirt to someone's home is very different than shipping a narcotic.

But I think we're going to solve that problem and that's, that's something that I'm really excited about as we look forward.

I am too.

Because we've got to a problem, we've got to continue to innovate for so many different reasons.

All right, so Marty and Ghee Marty, we're going with you next.

And G again, thanks for being here.

Really appreciate what you and the Texas team are up to.

Helping to make industry much, much more successful by solving a lot of complexity out there.

But you mentioned healthcare and I gotta mention what Regine Vallee shared with us a couple months back.

She is the chief supply chain officer and much, much more at Ochsner Health down in New Orleans.

And she's a really a trailblazer and pioneer that was doing some really cool things prior to the pandemic when the world was changing that folks didn't think healthcare supply chains could do.

Fascinating individual and a dear friend.

But we were asking her, you know, as a pioneering leader, how can others, how can the rest of us kind of unleash our pioneer earning leadership skills?

And one of the many things she shared with us and maybe drop the replay in the chat is you said to regularly ask two questions.

Number one, every day, what if.

Fill in the blank.

Blank.

What if every day.

And number two, which I found even more intriguing.

Why not?

Why not me?

And that, I think, factors on a couple different levels, including what we think we're capable of.

So, folks, go check out that replay.

Regine is, is a hall of fame material.

Okay, Marty, I've got a little picture here.

One of my favorite pictures of Marty and just a portion of his big ecosystem.

Look at those smiles as bright individuals that are about to go do big things already are doing big things in industry.

And I'm not sure which ugg of this is Marty.

I know there's a whole lineage there, but I felt compelled.

The Georgia Bulldog with the supply chain dogs.

So, Marty, given all of your work with the NOW generation and all these supply chain dogs and army of them, you're creating, what's one key observation as it relates to students this academic year, as we're about a month and a.

Half in, so I often get the question about this generation, and I find them extraordinary.

They have access to things that Scott, you know, when we were kids, we could only dream about, and they're curious.

They start businesses.

They love solving, you know, challenging problems.

And, you know, I learn a lot from them.

And the big one right now, of course, is generative AI.

We talk about a lot.

I'm trying to teach them really simple things like note taking in meetings.

As an example.

I tell the students, look, you know, as a coo, if people could have cut my meetings in half, that would have changed my life because I was in meetings all day long.

So I tell students, look, use these tools, use these techniques in terms of creating agendas and meeting minutes and those kind of things, but they are great.

They're learning how to use the latest and greatest, how to apply it to solve great problems.

I had one that launched a business and it will take your syllabus.

You just take pictures of your syllabus and it'll create your schedule.

You don't have to think about it at all.

And they're just coming up with stuff like that all the time.

And I'm, I'm just really happy and excited about what's coming.

I am, too.

And folks, if you're not playing around with, with all the various AI platforms out there, including auto schedulers, offer man, experiment with it, put it, get it in the skunk work, see what breakthroughs you may unlock.

Guy, really quick, your response to what you heard there from Marty.

You know, I'm always interested.

I will unfortunately mention Marty arrival school of yours, but I remember going to University of Tennessee a lot and talking to their supply chain, you know, undergrads and graduates.

And it was, you know, eye opening.

To your point, you know, if you ask the young GI or even the college age gi, like what he wanted to do, I don't think Supply chain made the top hundred.

I don't even know if I could spell supply chain if you gave me all the letters at the time.

So I think from that perspective, the fact that supply chain has become, you know, an academic discipline, I think is fantastic.

I think it's absolutely necessary in the end of the day, when I look at the world we live in, you know, as digital as it becomes, at the end of the day, it's still about moving physical objects from point A to point B, whether it's B2B or B2C.

So the more of these, you know, younger generations that get involved in supply chain early on and to your point, Marty sort of of embrace it in the technologies and start doing new interesting things.

I think that that's really, that's great for our, for business, for society, for the world we live in.

Because like I said, you know, part of it too.

I kind of joke during the pandemic is the first time my mom actually told me she understood what I did because when there was no toilet paper in the grocery store, she was like, oh, okay.

That's what supply chain does.

So, you know, I think the more and more students we get involved and that are entrepreneurial and thinking, it's, it's fantastic.

So the future I think is bright.

Great.

And like I mentioned, you know, other great schools like Georgia, University of Tennessee here in Boston, Northeastern and others are really doing a great job pushing this agenda and I think it's time is due, right?

We should have done this years and years ago.

Gee, so true.

And along those same lines, big tip of the hat to great practitioners like Marty that take on roles with these schools and help the light bulbs go off with these incredibly talented, bright young people.

So Marty really appreciate what you do.

And I think it's.

And you can tell that Marty loves what he does.

I mean, every time he talks about what he does at uga, he's beaming and I love that.

Okay, we're gonna have a fast and furious finish, folks.

Let's start Geekaton with Texas.

How can folks connect with you guy?

Absolutely.

So really easily through LinkedIn.

So first name, last name, pretty easy to find.

Otherwise go to our Texas website Texas, not the state but the company.

So tecsys.com and by all means please do reach out.

I'm pretty active on LinkedIn so always happy to connect connect with new friends.

Outstanding.

We dropped GI's LinkedIn URL right there as we try to make it really easy.

Marty, I got a two part question for you.

First off, T squared says you're creating a good good monster at the mentioning of anything Kings Hawaiian.

So T squared we're going to have to talk a lot more about those delicious products.

Marty, what was your one of your favorite things and patent key takeaways from today's conversation here on the Buzz Powered by Auto Scheduler.

And secondly how can folks connect with you?

So key takeaway to me is pretty easy.

There are all kinds of headwinds and challenges and difficulties in supply chain these days but the future is bright.

We have amazing tools like Auto Scheduler AI and Generative AI and the bright young people that are curious wanting to learn and make it better and so get out of your own way, be a great leader, solve the problems you have internally before you start blaming everything on the outside.

But at the end of the day I really think think it's a great time for supply chain and it's got a really really bright future and we're going to figure all these things out.

Undoubtedly.

Marty, I love your almost daily leadership moments that you drop across social, especially LinkedIn.

Is that the best place for folks to connect with you?

Yeah.

Marty Parker on LinkedIn.

Marty Parker UGA There's a bunch of different ways to reach me.

Outstanding folks are dropping Marty's URL right there in the chat.

Make sure you connect and follow both Geek and Marnie.

And also hey, we try to make things easy.

That's one of the themes here today.

You can find Texas right there on the URL as well.

And one final plug folks.

Be sure you go check out Auto Schedulers warehouse decision agent, mess around with it, give us some feedback, let us know what it might unlock for you.

If you got any other feedback, we'll take it.

But check that out.

Okay.

Big thanks today man.

What a great episode.

I knew it was going to be.

It surpassed all my expectations.

Guy and Marty Geek attorne with Texas Keith.

Thanks so much for being here my friend Scott.

Appreciate it Marty, thank you so much.

Always enjoy these conversations.

I do too.

I look forward to seeing you at several industry events out there as you keynote and help educate and inform the industry.

Big thanks to my esteemed co host Marty Parker.

The one and only.

Marty, great to have you here today.

Thrilled to be here.

Learned so much and great to see you be and thanks for having me, Scott.

You bet.

And I kept looking for Micah, Freddy and even Georgia to make an appearance, but all of them, all those pets were sequestered unfortunately today.

So maybe the next episode of the Buzz.

Big thanks to Amanda Trisha behind the scenes and make production happen seamlessly every single day.

And most importantly, big thanks to our global audience for being here.

I know we couldn't hit everybody's comment or question, but really appreciate the smartest audience novel global Supply Chain and what you do each and every day, folks.

Hope you enjoyed the show today.

The challenge though, you got to take one thing.

Ghee and Marty brought it and then some.

Take one thing they shared.

Share it with your team.

Put into practice deeds, not words.

That's how we're going to continue to transform global supply chain and leave no one behind.

With all that said, on behalf of the entire supply Chain now team Scott Luton challenging you.

Do good, get forward.

Be the change that's needed.

We'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now.

Thanks everybody.

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