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Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.

Hey, hey.

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

Scott Luton and Tandria Bellamy with you here on Supply Chain now.

Welcome to today's live stream.

Hey, Tindra, how you doing today?

I'm great, Scott, and it's great to see you again.

You as well.

We've been busy lately, huh?

Yes, we have.

But there's no better way to be even here year end, which is a wonderful time to reflect back on the incredible year that it was, as well as break out your crystal ball to see what we can project for 2025.

Some of that stuff may come up later today, but great to have you here with us as always, Tandrium.

So, folks, you all know us.

Every Monday it's the Buzz, where from 12 noon to about 1pm Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news and developments across global supply chain and business.

Andrew, we got some good stuff to get into, from interesting current trends in the US Warehousing industry to the latest on quantum computing to new Chinese export restrictions and how business leaders can best position their organizations to effectively leverage AI because for many, the struggle is real.

Ain't that right, Tandria?

Yes, it is.

This is going to be a very thought provoking episode and I'm glad to be doing this with you.

Oh, man, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

Lots and lots of thoughts provoked.

So all of that and more because about 12:20pm Eastern time, we've got a very special guest joining us, Mr.

Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exeter.

He's gonna be stopping by to share his perspective, so stay tuned for that as well.

All right, two things, folks.

Before we get started, give us your take in the comments.

We'd love to see them.

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 your friend and your network.

They'll be glad you did.

Okay, let's start with some resources.

Tandrea.

You know we like to help make the journey a little bit easier for our global audience and friends out there.

Right.

We just dropped our almost weekly newsletter with that said over the weekend.

Now this edition was sponsored by our friends at Vector Global Logistics Tandra, you know Enrique Alvarez and the gang over there, right?

Yes, sir.

So we touched on their good work supporting the homeless World Cup.

So check that out, folks.

We also feature perspectives from some of our faves across our ecosystem.

Hey, get this.

I love this quote from our friend Mr.

Supply Chain, Daniel Stanton.

He shared with me a week or two ago.

He goes, quote, I like to tell people that free returns and free shipping happen to live in the same neighborhood with Santa Claus, Bigfoot, and the Eastern bunny.

End quote.

So true.

There's a cost to somebody, folks.

We also shared a few bold predictions from the likes of Helen Yu and Theo Lao, in particular, Tanjira.

Get this.

I liked Helen's prediction of nuclear power data centers as early as next year.

Now, I think nuclear power is entering a whole new era in the months ahead.

And that's good to know because the demand for data storage and processing is off the charts, isn't it, Tandrea?

It is.

And you know, as we had on our most recent podcast, being able to effectively take that data and turn it into useful information as a resource that more and more and more companies are getting to understand how important it is.

That's right.

We're going to touch on that webinar discussion towards the end of today's session.

It's a great call out to Andrea.

So all of that, plus tons of resources, live shows, and a whole bunch more, including some great opportunities to check out some of our on demand programming.

So check out.

With that said, let us know what you think.

And look at that image right there, Tandrea.

That person struck me as pondering the future a bit, which is kind of one of the themes.

So maybe she's on a beach somewhere, staring at a gorgeous no artificial light sky, and that triggers kind of going back to your thought that provokes lots of thoughts, right?

As we think about what's to come.

Folks, we're dropping a link to.

With that said right there in the chat, you're one click away from checking out.

Of course, you ought to think about subscribing so you get it delivered to your door each and every weekend.

Okay, I mentioned events.

Tandria, when's the last time you went out to Vegas?

Tandria Bellamy, Last July.

Okay.

Did you bet the Farm on Red 19 on the Roulette table?

You know me better than Aska.

Yeah, I do.

I do.

And I never bet the farm.

But folks, Red 19, I'm telling you, you want some lucky advice.

That is my all the lucky gambling advice I can offer you.

Here today, but I'm going to be back in Vegas to test that advice in February 2025 for Manifest.

And folks, this has become a rock and roll conference.

I'm hosting an incredible panel right here focused on unlocking true end to end visibility, a key to exception based planning success.

So if you're there, give me a shout.

And if you're not, you ought to check out via the link right there.

We got in the comments.

I'm moving right along.

Folks, we'd love for you to check out this nonprofit initiative that we are proud to support.

So elevate our kids as a nonprofit organization on a mission to close the digital divide here in the US now we know it's a global issue, right?

But they're hard at work solving it here in United States.

It's been estimated, get this Tandrea, that up to 25 million kids either don't have access to the Internet or they lack the electronic devices to use to learn, connect and grow.

300 bucks, folks.

If you donate 300 bucks, e okay.

They'll provide a laptop and Internet access for a family in need.

We're dropping the link to check that out right there.

We've got friends in this vetted non profit and doing great work.

And folks, if you don't have 300 bucks, I get it.

5 bucks, 10 bucks.

We'll take it.

Y'all check it out and we invite you to join our noble mission.

Tandria the digital divide.

Very real.

And our friend Corai Kozay was with us a few weeks ago and he really called something out I didn't really think about because that digital divide term has been around a long time.

But with the divide here today, for folks that don't have access, they are falling so much further behind than say even a couple years ago.

Do you agree with that, Tandra?

100%.

And it really became more evident, of course during the pandemic.

But the number of kids that were just been disassociated with school and how far they got behind.

But since the pandemic, whenever there's a weather event, if there's power outages, what have you, schools now will take and have and just pivot to remote days.

We know how difficult it is here when we have ice, schools pivot to remote days.

So even though we are back live in school, kids who don't have access are still falling behind.

Now so many of the textbooks are digital.

So if they can't access those books or can't access homework, it just again makes it very difficult to catch up.

So what's being done is extremely important.

And Tangeria, well said.

Well said my friend.

Folks, if it's not elevate our kids, you know, there's other non great nonprofits out there helping to bridge the digital divide.

But check it out, they could certainly use your support.

So thank you for sharing that.

Tandria.

We got two stories get to before.

We got a special guest coming around 12:20, so we got a lot of work to do.

Let's tackle this first one and talk about some of the current warehousing trends, but not just in New Jersey where the first part of this article kind of focuses on really across the U.S.

now Tangeri, as reported here by our friends at Retail Brew, there has been some 5.1 million square feet of warehouse space built out in Salem County, New Jersey just since 2020.

Now I've got since I displayed my lack of geography skills, I've got a map that we created here.

So you'll see kind of the call out, right?

So you'll see kind of what portion of the east coast.

And then you'll see that Salem county is there, kind of southeast of Wilmington, Delaware, right?

You got Philadelphia just up the river there.

Beyond the 5.1 million square feet of warehouse space built out already, you got another 2.1 million square feet under construction.

And then get this, another 5.3 million proposed, making this one of the hotter logistics hubs on the East Coast.

But zoom out a bit, right?

Let's look at things kind of from coast to coast from a warehousing perspective.

Prologis says from their data, we still have excess capacity, rents are still falling and we still have high vacancy levels.

Now just last month Prologis said development starts were down 20% year to date in the US and new construction of warehouse space was at its lowest level since 2017.

So Tandria, stop me if you've heard this one before.

It's all about certainty.

That's right.

Perla just says, quote, as customers work through their excess capacity and await greater certainty to make long term supply chain decisions post election, Prologis predicts a return to warehousing rent growth in the second half of 2025.

Now Tandria, as our resident hall of fame industrial engineer and supply chain leader that's been in just shy of a million warehouses across your career, your thoughts on what we're seeing across the industry coast to coast?

Well, I think it's two things, Scott.

E.

Commerce is not slowing down.

People have just become accustomed to doing shopping Online, you're now having subscription services for anything from food to healthcare supplies to beauty supplies.

So those regular deliveries are still going through warehouses.

But as we do things to make warehouses more efficient, you don't need as much real estate to do the same amount of product movement.

Excellent point.

Think about automation.

When you look at some of the advances that we've had in the automated storage and retrieval systems, which are high density, so you can get more product, you can have more pick pack and ship events with less space.

So as we become more efficient in both our space utilization and our labor utilization, you can still getting the same representative growth and warehouse space.

I think it's me really interesting as we get into the second half of next year to see if some of the activity, even given those dynamics you just shared, if some of the new construction permits across the country start to come back, kind of what they're projecting there in Salem county already.

We shall see.

All right, Tandria, let's talk quantum computing.

Now.

Disclaimer here, folks.

I am not a quantum computing technologist that has PhD after my name, just like I'm not a crack economist.

Right?

So let's put that up front.

But we've heard a ton about quantum computing.

And folks, I know that there's been promises made from industry for years and years, but I, I strongly believe, strongly believe that most of our complex current and future business problems, especially in supply chain, but they kind of lean.

They're going to lean on quantum computing, all of us will, to solve.

And just one more reason why we're going to need those nuclear powered data centers.

We talked on the front end, Tandra.

Right.

All right.

So some folks may hear the phrase quantum computing roll their eyes and say, yeah, that promise has been a long time coming.

And it has.

But breakthroughs abound.

Check this out, folks.

As reported by CNN Business, our friends at Google say they have had a big Eureka moment.

So one quantum computing challenge that a lot of folks may not know about is that the chips that enable quantum computing, well, they're highly, highly unstable.

So did you know they can be disrupted by the tiniest of things, such as a subatomic particle from outer space, which is almost as tiny as our Atlanta Falcons playoff chances.

Yeah, I had to sneak that one in.

But kidding aside, Google believes they have found a way to stabilize all the building blocks that's called qubits that go into their quantum computing chip that they call Willow, decreasing disruption while also enabling the ability for developers to correct any errors in real time.

So check this Out.

Google says this new chip can do what would take a classical computer a billion years to do.

Billion years, Tandria.

Now, I could not find how they quantified classical computer.

And there's been some debate around that between Google and a few other tech companies.

But still, it's big.

Whether it's a billion or, you know, even a million is still a big difference.

Your thoughts on what the potential of quantum computing might mean for global supply chain?

You know, I think about my time at UPS and you know, I talk about contingencies and weather events or power outages or a building going down.

So at the time that I left, we had approximately 1,500 buildings in the network trying to do all of the different what if scenarios on how to move product around an area that was being disrupted for a myriad reasons.

It was really an impossible task because there were so many different what if situations that would occur with this type of computing power.

You could run thousands of scenarios in a matter of minutes to come up with the best contingency plans in the event of a network disruption.

The possibilities really are endless.

I'm with you.

I'm with you.

And I cannot wait to see the big impact, as Google says.

I can't remember who, who they quoted in the article, but they said they're past the tipping point with this latest eureka moment.

So I can't wait to see what's around the corner because we know despite all the incredible technology, innovative technology that's at play across global supply chain today, it is still as such a complicated game.

And there's plenty of curveballs, known and unknown, that's coming right around the corner.

So we got to pull the lever here.

Okay, a couple quick comments here going back to Josh.

Josh is developing a quantum computing transportation management system.

How about that?

Josh can tell us more about that.

And he also says he believes Dave Clark will use quantum and Augur for supply chain software.

We're gonna.

Hey, we're gonna put our finger on the pulse there and see if you're right.

Now going back to the earlier story, Chandra, about warehousing Sean has given us.

Hey, look at this.

In market updates here, Sean says current availability in the greater Toronto area is 4.2% with 14 million square feet under construction.

Man, it blows away Salem County.

Sean, great to see you here today.

And folks, don't take our word for it.

We dropped a link to both of these articles right there in the comments and you can check it out and let us know what your thoughts are.

Okay, so folks, if I'm an octave below where I normally am every Monday.

It's because I'm dealing with this head cold and Tandra.

It won't let me go.

It won't let me go.

I'm fighting the good fight here, but I feel like I can sing baritone for the Four Tops right now.

But I won't.

I won't ruin Yalls week by doing that.

All right, we've got a great guest stopping by to spend some time with us here today.

Get this.

Our guest has been solving big time challenges for Fortune 500 companies and greater industry throughout his career.

He's appeared in most of the major media business outlets including cnbc, Fox Business, Wall Street Journal, and a whole bunch more.

Our guest currently serves as CEO of Exeter, where they are working to make the world a safe and transparent place to be.

Let's welcome in Brandon Daniels.

Hey.

Hey, Brandon.

How you doing today?

Hey, Scott.

Hey, Tandrea.

It's good to see you both.

I've been listening intently as you guys have been doing fantastic analysis on the couple of issues you walk through.

So thank you.

I'm excited to be here today.

We're great to have you.

Great to have you.

And that's high praise.

We'll take it.

Tandria from Brandon, really enjoy the buzz each time.

And of course, when Tandria Bellamy stops by, she makes us all a lot smarter.

So I can always depend on that.

Tandria.

Absolutely.

I've got synapses firing all over the place after listening to.

Oh, that's great.

Hey, I'll tell you, it's contagious.

I want to do this.

I want to start with a little fun warm up question to get to know you a little better.

I've got one for both of y'all and I'm gonna start with your weekend.

That was Brandon.

Because if you're in the US and even if you're a remote sports fan, you know that the Army Navy game was last weekend and Brand Brandon was there.

So I want to ask you what was one of the coolest things about being at this incredible yearly contest?

It's hard to narrow it down to one, Scott.

That's the issue.

I mean, the way the entire stadium undulates as the cadets are hopping up and down and the music's going off and the cannon is firing as the, you know, kickoff starts.

It's just, it's unbelievable.

But my favorite part was we were in the box right behind where the halftime show was and they had some of the army cadets, some of the ones that were sort of singing for the halftime show, do God Bless America.

And it was emotional, and you could feel it.

You know, you were connected.

There was this, like, emotional undertone to the whole event, you know, especially emotional for those of us that were rooting for Army.

But it was incredible, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

It was a great weekend.

Oh, Brandon, that's awesome.

I can't wait to get pictures from you.

What a remarkable experience.

And before I switch over to Tandria, check this out.

So we got some other fans.

Jim Weber, Simplify.

Go Navy.

He's got nine Marines on the team.

How about that?

It's awesome.

Jim, Will Quinn's also back with us.

Go Navy.

He says.

And Will says, hey, quantum computing is fascinating.

The possibilities are mind boggling.

Completely agree with that, Will.

And great to have you here.

So, Tangerine, speaking of sports, as cool as that experience was that Brandon had at the Army Navy game, there was a big experience that was equally as powerful that you observed over the weekend.

Tell us more.

Yes.

I was not live, but watching the emotional speech from Travis Hunter doing his Heisman acceptance.

It just.

It was great.

The reverence that he paid to his family, his coaches, his previous school, you know, hometown.

He was in high school in Suwannee, which isn't very far from where I live.

Never got to see him play, but it was just great to watch.

And he actually chartered a plane and flew 50 plus of his fellow teammates and coaches to New York to celebrate with him.

Wow, that is awesome.

I'm gonna go back and watch that because I missed that from the weekend.

And you were talking in the green room, Tandria, about his mom, all the family that was there, and how heartfelt and spontaneous his comments were, and of course, how genuine they were.

So we're gonna have to go check that out.

Tandria, it's all over YouTube.

Okay, I will find it then.

I almost live on YouTube.

Brandon and Tandra, if I'm gonna tell him myself.

All right, and one more.

I want to give a shout out to Maharaj Who' India via LinkedIn.

Hey, great to have you here.

Looking forward to your perspective on some big stories.

We're going to walk through with Brandon and Tangeri in just a moment.

But before we get there, Brandon, I want to make sure, you know, we're big fans of level setting in this ever faster moving world.

We miss context all the time.

So if you would level set with us just a bit, tell us a little more about your background as well as what EXER does, kind of in a nutshell, absolutely.

So thank you again for having me.

My background is kind of twofold.

One, I've been a risk manager, an operational and compliance overhaul expert for 20 plus years.

You know, during the early years of my career, I was helping with the pharmaceutical industry, the life sciences industry, as they were coming under severe congressional and law enforcement scrutiny for off label marketing and how they were interacting with and engaging with doctors and patients, potentially bribing doctors.

During the financial crisis, I worked with three banks to help figure out what in the heck had gone wrong in our financial system, what drove the collapse, what were some of the big risks that had happened and how to stop them from happening in the future.

And then even as recent as 2020, while I was at Exadger, I was part of the White House task force to fight the COVID 19 pandemic.

So we helped the US federal government purchase over $7 billion of PPE, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and the Pentagon published a stat that we saved over $500 million of fraud, waste and abuse that otherwise would have happened without that software.

I was also the monitor for hsbc.

And the second part of my career is building big technology businesses.

So we built EXER to over a billion dollar company over the last few years.

I've done this before with my past companies and I'm excited to be here today and weigh in on the global supply chain issues.

Man.

Okay, Tandrea, we need to add a couple hours and really dive into some of his previous stops, but we'll have to do that next time.

Going back to complexity, we were talking about a minute ago, Tandrea, and I've been accused this doing at times in my career too.

Sometimes you get presented with a problem that's so complex that my friend Bo Grover liked to say, folks just kind of admire it, you know, because they're just caught in the complexity.

Right.

As Bo likes to say, no one got time to admire and give confidence problems.

You got to roll up the sleeves and get to it, break it down into steps it can be overcome.

Right.

And clearly that's what Brandon's been doing with just two of the big, you know, integral points in, in industry with the banking challenges tied into the Great Recession and of course Covid, which we're going to be talking about for decades, millennium to come.

But Tandra, would you hear there in Brandon's background that I'm impressed and we'll.

Leave it at that?

All right, I like that, Tandria.

So let's do this.

I want to get into this next big story that came in the last couple weeks.

This has been one that we kind of knew what's been coming, right?

Because it's been building up, building up.

And we're talking about new Chinese export restrictions.

But before I do, before I do, Tom cat, who is our resident William Shakespeare of supply chain loves the barn doors right behind you.

Very perceptive tomcat who also holds down to fort force on twitch.

And I wonder if this is Sylvia, Amanda and Trisha.

Thanks for what y'all do.

Let me know who this is.

No more interesting guest than Brandon Daniels.

You need a part two.

How about that?

That's Cody.

Cody, great to have you here today.

Of course, of course.

He's a great cheerleader.

Hey, that is.

Everyone needs one, right?

Everyone needs mom.

So let's get into what I teased a second ago and that is new Chinese export restrictions and their impact on global supply chain.

Now, a couple weeks ago, as reported here by the ap, China announced that it is banning all sorts of exports to the US in retaliation for the export restrictions that the U.

S.

Had put in place earlier on them.

I need a whiteboard to keep this thing separate.

So gallium, germanium and antimony.

I Hope I'm making Ms.

Beckham my 9th grade biology or chemistry teacher proud there.

Those three materials and others are on China's newest list of officially banned exports.

Now, gallium and germanium go into computer chips, solar panels, military tech and a lot more.

And according to the U.

S Geological survey, the U.

S Gets about half of its total supply of of these two materials from China today.

Now, antimony is used in flame retardants, batteries, nuclear weapon production and more.

New supply sources have been salt for years, including not just new supplies but expanding production of some of these materials.

In the US for example, germanium has been produced as a byproduct from other mining processes in Alaska, Washington and Tennessee.

But Brandon, given your thoughts here and what we're seeing because we're not going to meet our current supply levels via alternative sources overnight, we all know how challenging that can be no matter what you're trying to build.

Supply wise, your thoughts on the impact of this story and how should supply chain leaders be responding?

Well, Scott, we've been tracking this one for a long time.

Antimony back in September was actually subject to an export control license and China had put in place essentially a license against the antimony that was leaving China being used in military or dual use uses.

And so we've been tracking how antimony could impact Our critical infrastructure, you know, our weapons systems, you know, ever since they started curtailing the amount of antimony that could come into the United States.

And gallium germanium have been on a list for a while of goods that could end up on that list of either export control bans or export licenses.

What you're seeing right now is the weaponization of the periodic table.

You know, you mentioned about 50% of our, you know, gallium, germanium comes from China.

But actually, in 2023, China accounted for about 89% of global gallium production.

Wow.

They actually control a lot of the refinement, a lot of the work that goes into fusing gallium into alloys and into the products that are being used in chips and being used in semiconductors and being used in photovoltaics.

So, you know, you're actually way more dependent on China than just those bare raw materials numbers would indicate.

One of the things that our software does is it helps to break down parts into all its constituent chemical components, you know, individual materials, like what metals they're made of.

And we can see right now tens of thousands of parts, tens of thousands of parts that are today in weapons systems that are today in critical infrastructure in the United States, like telecommunications equipment, in routing equipment, in our rail systems that are dependent on gallium, germanium, and antimony in the United States.

And so when you talk about, you know, potentially 80% of our total supply being subject to an export control ban, it's a huge issue.

You know, like you were talking earlier about quantum computing, Scott.

Well, gallium nitride chips are some of the only chips that can actually maintain the qubit transition, that qubit information that's being passed that can actually maintain it without that sort of radiation, that space radiation interacting with it.

It's also one of the metals that can take significant heat.

And so you've seen quantum computers that keep super cold, right?

Well, you can't have any heat fluctuation inside of that quantum computer.

And so gallium chips are potentially the future for sort of promising results in quantum computing.

If we don't have access to gallium, we don't have access to germanium.

If we don't have access to animony, it plays a huge part in disabling the United States ability to be competitive.

So this isn't just like a tariff issue.

This isn't just an issue of a few elements on the periodic table having to source them elsewhere.

People are turning back orders right now because they're not sure if they can deliver these to Siemens if it's a United States energy infrastructure or to Raytheon, if it's a United States system that's being delivered, it's a real issue.

And one of the things that I think it's going to call out for us really quickly is that this is where United States national and ally, I mean, Korea, Japan, uk, Canada, it's where our national security policy and economic prosperity policy actually overlaps with the ability for us to deliver against some of our alternative energy goals.

You know, if you look at current production of gallium, one of the quickest ways to get gallium production in the United States is actually recycling, right?

It's recycling semiconductors and photovoltaics.

The same thing for germanium.

You can actually recycle coal fly ash and extract germanium out of that, and then finally lead acid batteries, the same for antimony.

And so I saw Will's point that there are significant deposits of gallium, germanium and antimony in the United States today.

And he's right.

But the problem is, you know, we've got no US Stockpile of it.

And for most of these goods since 1987, we haven't been recovering it domestically.

And then for antimony, we shut down our last, major, you know, mining and refining processes in 2021.

So we're behind April in so many different ways.

And this is kind of one of the main points you make there.

This is really 7D chess.

It's not a not saying that tariff and global trade is simple because there's some really smart people, there are trained economists that can tell you about all the different dynamics there, but this makes that look more like checkers.

Tandrea, in light of China's latest move, right, the latest kind of tit for tat in the trade wars, and with what Brandon's take was on, on impact and options and kind of frankly, limited options, at least here and now.

Your thoughts, Tandra?

I think Brandon should be running the world.

There's so many things that are so interconnected that we really have no idea, the average person has no idea what type of chemical components or what type of elements from the periodic table are in their cell phone.

They just know they're extremely reliant upon that phone and that if something goes wrong with it, they want the ability to buy a new one some way.

Somehow we have got to become more educated as a society so that as we're making various decisions, we understand the impacts so that we don't do anything short term.

That's going to have an extremely negative Impact on us in the long term.

Well said, Tindri.

And you know, there's analogy there based on what you were sharing about kind of consumer lack of awareness to a supply chain lack of awareness.

You know, as we all know, Brandon mentioned, you know, tens of thousands of parts.

Well, if we don't have the transparency to truly understand our ecosystem, regardless of the tiered suppliers, but really understand where that Achilles heel is in so many different ways and shapes and forms, we certainly aren't mitigating the risk that it's posing.

And the risk is only seemingly increasing by the day in some cases.

Two quick thoughts too, Tandra.

You may.

You know we've been talking about rare earth minerals for years, right?

I remember Greg White, my dear friend Greg White, his diatribe on some of the things China was doing back in the day.

I missed those diet tribes sometimes.

But to Brandon's point, and y'all, I'm fighting through this head cold with Brandon's point.

You know, by and large a rare earth mineral industry here in the States because how highly regulated and frankly how dirty it is, it's really been regulated largely out of existence.

And that stuff doesn't come back by flipping a switch on a production line.

Right.

It takes time, lots of time.

And then one other quick point, in a similar fashion, you mentioned the military industrial base, Brandon.

Right.

And I think one not to get into politics, folks, y'all know me better than that.

But there's lots of spirited opinions on all the arms shipments to Ukraine.

Well, one element in that is how we build all those weapons has changed so much over the years.

That's really become a very consolidated supply base, that the ability to replicate that in times of contingency in a mass scale, that ability has changed dramatically.

And it's something that, to your point, Brandon, the powers that be that are in charge of our national security, that certainly weighs top of mind, as it should, because that will present some very unique and troubling military supply chain challenges in the event that cooler heads cannot prevail.

Which is a really scary thought.

But yes, Tomcat, that's right.

Sounds like the US needs to ramp up production, I think in a variety of different ways, or at least I'll tell you as a first step, Brandon and Tandria, let's better understand the problems and the solutions.

Right, let's do that first.

You know, your point is dead on, that this is a question of, you know, the US's ability to cut through some of those, you know, regulations and prohibitive practices that allow Us to get to a point of stability.

You know, we had these same issues when it came to permanent magnets about five years ago.

Right.

So samarium cobalt magnets, neodymium iron boron magnets.

You know, we were worried about being able to source them consistently if China put export control bands against them.

And again, it's, it's the weaponization of the periodic table because we're completely dependent on China for these critical minerals.

And, you know, there were some feasibility studies done and some analysis done to see what the United States could do in terms of creating, you know, forging casting capabilities for those same materials.

And it would only cost DOD about $100 million to stand up a permanent magnets plant to fulfill all of our sustainment needs.

It's not as big of a challenge as we thought in some, some of these subset or specialized metals.

But to supply our industry to ensure economic prosperity, which is a interconnected part of our national security, that's a bigger challenge.

And as we start to get into things like antimony and gallium and germanium, and if we start to even march towards some of the bigger things that we need like nickel and lithium, man, now that's going to start driving us into a whole new world of hurdles.

And I think what we do at Exeger is we provide that supply chain visibility to help people increase resilience, reduce cost, and to manage risk.

Right.

And a big part of that is being able to say, well, I need to make sure that when I'm requesting a part, whether I'm at AMC and I'm trying to, you know, field a part into the Bradley or if I'm in critical infrastructure, let's say I'm Honeywell and I'm trying to field a part out to Tallgrass Energy, that's one of the larger oil and gas companies.

It's not just about how long does it take to get from sort of order to contract.

It's actually what's my total acquisition timeline?

Right.

How resilient can I actually make my acquisition process?

And being able to know what are the individual parts and components in the products that you're sourcing is now a necessary component of visibility.

It never has been before.

Right.

But it's now necessary component of visibility.

Because if I've got a copper casting in a harness that's, you know, four tiers down and that copper casting is going to take six months and oh, by the way, that copper casting is coming out of China, it's going to be subject to potential, you know, export controls.

Well, Man, I need to know, kind of need to know that my inventory demand.

Yeah.

So this is highlighting a challenge that we can solve, but it's highlighting a challenge that we got to go way to the left of.

Boom on.

Kind of going back to what Tandra said, everything's so interconnected.

Right?

She's right.

Yes.

In very complex ways.

Now, I would just.

As we wrap this segment and Tandra, welcome, your final thought here, but one of my final thoughts.

First off, Brandon, you can't give army all the love because you got F22s.

We're beautiful aircraft.

You got the B2s.

I mean, we love.

We love our F22s.

We love our B21s.

I'm here for every service member, every war fighter, every veteran, all of them, full stop.

I'm messing with you.

I appreciate that.

But I am praying and hoping that the supply chain challenges we're talking about kind of stay where they are and cooler heads prevail in this all at stake game of global diplomacy.

Because I would just remind folks out there, a lot of folks, y'all know this were some big economic and trade restrictions that were big parts of the prelude to World War II.

Right?

And so when countries perceive certain supply limitations as constraining their economic, societal, governmental growth and security, crazy things can happen.

So hopefully we get it solved.

Tandra, I'm gonna give you the final thought here, and then we're gonna get to AI, I promise.

No, Scott, I really want to hear his take on AI, so we can go ahead.

Let's move right along then.

How about that?

All right.

Much, much easier topic to talk about here.

2024, probably, I would argue, is going to go down as the golden year thus far for AI.

However, we also know that we talked about on the front end, Tandrea and Brandon, plenty of companies and the leaders are struggling to find the right application of AI.

They're struggling to find that right gear.

Now, this story from Manufacturing Dive might suggest one of the myriad of reasons, and there's lots of them, according to this survey.

Check this out, folks.

From tech training firm General Assembly.

Their Data shows that 58 of vice presidents and directors in the US and the UK say they've never attended an AI training event.

Or course, 27 say they are not very or not confident at all in how to use AI tools without compromising company data.

So, Brandon, given all that your group does, right, working with and supporting some of the world's most innovative companies, what are key best practices that leaders and teams have got to Consider so they can really leverage AI in a powerful, outcomes driven manner.

Your thoughts, Brandon?

Absolutely.

Well, the first thing is from my perspective is that recognize that AI isn't one thing, it's multiple individual things, right?

So there are different types of AI.

You can have AI that's tuned or trained for different domains.

So the first thing that as an executive I want to know is what is AI and artificial intelligence?

It's enabler.

It's an enabler, that's what it is.

It helps us to bridge a skills gap.

For instance, so if I'm in procurement or I'm in supply chain and I need help understanding the impact of compliance risk, let's say a Uyghur Forced labor and Prevention act potential violation, AI can coach me on that in seconds.

Right?

And so it's an enabler first and foremost.

The second thing is it is going to help you get closer to decision making.

It's today, not the final decision making technology.

Now maybe on some lower level supply chain issues or logistics issues, you can use AI to make decisions or to make low consequence decisions, but it's going to help you move along the decision curve.

It's not the decision body, it's not the decision authority.

And that's because most AI is data dependent and there are still hallucinations that you need to sort of bring a human in to tie break as well.

And then the last thing I would say is when thinking about AI, there are two tips from my perspective.

One, compete different AI models on the same decision.

So we implement our own AI, we built our own AI for a decade.

And so what we do is we actually compete our artificial intelligence decisions against OpenAI, against Mistral.

Two, we'll actually say, do they all agree?

Because if they all agree, well, they're trained on different data, they're trained by different systems, they use slightly different algorithms.

And so if the decision is still the same on a similar data set, if the decision's still the same, that's going to give us a lot higher confidence.

So the one thing is that I really encourage people to do is to test out and try different AI on a single decision and see who gets it right or see if they all agree.

And if they all agree, then you know that it's not going to be subject to the same bias or hallucinations or problems.

The second thing, thing that I would say is that I think AI needs to be domain specific.

And so when we are building out AI, if we're for instance, trying to, you know, assess an operational risk or we're trying to assess, you know, a piece of data, like trying to assign a UNSPSC code to a product or to a company inside of our database.

And we're using AI to do that.

Those two models are going to use totally different data sets.

So it's not just kind of throw it all in there and hope for the best, but, you know, domain specific AI agents or generative AI that is going to get you to better results faster.

Outstanding, Brandon.

Tandra, I feel like I've gotten a certification in the last five minutes on AI from Brandon.

What about you?

I want to call one thing out before I get Tandria's thoughts there.

One thing out because you may have heard Brandon use the word hallucination.

And the first seven times I heard that word in terms of AI context, I thought it was someone just being really colorful with their language.

But that's a very real standard term and what that means.

I went to Google to make sure I got the definition at least hopefully right.

Hopefully Google is not hallucinating, but that's when.

When an AI model generates incorrect or misleading results, which is one thing, but they present it as fact.

Right?

So that's what we're talking about when we say the AI is hallucinating.

It's really important we understand that.

Tandrea.

We got some great advice there from Brandon on AI and a couple tips there on how companies can really hopefully kind of break through the fog because there's plenty of it, right.

And get clarity and really apply AI in a targeted way to get the results where it's worth the focus of emotional investment, which is a CSEO friend of mine coined your thoughts there, Tandrea.

You know, Brandon, again, that's why I wanted to hear his take came from a completely different place and space than I ever would have, which is because he has so much more experience with it.

I went in to ChatGPT and I asked him, Is AI dangerous?

And it was very interesting what the answers that came back.

There were six different things that ChatGPT called out about AI.

But one of it was taking away the ability for people to think critically because our younger generations are growing up with it.

They can absolutely become over reliant upon it.

And you can have people who are entering your workforce that can present extremely well because AI is writing their resumes and their cover letters and testing them on different interview questions who really have lost the ability to think critically.

So I think as leaders, when we're recruiting, when we're talking to people, we're going to have to understand how to ask questions, how to communicate in a way that really lets you know what your team actually knows and what your team harvested from AI.

Well said, Tandra.

And I would add to that how we can protect the ability to unleash that human creativity, which is one of the biggest pieces of the value proposition that humans bring to the table.

Well said there, Tangerine.

And I love the beauty where folks are attacking this from different angles.

Right.

That's the best part of these conversations.

We're gonna have a fast and furious finish with Brandon Daniels.

In fact, Brandon, are you okay sticking with us until the top of the hour?

Are you good with that?

Yeah, yeah, that works for me.

T Squared says, hey, this is supply chain management.

Nourishment of a different type, spaghetti, meatballs and all complexity ain't going nowhere.

Good stuff there, T Squared.

Who holds down the fort for us on YouTube?

We're trying to bring it on and not let you down.

Jim says, AI plus quantum computing, two great tastes that taste great together.

It's almost poetic.

Jim, good stuff there.

Mahanraj is talking about how a lot of AI platforms act like that data driven powerhouse.

Powerhouses abound for sure.

And Tomcat says, hey, I use open source AI every day.

It's been highly beneficial to my productivity and learning.

Good stuff there, Tomcat.

We'll try to get to Wills.

A few other comments here in a minute.

I want to shift gears up.

We could talk probably AI for hours between the two of y'all here.

But I want to touch on a really important aspect of the noble work and the mission you are doing at exer, Brandon, and that is your work to help eradicate modern slavery.

Would you share a few thoughts on your partnership with Hope for Justice and Slave Free Alliance?

Absolutely.

It's not the work that we're doing, it's the work that they're doing.

Right.

And I say this with humility.

You know, we're building technology that helps people to find modern slavery in their supply chains.

We're building technology that's helping people to identify and rehabilitate supply chains that have been subject to abuse.

But it is our customers or it's our partners like Hope for Justice that actually take that technology and put it to work for good.

Right.

They're the heroes of the story in every single, you know, sort of shape of the word and Hope for Justice, Slave Free Alliance.

What they've been doing is they've been saving people from slavery and coaching and rehabilitating them back into society.

So, you know, we're using our technology to find, you know, corporations or manufacturers or organizations that are potentially abusing supply chains and, you know, not only having an economic impact, but a societal impact on those supply chains by leveraging coarse labor, modern slavery, of which there are 49 and a half million people today that are in modern slavery, that are either being trafficked or enforced labor conditions or, you know, some form of modern slavery.

30 million of those are in our corporate supply chains.

So are being used, acture our phones, manufacture our food, manufacture our computers, right?

I mean, it's in embedded, it's insidious, and it's everywhere.

And so we help to identify these supply chains, we help to bring awareness to them.

We help our customers and these NGOs to identify them and to highlight them.

And then what Hope for Justice is doing is they're going out and saving thousands of people that are in these conditions, that are in these situations.

So we, we support them with our technology, we support them with, you know, our funding.

We support them and partner with them any way we can to stomp this out at the root.

Because, you know, I'd love.

I'd love if, you know, in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, whenever we can get it done, if all of our customers said, we're happy to turn off that modern slavery check in our supply chains because we've solved it, right?

As aspirational and as crazy as that might be, you know, people have looked at the moon and thought, I want to get there and did it right.

I think that we can bring a more ethical world.

I think that we can get this out of our regulated supply chains, and I think it actually will improve the conditions for those communities.

This happened in the 1800s, Scott, in the United States, remember, like, this is a part of our recent history, right?

In New York, workers in buildings that were, you know, in despicable conditions came out and said, we've got to unionize.

We've got to, you know, change the way that we're being treated.

We've got to have a fair labor standard.

We've got to get kids out of these factories and the United States and Tammany hall and everyone got around them and, and did it, and it made it so that, you know, kids were going back to school.

It improved overall livelihoods.

It improved innovation.

It became, just like somebody said earlier, it's a powerhouse.

It became a powerhouse for innovation, a powerhouse for change, a powerhouse for good.

And I think us all focusing on modern slavery and eradicating it, it's not only going to help you get to compliance, it's not only going to help you get to resilience.

It's not only going to level our playing field from a free and fair markets perspective.

It's going to do good for us as a humanity.

Very well said.

Powerfully said.

And there is big, tangible and intangible benefits from doing the right thing.

And kudos to Hope for Justice and Slave Free alliance which we dropped the links to them hopeforjustice.org and slave freealliance.org you want to click away from learning more about the powerful work they're doing to literally, very literally, like my 10th grade daughter likes to say all the time but this one very meaningfully change lives.

Tandria get you to respond to that noble mission that Brandon just kind of laid out there and the responsibility we all have as leaders to not just uncover it, but more importantly do something about it.

Do something about it.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much Scott for including me on this episode.

It has been an absolute honor to be on with you, Brandon.

And we sometimes get so caught up in our small little worlds that we think things like this just don't even exist anymore.

Whereas it is very, very real.

And corporately we have a responsibility to know what is going on with whomever, wherever and whatever we source.

And having organizations like this that are going out and leading the way and pointing us to things that are in desperate need of correction is hugely important.

It's critical.

It should be a part of everybody's sustainability platform.

Thank you Tim.

It's been awesome to meet you.

I am honored to be on with you as well.

So let's do this.

I wish again, I wish we had a couple more hours which topics like this deserve a whole bunch more than that months.

The good news here is folks if you want to really take actionable component to your mission to do something about this, hey, Hope for Justice, Slave Free alliance, learn more, connect with them.

Figure out how you can support their very meaningful missions.

And I bet Brandon you'd welcome phone call in any kind of conversation.

Talk more about this or some of the cool things you are doing out in industry.

How can folks connect with you?

Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exeger.

The fastest and easiest way is exeger.com We've got all of the ways to connect and link with us and we'd love to hear from you.

Wonderful Brandon, Wonderful.

All right, great to have you here.

Tandrea.

I'm going to ask.

We're not gonna have time to hit this webinar.

I'M going to share the opportunity with folks, but we'll have to hit that next time.

We covered a wide gamut of topics, meaningful, meaty topics with Brandon Daniels here today.

If you had one clear cut key takeaway that folks got to take from this episode of the Buzz, what would that be?

To stay connected with Supply Chain now.

Because you're going to get exposed to and gain knowledge of so many varied topics with so many experts such as Brandon, there will be absolutely no way for you to source all of this information on your own.

So stay connected with Supply Chain now.

Too kind, Tanj.

You're too kind and I tell you we love what we do and this is a great conversation.

Perfect example, folks.

We're dropping the EXER website right there.

One click away from connecting with Brandon and the team.

Check out all the great stories and interviews that they do there as well.

And you got to connect with Tandrea on LinkedIn.

She is always dropping inspirational stuff there.

And you can find subscribe Supply Chain and wherever you get your podcast, one click away from tuning in.

So first off, let me thank everybody.

Brandon Daniels, CEO of exer.

We're getting pictures your Army Navy game experience soon.

But really appreciate all the great insights, actionable insights you delivered here today.

Perfect.

Thank you Scott.

Thank you Tandrea.

Hope you all have a good rest of the week.

Happy Holidays.

That's right.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas.

Tandrea Bellamy, thanks for being here as always.

Looking forward to our next conversation.

Happy Holidays and looking forward to a phenomenal 2025.

And most importantly folks, all you folks that tuned in, I know we couldn't hit everybody's comment or question.

Thanks for being here.

Really appreciate all that y'all do the part you play into inspiring our programming.

But here's the most important thing folks.

Take something that Brandon or Tandrea shared here today.

Put it into action, right?

Deeds not words.

Let's truly change how industry is done in 2025.

And on behalf of the entire team here at Supply Chain on Scott L Challenge you do good, give forward, be the change that's needed and we'll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain Now.

Thanks everybody.

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain now community.

Check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

See you next time on Supply Chain Now.