Robert and Kurt discuss the changes affecting warehouses, distribution, and logistics in the e-commerce era while sipping Witbier, a wheat ale with orange peel and coriander from Community Beer Co.

Farmgirl Flowers, an e-commerce floral shop, was disrupted by recreational cannabis legalization in her company’s home state of California. After the legalization vote, many of the local suppliers she’d once leaned on to provide the flowers that made up her bouquets were suddenly turning to a new crop.

Robert and Kurt sip a chocolate milk stout from a local brewer while discussing ethical supply chains and their value to businesses. Does your company have a corporate responsibility to the communities in which it operates? Outsourced manufacturing and low supply chain visibility (labor practices, social injustice, and environmentally friendly practices) has become a much bigger topic for consumers and organizations alike.

Robert and Kurt enjoy a Mexican style lager while discussing the history of Six Sigma, and how it shaped GE from the late ’90’s to current day. With expert testimony from Toyota’s National Manager of LEAN, Robert and Kurt look to understand how process management systems work and if they can help businesses outside the manufacturing industry. Join us to learn more about process management, and what can be gleaned from past successes and failures of a company like GE.

Robert and Kurt discuss the ethical concerns regarding automation raised in the Vox article - Robots Aren’t Taking Warehouse Employees’ Jobs, They’re MakingTheir Work Harder. With input from automation experts from Stocked Robotics, Plaskolite, and Toyota Material Handling our hosts attempt to look at the issues from all perspectives – offering warehouse operators and manufacturers key take-aways on how to avoid common operation/labor/public relations pitfalls when implementing automation equipment.