As a customer-centric industry, retail is often viewed in the lens of improving the front-end experience to boost sales, even by its top executives, and the factory side of the supply chain is too often “out of sight, out of mind” for C-level leaders. This mentality must change if the industry is to overcome the production and quality issues that the pandemic has worsened.

“If the C-level suite does not get involved, I predict that those retailers and brands are going to have a hard time existing three, four, five, six years from now,” said Jose R. Suarez, founder and CEO of Vaēso, a comprehensive digital manufacturing execution system providing real-time visibility to the shop floor, including work in progress.

In a recent discussion with Sourcing Journal president Edward Hertzman, Suarez said he “could count the fingers on my hand” the number of retailers that want to dive deep to help their factories and their overall manufacturing ecosystem.

While he acknowledged that C-level execs typically have narrow bandwidth, Suarez noted that available tools can equip them to understand today’s challenges on the factory floor and set targets for improvements in quality, productivity and speed.

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