Show Notes 

In this insightful episode of the TechX Podcast, Seth Waters is joined once again by Merritt DeGraw, Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna, to wrap up their comprehensive discussion on the evolution of manufacturing and distribution through technology. They delve into the critical topics of efficiency and sustainability, exploring innovative strategies companies are adopting to enhance eco-friendly practices and optimize supply chain efficiency, while also underscoring the critical role of technology in shaping more efficient, sustainable, and resilient supply chains. Merritt shares his insights on the significant impact of global events on supply chain management. Join us as we uncover the future of manufacturing and distribution, highlighting the importance of flexibility, vendor management, and the transformative power of technology. 

Topics Discussed 

• Sustainability in manufacturing and distribution 

• Understanding the ecological impact of products from creation to market 

• Recent trends in reporting operational impacts to boards and public shareholders 

• The importance of risk assessment and management in a distributed and on-demand supply model. 

• The role of IT consulting and staffing in navigating data security challenges. 

• Fortuna's approach to partnering with companies for technological solutions. 

• The significance of vendor accountability and the ability to adapt to changes quickly. 

Quotes   

"It's about being able to pivot... understanding those pain points and building a plan to navigate out of those challenges." - Merritt DeGraw 

"Understanding your business and where you want to go is crucial... ask hard questions of your vendors." - Merritt DeGraw 

"Nobody's perfect... people succeed or organizations succeed that are able to pivot in bad markets or bad times." - Merritt DeGraw 

Transcript: 

Seth Waters: Well, welcome back to the TechX podcast. I'm Seth Waters. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at Fortuna, and I'm here with Merritt DeGraw, the Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna, as well as Planned Capacity and a bunch of other companies that you work with all over the board. Yes, in our last couple of conversations together, we dove into this topic on where technology is intersecting with manufacturing and distribution. And we've talked about a lot of different things like the rise of automation and AI and how leaders in the industry can begin to think about upskilling their employees and adopting new practices, finding the right guides to lead them through the challenges that they're that they're facing. It's been really valuable. And by the way, thank you for your emails. They've been reaching out to us. Always feel free to send us an email if you hear something that we're talking about and you say, “Boy, I'd like to know a little bit more about that, or I'd like to connect with Merritt or Seth and find out more about Fortuna and what they do.” You can always send us an email to [email protected]. Today, as we dive into the final part of this conversation about manufacturing and distribution, I'd love to jump in and talk about efficiency and sustainability. 

These are two hot topics for everyone, right? Is there talk about technology and all of the things in the future? Merritt, what steps do you see companies taking towards sustainability and eco-friendly practices in manufacturing and distribution? 

Merritt DeGraw: Why? There's a big push in that direction today to understand how your products are made, how they get shipped, how are they kind of impacting the global ecosystem? I think is one of the big conversations. So, you know, again, I think a lot of it is the ability to, one, measure how your operations are impacting, right? I think you're starting to see a lot of that coming out today. 

And then again, tracking that from a perspective as it as your product moves to market, kind of giving that scorecard, right? If you look at it, a lot of that information now goes at the boards. It goes up to public shareholder meetings, you name it. Those are all elements that are touched in those areas, right? So being able to put the key metrics in place to be able to facilitate that conversation kind of sets you apart nowadays for some that are not quite there yet in terms of, you know, they may not have a big of a public presence maybe on the distribution side. Yeah, but as you can see, a lot of the big players are all having to touch those spaces, even on the Bitcoin side right now where, you know, you have to talk about how you basically have to publish how much power you're using today, right? So that's those are all elements that are just recently come into play. So one is, you know, how do you measure it? How you how do you manage it right from that perspective to ensure that you're bringing a key. What is the word? I want to use an ethical product to market that probably the best way to say it, right? 

Seth Waters: That's beautiful. You know as on this topic, what strategies do you see being used to optimize supply chain efficiency these days? 

Merritt DeGraw: I see some of the innovators today are using blockchain technologies, right? I think if you look at IBM, you look at a few of the others that are out there, they're using blockchain to be able to validate kind of how the products are produced. So they're again tying newer technologies in because ultimately what a blockchain is, is a distributed ledger, right? So it's basically saying, “Hey, here's what happened, here's the transaction, here's how it went,” right? And again, that efficacy is, is there visible to all and validated from a third kind of- a third validator, right? Which is kind of I'm trying to think of the easiest way to say it so people understand it. But ultimately, it's a lack of a centralized authority to be able to validate it, which I think is the key to a blockchain technology, right? Is that it's there's no one controls it. You again you can't fudge the numbers. it is what it is. It's what's on there. There's some challenges there. But again, I think for the most part, you know, the technologies that are that are getting created right now are being able to help fill some of those conversation. That's right. 

Seth Waters: That's good. And, you know, there's a lot going on globally right now and different things around the world that are taking place, that are impacting a lot of things locally. How do global events impact supply chain management? 

Merritt DeGraw: Well, look at what happened during COVID. I mean, a ship gets stuck in the Suez Canal, right, caused massive backups and shortages around all areas, right? So, whether it be Cisco with their products, you know, their Cisco, their switching markets or their or their hardware, right? And that's not being able to available for you to deploy, right? 

A lot of change happening in a short period of time. So COVID kind of unearthed a challenge or a pain point that, again, I don't think a lot of people put a lot of risk behind, right? They didn't say it was a high risk in type of environment. So, again, I think there's a couple of those two scenarios in particular kind of shining a light on the risk that's actually there as part of this distributed model, right? On-demand model, right? 

Seth Waters: You know, and we talked in our last episode around data security, right? And protecting what we have and how important it is to have guides in the conversation with you. And if you're looking for a solution, by the way, that's part of what Merritt leads at Fortuna. Fortuna is an IT consulting staffing company, and we would love to talk with you about how we can bring our solutions to serve your company in both the data security areas and other emerging technology conversations. 

Let's just do something fun and put you in the client perspective. As a client, what do you value most, manufacturing or distribution partner? This is a fun thing for those leaders that are watching this and are wanting to get some insight from the client side. What are some things that you value most? 

Merritt DeGraw: That's a tough one. The ability for my vendors to be flexible, right? From a manufacturing perspective, we're jumping into the space. So ultimately, it's, you know, things change and we all know it. But being able to like, say, for instance, if I have a supplier that has, you know, it makes it hard for me to connect with them, to be able to place orders with them, to be able to see how I'm performing against it.  So really, it's that- a customer, one that I, I value vendors that are able to be easy to work with, if that makes sense, right?  

Seth Waters: Yes.  

Merritt DeGraw: I mean, it's I kind of went around that a little bit, but I think for the most part it's they've got to be able- and I said flexible, but ultimately it's I need to be able to easily do business with these vendors because if things something changed on my side as a manufacturer or I don't have the thing I need or I need to get something else, ultimately being able to supply those things and be able to be quick to about to make those pivots, because ultimately it's about pivoting, right?  

Seth Waters: Right.  

Merritt DeGraw: It's like, as I said before, I think people, they worry about the failures or they worry about the challenges right at the associated. But ultimately, all in all, a failure is an indicator being able to say, okay, great, we made this happen. We see it. Okay, how do I pivot, right? How do I resolve that issue? Or how do I get to that? You know, how do I get past this? Because ultimately, nobody's perfect. Yeah, we're not perfect. I'm not perfect, right? I make- I fail all the time and ultimately be able to pivot from those failures is the- understand that you've failed one. Do you understand it? Can you measure it? You understand that that whole process you know what actually it is. But then also being able to pivot and say, “Okay, now let's go do this,” because ultimately people succeed or the organizations succeed that are able to pivot in bad markets or bad times. 

Seth Waters: So what does that mean? So then shifting from the client side to the manufacturer and distributor side, what does that mean? What does that require of us as companies? What do we have to be able to do? 

Merritt DeGraw: You have to be able to pivot also. You also have to manage your vendors. I see a lot of times vendor management is a challenge, to say the least, right? So, making sure you hold your vendors accountable, making sure you understand the SLA is making sure you know you're tying- all that you're taking and tying all the components together to ensure that they're there. Because ultimately in this marketplace today, you know, we're talking highly matrix. So, somebody else's issue down downstream and not understanding that it's going to be an issue as this vendor comes in. It's again, it's a holistic view to your customers. So, let's go back to customer impact, right? If you think about customer impact, they don't care that one of your vendors fail. They don't care that one of your distributors wasn't able to get it. What they care about is how they interact with you. So ultimately your vendors, you're accountable for all of that, right? The buck stops here. They're your customers. They're not their customers, right? So, I think ultimately understanding how your vendors are performing, holding your vendors accountable when they aren't performing, those are all elements I think that organizations really need to focus on, right. 

Seth Waters: That's so good. Where do you see- final question of this conversation as we wrap up this conversation today, where do you see manufacturing and distribution going technology wise in the next ten years? 

Merritt DeGraw: Well, I think, you know, new technologies are going to kick in, right? So as they start to build the models to be able to fit, you know, I would say probably not even I would even say it's fully AI, it's more machine learning, right? To understand how, you know, pivots happen because I think the models that are coming out are more kind of language focused. So, you could ask questions. I think that will impact kind of your reporting, your data analytics, that type of conversation. I think I will, I should say, because you're going to ask a question, where am I? You know, where are my big pain points, right? That type of thing will come in, I think in some aspects. But again, a lot of it is just, you know, figuring out outliers in your data or putting together data. I think a lot of silos happen in a lot of organizations because, you know, they have, you know, SAP, they have Oracle, they have, you know, a silo of data and they don't want to you know, they don't really reach out to other areas as much. 

Some will have data lakes and some of them have, you know, kind of components that bring it all together. But ultimately, I think the flexibility of data movement across having those, you know, kind of publisher subscriber type of models with to say, okay, this is the master of the data for this element right there. And being able to connect the dots I think is the big where I see a lot of movement happening in all industries. But if we're talking specifically for manufacturing and distribution, I think a lot of that's going to be, you know, making sure the data elements talk and being able to see a clear outcome because I think there are silos in a lot of organizations I go to, right, still today. 

Seth Waters: Wow. Very interesting. Well, Merritt, thank you for this conversation. What are some key next steps for leaders in the manufacturing distribution space as they walk away from this episode? 

Merritt DeGraw: You know, again, I think understanding your business is going to be one of the big takeaways here. I kind of I don't want to harp on it too much, but understanding where you want to go, understanding your business and then understanding where your gaps are because you should be able to see it, right? I mean, ultimately, when you start to look at it like, can I if you know this pose a scenario, you know, if I have a failure here, what's going to happen? 

How do I react? Are my systems able to keep up like I've seen many places that you had, you know, organizations that have systems, they go, “Oh, I've got that system, but they don't communicate.” So, one change here breaks this, which everybody flips out, and then next thing you know, you go through and you put a little Band-Aid on it or you try to work around or, “Hey, you know what?” I've had it to the point where the system totally failed and they had to go paper and pin back again, right? So ultimately, understanding those pain points and making sure you start to build a plan, a roadmap to get out of those pain points and make sure ask hard questions of your vendors to say, okay, that's great. Now, you know, I love what your sales pitch was. That's awesome. But what if this happens, right? 

What if this scenario happens? Ultimately, I think that's going to dictate, you know, one, they're going to give you an answer that you may or may not like. Yeah, but it's also an indicator of, you know, again, how transparent and honest your vendor is, right? Because again, I've seen some challenges where some that are out of business they make a pitch or they make a- you know, hey we saw world hunger and the next thing you know, they don't even solve my hunger. 

Seth Waters: So that's wonderful. Well, Merritt, thank you so much for your insight and your wisdom, and I hope you found that this series to be helpful for you. As we've talked about the intersection of technology and manufacturing distribution.  

Stay tuned, in the future, we will have a new series coming up very shortly about new space technology and the intersection of tech meeting space. Excited for that. In the meantime, if you would have a question, maybe something came up or you'd like to learn more about what Fortuna does and how we might be able to partner with your business, you can send us an email at [email protected]. Merritt, thank you for being here. 

Merritt DeGraw: Appreciate it.  

Seth Waters: Thank you.  

Merrit DeGraw: Thanks. 

Show Notes 

Dive into the future of manufacturing and distribution with the second episode of the TechX Podcast, where host Seth Waters is joined by Merritt DeGraw, the visionary Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna. Together, they unravel the complexities of integrating cutting-edge technologies into traditional industries, and into the strategies companies can employ to embrace automation without being overwhelmed by its complexities.  Through Merritt's extensive experience in sectors ranging from public space and internet to medical devices, this episode shines a light on the pivotal role of automation, machine learning, and computer vision. Discover the essential skills that today's workforce needs to develop to stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape, and how these technologies are not just altering the way we work, but also the very nature of work itself. 

Topics Discussed 

• The impact of technology across different business sectors 
• Discussion on emerging technologies and their implementation in the manufacturing and distribution sectors 
• Skill development in the manufacturing sector 
• Importance of automation, machine learning, and computer vision in modern manufacturing 
• The role of education in navigating the adoption of new technologies 
• Leadership and cultural shifts in the face of rapid technological advancements 

Quotes 

"Workers have to be skilled up to be able to facilitate... they're becoming more of a governance versus a doer." - Merritt DeGraw 

"Educate yourself...Understand what's out there." - Merritt DeGraw on embracing automation 

"Not everybody is going to fit in the new world... find people with the aptitude that really want to understand, want to move that needle forward." - Merritt DeGraw 

"Keep an open mind... things are going to move fast and you've got to be comfortable with that move." - Merritt DeGraw on leadership in the era of automation 

"If you don't innovate, then you're going to be left behind." - Merritt DeGraw on the importance of embracing change 

Transcript 

Advertisement: This episode is brought to you by Fortuna. 

Seth Waters: Well, welcome back to the TechX podcast. My name is Seth Waters. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at Fortuna, and I'm here again today with Merritt DeGraw. And you met Merritt last time we were together. He is the Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna as well as Planned Capacity and a bunch of other places. Before we jump in, I'd love for you just to highlight again some of the places you've been in the past few years. 

Merritt DeGraw: Yeah. No, again, I worked in public space with Cubic, I've worked at Internet space, SAAS-based stuff with a few companies and medical device company tech, NuVasive Inc., Akamai Technologies, a small little startup, SAAS, that did air medical, air emergency medical response and tracking for health helicopters and medical billing so that I've dealt with a multitude of different industries and different compliance components also. 

Seth Waters: Okay. So you've been around and had lots of experiences that have shaped you.  

Merritt DeGraw: Yes.  

Seth Waters: But let's continue our conversation from last time, focusing on the manufacturing and distribution industry. Today, I want to talk really pushing on skill development and workplace culture leadership when it comes to technology in manufacturing and distribution. So, let's dive in. Let's talk about skill development. What skills are currently in high demand in the technology area when it comes to manufacturing and how can workers develop them? 

Merritt DeGraw: You know, it's one of the big ones or I should say. I think we alluded to it in the previous podcast, but automation is a big factor in all sort of space. We're talking from a robot programmer, a robot to go do something right.  

Seth Waters: Yeah.  

Merritt DeGraw: Versus using AI to kind of tie in and do some of those elements also, right? So machine learning, computer vision, right? Those are all elements that you're starting to see where, you know, again, I wouldn't say replacing workers, but workers have to be skilled up to be able to facilitate, right? A welder doing a well job needs to understand how to program a cobot to be able to do that same weld, right? Right. So that way you could, you know, kind of expand the capabilities of that person, right? So they're becoming more of a governance versus a doer. Right, again, it's nothing, nothing wrong. I think there's still welders out there. And I'm not saying it's going away, but I think for you to be able to handle some of the throughput, you're not going to be able to find enough welders, which is one of the big challenges is, you know, a lot of the blue collar jobs are not, you know, there's not a lot of people going into them as much as they are. So, there's a shortage in those areas nowadays. So again, really driving the ability to multiply the multipliers, if you want to call it their capabilities through using cobots and robots to be able to do some of that work. 

Seth Waters: That's interesting. We've been having conversations recently with different distribution leaders that are that are having conversations with big companies and owners of manufacturing companies, and they're asking these questions about automation. How do we jump in? How do we start to use this in our systems? And the things that we're getting is a lot of people are feeling kind of overwhelmed right now of falling behind, right? And they don't want to fall behind, but they don't really know where to start when it comes to this industry - to manufacturing and distribution. Where can leaders start? 

Merritt DeGraw: You know, again, one, educate yourself is the big factor, right? Understand what's out there. Understand because there's a multitude of different people out there that are pitching solutions for these areas. So really understand what is, you know, start to understand the market, understand how things are progressing in the market and make sure that you're, you know, maybe if you have a trusted advisor internally or external trusted advisor to be able to help you through the minutia, because there's a lot of it out there, right?  

But I think for the most part is really understanding the market, understanding it, get that trusted advisor, whether it be internal or external. Again, we've seen it both ways where they have an internal advisor and we kind of, you know have a solution that bolts on and or it's “Hey look we need really help on the strategy side of this conversation,” right? Because the internal folks are still thinking they haven't expanded the horizon yet so they're not thinking outside the box. They're thinking this is how we've done it, or this is how I've seen it done, or this is how my vendors tell me how to do it. But ultimately, understanding how it fits in your organization. Because ultimately, how many failures have we seen with ERPs, MRPs in the conversations we're having with these executives where there is a failure problem, primarily because you don't understand the problem or that problem may not be something you need to solve in this organization, but it's over there. So ultimately, it's really understanding how the technology can fit in your organization and adapt accordingly. 

Seth Waters: Adapt accordingly - I know this is something that you're very passionate about in your role at Fortuna, and this is something we do for companies. I encourage you, if you're in a company or you're looking for a solution, we offer in that advisory capacity to come alongside and assess where you are and assess next steps. Feel free to reach out to us. We, Merritt, would love to partner with your company. Merritt, moving forward in this conversation, and as we look at the rise of automation in manufacturing and distribution, and it is on the rise, right? These systems are being implemented. They're really changing a lot in how people are interacting with technology. How should leaders begin to upskill their employees? 

Merritt DeGraw: Pairing them with somebody, again, an expert right in the area, somebody who understands the market, say, “Okay, here's the areas that you should focus on based off of your environment,” right? So really, targeted training towards certain aspects. Again, trying to tell the employee to learn the world again. It's going to be, it's a- that's a pretty large lift.  

Ultimately, not everybody is going to fit in the new world. I hate to say it, right? And this is one of the conversations I had back when I was early in my career is it's okay. You know, you got to understand that, you know, some people don't- they want to sit on a helpdesk 24/7 and take calls, 24/7. But you get to point. That's their desk. What they've kind of alluded to, and that's kind of where they've kind of gravitated towards because they don't like the change right, in that of that aspect. But then there's others you've got to find people with the aptitude that really want to understand, want to move that needle forward, because those are going to be your drivers to help you get to that next level and be able to, again, train your internal experts to be successful, right? And because I've ran into challenges where, you know, again, I had people they were given to me, you know, but ultimately you want to find the people with the aptitude to be able to make the change and then put the effort in to get them trained, to get them kind of moving in that right direction, right?  

Seth Waters: Good, that's really good. 

Merritt DeGraw: With governance, by the way, no, you can't go with that kind of oversight to say, “Yep, you've got it, continue on, you've got it, continue on.”  

Seth Waters: That's good. So, you know, leaders in the manufacturing and distribution space are facing new challenges with this new rise in technology of automation. You know, one of the questions that I would ask is how should the leaders, whether they're executive leaders or their IT Leaders or whatever level they are at in the organization, how should they be thinking different as we enter this new era of automation and tech advances? 

Merritt DeGraw: That's a good question. That's a big question. Ultimately, is keep an open mind. Oh, think about that. You know, many places I've gone into, it's like that's not the way we do things, right? Things are changing, market’s changing pretty quickly, industry is changing pretty quickly. So ultimately being flexible and start to really understand that there's not one way of doing things and there may be changes that need to be made that you need to account for. And sometimes you'll make a change and it could advertently cause other challenges down the road because of that one decision you made. So ultimately, being able to be flexible and say, “Hey, look, things are going to move and they're going to move fast and you've got to be comfortable with that move, otherwise you will be left behind,” right? 

I mean, look at how fast, you know, automation happened at the Amazon site. I mean, look at how many people are engaged on the floor side of the conversation. It's not you know, it's a lot of robots now.  

Seth Waters: Yeah, incredible.  

Merritt DeGraw: Understanding that there may be change but then helping to figure out and I think going back to that conversation around training and the people side of the conversation is make people understand this is not a win-lose scenario, it's a win-win scenario. 

Ultimately, you're scaling up yourself to be able to compete in the new marketplace. And there's old jobs again. I think about back in the day, you know, I always go back to the buggy whip analogy, right where they, you know, how do you make your horses go faster, right? And you know, they invent the car versus the buggy whip, right? So again, I butchered that analogy by a far- but the idea is that, look, things are going to change. You need to think outside the box. You need to move that ball forward by, you know, figuring out what the challenges you have today are looking at the market and see how you compete in the marketplace today. Are there gaps? Are the things I need to do, I guess you could call this SWOT analysis in a way, right? Yeah, but I go back to my business roots. But yeah, so I think that's the idea behind it. 

Seth Waters: That's good and that's relevant in a $50 million company and a $5 billion company. It's all the same. 

Merritt DeGraw: Well, if you look at some of these places now, they're smaller companies competing with the big boys. How are they doing it? Yeah, through automation, through, you know, tools that they've either borrowed or built. Again, ultimately, they're allowed to compete. You can compete on a higher level without having to be that higher level. Again, there's going to be some challenges, road bumps here and there as you as you move forward. 

But with the tools that are out there nowadays, with the capabilities are out there, as long as you got the right process in place and the people in place, then the change could happen relatively fast. Look what happened - Microsoft, right? Yeah. If you look at how Microsoft transitioned with Nadella, right. You know, it used to be a tried-and-true model of how things kind of, you know, “Hey, we- this is our Windows, this is our office, you know, these are the people that are making our money.” So don't interrupt that flow. But nowadays it's, you know, Nadella came in, within a year they transitioned how they do business.  

Seth Waters: Wow. Right. 

Merritt DeGraw: And so that's- it's again, it's a testament to the fortitude that he brought in, the vision he brought in to say, look, if we don't move, we are going to get run over. Look at Blockbuster versus Netflix, right? So again, that is that same analogy, right. Which is if you don't invest, if you don't innovate, then you're going to be left behind. 

Seth Waters: That's really good. Well, Merritt, this has been wonderful and I think insightful for all of us as we are starting to think outside of the box when it comes to efficiency and technology, really in manufacturing and distribution. What are some key next steps based on this conversation that you would encourage leaders that are right now in the manufacturing distribution space to take as they walk away from this second episode of this podcast? 

Merritt DeGraw: You know, I think a lot of it is, are my processes enabling me to be successful? Are they making me easier to do business with? Because if they're not, then something you probably need to do some changes, right? There's things you probably want to do, or are there ways that I could streamline how I get to production? If it's a manufacturing site, if it's a distribution size, “Hey, how can I be more flexible in my distribution?” 

Maybe I want to, you know, manage my- automate some of my packaging, right. In terms of- I got shipments coming in from all these different vendors. I want to do something special with that or there's a shortage of COVID taught us a lot about challenges associated with, with being able to have people on the floor. 

So again, automation can help with those conversations as long as you set it up right and as long as you have the shared vision to move that that needle forward and make sure that you understand you can again fail fast, I think is one of the analogies that I've always been told and taught and learned and said is you've got to be able to, you know, failure is going to happen. I guarantee it. And there's no company that has a 100% success rate on what they do. Ultimately, it's understanding where you failed, how you failed, and then be able to pivot and go the right direction. 

Seth Waters: That’s really good. Well, in part three of our conversation, we're going to be looking more closely at efficiency, sustainability and some of the global challenges right now that manufacturing and distribution is facing in the technology area. And I'm going to be looking forward to that.  

In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us. You might have been listening today and you had a question. You said, “Oh, that made me think of something and it didn't get to that point, I'd like to ask a question to Merritt,” feel free to email us, send us an email at [email protected] and perhaps you heard Merritt talking and you started thinking, “I need to learn more about getting an advisor,” right? That's what we do it for too. Now we partner with companies that are looking for solutions and we help them grow through simplicity, really simplifying the complex issues that business leaders are facing. We would love to talk with you. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. Well Merritt, thanks for being here. Excited for our next conversation. 

Merritt DeGraw: Yes, thank you. 

Advertisement: This episode is brought to you by Fortuna, an IT consulting and staffing company. From contact centers to IT and managed staffing services, Fortuna helps businesses “grow thru simplicity.” Learn more at gofortuna.com. 

Show Notes

Join Seth Waters and Merritt DeGraw in the debut episode of the TechX Podcast, where they explore the evolving intersection of technology and business. Merritt, the Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna, shares insights into his journey through the tech landscape, discussing his experiences in networking, medical devices, education, and more.

The conversation delves into the current landscape of manufacturing and distribution, uncovering trends, challenges, and the transformative power of technology, while emphasizing the role of automation, machine learning, and robotics in reshaping these industries.

Tune in now to discover everything tech and business in this episode from the TechX Podcast!

Topics Discussed

• Merritt DeGraw's journey in technology
• The role of automation, machine learning, and robotics in manufacturing and distribution
• Trends and challenges in the manufacturing and distribution sector
• Data security and protecting against cyber threats.
• Practical steps for leaders in manufacturing and distribution to embrace technology

Quotes

"You've got to be able to meet the demands of the organization. And so, that is a challenge, you know, how fast things are changing in this marketplace and how things are changing in the industry in general across all verticals. I think it's like the wild, wild West. So people need to be able to keep up with that change." – Merritt DeGraw

"One is understanding the flow of how you get things done. A lot of times I find that the issue is not, you know, kind of the systems that they have, but it's the steps that they take. They may not understand their processes fully." – Merritt DeGraw

“Everything should be built with security in mind” – Merritt DeGraw

"Education is a big part of that conversation to say, I want to make sure that these people understand when they get an email from somebody that's outside that you don't click on the envelope, you don't click on the attachment." – Merritt DeGraw

“…Educate yourself to get the others involved and start to really kind of together create that shared vision to drive those needles forward.” – Merritt DeGraw

Transcript

Advertisement: This episode is brought to you by Fortuna, an IT consulting and staffing company. From contact centers to IT and managed staffing services, Fortuna helps businesses “grow thru simplicity.” Learn more at gofortuna.com.

Seth Waters: Well, welcome to the TechX podcast, where the future of technology intersects with business, and I’m excited to be with you today. I'm Seth Waters. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at Fortuna and I'm here with Merritt DeGraw, the brains behind our show. Merritt, good to be with you today.

Merritt DeGraw: Pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Seth Waters: Before we jump into this new podcast, it's really a new conversation. Before we jump right in, I'd love for you to take a few minutes and talk about your past. You've been in technology for many years. You're now the Chief Technology Officer at Fortuna, but I'd like to just have you share about some of the story. What's your story? How have you gotten to where you are today?

Merritt DeGraw: It's been a journey. I started off in networking back in the day, back when I was at Akamai Technologies so it’s actually the interview before Akamai and then, you know, “.com” bust happened, moved into medical device, worked at a company called NuVasive. They created the tools for minimal access, spinal surgeries. And I was the head guy there from – I’m reporting directly to CFO - and again helped them kind of build innovative technologies for helping people, you know, improve their outcomes from surgeries - from their spinal surgery.

Seth Waters: Wow, wow. Very interesting.

Merritt DeGraw: And then kind of moved into larger companies - work and education company. So that's where I met Jack, oddly enough. And so we, you know, we were online education for profit education company building a kind of a tracking solution for our students and such and giving them, you know, next generation education right again and then moved into a little bit of defense/transportation areas when I was working at Cubic Technologies, doing a move to the cloud. Basically that's kind of the main reason I was hired there. And I started helping out with some DevOps conversations also. And that led me into consulting career that eventually I landed here, so.

Seth Waters: Wow. So you've done a lot of things that have prepared you to be able to talk as an expert about a lot of different technologies.

Merritt DeGraw: Yes.

Seth Waters: Now, you mentioned Jack, and Jack is the CEO at Fortuna, the company where you are the Chief Technology Officer right now amongst a whole bunch of other things. You know, as it is, we all have our hands on a lot of different projects, you know, as you do. But what is your job and what is your role right now as the chief technology officer at Fortuna? What does that encompass? What does that include for you?

Merritt DeGraw: Well, you know, again, I- you know, here I think it branches outside of the technology. The information technology space. Right. And we go into more, you know, dealing with things like hydrogen generation, green energy production, I guess it's I should say, is probably a better way to say it. But also, you know, moving into, you know, innovative technologies like blockchain and Bitcoin rights, we do it. We have a- I'm also a CTO at Planned Capacity, which is a Bitcoin mining company, I should say a demand response company, because not only it's not just Bitcoin mining, but it's being able to help manage the balance of the grid, right? Again, we're not actually producing power in this case, but for the most part we're able to help them kind of plan accordingly. Think of like an online battery that we're able to shut down when they need the power. And then we continue back on when we- what we're doing when we're up and functioning against.

Seth Waters: Wow. So you've got your hands in a lot of projects right now. A lot of moving pieces.

Merritt DeGraw: Yes. IoT stuff with, you know, manufacturing stuff, you know, again, distribution area stuff. I mean, we're having conversations all over the place where we may be manufacturing ourselves here pretty soon. So there's a lot of a lot of moving parts at the moment.

Seth Waters: Yeah. And we're going to jump into all of that because there's so much to talk about right now, especially the manufacturing and distribution space. So we're going to jump into technology and that in just a minute. But I'm really excited for this podcast. I'm really excited about the TechX podcast because you know, over the next 12 months we are going to be filming several series of these conversations talking about how technology is intersecting different areas of business. We're going to be talking about new space, we're going to be talking about health care. We're going to be jumping in today into manufacturing and distributing. We're also going to be talking about energy in a few months. And I'm very excited about that. So if you're tuning in for the first time today, don't disappear. Make sure you come back. There's can be a lot of valuable information and really touching on how technology intersects with all of those areas and the emerging technology that's coming and excited to get to glean from you a lot of understanding and information as we're moving forward as an expert in this area.

Today, we're going to start off by talking about manufacturing and distribution and where technology meets those. Now, as we jump into it, you know, we've had many conversations over the last few months. This is an area of technology that seems to lag a little bit behind. Would you say that? Is that a fair assessment?

Merritt DeGraw: I mean, yes, I would say it's a fair assessment. I think, you know, many industries have the same challenges, but I think manufacturing distribution in particular, I think some groups and some companies are ahead of the game where other groups are behind the game, primarily just because, you know, we'll talk about a little bit deeper later on. But there's definitely challenges in some in many organizations that we go into and we talk with.

Seth Waters: Yeah, well, let's talk about some of the current trends and challenges in manufacturing and distribution today. What would you say are some of the current trends that you are seeing in manufacturing and distribution today?

Merritt DeGraw: So a lot of automation, right? I think there's a lot of people, I should say there's the vision of automation. I think there's some people, some people know how to do it. I think, you know, if you look at the Amazons of the world, they have- they've got that number, right? I think from an automation perspective. But then you're getting some of the laggards are kind of, I wouldn’t say laggards like is probably not the right way, but I would say some of the people that are a little behind the curve are, you know, again, I think they're having people challenges, they're having technology challenges. Again, they're dealing with some legacy systems, some technical debt, if you want to call it. Yeah, that is causing a little bit of consternation.

Seth Waters: Yeah. What are some of the biggest challenges that companies in this space are dealing with? You mentioned, you know, older systems and different things. What are some of the biggest challenges?

Merritt DeGraw: Well, I think people as a people process technology, right? I think those are the key areas. And I think many organizations that we've been in, they you know, they've got people challenges, I should say, you know, getting the knowledge of kind of automation and the knowledge around tying systems together to make it more kind of user-friendly, more easy to do business with, right? Those are areas where I find a lot of people have challenges. Many of the organizations that we go to have challenges in that area, not all, but some. And again, I think that is where, you know, again, the people I always focus on the people process technology areas because again, the technology itself is not as is- it'll be solved if you solve the people and process technology, the people and process side of the puzzle, so.

Seth Waters: That's really interesting. You know, how is technology reshaping the manufacturing and distribution sector?

Merritt DeGraw: Well, you know, I think if you look what is happening today, there's a heavy focus on machine learning being in AI. And I think those are the areas that are people that are kind of driving it. There's a lot of interest, I should say, in that industry in those areas right now in manufacturing and automation around, you know, robots and cobots and those type of things to where you're- because people again, we go back to the people conversation. Either people don't have the skills or it's hard to find the people that have the skills. So what they've got to do is automate, right? So there's that risk or that challenge that they have to overcome to get to a spot where they could actually meet demand. Right? Because it's all ultimately and this is where I think the business comes into it is you've got to be able to meet the demands of the organization. Yeah. And so and so that's that is a challenge. Again, if you look at how fast things are changing in this marketplace and how things are changing in the industry in general across all verticals, I think it's like the wild, wild West. So people need to be able to keep up with that change.

Seth Waters: Well, we're going to talk about that in the next episode. Part two of this podcast. Upskilling our employees, right? Really getting people trained for the emerging tech. But before we jump into that, you know, what are some of the key technologies you mentioned automation and what are some of the other key technologies that are driving change in manufacturing and distribution?

Merritt DeGraw: Well, again, automation is pretty broad, right? There's software automation connecting to be able to automate connections to your vendors, to your suppliers, to your customers. Ultimately, I think it's a customer conversation, right?  In my mind, if you look at the way like the Teslas of the world, that, you know, that direct to consumer is actually starting to pick up in a lot of areas. So the whole, you know, kind of distributor kind of model is, yeah, I'm not saying it's going away, but it's changing, right? And I think that's part of what's driving the conversations around automation and kind of be able to drive the drive to speed to market basically is what it is right now. Again, whether you're talking distribution, which is a whole another conversation that it is on, I don't see again, I think that not going away, but again, causing challenges. Again, Amazon, if you look at the way Amazon does their market, right, they're one stop shop. There's no more you know distributor that distributor right. You know as you deal with the old kind of the old school but let's call it the older way of doing things right?

Seth Waters: Yeah. Talk to me more about that would you that drive to get to market, that drive to go to market, that speed that need? How are companies processing that right now and what are some ideas that you think could be helpful in that process?

Merritt DeGraw: One is understanding the flow of how you get things done. A lot of times I find that the issue is not, you know, kind of the systems that they have, but it's the steps that they take. They may not understand their processes fully. I find that a lot of times because a lot of these people didn't build it per se. Some did, some didn't.

Seth Waters: Right.

Merritt DeGraw: But they don't quite fully understand the flow and where they have those hindrances, right? In those challenges or those speed bumps, if you want to call them that, to get the market faster. So really understanding how you how you, one, develop the product, how you get it to market or how you prep it for market and then productize it if you want to call it that way. And then then how you what's the methodology to, to get it out in your customers hands.

Seth Waters: That's beautiful, Merritt. And I- you know, one question that comes to mind is how do you ensure data security and protect against cyber threats in a digitally driven industry?

Merritt DeGraw: That's again, it's getting harder and harder nowadays, especially, you know, I mean, you look at all the breaches, you look at the ransomware that's out there today, a lot of, you know, kind of what you have to build is that defense in depth. I think, you know, this is a tried and true methodology that they talk about defense in depth. And it's you know, it's been out there for a bit, but really understanding kind of one, everything should be built with security in mind, right? Versus trying to, you know, hey, I'm going to put whatever in place to make sure we're able to go from A to Z, right? I think a lot of it is making sure that, you know, intent is given to security in everything that you do as part of your building process, whether it be software development or whether it be software that's on a machine like, let's say a car, for instance, a Tesla. You know, if you look at you know, think about the danger associated with, you know, if somebody has a breach on a car and somebody is able to control your car, It’s a- you're talking life and death now, right?

So ultimately, you know, being able to be able to build those mechanisms, like whether you're building software to be able to deploy the software in a secure manner, a lot of people are pushing down the DevOps conversation now. And to say a secure DevOps or DevSecOps, I think is what the term is now. But yeah, I think ultimately is build those mechanisms, build the controls in place and the governance over it to ensure, you know, your checks and balances are there to ensure that you're- you are secure as you move forward. Also, education is a big part of that conversation to say, I want to make sure that these people understand when they get an email from somebody that's outside that you don't click on the envelope, you don't click on the attachment. Again, it's an unexpected component, right? But ultimately, education is the key factor to try to, you know, again, you want to mitigate as much as you possibly can and limit the amount of blast radius if you want to call it there. But ultimately, you want to again, try to educate your people, get everybody on the same page, put the tools in place to be able to facilitate a capture if there is a breach, right?

Seth Waters: So that's so good. So to bring it home at the TechX podcast, we like to bring it home. We like to bring it down to the road level. How do we get started with some traction in there? So for folks in the marketing- or so for folks in the manufacturing and distribution industry, what are some good starting points? If you were to say, an IT lead at one of these companies or perhaps you're on the executive team and you're looking at bringing in security into your technology systems, where do you start?

Merritt DeGraw: Education, I think, is a big part of it, Right? Well, again, well, there's two actuators, I think. Right. One, I think a lot of people a lot of IT folks are not- don't understand how to quite post-ask. Right. I think that's one of the challenge that I had when I was when I was, you know, one of the places that are at many of the places that it was understanding how to make the right business argument, to be able to help justify the expenditure, because these are not small expenditures many times.

Seth Waters: Right. Right.

Merritt DeGraw: So you're talking about transformational components, but ultimately it’s being able to understand is first start to look at what your business outcomes are and your objectives are. That's how I always start as I look, “Hey, where do you want to go when you grow up as a company,” right? From a business perspective. Then you start to say, okay, how are you going to get there? Right? So you basically start to build out that roadmap based off of where you want to be, because usually, you know, any organization usually has some sort of strategic planning conversation to say, “Hey, here are the elements that we need to attack this year to be successful,”

Seth Waters: Right.

Merritt DeGraw: There's also external elements that people are adding to that same strategy, their strapline, right? So ultimately you want to layer whatever department you're in. I don't care if you're in I.T, whether you're in operations, whether you're in finance, legal, you name it. Ultimately, all everybody's goals and objectives should lead into that, that conversation around where the strapline is and where we want to go. And then ultimately you've got to say, okay, if you want to be here, you say you want to you know, you want to compete with Amazon or you want to compete with whoever. Ultimately, you need to be able to one, have the people that are able to do that work to get you to that spot. Two, you have the processes in place to be able to make that happen. And then three, the technology that to get the other first parts in you layer in the technology is part of it, right? And again, you have to have the budget associated with it, right? You have to have the shared vision, if you want to call it, and make sure everybody's rowing in the same direction. Because many times I've seen, you know, you know, siloed organizations kind of worked not on purpose, but worked against each other because again, with their lack of communication, the lack of transparency, whatever it is, but that's where I find most of the challenges are. It's not the information implementation of technologies, but most of time it's either budget or inadvertent mishaps if you want to cause good.

Seth Waters: Well, Merritt, this has been a great conversation and I'm excited. I'm excited to dive into part two is we jump forward and learn more. As folks are walking away from this first episode, what are some key next steps for leaders in the manufacturing and distribution space walking away from this first episode? What are some things they can do? Some key takeaways?

Merritt DeGraw: You know, I think one, get better integrated with your business unit, with your I'll take it from different perspectives, right? From an AI perspective, understand kind of, you know, what your business is doing, how they're doing it in branch and other areas. I think people have started to head this direction. You know, again, over the last you know, they talk about that business-technology melding, right? And you see a lot of CIOs that are driving that direction to where they're not order takers, but they are helping to drive the business forward, especially as you're starting to talk automation, you're starting to talk, you know, robots and things, cobots and robots in your ecosystem. But I think a lot of it is, you know, one, educate yourself to get the others involved and start to really kind of together create that shared vision to drive those needles forward.

Seth Waters: Wonderful. Well in our next part of this episode, we are going to continue our conversation. We’re going to talk about upskilling our employees and what that looks like to upskill our workers. We’re going to talk more about leadership and leadership’s role in technology development in manufacturing and distribution. In the meantime, if you have a question, maybe you’ve seen this and you have a question and you want to connect with Merritt, then feel free to send us an email at [email protected].

Merritt, it’s been great being with you. Thanks for the time.

Advertisement: This episode is brought to you by Fortuna, an IT consulting and staffing company. From contact centers to IT and managed staffing services, Fortuna helps businesses “grow thru simplicity.” Learn more at gofortuna.com.

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