The Logistics Tribe

Today we are talking about supply chain challenges in the automotive industry. Our guest is Robert Cameron who heads up the production, logistics and aftermarket department at the VDA, the German Automotive Industry Association.

Our host, Marco Prüglmeier, sat down with Robert at the recent Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL) Conference in Pilsen, Czech Republic and talked about the following topics:

- Biggest challenges that are facing the automotive industry and automotive supply chains

- Why electrification of vehicles will dramatically increase the need for semiconductors

- Why large node size semiconductors are critical for electric vehicles

- The relevance of the Fit for 55 EU-legislation

- The European Chips Act

- The development of Autonomous Driving

- Interoperability of AMRs and AGVs and the VDA 5050 as an open-source standard

- The vision and development of VDA 6000

- The importance of moving from relations management with direct suppliers only to holistically managing the entire supply chain end-to-end

- Geopolitical factors and the transitions to e-mobility. Selective global sourcing and selective local sourcing.

- Demographic and workforce developments and the impact on automotive manufacturing and supply chains

- AI and the impact on the future of automotive manufacturing and supply chains

Helpful Links:

The VDA: https://www.vda.de/en

Robert Cameron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugh-robert-cameron-61a37430/

Marco Prüglmeier on LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/prueglmeier/en

In today's episode we explore the possibility to increase truck driver satisfaction and boost truck utilization with better planning tools and smarter algorithms.

Our guest today is Mark Farkas, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of AI Fleet, a vertically integrated technology enabled trucking company that was founded in Austin, TX in 2020.

Together with our host Jonah McIntire, Mark discusses the following topics:

- Mark's background and track record as a successful logistics tech founder

- What inspired Mark and his co-founder to build AI Fleet

- What's wrong with the business model of traditional trucking companies and why technology hasn't made more of an impact over the years

- What the levers to pull are to make trucking more profitable

- What Mark means when he says AI Fleet wants to "humanize trucking"

- The importance of truck utilization as a metric and how improving truck utilization benefits drivers

- How "real" the truck driver shortage actually is and whether it can be solved by better truck utilization

- How truck drivers could benefit financially from a better trucking business model and better technology

- The growth and growth plans of AI Fleet

- Comments on the current trucking market conditions in the US

- Why so many investments in technology and software haven't paid off

- Views on the truck brokerage space

- Why it's so hard to profitably scale trucking businesses

- The path to autonomous trucking

- and much more

Helpful Links:

AI Fleet: https://aifleet.com/

Mark on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-farkas-337a33127/

Jonah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahmcintire/

Countless attempts have been made in the last decade to leverage cutting edge technology to give companies the transportation and supply chain visibility that they need to anticipate disruptions, proactively manage risks and boost supply chain resilience.

Literally hundreds of millions of funding has been poured into tech stacks that promised to finally deliver the visibility and control that every globally operating company is craving for.

Yet, the end result of all these efforts has been quite sobering, to say the least.

So our host Boris Felgendreher invited a representative from one of the key players in the real-time-transportation visibility space onto the show to discuss what’s going on.

The guest is Anand Medepalli, the Chief Product Officer of Shippeo. Shippeo is based in Paris, France and is considered a global leader in real-time multimodal transportation visibility, helping major shippers and logistics service providers to operate more resilient, sustainable, and customer-centric supply chains.

The company just launched an ambitious new offering that it calls Transportation Process Automation. It’s already used by Renault, a long-time key customer of Shippeo’s and is supported by an interesting group of launch partners such as Google Cloud, E2Open and 4Flow.

Enough reason for us to take a close look under the hood to explore if what Shippeo is building here is indeed the Future of Transportation Visibility.

Enjoy!

Helpful Links:

Shippeo: https://www.shippeo.com/

Anand Medepalli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amedepalli/

Boris Felgendreher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisfelgendreher/

Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer of Zebra Tecnologies sat down with our host Marco Prüglmeier at the recent Trends in Automotive Logistics Conference (TAL) in Pilsen, Czech Republic to discuss the following topics:

- Zebra Technologies' journey beyond the scope of scanning devices

- Why the company has completed 8 acquisitions in the last 4 years

- Zebra's venture investments

- The synergies between automation, analytics and AI

- How AI is opening up new possibilities for data analytics

- New and upcoming technologies: AI from an automation perspective, assistive AI

- Why Augmented Reality (AR) has "come back down to earth" and how the technology will evolve from here

- Why Tom believes that only a small percentage of jobs will actually be completely be eliminated by robots, automation and AI

Helpful Links:

Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-bianculli-9053892

Zebra Technologies: https://www.zebra.com/us/en.html

Marco on LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/prueglmeier/en

It's hard to find Shippers that didn't get burnt by skyrocketing freight rates in the last 3 years. And high freight rate volatility is likely here to stay.

The US-based startup ZenHedge is working on a fintech-based insurance solution that promises to offer peace of mind by protecting shippers from the financial impact of tender rejection, freight rate volatility, and other supply chain disruptions - risks that were once hard to “hedge" against.

Our host Jonah McIntire sat down with Krishnan Kandasamy, CEO and Founder of ZenHedge, to dig deep into the world of risk management for the transportation industry.

A lot to learn here. Enjoy!

Helpful Links:

ZenHedge: https://www.zenhedge.com/

Krishnan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnankandasamy/

Jonah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahmcintire/

Today's guest on The Logistics Tribe is Roman Žák. Roman is one of the founders of Aimtec. Aimtec helps companies on their digital transformation journeys.

They combine a very deep consulting expertise in manufacturing and logistics with a unique approach to implementing software solutions.

And what’s fascinating about Aimtec is that they have been around since 1996. A time when digital transformation was even a thing yet. And today, the company is very highly regarded, particularly in the automotive industry.

They are based in Pilsen, in the Czech Republic, but are operating globally.

Roman and our host Boris Felgendreher talked about the various issues and challenges that his customers in the automotive sector are facing these days and how digital strategies and tools can help them.

Quite an interesting discussion, that you don’t want to miss.

Helpful Links:

Roman Žák on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanzak/

Aimtec: https://www.aimtecglobal.com/en/

The Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL) Conference 2023. May 16th in Pilsen, CZ: https://www.talconference.com/en/

Boris Felgendreher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisfelgendreher/

Radu Palamariu from Alcott Global and Knut Alicke from McKinsey are two influential thinkers on the topic of supply chain leadership.

In this episode of The Logistics Tribe, Radu, Knut and our host Boris Felgendreher explore how the last few years in particular have elevated the function of supply chain inside many organizations around the world.

But how can supply chain leaders actually capitalize on this development and permanently secure supply chain management's seat in the boardroom as well as paving their own potential career path into the CEO role?

This episode of The Logistics Tribe is a "must-listen-to" for any ambitious supply chain leader.

Radu and Knut also recently published a book on the topic called "From Source To Sold". It features stories of leadership in supply chain and is a highly recommended read.

Helpful links:

From Source To Sold: https://sourcetosold.com/

Radu Palamariu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radupalamariu/

Knut Alicke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/knut-alicke/

Boris Felgendreher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisfelgendreher/

Today's guest on The Logistics Tribe is Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics at DAT.

DAT operates the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America. Ken is responsible for DAT iQ, DATs data science team and its pricing database for shippers, 3PLs, trucking operators and freight brokers.

Ken is one of the leading experts in data analytics in the logistics industry, so we had to pair him up with our host Jonah McIntire.

This turned out to be a wide-ranging conversation about the business of freight data and analytics, and also a view into Ken’s career in the industry.

Helpful Links:

DAT: https://www.dat.com/

Ken Adamo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-adamo-8481611a/

Jonah McIntire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahmcintire/

Boris Felgendreher (founder of The Logistics Tribe) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisfelgendreher/

Today’s guest on The Logistics Tribe Podcast is Prof. Roland Siegwart. Roland is director of the Autonomous Systems Lab in Switzerland, director of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich and a world-renown robotics expert.

He is one of the pioneers in the field of autonomous mobile robots, which are quickly spreading throughout warehouses and logistics operations around the world.

Our host Marco Prüglmeier talked to Roland about the following topics:

- Roland's work with AMRs dating back 30 years

- His first book on the topic

- How he got into the topic of AMRs

- His early foray into mail delivery robots, 30 years ago

- The history and evolution of AMRs

- The main differences between AMRs and AGVs

- The challenges of AMRs in logistics operations

- Why AMRs will replace AGVs over time

- The current state of robot technology, laser technology, camera technology, SLAM and what Roland and his teams are working on

- Good and bad use cases of drones

- The roles of robots on last mile delivery

- Roland’s vision for the logistics of the future and the prospects of autonomous driving

- Will robots eliminate logistics jobs

- and more

Helpful links:

Prof. Roland Siegwart on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-siegwart-85466912/

Marco Prüglmeier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prueglmeier/

Our supporters GreyOrange: https://www.greyorange.com/

Hermann Ude is the former CEO of DHL Freight and DHL Global Forwarding, a former corporate board member of Deutsche Post and now sits on a number of supervisory boards, including his role as chairman of the supervisory board at Transporeon.

Hermann has a strong interested in the impact the logistics industry has on the environment and on climate change in particular.

He holds many key insights into how the industry has to evolve and what role technology can play to drive down the environmental impact of the logistics sector.

This episode is hosted by Jonah McIntire.

Helpful links:

Hermann Ude on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hermann-ude/

Prof. Alan McKinnon, a resource Hermann recommends on the topic: https://www.alanmckinnon.co.uk/

Jonah McIntire on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahmcintire/

Tracks, a digital platform mentioned on the podcast: https://www.tracks.eco/

Transporeon: https://www.transporeon.com/en

Our supporters GreyOrange: www.greyorange.com