The SupplyChainBrain Podcast

Deck Same-day service: It's the ultimate goal of e-commerce retailers – and the ultimate desire of consumers. But is it really feasible? A number of players have already jumped into same-day delivery in select markets, or announced their intention to do so. Amazon.com is vying with Google and eBay to get orders to buyers within a matter of hours. FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service are also potential forces in that effort. But what's the real prospect for same-day? Steve Banker, service director of supply chain management with ARC Advisory Group, joins us on this episode to discuss the challenges of serving impatient buyers. And he explains how same-day service could help brick-and-mortar retailers to compete with internet-based sellers.

Should we allow U.S.-flag merchant shipping to go the way of the passenger pigeon, the wooly mammoth and the Great Auk? It will happen in 10 years if steps aren’t taken to prevent it, says maritime industry and homeland security expert Denise Krepp. Former chief counsel to the U.S. Maritime Administration, she currently is a private consultant and professor at The George Washington University and Pennsylvania State University. Krepp joins us in this episode to answer those would argue that government protections for U.S.-flag shipping and domestic shipbuilding are a waste of time and resources. She addresses such controversial measures as the Jones Act, Maritime Security Program and cargo preference for food aid shipments. Without a fresh commitment by Congress and the Administration, she says, the fleet is doomed.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has laid out a five-year path to sustainability. One of the world's largest brewers, Anheuser-Busch has committed itself to an ambitious plan for slashing the use of water, energy and packaging material, as well as the emission of greenhouse gases, by 2017. In this episode, Hugh Share, senior global director of Beer Better World for Anheuser-Busch InBev, details the steps the company is taking – both internally and with outside partners – to keep its promise to the environment. The effort required a ''holistic approach,'' he says – no easy task for a company the size of Anheuser-Busch.

Imagine your organization as one giant brain. One that's not thinking properly. Businesses today are mired in conventional thinking, says Michael Vaughan, chief executive officer and managing director of The Regis Company. He's the author of The Thinking Effect: Rethinking Thinking to Create Great Leaders and the New Value Worker. In this episode, Vaughan joins us to talk about how the concept of ''neural leadership'' can break organizations of old mental habits, such as fear and unconscious bias. As we come to understand the human brain – and our knowledge of that organ is far from complete – we also achieve a better idea of how people can work together to create a new generation of smarter leaders.

The Highway Trust Fund is broke. And the nation's transportation system is broken. What's to be done? Step one is finding new sources of funding for repairing our crumbling roads, highways and bridges, as well as the construction of new ones. The battle over where to get the money has raged for years, even as the federal gas tax has gone without an increase since 1993. In this episode, Joshua L. Schank, president and chief executive officer of the Eno Center for Transportation, outlines the various funding ideas, and discusses the feasibility of each one. He also offers a view on how we can proceed to fix the entire multimodal system, not just the roads. Find out why Schank is optimistic about the prospects for success – or, at least, the beginnings of it – in 2014.

All of a sudden, the future looks bright for nuclear power. Along with that rosy forecast, however, comes a raft of new challenges to the industry's global supply chain. The list is daunting: Scaling up to meet future growth. Ensuring a base of reliable suppliers and ready availability of product. Securing safe and efficient transportation. Preventing the flow of counterfeit components. How can the nuclear supply chain meet these crucial goals? We get answers from two professors at Clemson University: Scott J. Mason, president and interim chair of industrial engineering, as well as holder of the Fluor Endowed Chair in Supply Chain Optimization and Logistics; and Bill Ferrell, professor of industrial engineering and associate dean of graduate studies. Both will be speaking at the Nuclear Supply Chain Conference in Greenville, S.C. on April 28-30, 2014, presented by the International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC). Here, they offer a preview of their insights.

Humankind is forever striving for perfection. When it comes to the job of demand forecasting, however, perhaps we ought to be a tad less obsessive. Nobody's arguing that the forecast is irrelevant. Suppliers and retailers need some way to get a handle on what the customer's going to buy. But the all-consuming quest for the perfect number is bound to fail. Reality has an annoying way of refusing to cooperate with expectations. Lora Cecere, founder of Supply Chain Insights, joins us on this episode to prescribe a way out of the dilemma. She proposes to redefine the discipline of forecasting and demand planning, with an eye toward embracing probability. In the event, companies can move closer to what ought to be their real goal: crafting an agile supply-chain with end-to-end visibility, and the power to respond to actual demand. ''We've gone about it all wrong,'' Cecere says.

And you thought that sponsorships for the Olympics were all about consumer products and services. Meet the Official Carbon Partner of the Sochi Games. It's Dow Chemical Company – also, by the way, the Official Chemistry Company of the International Olympic Committee. Dow is deploying its new Climate Solutions Framework to create the first-ever, 100-percent carbon-neutral Olympic Games. The initiative embraces hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon emissions generated by activities related to the games, including global supply-chain arrangements and travel to and from the site by fans and the media. But the effort doesn't stop there – it's part of a broader three-year effort by Dow to address the carbon footprint of Russian homes, industry and agriculture. Dr. Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi, technology and sustainability director for Dow Olympic Games, joins us to talk about how the program was developed, and what Dow hopes to accomplish on the carbon-mitigation front – not just for Sochi and Russia, but for future Olympics as well. Let the games begin.

Is trade compliance nothing but a headache? Or can it be good for business? Some international trade regulations force importers and exporters to sharpen their knowledge of suppliers across multiple tiers, as well as the status of products in transit. Others are just a burden, and do nothing but drive up supply-chain costs. So what can traders expect from the ''unprecedented wave'' of new regs that are due to take effect over the coming year? We get a perspective from Susan Pomerantz, senior director of global trade management consulting with customs broker Livingston International. She runs down all of the new initiatives on food safety, customs automation, security and other aspects of trade compliance.

Will we ever get rid of those dreaded spreadsheets? In a recent survey by Logility and APICS, 47 percent of respondents said they were still using manually produced spreadsheets to support their demand-planning process. Change is tough in any organization, and it can be a challenge to convince planners to give up something that's worked so well for years. But there's evidence that spreadsheets today ''could be sabotaging your supply chain,'' says Karin L. Bursa, vice president of marketing at Logility. She oversees the company's strategy development and marketing programs for Logility Voyager Solutions, the company's suite of supply-chain optimization software. Bursa talks about how spreadsheets are holding companies back from engaging in critical activities such as the creation of multiple planning scenarios and ''what-if'' evaluations. Time to get out of the ''firefighting'' mode, she says, and into proactive management of demand planning – to the point where marketers can even begin to shape demand.