Art of Supply

09/01/2025

Conflicting priorities, disconnected sales and deployment..oh, and a robot wrangler. There is a lot to consider when using automation to streamline warehouse storage.

https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-reenvisioning-robotics-combining-hardware-and-software-for-warehouse-automation

In this week’s episode of Art of Supply, Matt Naslund, Vice President and Head of Solutions at Mytra, joins Kelly Barner to explore the role automation plays in advancing warehouse storage optimization and delivering data that takes the pressure off daily operations.

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner and Matt Naslund of Mytra, explore the role automation plays in driving efficiency and decision-making for warehouse operations.

07/01/2025

In 2001, Jim Collins published the book "Good to Great." It was the result of a massive research project designed to uncover why some companies outperform the rest, and why companies with equal opportunity to become great don’t.

In this edition of the Art of Supply newsletter, Kelly Barner reflects on the potential cost of achieving prominence in business, the importance of doing work that matters, and the power of using our talents to make a lasting contribution.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-good-great-leadership-legacy-price-prominence-kelly-barner-xavbe/?trackingId=ZVVo86UqqAJiZf167HgFtw%3D%3D

In 2001, Jim Collins published the book Good to Great. It was the result of a massive research project designed to uncover why some companies outperform the rest, and why companies with equal opportunity to become great don’t.

02/01/2025

“If you’re engaged in work that you love and care about, for whatever reason, then the question [Why greatness?] needs no answer. The question is not why, but how.” - Jim Collins, Good to Great

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-re-reading-good-to-great-at-the-start-of-a-new-year

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner re-reads ‘Good to Great’ in light of 2025 business conditions, reviewing key themes from the book and reflecting on what has changed (and what has not) in the 20+ years since the book was published.

Reflecting on key supply chain stories of 2024 and anticipating significant trends and challenges for 2025.

31/12/2024

You don’t have to be a prognosticator to know that there is a lot of change coming in 2025 - starting tomorrow.

Five of the Art of Supply stories from 2024 should be watched closely because they are likely to rise back above the fold early in the new year.

Read more and listen from the last AOS newsletter of the year!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-supply-chain-stories-watch-2025-kelly-barner-zvdye/?trackingId=SWtVWjghR9msVV6%2FY2%2BoFA%3D%3D

You don’t have to be a prognosticator to know that there is a lot of change coming in 2025. When I look back at the episodes of Art of Supply that published in 2024, there are five that I think we should watch closely, because they are likely to rise back above the fold early in the new year.

26/12/2024

Many of the supply chain news stories we covered in 2024 look ready to carry right over - or even rise to the top - as we start a new year.

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-supply-chain-stories-to-watch-at-the-start-of-2025

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner highlights five 2024 news stories to keep a close eye on:

- The distance traveled by raw materials and finished products

- Red Sea tensions and the need for ocean freight to find a new (safer) path to travel

- The EV trucking mandate rolled out by the EPA under the Biden Administration

- De minimis shipping provisions that have created a ‘maximus’ problem

- An as yet unresolved organized labor contract governing operations at East and Gulf Coast ports

Explore key insights from top supply chain experts on the Art of Supply podcast to navigate the significant changes expected in 2025. Discover strategic advice and real-world examples.

24/12/2024

If you can be effective and flexible, you’re actually as important as the best player on the field. That creates a huge opportunity for everyone on the team to be as strategic as someone who has a massive amount of natural talent.

Read the most recent edition of the Art of Supply newsletter for insights from three of the most popular interview episodes in 2024.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/center-midfielders-guide-supply-chain-strategy-kelly-barner-in6ec/

For this week’s episode of Art of Supply, I selected segments from a few of my favorite 2024 interviews and reconsidered them side by side. For the best piece of advice from each one, read Solving Supply Chain Puzzles: Insights from a Year of Interviews on Art of Procurement.

19/12/2024

Every interview offers an opportunity to learn from an expert about their area of focus, but also to look at multiple conversations in combination for what they reveal about each other.

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-solving-supply-chain-puzzles-insights-from-a-year-of-interviews

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner shares excerpts from her interviews with:

Victor Suarez: Former Lead Vaccine Program Manager for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in Operation Warp Speed at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Founder and Principal Growth Partner, Blu Zone Bioscience & Supply Chain Solutions, LLC

Thomas Goldsby: Dee and Jimmy Haslam Chair of Logistics at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Co-Executive Director of their Global Supply Chain Institute

Ashley Hubka: Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Business

Discover key insights from leading experts on the Art of Supply, focusing on supply chain strategies, decision-making, and problem-solving for future challenges.

17/12/2024

It takes a lot of unglamorous work to deliver amazing results. But if you can't explain those results simply, it is if they don't exist.

In this edition of the Art of Supply newsletter, Kelly Barner speaks with Tim Richardson, Founder and CEO of Iter Consulting, about what he learned from 50+ global supply chain transformations and how supply chain teams can succeed in the challenging conditions they must work through today.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/think-through-complexity-act-simply-kelly-barner-gwtoc/

12/12/2024

“Thinking in complex ways allows you to articulate powerful things very simply, and then your implementation comes simple. I'm a really firm believer that the more you can understand and really think through things, the simpler the actual physical solution becomes.”

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-supply-chain-forecast-volatile-with-tim-richardson

In this week’s episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner welcomes Tim Richardson, Founder and CEO of Iter Consulting, to talk about what he has learned from over 50 global supply chain transformations as well as some of the internal challenges and macro factors impacting supply chain teams today.

Navigating supply chain volatility with Tim Richardson, explore how to communicate complexity, leverage technology, and model scenarios for resilience in uncertain times.

10/12/2024

No one wants to be wrong, but what are we willing to do to be right? Depending on the choices we make, we could be moving towards expectations but further away from the truth. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-getting-wrong-makes-you-right-kelly-barner-arehe/

In this edition of the Art of Supply newsletter, Kelly Barner looks at the practice of 'herding' as called out by statistician and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver - less for what it tells us about political polling, and more for what it reveals about the human desire NOT to stand out from the crowd in an increasingly data driven world.

FiveThirtyEight

No one wants to be wrong. You don’t get promoted for being wrong.

05/12/2024

No one wants to be an outlier. No one wants to be wrong. But - based on the rules of data - if someone isn’t wrong, then no one can be right.
https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-in-defense-of-outliers

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner reflects on what the practice of herding tells us about our relationship with data - and being wrong - in the business world.

Examining the risks of pollster herding and its impact on data accuracy and decision-making in business and elections. Learn why outliers are crucial for reliable analysis.

28/11/2024

We consume content for different reasons–education, entertainment, or otherwise. The lessons we learn from one supply chain can be applied in another.

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/supply/walking-a-mile-in-another-supply-chains-shoes/

To discuss these stories - and the process of capturing them on the Art of Supply podcast - Kelly Barner was invited to speak in a live session hosted by Alex Jennings (FCIPS), CEO and co-founder of The Alchemie Network, an organization that promotes collaborative learning around ESG and sustainability for procurement.

Alex Jennings and Kelly Barner revisit past Art of Supply episodes to see where legal mandates and sustainability can find a balance.

26/11/2024

Between July and September 2024, a high profile listeria outbreak at a Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia led to the death of 10 people and the hospitalization of 59 more. Over 7 million pounds of food were recalled thanks to high cross contamination risk.

But Boar's Head will not be the only organization under the magnifying glass - the USDA faces scrutiny as well. There are questions about how inspectors handled poor conditions at the plant. Reported violations suggesting systemic issues predated the outbreak by at least 2 years.

And who is investigating the USDA’s handling of the outbreak? The USDA.

Read the most recent edition of the Art of Supply newsletter to discover how the outbreak happened and why inspections failed to protect consumers.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-food-safety-inspectors-self-inspect-kelly-barner-4ggne/?trackingId=ewv%2FV0LfSTcAIdGovg%2FW2A%3D%3D

Between July and September 2024, a high profile listeria outbreak led to the death of 10 people and the hospitalization of 59 more. Over 7 million pounds of food were recalled due to high cross contamination risk.

23/11/2024

It took over 2 years, and international multi-agency cooperation, but we finally have progress in the deadliest example of migrant smuggling in U.S. history.

🎧 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5i5YYLiWLIYBX10OtIyCrt?si=LofbUYEtRJiXzE_nR-WN6A

On June 27th, 2022, an abandoned tractor trailer was found near Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas. The truck had mechanical problems and it had been abandoned by its driver. In the back was a horrible scene, 48 dead migrants. 5 others would lose their lives in the hospital.

In this Saturday BONUS episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner brings the story up to date, including news of recent arrests and indictments.

21/11/2024

In July of 2024, the USDA suspended production at a Boar’s Head processing plant in Jarratt, Virginia. The worst listeria outbreak in over a decade led to a recall of over 7 million pounds of meat, 500 lost union jobs, the hospitalization of 59 people, and the deaths of 10 others.

🎧 https://artofprocurement.com/supply/liverwurst-listeria-and-liability-food-safety-at-boars-head/

In this week’s episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers the Boar's Head Brand listeria outbreak, including the root cause and the inspection failures that failed to protect consumers.

In July of 2024, the USDA suspended production at a Boar’s Head meat processing plant in Jarratt, Virginia and the...

19/11/2024

Supply chain decision making is a collaborative process. It requires actionable data, an understanding of timing and implications, and creativity.

In other words, it is a thinking person’s game - a reader’s game, you might say. But it is a game that Ruud van Dijk and the team at Routescanner are helping companies win by fostering better discussions with the help of data visualization.

In this edition of the Art of Supply newsletter, Kelly Barner shares her takeaways from the conversation with Ruud.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/looking-supply-chain-decision-making-kelly-barner-6lnue/

““No” has a lot of skills. “No” allows the real issues to be brought forth; “No” protects people from making—and lets them correct—ineffective decisions; “No” slows things down so that people can freely embrace their decisions and the agreements they enter into; “No” helps ...

14/11/2024

“Humans are so much more effective in processing something visually than, let's say, a table or two pieces of text next to each other.

“If you see it on a map, you can say, okay, this line goes like this, the other goes like this. I can make the connection in my head very easily that, okay, this is what changes. And it also makes it very easy to sort of have an opinion on it, because it clicks in your head quite easily.”
Ruud van Dijk, Commercial Director, Routescanner

In this week’s Art of Supply interview, Kelly Barner speaks with Ruud van Dijk, Commercial Director at Routescanner, about decision making habits in the global supply chain.

https://artofprocurement.com/supply/the-power-of-visualization-in-freight-optimization-and-resilience/

Anyone who spends their day working with data will tell you that data alone is never enough. It needs to...

13/11/2024

What would happen if you took a consumer shopping experience and expanded it to support institutional customers as well?

Walmart Business is in the process of finding out: https://youtu.be/boLFYveMf1w?si=xq7AJSdCwXS2JxTk

Watch Kelly Barner's interview with Ashley Hubka, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Business, to discover why Walmart decided to offer a distinct experience for organizational customers and how they are leveraging their supply chain to deliver for B2B at scale.

In this Art of Supply podcast episode, host Kelly Barners talks with Ashley Hubka, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Business. Ashley has ...