Editor’s Letter?—?What is InFlow?

This letter is regarding our recently launched newsletter, titled InFlow (formerly FLOW Journal). If you’d like to sign-up for the weekly, you can do so here.

Look around you: What do you see, a laptop or iPhone? Maybe a cup of coffee? Have you ever wondered how they got there? That is, the forces that placed a paper cup with a Made in China label filled with a Brazilian brew in front of you. How did the trees that make up your cup get processed? And how did the organically grown Brazilian coffee beans find their way to a Brooklyn warehouse to be later moved by an Isuzu truck to your local cafe? Imagine all the different people and resources deployed to make this simple delivery possible.

Innovations in supply chain thought and practice are allowing us to achieve unprecedented degrees of transparency, accountability, and efficiency at scale. Upstarts and innovative incumbents are paving the way for us to perpetually verify the provenance and security of goods, using smart contracts and other new techniques. Automation and intelligent design are offering a path forward for efficient and affordable healthcare. And some companies are investing in the internet of things to fight waste and modernize retail.These advancements are crucial in a rapidly evolving and increasingly interconnected, complex global economy.

InFlow will cover the latest news from these fronts and how it is reshaping our world. Every week we will update you on the state of supply chains, diving deep into the stories of the things around you and how they ended up there. We will share our own original research and writing as well as the best content we encounter in our work, and we are committed to only presenting you with pieces that are insightful, engaging, and technically accurate.

Some of the technologies that excite us are: AI, Blockchain, Drones, IoT, and Robotics. But our lens is wide, which we think is required to grasp the future of supply chains. So we plan to report on anything that offers knowledge and useful perspective on the forces shaping the field. If you enjoy learning about these things, we hope you will join our list. See you in your inbox!

Cheers, Nick

PS: if you haven’t signed up yet, you can join our list of awesome here.