“Supply Chain Buzz for July 13th: Featuring Kevin L. Jackson with SourceConnecte”

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Episode Transcript

Intro – Amanda Luton (00:00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world. Supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things. Supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:00:28):

Hey, good morning, Scott Luton, Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now. Welcome to today’s live stream, Greg, how are you doing? I’m doing well. How are you, Scott? I’m doing fine. And I’m not going to debate you around toilet paper demand percentages. I can’t wait to hear the new number. Okay. Alright. We’re gonna dive into that later. But today it’s all about supply chain buzz right here on supply chain. Now it’s our weekly Roundup of some of the key stories and developments that take place across global industry and why they’re important. So Greg, looking forward to another episode here today and as a special treat, we’ve got a special guest. In fact, Greg, a repeat guest. Yes. Kevin L. Jackson CLO with source connect is joining us about 12:20 PM Eastern daylight time. And Greg we’ve already, I feel like we’ve already gotten a wealth of education just on the pre show with Kevin.

Scott Luton (00:01:23):

Really. I mean, I hope we get to share we’ll I know we’ll get to share this with all of the viewers and I’m excited and thankful for everything he’s done with and for us. So, absolutely. Um, absolutely. Okay. So, uh, stay tuned for what should be a, an outstanding and very informative conversation that will help raise your supply chain act Q but quick programming as everyone is coming in here. Uh, good morning mirror. Good morning, Jen. Uh, Benjamin. Good morning, Steph and great to have y’all here as always. Um, quick programming note today, we published our 400th podcast episode and Greg, it was a pretty special approach. We took tell him, tell folks more, but we gave everybody a at supply chain now. And some people that folks have never met, right? The opportunity to share their favorite episodes and moments and you know, what made it what’s made it so special for them going forward.

Greg White (00:02:19):

So it’s really kind of an outpouring of our love for you folks and, um, the episodes and the incredible talents that we’ve interfaced with. And I hope everybody likes it cause it’s, it’s all us. I mean, it’s genuine. Let me assure you that. Yes, the whole, the whole team. That’s what made it so special to hear, hear some of what they had taken place between the ears and some of their favorite episodes and even more importantly, why? So really a lot of good stuff there. Hey, okay. Uh, so before we dive into our first story, and of course, as always, you can find and subscribe to our podcast, you get your podcasts

Scott Luton (00:03:00):

From, um, Greg let’s say hello to a bunch of folks here. Uh,

Scott Luton (00:03:05):

And, and I apologize in advance. If I get any names incorrect, I hate mispronouncing any name

Greg White (00:03:10):

You want me to take any of them, please?

Scott Luton (00:03:13):

Greg, let let’s let’s turn the tables. Let’s you?

Greg White (00:03:15):

You want me to take it? I’ll take a few. Oh man. And the most challenging one. I’m just going to say guru, Mantravadi welcome aboard and glad to have you, um, on Elisa way. France is with us and Oh, and it’s evening. That’s right, man. Is you got to remember that in all over the world, right? And that’s right. Akiba, Mushtaq. Um, welcome. Good morning. He must see you. You hung must be speaking in our time, I guess, or from the, maybe the West coast of the States is all I can guess for some of these folks. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:03:56):

And I’ve got a couple more coming your way.

Greg White (00:04:00):

Yeah, we see you’ve got that one. There’s nothing, nothing tough about that one. Yep. This is a tricky one. Tyson, do we know a Tyson? So Tyson is the only person on the planet who can make talking about pallets even remotely. Interesting. If you get a chance to go back to, I don’t remember what episode it was, but he’s with the palette Alliance. And again, I think we’ve talked well. I think we feel like we talked about Tyson last week too. Didn’t want it.

Scott Luton (00:04:30):

He’s coming back to him and Aaron and the Palo lion’s team will be back with us soon.

Greg White (00:04:35):

A couple of shout outs too. I know you already talked to Benjamin. Um, um, right. And I’m sure he’s back from his run. His usual run about this time of day and Stefan Mao. I wanted to let him know that I talked with poly from Raleigh, uh, poly from, from Kinaxis and we are working on our German to be, uh, suitable, to discuss and speak in German with Stefan

Scott Luton (00:05:02):

Sanding. Hey Keaton. Good morning greeting.

Greg White (00:05:05):

Great to have your own link.

Scott Luton (00:05:08):

Dan Claudia, your ears may have been burning with that 400 episode. As we found out Devin riddle is a huge, I mean, we’re all Claudia fried fans, but Devin was a big fan of your episode

Greg White (00:05:20):

From Vegas. Yeah. Good to have you back on here too.

Scott Luton (00:05:23):

AA from the air capital of the world, which is where Greg

Greg White (00:05:27):

Go shocks, which talk Kansas. That’s right.

Scott Luton (00:05:31):

And let’s see here. Uh, well, let’s let’s so what we’re going to try to get to everybody. Yeah,

Greg White (00:05:36):

Yeah. We might have to, might have to come back around. Ah,

Scott Luton (00:05:40):

Dog is back from his road trip. He spent some time up in the North Carolina, blue Ridge mountains, I believe. Great to have you back in the studio with this clay.

Greg White (00:05:49):

Yes. At his secret, his secret hideaway in the, in the North Carolina mountains. That’s right. Alright. So tell these people something don’t know, what

Scott Luton (00:05:58):

Do you say? Let’s do it. Alright, so, uh, we’re going to do what we always do. We’re gonna go walk through a variety of headlines on the front end, and then we’ll dive into our segment with Kevin L. Jackson and I’ll stick around for that. It’s gonna be a great, uh, informative interview with, uh, Kevin. Great to reconnect with him. And then we’ll wrap up with a couple of headlines, uh, but for starters, our first headline of the day e-commerce battles are just about the heat up. Even more. Greg, are you ready? I’m ready. So as reported by Recode, Walmart is launching Walmart plus in July when, and this has been in the works for awhile, but it was, it was supposed to initially launch in March or April and got pushed back due to the pandemic, uh, as you might suggest, or if, as you might,

Scott Luton (00:06:45):

Um, um, kind of,

Scott Luton (00:06:47):

I understand it’s a subscription service and much like Amazon prime, which has 15 years, uh, it was launched about 15 years ago. So Walmart plus has a lot of catching up to do. Can you believe it’s 15 years old? That’s that is amazing. Isn’t it? I mean, that was, think about that. That was pre iPhone.

Scott Luton (00:07:08):

Yes.

Scott Luton (00:07:09):

It’s unbelievable. As long as we’re making historical historical milestones was pre iPhone, that’s, that’s pretty impressive. Um, so it’s gonna cost 98 bucks a year and it appears to include some really cool porks at least reported by Recode, same day delivery of groceries and general merchandise, uh, discounts on fuel at Walmart gas stations and early access to special deals and promotions. We’ll see if that takes, takes away some of those special shopping days, if it takes some of that foot traffic away. Uh, originally the plan. Well, we talked about, I was going to, it was supposed to launch earlier. Uh COVID-19 as with everything else, it ruined it. Uh, but factoid for you, Greg Walmart’s us e-commerce sales is about one eighth, the size of Amazon’s. Uh, now a big part of that gap, as you might expect 150 million Amazon prime members. So Greg, the trade. Now the question for you today, are you an Amazon prime member? And if so, or even if you’re not that’s Walmart pus

Scott Luton (00:08:14):

Plus appeal to you,

Greg White (00:08:17):

I am an Amazon prime member. Um, though I think a lot of people think I’m an Amazon hater. I am more of a Amazon challenger. I know they can do better. And as the leader in eCommerce industry, they need to, um, so just to clarify my position, I’m looking really closely at this. Yes. Um, first of all, as in anything, Walmart has a 30% discount. Remember Amazon prime is now $129 a year, at least in the States where it started at 99, apparently 15 years ago. Um, so it’ll be interesting. A couple of really

Greg White (00:08:56):

Fascinating dynamics here. One is Walmart’s eCommerce sales are one eight, the size of Amazons, but Walmart’s sales are orders of magnitude higher than Amazon’s in income in, in retail. So they’ve got that going for them. Also, every single store is a delivery station and they are equipped to do so. I have done [inaudible] buy online pickup in store, buy online pickup in store at Walmart before, and they are unbelievably efficient. They started with trying to drive traffic through the store with the pickup in the back of the store and realized it was a different customer and they moved it to the front of the store. They learn and act very, very fast. Walmart is an unbelievably efficient organization. Second observation, doesn’t it seem like it was not that long ago that everyone hated Walmart and was, they were the most feared retailer on the planet. Uh, I remember people not wanting a Walmart in their neighborhood, right.

Greg White (00:10:02):

Or, you know, um, talking about how Walmart was, uh, was influencing governments to public, uh, domain, right? Certain properties and things like that. But now everybody’s a Walmart fan. Why? Because it’s a very competitive market. And I think it’s prudent for shoppers commerce and supply chain professionals to want good, healthy, strong competition in any marketplace. So well, plus they’re unbelievable. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this. They’re a little bit of the underdog here, right? At least when it comes to e-commerce a little, they’re not, but I mean, they’re not really, but they are, let’s call them a late starter, right? Yeah. Because AMA, um, Walmart has, you know, they have, first of all, their retail is profitable, whereas Amazon’s is not, um, Walmart knows retail. I mean, they changed the entire landscape of retail in the States and they’re doing so around the world as well.

Greg White (00:11:04):

So I think people perceive them as an underdog. I would consider them more of a late bloomer, but I could see where you would get that. Right. Yeah. I think there’s some elements regardless. It’s a great story. Um, regardless it enhanced competition should make e-commerce even stronger and, and more consumer focused, uh, which, you know, Amazon’s done a lot of good things for, so we’ll, we’ll see how it plays out. I know this is like a, this is like covering up a pennant chase. If you’re a baseball fan, it is. And it’s so tight, right? Amazon’s are our Walmarts, um, eCommerce sales were up over 70% have been up over 70%. COVID started additionally, by the way, the marketplace that Walmart has is virtually identical

Scott Luton (00:11:54):

To what Amazon does. They have already have companies that sell goods that you can’t buy in a Walmart store on their marketplace. So they’re very well equipped and let’s not forget also the recent discussion we had just last week that they have partnered with Shopify Shopify, who also has a tremendous amount of online capability and is establishing third party or let’s call it fulfillment logistics. It may not be considered third party fulfillment logistics to compete directly with Amazon fulfillment. Uh, alright so real quick before, move to the next story. I want to recognize a few folks here, uh, MTS, uh, Hey guys, a spot. You now love your efforts in bringing amazing guests. I agree with you looking forward to Kevin had a great time with Tevin last week and great to have you here with this, uh, live via LinkedIn. Uh, we had our first, let’s see here, let’s recognize Nakota ETN, uh, first time catching us live, excited to be here.

Scott Luton (00:12:59):

Great to have you here, looking forward to your perspective and observations here on the show. And, um, let’s see. One more. Jason mosque turn to the show, uh, founder and CEO of the Georgia manufacturing line. It’s great to have you with us here as always. All right. Let’s move right along to the next story. And we’re going to take the reader’s digest version of visual. Maybe Greg, we’ll see. So we can hit Kevin right on time. All right. So in our second headline, a new, a new grocery delivery robot, maybe flying over your head in the upcoming months, Rouses market. My first time hearing this, uh, Greg, not sure if you’ve ever heard of Rouses party. Yeah. They’re testing a grocery delivery drone program this fall, according to this story that comes to us from supply chain DOB, the limited scope program’s gonna focus on one of the company’s grocery stores in mobile, Alabama CEO, Donny Rouse says the groceries will be delivered in 30 minutes or less kind of taking a page from, and it was pizza days.

Scott Luton (00:14:05):

We’ve partnered with deuce drone, which is a Boston based technology company. And if successful, who knows, it may take off like Google wing has a Google wing has been delivering groceries in Australia, Virginia, and Finland for about a year or so. The company reported that usage was up over 500% between February and April, 2020, of course, due to the bent pandemic customers were using Google wing for a, uh, a short list of items. Now, some of these early items, which I’m gonna share with you are to be expected, bread, eggs, milk, toilet paper, which by the way, paper, yes. Toilet paper spiked that according to business insider earlier eight 45%

Scott Luton (00:14:52):

Over typical demand when that was all the rage a few months back coffee, of course,

Greg White (00:14:58):

But get this rotisserie

Scott Luton (00:15:01):

Chickens and sushi are some of the most commonly carried products via Google wing and those markets now. Hmm. Hey, maybe, maybe I’m a little bit slow here, but, and I’m not sure how fast these drones move, but I’m thinking if a drone is taken rotisserie chicken over the skies, you’ve got some Hawks and some Eagles that may take a more vested interest in drone technology.

Greg White (00:15:24):

Yeah. I don’t know. It suddenly becomes a, it suddenly becomes prey. Right? Alright. So not a lot about that. I just don’t do takeout sushi. You know, I’ve lived, I lived in Arizona long enough when the chains there would not do takeout sushi during certain months. And I, I get it. Well, I’ll get this.

Scott Luton (00:15:49):

One of the main concerns that polling has shown and really you’re, you’re doing some foreshadowing there. Consumers are worried that drone delivery will or won’t protect the temperature needs of fresh produce or meat. Uh, so I was surprised to see sushi.

Greg White (00:16:03):

That was my, my immediate question was around that temperature. We shall see

Scott Luton (00:16:09):

Deuce drone has the chops to pull this off in Alabama.

Greg White (00:16:16):

All right. So great. Now I think it’s important for us to recognize just really quickly a drone doesn’t necessarily mean flying. We always think of flying a drone is anything that is remotely controlled or automatically controlled. So that could be an on ground. It sounds like if it’s like Google wing, then it probably is a flying drone and maybe it flies with a, you know, with a container that’s temperature controlled. It’s a good question. Well, Jason also Moss share,

Scott Luton (00:16:47):

Hey, how come beer is not on that list of, that’s a great question, Jason, we’re gonna have to die.

Greg White (00:16:53):

Yeah, frankly. That was my biggest con. That was the thing that caused my concern around temperature control was if it, if they can deliver beer. Yep. No state laws, particularly in Alabama might preclude that, but check ID. Right. So, so

Scott Luton (00:17:12):

Greg, I think what we’ll do here, uh, I want to get you to weigh in just a little bit more on this story, and then we’re going to hold the third headline until after Kevin joins us, which will be a problem. But real quick, before we welcome and Kevin L. Jackson with source connect, Greg, what else about this development? Um, and, and Rouses market in mobile, Alabama, what else?

Greg White (00:17:33):

So a couple things, one surprise never heard of Rouses market. And, um, and that tells you how far drone technology has come, that we aren’t talking about Kroger or Publix or, you know, whomever, right. Um, Wegmans or whatever it is that pervasive that it is in Rouses market. And second, not honestly not surprised at mobile Alabama. So one of the most sophisticated Amazon facilities I ever worked at when I was went to, when I was working with Amazon was in mobile, Alabama called a delivery station. It’s kind of the last step. So mobile is actually a hot test bed for these kinds of technologies. The scale of the community is, is smaller. It’s a fairly compact community, but not tremendously, highly populated and congested. So it allows them to work out the basics before they have to deal with New York city, Atlanta, LA kind of, um, congestion. Yep.

Scott Luton (00:18:34):

That’s good to know, uh, clay ways in, Hey, they’ve made great target practice with these trials. We’ll see if that, that, that plays out. So regardless,

Greg White (00:18:46):

Does that change the season for drones? Hey, maybe we do. Do they do it in duck season?

Scott Luton (00:18:56):

Alright, so, uh, we are excited and, uh, with today’s featured guests to bring back a repeat guest, uh, Kevin L. Jackson, chief operating officer with source connect. Let’s welcome, Kevin. Hey Kevin. Good morning.

Greg White (00:19:11):

Hey, good morning guys. We’re going drone hunting. It’s drone season. Kevin, what? Kevin

Scott Luton (00:19:24):

Greetings. I know you’re based in Northern Virginia area. It sounds like I’m not sure if Google wing is serving your neck of the woods or not, but, uh, clearly, uh, what Google is doing with its wing services resonating.

Greg White (00:19:36):

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think the, um, supply chain is really reaching down to the last mile. You remember when the telecommunications companies were trying to build out their infrastructure to reach that last mile, to get to the house, to get to the car, to get to the cell phone, right. For broadband right now. And you’re seeing that in supply chain with the digital expansion blockchain,

Scott Luton (00:20:10):

It’s a fascinating time to be both a consumer and in supply chain industry right now in 2020, even given the pandemic environment and all the challenges there that that will make the industry stronger and better in the months to come. So, uh, you know, Kevin speaking to pandemic the last time we sat down with you was before the world changed here, at least in the States back in late February and Arizona and the dims get conference, had a great interview. Uh, and I encourage folks. We should’ve included that episode link in the, in the show notes because Kevin has a fascinating story. Former Naval aviator, former

Scott Luton (00:20:48):

NASA team member and, and scientists and technologists. And now of course he’s, uh, e-commerce and technology entrepreneur, uh, just, uh, incredible background. So listeners check out his, uh, his version, maybe clay and Amanda can put that in the comments, but, um, you know, Kevin want to start here today, tell us in a nutshell, tell us more about source connecting what that is.

Kevin Jackson (00:21:11):

Oh yeah. Uh, I’m happy to get away from what I used to do. So that’s pretty fascinating. And I bet a lot of people would like to talk about that, but you probably get that all the time. I’m sure. But source connect is really an online B2B your business to business marketplace and its purpose is to facilitate the discovery and engagement between global scale enterprise buyers and thoroughly vetted diverse suppliers. And I use that term thoroughly vetted it as an important, um, amplifier because companies do business with companies that they know. And typically that takes a long time of relationship to grow. But in today’s world of accelerating business, you may not have time. And we’ve seen that with the, with COVID right. Many, uh, companies needed to, uh, discover fine and start doing business with companies that weren’t traditionally in the healthcare industry very quickly.

Kevin Jackson (00:22:27):

Um, so they had to use information to vet these companies. So that’s one reason why we, we actually launched source connect. It was publicly launched in April of 2020. Um, and we want to maximize the participation of diverse businesses in global commerce. And we do that by curating and building a global ecosystem of trusted business entities. And, and all of this is this trust. It’s not an easy word, right? So we, we cross this based on real data that has been verified by independent third parties. And we stored as beta and the trust, your supplier blockchain enabled information repository. And this is really where the supply chain is going digitalization, uh, blockchain enabled information and track and trace.

Scott Luton (00:23:35):

Hey, one quick question. Before we get you to weigh in, on industry Kevin you’re, you’re working source connect is working with some very well known names companies and then

Greg White (00:23:46):

A lot of early stage companies and all points in between, right? Yeah, yeah,

Kevin Jackson (00:23:50):

Absolutely. So I’ll, I’ll eCommerce platform is built on top of a, uh, blockchain enabled database called the inception ledger. This is a silicone based software as a service that we built on top and we take product and service information and it stored, uh, and served from a tamper proof, blockchain based repository. The product centric approach really creates a platform that overcomes the competitive threats that businesses find when they try to sell online. And once again, this is not business to consumer, it’s a completely different business model, it’s business to business. Um, so we have also teamed with, um, IBM and their rapid supplier connect in order to help, uh, small and medium size businesses, uh, participate and support, uh, uh, first responders and heroes in the healthcare industry, uh, to deal with the shortage of, uh, PPE. Uh, and we’ve also teamed with the SAP Ariba discovery. So both of these things really enhance our merchant global visibility and our digital marketing campaigns deliver over 10 million impressions monthly to our ecosystems members.

Greg White (00:25:25):

So interesting how this episode is sort of shaping up Kevin. So we’re going to talk, and maybe you can stick around if you’re not, if you got a minute, we’re going to talk about, um, how, um, RFID is being used along with blockchain for practical purposes and, uh, Sylvia, Judy, who has taken some time from making jam to join us. Uh, also a supply chain pro, um, says amazing technology with real purpose. So, um, uh, this verification and validation and connection of all of these vendors, that’s a great service to do because especially as we’ve all, well, we, the three of us and David Burton have discussed in terms of having a diverse supplier network. It’s difficult sometimes for companies to find these suppliers and then to verify them and all of that sort of thing. And they usually have a separate kind of process that can be well meaning, but not well serving at times.

Kevin Jackson (00:26:32):

Yeah. And it’s paper based and it takes on 60 to 90 days, right? The way to shorten that sales cycle and buy cycle is with information and data. So data from things like RFID can make the buyer more comfortable that they’re going to get their products. There are so many stories out there where a buyer will put money online for important PPE, just to find out that it’s never delivered because there’s no way to track it. And the information about the buyer, the seller’s past and their most recent exchanges can be provided via this blockchain enabled information ecosystem. So the data it’s tracking products and services, when it’s combined with data about the suppliers and the buyers as well can build that trust that supply chain.

Greg White (00:27:41):

And that’s key, as you said earlier, the key word is trust, right? So, so aside, aside from blockchain and what you’re doing at source connect, which I love, um, tell us what other kind of supply chain issues or technologies or challenges or, or innovations have caught your attention lately?

Kevin Jackson (00:28:04):

Well, you know, this, this COVID is the first time that the entire world has participated in a major global event, um, simultaneously, uh, and environment where we can discuss this same time in real time. Um, and what that has done is really highlight the, the lag that we experience in the supply chain and the way to fix that lag is through information and data. But because the supply chain is kind of slow and antiquated, what we’re seeing now in off finance, Sears, actually brokers and investors that are operating on modern digital platforms, and they are seeing PPE as commodities. So they’re stepping in and they’re buying, you know, nitrile gloves like it’s gold. And there are, uh, setting, uh, commissions and, and price points that are really affecting the supply chain of how to these essential product can be delivered. That’s because they are operating on information and data. Whereas your traditional supply chain members are operating on antiquated tools like pencil and paper and telephone. So what, when large countries like the United States and Brazil and India are, uh, really reeling from the, uh, this, what many are calling the second wave of Corona while the supply chain industry is investing in newer technologies? It’s not here now. So that’s, that’s why, what we’re going through right now and is, uh, a Renaissance, um, supply chain, you know, the eyes are wide open now they understand that it’s all about digitization and online B to B commerce.

Scott Luton (00:30:28):

It’s again, an amazing time, the transformation that’s taking place, uh, both, uh, as you say, the business, the business. Yeah, I think, and Greg, uh, just thinking out loud here, we probably spent a lot of time focused on kind of the consumer facing side of supply chain, but I love hearing about this, the, uh, innovations taking place own that business, the business side, within that trust know, building that trusted spot chain as Kevin spoke, spoke about. Um, all right. For the sake of time, Kevin, uh, what that bring you back and dive in deeper into all the cool things that’s going on with source connect and, and that, that space, um, let’s talk about this one’s that we’ve got a big event coming up and we’ve appreciated source connect sponsoring it. It’s a very Frank conversation. Uh, you know, y’all source connect sponsorship has allowed supply chain now to provide a, um, a grant to the great supply chain program at Morgan state university. So we appreciate your, your generosity. Um, equally as important though, is this Frank discussion that, that we are very honored to just help facilitate, right? Uh, we we’ve gathered a great panel. Uh, we’ve got a lot of folks already registered that will be weighing in from the audience and Kevin, uh, just simple question to you. Why, why is it so important from where you sit to, to have the uncomfortable conversations and really get real Frank with each other in the information and perspective exchange on race?

Kevin Jackson (00:31:50):

Well, human capital, um, is the most important resource we all have. And if we, as an industry are not leveraging the human capital, that’s available in diverse businesses. To the maximum extent we are handicapping ourselves, real laws need to realize that in the United States, as in many countries, most businesses done by small, small businesses, you know, that are two to three people. Many of them, just a single person and doing COVID. Many of these small businesses was really the lifeline that hospitals and first responders in order to fill in the holes where the supply chain faltered and diverse businesses, not just minority owned businesses, but women owned businesses, LGBTQ owned businesses. Um, these businesses jumped in step in and delivered the goods. They weren’t part of the traditional big business healthcare network. So it was, it was difficult for the United States, for example, as a country to really pivot, to attack and protect the country. This week’s event will address that. You know, some say that there is no, um, you know, racism in the modern world. That’s not true racism. Some people say that Kevin, all you can do is smile sometimes. Right. Right, right. So these may be uncomfortable conversations, but they are needed to move forward. So let’s all get together this week. And I applaud a supply chain noun for once again, I know taking the lead in this important topic. Thank you.

Scott Luton (00:34:10):

Thanks for what you shared there. Thanks for your support. It’s great to collaborate with you once again, Kevin, you know, I don’t want to speak for Greg,

Kevin Jackson (00:34:17):

But, you know, speaking for our team, uh, we’re going in, I wish we had more answers. And, uh,

Scott Luton (00:34:25):

As, uh, in these challenging times where we’re, we’re, we’re digesting so much,

Kevin Jackson (00:34:31):

Uh, at once and yeah.

Scott Luton (00:34:33):

And with change, it has to take place. I’ve tried to double down just personally on learning and relearning and challenging assumptions. So going into a conversation like we’ve got

Kevin Jackson (00:34:42):

Teed up on Wednesday, um, just to help facilitate, I’m really looking forward to learning a ton myself and Greg, you know, as you get ready to move into Wednesday, what are some initial thoughts you have? Well, yeah, I will speak for myself. I come from a fairly diverse family. I don’t really look like it, but I do. And I come from a diverse community, which doc, Kansas, which you would also not suspect, but, um, and it was just sort of matter of fact for me and the thing that I believe that really moves the ball forward the most on this is sit down and have a conversation or better yet a meal with someone you don’t know, doesn’t look like you doesn’t sound like you doesn’t live like you. And, and that level of understanding is what it really takes. And that’s what we’re really after on Wednesday. Yeah. Great. We’ll put Greg and Kevin. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:35:35):

Yeah. So Kevin final question really appreciate your

Scott Luton (00:35:38):

Collaboration and your thought leadership and, and, and just kindred spirits that, uh, I’ve felt since our first time together in Arizona. Um, how can folks connect with you in general and then in a very small reader’s digest version, tell us about the event I’ve got coming up in August. Yeah,

Kevin Jackson (00:35:56):

Well, sure. So, um, as you can imagine, I’m on LinkedIn, uh, Kevin L. Jackson, and on Twitter at Kevin underscore Jackson, you can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook or just Google Kevin L. Jackson. Um, and August is really an important event for us as well. Fourth and fifth, we’ll be participating in the national virtual small business expo. This is an online event designed for a B to B, for companies to learn about other companies and to understand and build business network and source connect is actually going to be having a virtual mixer where you can come from the comfort of your laptop and meet other business owners and share business cards and discuss, uh, we also are going to have a panel of corporate buyers. So, uh, uh, also be remiss in not highlighting the fact that we are honored. I have supply chain now as our media sponsor, uh, for the national small business expo, um, August 4th and fifth. So, uh, I’ll see you there. Absolutely. Kevin, thanks.

Scott Luton (00:37:30):

Yeah. Thanks so much for the chance to continue to partner with you and, uh, and really learn from you, learn from all your experience and what you’re doing now. So, uh, Hey, real quick, before you go, Kevin, uh, Claudia fried, I think we’ve got a new t-shirt ism that you contribute this time. This quote human capital is the most important capital we have outstanding Kevin.

Kevin Jackson (00:37:53):

Yeah. Thank you. Alright.

Scott Luton (00:37:56):

Uh, so we’ll see you, uh, in, in, on Wednesday, of course, at the, uh, stand up and shout out sound off event, then of course, we’ll see an early August at your event and to our listeners. We made it easy for you to be able to connect with Kevin. Uh, so check out the show notes and thanks so much, Kevin L. Jackson COO with source connect.

Kevin Jackson (00:38:15):

Hey, can’t wait to be back again. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Thanks, Kevin. Bye. Take care, man.

Scott Luton (00:38:22):

All right. That’s a tough, uh, aspect of, of today’s buzz to kind of move on to the next portion. I mean, there’s so much that we could have dove in deeper with Kevin on a variety of levels to Greg and Greg also appreciate what you shared,

Scott Luton (00:38:36):

You know, um, it’s so important that we speak with our unique individual voice in these, um, uh, these complex Tom’s issues, challenge, I don’t know, but, uh, I appreciate the opportunity to, uh, tackle Wednesday’s conversation and facilitate it, uh, with you.

Greg White (00:38:56):

Yeah. Well, thank you. Um, I can’t think of a better person to facilitate it than you. I mean, your approach to it is it’s mature, it’s thoughtful and caring and that’s, you know, that’s, what’s so important about these times. You can’t hate somebody you’ve sat down and talk to sit down and talk to more people.

Scott Luton (00:39:16):

Absolutely seek, seek first understand. Uh, okay. So on a much, much lighter note before we dive into this third headline here, let’s, let’s say hello to a few folks. Um, gosh, so I can’t do it. Justice pulling these comments over

Greg White (00:39:32):

The conversation about Sylvia’s, um, about Sylvia’s jam as usual has, uh, not, not only in a funny twist, but also a knowledgeable conversation. So to, uh, check out the live comments, especially on LinkedIn, that’s where they seem to be the most live

Scott Luton (00:39:52):

I’m convinced Sylvia has closed the deal, and you’re fine as he says, book it and send me the load confirmation.

Greg White (00:40:00):

No. So I was following that just a little bit. Not only did she sell him, she also, and this is a sales lesson. Maybe we’ll have Jaman use Sylvia as an example, but she also moved him from the product that he wanted, which I believe was Blackberry to peach, which she had so awesome. Phil resell cha you know, change of direction there. So what you have on hand,

Scott Luton (00:40:29):

Uh, so, uh, great to have you join us once again, Sylvia and [inaudible], uh, PR appreciate the lighthearted conversation you bring into the comments. Okay.

Greg White (00:40:39):

Okay. Very soon. I mean, very supply chain relevant. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:40:44):

Uh, okay. Stephan says he’s he agrees any kind of exclusion of a person for one way or another limits growth of any con, but on the flip side, forced quota also does that, but change has to be organic, good comments there from Stephanie. It’s never easy, right? None of this change. Yeah.

Greg White (00:41:03):

Right.

Scott Luton (00:41:05):

Uh, so this is the first time I think Sarbjeet has been with this here. So if you recall, Greg, uh Sarbjeet uh, he also does a podcast and livestreams offers a lot of thought leadership. We worked together and collaborated with Sarjeet on the Sapphire now, uh, event. And, uh, sorry, Jay. I’m not sure if you saw it over the weekend, but based on his recommendation or at least a few comments around the movie, the green book, my wife and I watched over the weekend loved it. It’s got a great mix of

Scott Luton (00:41:34):

Lessons, important life lessons learned and humor, and the actors in, in the actors and actresses do such a great job. SRG. I doubt you realize that your one tweet had much of an impact maybe, but a, we acted on that and, and really enjoyed the movie. Greg, I think you’ve seen that a few, uh,

Greg White (00:41:52):

Or so ago. Yeah. Netflix ought to give him ought to give him a affiliate fees or something. Right.

Scott Luton (00:42:00):

Alright. So on that note, uh, let’s go back. Let’s tackle our third issue here today. Folks are evidently doubling down on RFID in the fight against COVID-19. So Greg, please

Greg White (00:42:12):

Tell him more what a great example of, of using established to be kind RFID is established well established technology and new technology. And because RFID is so established, the cost has come down, right. And that makes it a lot more practical. We were joking with and about Tyson Stephens, um, they’re using RFID, uh, and, and, and other, uh, near-field products to communicate with their palette positions and condition and thing, like things like that, but look, retail, um, manufacturing, distribution, um, airlines have recently used it for logistics and, and baggage tracking. And, and then of course, healthcare, right. COVID-19 hits and exactly the discussion that David was, or sorry that, that Kevin was just talking about, um, David’s his, his cohort at, at, uh, secure connect. Um, but exactly what he’s talking about. So many people are diving into PPE and it’s such an issue in terms of sourcing when the entire world needs to source the same products at the same time.

Greg White (00:43:30):

So what RFID is being used for in healthcare for COVID-19 specifically is for instance, there are microchips embedded to track and authenticate products, and they’re assuring that healthcare professionals are, are adhering to hygiene practices and protocols. So let me give you an example, a specific example, and we’ll talk about some of the dynamics of how this is working. So Suku partnered with a company called smart track, so that RFID data feel, uh, feeds into a, uh, digital identification platform by Avery Dennison. Yes, Avery Dennison the paper and office supply company. Now also a data company that integrates with Sue blockchain based supply chain application. So the RFID tags allow things like test kits to be authenticated as food and FDA approved food and drug administration, U S and drug administration approved, and from a legitimate source, legitimate source being key, right. There are now many, many sources.

Greg White (00:44:41):

And as we’ve talked about with some of the folks that are getting into PPE, either, um, distribution or brokering as, as Kevin was talking about, um, corruption runs a muck in, in the industry right now, particularly for PPE. So, um, what this partnership does specifically is it provides approved suppliers with these, these near field communication RFID tags to use on the specific products like test kits. Literally every single test kit can be tagged and, and they can further do it. So that it’s for a specified manufacturing run. You mr. Approved vendor get 10,000 approved, um, tags so that your production manager, when she kicks off the production line, she run, she can only run 10,000 that have been pre-approved. So RFID tracks the product and blockchain verifies and approves it. So the blockchain, as, as Kevin was talking about, it’s an, it’s an immutable and in alterable records.

Greg White (00:45:57):

So once the blockchain has the record, think of it as all that paper that Kevin was talking about. Once the blockchain has the record, it’s forever, as it was submitted, no one can scratch out the name and put in their name or anything like that. And that’s really the value of blockchain is verification. So you tie that with, with what you know about the product on an RFID tag, because it has a ton of data. It also can tell you where the product is. And then you’ve got the ability to move product, verify it’s it’s mobility and that sort of thing, and, and create this in alterable record of movement and verification and validation, and my favorite and Chris Barnes, favorite word provenance, that, so that allows you to continually, uh, deal with the handoffs, even in the supply chain. Cause one of the discussions that I’ve been having with a very good friend, former Amazon Apple radio, um, executive is w even with blockchain, we’re still trusting the handoff to human hands, but if we make the handoff using electronic means like RFID, then it’s much more traceable and, and much more reliable. Hmm. So think of it this way. RFID is a great data capture and communication device, and blockchain is an alterable record

Scott Luton (00:47:30):

For that provenance and, uh, and, uh, authenticity and chain of custody that we need. The combination is very, very powerful, and it’s a really good practical ex uh, practical example of how these two technologies working together can enhance supply chain and even save lives. Love it. And another great article delivered by, uh, our friends over at watching good stuff there. Um, all right. So Greg moving right along, and I appreciate your deep dive on the, on what we’re seeing in the RFID and technology space and the ballot gets COVID-19, let’s recognize a few comments. I took the graphic away for a second, so that, uh, hopefully these comments are a little bit bigger. Uh, so let’s say, um,

Scott Luton (00:48:19):

So binge and Miguel clang

Scott Luton (00:48:21):

Says what we’ve heard a thousand times, everything is sales well put as always. Uh, so along those lines, Sylvia, Judy says that she learned from the best that her mother sold fond China, and Hamburg’s most prestigious department store Auster house. Uh, and she is a sales genius. Well, maybe we need to bring Sylvia. And her mom said, yes, absolutely. And I believe her mother just needs Stephan to translate my German is still in the works, but yeah. Wow. I’m impressed. Uh, maybe too easily. So, but I’m impressed. I can only speak a little German. Alright. Our buddy, Fred Tolbert, always one of our favorite in these says a supply chain now is providing groundbreaking content with Wednesday show talking about our standup and sound off looking forward to it. Fred, we appreciate that. Looking forward to your contributions there from a webinar guru, which Fred has been on that circuit for awhile and, and Fred looking forward to your guru too. That’s right for your next couple of appearances with us. Uh, Stephan weighs in here. He says, RFID, my carwash place uses it for the FastPass that not being special,

Scott Luton (00:49:38):

But just think about the context,

Scott Luton (00:49:41):

Um, in regards to, COVID-19 not touching the screen to select the option, not touching the card slot nothing. Yeah. I’m with ya, that touchless approach to conducting the transaction much less, whatever they’re touting as your car goes through as equally as valuable, good stuff there, Stephen. Um, and then Tyson says, and I’m not sure if you said this or Kevin, but he hates the use of the word traunches. And then Tyson says, but he uses it. Moist

Scott Luton (00:50:18):

Tyson says he uses it as often as possible. So all of that,

Scott Luton (00:50:23):

Um, and I think that got just about, got us, got us caught up here.

Scott Luton (00:50:28):

So I couldn’t hit everybody, but, um, so much good stuff. I think everybody is ready clearly for the week of July 13th. So on point today are on point today. All right, let’s talk some good news, Greg, some really good news. So how about beef and pork supply chains finally catching up? Uh, according to Michael vote over at farm Bureau, slaughter rates are returning to near normal in the beef and pork industry. So of course, anyone that’s watched a show or heard a lot of our programming. We really track the meat industry quite a bit on the buzz and some other episodes. And as many folks will recall two big factors put a huge squeeze on how much beef and pork we saw, or how little maybe we saw in supermarkets here in recent months. First, our favorite thing to point out Greg historic demand, historic seismic shifting all time record levels of demand as consumers, as it relates to a lot of groceries and meat products, they were filling up their freezers, filling out their pantries.

Scott Luton (00:51:35):

They couldn’t get enough. Secondly, though, from a supply standpoint, slaughterhouses were going offline many for weeks at a time due to COVID-19 kind of micro outbreaks in each of these big plants. So you had demand off the charts and supply was really getting staggered. I think a supply for beef and pork each hit 35% less than a year earlier. Uh, I think it is a fact is, um, a data point I saw earlier that, uh, over the weekend, so the lower throughput levels led to a ton of livestock still on the farms. Right? You had that constraint. And unfortunately, uh, we had to destroy a lot of livestock, which hopefully we can, we can move them forward. We can always, yeah, we can figure out a way to avoid that. So all of this has changed, uh, uh, we’re seeing slaughter throughput levels have rebounded more quickly than most analysts even predicted.

Scott Luton (00:52:34):

If you recall, Greg, it was probably a month or so ago. Someone analysts said that we are going to be dealing with beef and pork challenges into 2021. So they’ve rebounded quickly. There’s still a backlog of animals that that’s still the case, right? Um, from farms to lot slaughter houses. So maintaining these high throughput levels are going to be really important. Uh, but look at the man now, especially now that we’re past July 4th, which, you know, everyone barbecues or does a gathering or something. Well, typically the next couple of months after July 4th, we do see soft demand. And coming off these historic highs from a month or two ago, it’s going to be even, it’s going to feel even softer, but one big development that a lot of, uh, beef, a lot of meat companies, meat providers are, are tracking, keeping their finger on the pulse of is whether or not schools and colleges and universities reopen or don’t reopen.

Scott Luton (00:53:37):

Of course they reopened and students are back their cafeterias and institution. You know, that they’re going to need a lot more beef and pork, especially what they call middle meat, which is, is typically, doesn’t not what is really bought and sold in supermarkets, but it’s for institutional food applications. So, um, it’s good news, right? We’re seeing a more consistent level of supply after, especially coming off where, you know, your, your quantities were being limited and you just you’d walk through the meat aisle and you just have that, that, uh, visual kind of shock to the psyche,

Greg White (00:54:15):

Right? So you get union feeling, right?

Scott Luton (00:54:18):

So, um, but a lot of good news and you know, Greg, I know we’ve said it a thousand times, but it’s just so incredible how fast things can evolve supply and demand wise in the world of supply chain? What, what sticks out to you?

Greg White (00:54:31):

Well, I mean the working conditions are no, hardly more pleasant for human beings than they are for the animals. In fact. And that led to a lot of the issue with the people literally literally work shoulder to shoulder in those plants. Um, I don’t see that as sustainable, but that particular means of working, but they’ve somehow managed to get production back up. But I think it also has had something to do with the fact that as you said, Scott saw a demand has softened, right. Um, and who knows if we, you know, how, how Willy, I know people are eating meats, um, if the, if the meat processors and Packers and, and, um, butchers, if they’re hoping for schools and institutions to save them, they are wishing on a star.

Greg White (00:55:26):

I can tell you that, that, you know, the fact that Harvard is going, um, is going completely virtual and that my youngest daughter’s a university is giving her or, or professors currently the option to have in-person or remote classes tells me that no one is committed to going back in person. And if anyone has followed any news around the world at all, they probably know what’s going on in the States in terms of getting even elementary, you know, and, um, you know, pre pre college aged kids into, into school. So it’s gonna be a challenge, but, um, I’m going to do my part. I can, I can assure you of that.

Scott Luton (00:56:20):

What’s your going to say by consuming plenty of beef and pork,

Scott Luton (00:56:24):

Uh, you’re still in age. Yeah, my brother, my youngest brother will do his part by not he’s vegan. So he’s my carbon offset. That’s there you go. I love that. Well, you and Nerf are kindred spirits. I have an affinity for beef for all of you, beef shippers. If you have overstocks and to me, all of your extras, I will handle the retail side of things. And I’ll send you free advertising of your meat on my smoker and barbecue. That is awful kind of you [inaudible]. Yeah. We’ll also look at clay. I did not know this, so the dogs are bringing the dog back on campus. So, you know, we probably should know that. I’m sure he said that, but it did not register until this very moment that they will be back on campus. So that’ll be, that will be interesting. I know that they’ll, you know, there’ll be making the appropriate provisions, but it will likely have some benefit in terms of, um, certainly in terms of the, the economy in Athens, Georgia, right? Sure. Those kids back on, on campus,

Scott Luton (00:57:33):

College towns, like Athens, like Clemson up the road. I mean, they depend on, uh, the student economy,

Scott Luton (00:57:41):

So to speak, so we’ll see how that plays out. Okay. But most importantly,

Scott Luton (00:57:47):

Steps getting, taking place, getting creeping back to normal,

Scott Luton (00:57:53):

You know, of course we pray for everyone’s health and safety,

Scott Luton (00:57:55):

But hopefully these are good signs of things to come. All right. So let’s stick with the meat

Scott Luton (00:58:02):

Industry in our fifth and final story here, Greg. I found some of these things,

Scott Luton (00:58:07):

Uh, expected. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:58:08):

When it comes to more automation, which is set to proliferate in the beef, pork and chicken production. Very well be the answer to the question we just posed in the last article. Right. So yeah. Good point. Good point. So as reported by wall street, journal and industry leader, really a couple it’s turning the robots. So let’s set the table a bit here. Cause I think as Greg started to share a few things about the meat industry, it’s really important to have that, that, that context. Uh, so production processes and slaughterhouses, whether it’s beef, pork, chicken, you name it heavily for years has relied on manual labor for generations. And, you know, it’s a dangerous environment. I mean,

Scott Luton (00:58:51):

A lot of it is manual cutting in some cases it’s yeah.

Scott Luton (00:58:55):

Uh, high speed, uh, automated cutting, but a lot of blades, a lot of moving pieces. And of course you gotta meet throughput levels just for sheer demand.

Scott Luton (00:59:06):

Typically. Um,

Scott Luton (00:59:08):

The levels as Greg was talking about the levels of worker density are amongst the highest in industry. I’ll check out the chart here, I’ve got on the visual. So according to the data in this article, over three employees per square feet,

Scott Luton (00:59:22):

Which puts it at the top of all the industries that they had data on. Now that’s probably skewed because I’m sure there’s, there’s frozen warehouse space that probably they had to lump into the data. If you’ve seen any of these poultry lines or if you’ve or, um, production lines, or if you’ve ever toured had the opportunity good or bad to tour these facilities, you’ll see exactly what Greg was talking to shoulder to shoulder, uh, you know, production lines and things are moving fast. Um, and then when you think about implementing Gregg physical distancing during the pandemic, and just how much that changed, you know, capacity and throughput, and they had to manage, you know, they are all trying to manage the safety of the workforce. There was, uh, so many moving pieces here when it comes to this industry. So that’s when we saw plants go offline, you know, and many had to shut down for a couple of weeks at obligatory, you know, uh, timeframe. They had to wait out, uh, due to these workforce infections so that, you know, with that context, Greg, anything else you want to add in terms of kind of industry and what these environments are like before we kind of dive into them, we know they either perceive

Greg White (01:00:33):

Saved or, uh, felt compelled to speak that they were near a tipping point because I think we gave, uh, John Tyson quite a dressing down some weeks ago about saying the supply chain is breaking. Now that was in the chicken industry. Right. I believe that he was speaking maybe, maybe not only to chicken, but, and there was some, so I don’t know if anybody followed that on LinkedIn, but I know that 13,000 or so people did and, and hundreds of them felt compelled to comment on it. There was some speculation that John, the chairman of Tyson may have been trying to manipulate the market. Some, um, I don’t, I didn’t even follow up to see whether that happened or not. I don’t know. But the fact is that he felt compelled to enunciate. That was, uh, was reflecting on their ability, at least his belief in their ability to deliver.

Greg White (01:01:29):

Right. And that the company needed a boost in one way or another. Um, so yeah. Um, it has been an issue. It’s a dangerous workplace, as you said for humans. It’s, Intro – aum, you know, if you’ve ever watched a YouTube video, it it’s better not to, um, I mean, and, and older to shoulder work in a dangerous environment at a high speed. So I think if this, you know, we talk a lot about robotics and what the real value of robotics is, and if the value is not in replacing human jobs, it is in elevating people into human jobs that aren’t as dangerous, that aren’t as unhealthy, that aren’t as mundane or repetitive, right. So hopefully they can find a way, a way to do this. I think we’ll put, they most certainly can

Scott Luton (01:02:23):

Before we even got automation, you’ve got to think of all the mains of dollars at each of these meat companies spent on safety equipment and thermal scanners and workplace partitions. Just how, how much of a shift at what massive shift for, for operations in general, as they, as they really doubled down on trying to protect the workforce? Yeah. So that was of course the reactive measure. And so Greg, you, and I both know, uh, supply chain leaders, effective ones, try to get out of firefighting mode and out of reactive mode and try to route calls, analyze exactly what took place so they can avoid it. So the question many of these companies and their leadership were asking themselves is how can we avoid this happening again? Well, there’s no easy answer, especially in these con these complex, these, these, these, um, these environments, which have to work so fast just to meet demand, but here’s some next steps they already had. Some companies were already going down the path. Uh, their first there’s two examples that article really focuses on. Uh, and at Tyson who you were talking about earlier, a team that includes former auto industry engineers and designers, or they’ve been developing an automated, the boning system that will handle some portion of the roughly 39 million chickens, 39 million chickens that are processed each week and Tyson plants alone. Wow. That is

Greg White (01:03:46):

Boggling. It is

Scott Luton (01:03:48):

This work. This project is part of the roughly $500 million that Tyson has been investing in technology and automation going back a few years. So, so the steps were already in place that pandemic probably answered the question. Why, uh, for so many folks that maybe didn’t get it earlier and CEO, no white says that this type of investment will increase in the years to come given recent pandemic experiences. So, uh, but you know, the trickiest part rig, I don’t know if you’ve ever done any butchering. Um, I haven’t, but as I was, I’m an expert article reader, uh, perhaps perhaps the trickiest part is maximizing the yield per animal, right? I mean, you gotta think there is a trainable skill, but there’s also a great science and like an art to this high skilled employees still hold the advantage. But the gap is, is seemingly closing. So Pilgrim’s pride, which is the second biggest us chicken processor has implemented boning machines for years. These machines now trail humans by only one to 1.5% in terms of meat yield per chicken. So that gap is closing,

Greg White (01:05:02):

Right? Yeah. And my guess that that gap exists because that’s old, old technology because the gap, it can easily be closed by the technology that exists today, right? Yes. Agreed. It’s I mean, let’s face it. We all want to believe that our job is secure, but the fact is it is impossible. This is the, this goes back to John Henry, right? It is impossible for us to be as precise as a device. So I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but, but the device has to exist and the will has to be there to put it into play. And the truth is in some measure, amazingly some of these companies are being, um, community aware and they don’t want to replace workers and devastate yet more rural communities, which is where a lot of these, these facilities exist or smaller communities and put everyone out of work at once. So they are, I’m sure intentionally metering in the way that they, um, you know, that they undertake this. But yeah,

Scott Luton (01:06:14):

Check out to our listeners, check out this article. This article is a really a comprehensive research and deep piece. I kind of just was able to take some of the highlights, but lots of transformation taking place, right? During these times in this very traditional, uh, and long resistance to change on some level industry, being the meat industry, part of the, the very important food supply chain. Good stuff. So, Greg, we are already over six minutes here, but I’m going to ask you before I sign off, uh, what is, you know, your, your one big thing as we wrap up

Greg White (01:06:50):

This edition of the supply chain bus on July 13th? Well, this was a, this was a lot about technology and it was a lot about the positive impact of technology and the thing that resonates with me about some of this news and what Kevin said, um, and what Kevin’s organization does. Uh, and, and some of the comments that we’ve gotten from the viewers is that there is nothing to fear from technology, right? First of all, again, I will repeat this. The largest generation in the history of the planet is leaving the workforce at the rate of 10,000 a day on average. And I would argue that at this point, probably at a much, much greater level, they’ve gotta be saying, what am I working for at this point? Right. So many, um, baby boomers and, and the popular and population decline worldwide is now inevitable. So we have to have technologies to help us to do these things.

Greg White (01:07:51):

We demand, frankly, safety, we demand health and we demand. And especially in this cobot environment, we demand, uh, spacing and, and, um, work place room, which means more robotics, right? Our friends eat plus hat. This is one of my favorite. One of my favorite drones of all is a drone, a robotic drone that goes through an office building at night and shoots the place with UV rays to kill germs and that sort of thing. So those kinds of things in this latest example, um, of, of being able to now with today’s technology, to be more efficient than a human being, uh, I’m glad for it, frankly, that allows us to do those jobs. That frankly pay more are safer and, um, and do still require and will still require human intervention or even human primary action for years, maybe even decades to come. Welding is a great example of that. Yep. Um, I wonder if they offer

Scott Luton (01:08:55):

Our residential version of one of those UV shooting, either erase shooting machines. We’d love to have one here and experiment one with three kids that run around the house.

Greg White (01:09:04):

Well, they do sell not a robotic one, but they do sell a little lights. We have one, it’s not exactly we weren’t exactly using it for that purpose. Maybe for some rowdy dogs who might yeah.

Scott Luton (01:09:21):

To our audience. Thanks so much for tuning in here today. I know we ran a little bit long, uh, loved all the comments that we could get to, uh, wish we could have gotten even more of the comments here today. Um, something that, uh, you know, when you do a live stream, you try to get everything right. Especially people’s names and I don’t want to make light. And when Greg and I on the front end, we’re trying to say low to provokes. That is really important to us. And for fo especially tune in, right. I mean, for anyone that tunes in, uh, if we got your name wrong, please shoot us a note.

Greg White (01:09:52):

We want to get all of that. Right. Um, about phonetic spellings, we are happy to, we are happy to, uh, comply. No doubt.

Scott Luton (01:10:01):

Absolutely. Uh, and the email for that is the same as, you know, if you, if you can’t find something we talked about here today, shoot our CMO note, Amanda, at supply chain now radio.com. Uh, let us know how we can help, let us know how we can, we can get pronunciation, right. But if you’re something you can’t find via our website or what have you,

Greg White (01:10:21):

Uh, she used to note and we’ll help as much as we can join us

Scott Luton (01:10:25):

For Wednesdays, stand up and sound off we’re. We’re having a Frank discussion on race and industry. Um, you can sign up for [email protected]. We welcome. And we really want to hear what’s between your ears on this tough topic. Greg, you’re going to say something.

Greg White (01:10:43):

I was just going to say, I think we put the links in the, in the live, um, comments here on all the platforms and we’ll put them in the show notes as well. Perfect. There they go. Again, look, it’s a great call out. Alright.

Scott Luton (01:10:58):

That’s right. Check us out. Supply chain outward.com. Check out the 400th podcast episode. We publish a day. Hopefully you enjoy that. As much as I loved hearing from the team on that, we need to have one of those regularly, uh, the challenge we’re going to throw out there that we always, again, we’re challenging ourselves as much as we’re challenging audience, but that is to do good give forward and be the change that’s needed here in 2020 and beyond. And on that note, we’ll see you next time on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):

[inaudible].