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Hey, good morning, Scott Luton and Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now, welcome to today's live stream, the supply chain buzz, Greg, how you doing?
I'm doing well, Scott, how are you doing?
We are doing wonderful. Of course we enjoyed debriefing with the team this morning on the real star.
What were we talking about? I can't imagine what could be the topic of
The day. Well, it was a real star of the show last night, the, the halftime show, right?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like I guess, uh, a bunch of kids found out what their parents were really like West
Coast. Well, you know, I'm not gonna let out any secrets on Valentine's day, but I will just say that, um, our kids saw their mother, Amanda, uh, as a rap superstar last night because she knew every single syllable of some of those songs we heard.
Yeah. I have no doubt. Well, you know, we have one daughter who's old enough to know fitty cent back when he was thin. Um, but Hey, we're all getting older
And we all, and the struggles real right struggles real.
Right. But other than that, it was, it was quite the awakening for our, uh, our two younger daughters and had to let 'em know that the nineties call and said, you're welcome.
I love that. I wish I'd been there, but Hey, it was pretty entertaining here. And regardless what an incredible show that the game was great. But man, that halftime show, um, you know, prince gave that legendary performance, uh, several years back. And, and you saw a lot of references to that last night based on just how good of a halftime show that was, right?
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting to see, uh, what age demographic that they're, they're promoting to when you see that many people that enthusiastic about nineties music, eighties and nineties music. Right.
Love it. So we're not too old.
It still had to be square. It still had to be square for sure. Well, Hey, um, really quick, everybody, although anyone that's already tuned in, we have a little issue or our, our platform has a little issue with displaying comments here today. So, uh, if you've already shared some, um, we have not, um, there's a little, little glitch, uh, Teo, technologically. So we're gonna work through that. We'll see if the platform, which is our great friends over at streamy yard, we've been using for a couple years now. They do a great job. We'll see if they can maybe, uh, get a fix, um, uh, while we're still on air. But, uh, just so you know, we're not ignoring anybody here today. Uh, it is a little glitch with the platform. So
All the money that hop in got when they bought 'em you'd think right. They should be able to fix it pretty quick. Don't you think?
I sure hope so. Who they got SWAT team kinda like car SWAT team, but uh, we
Just need to have clay call em, clay used to be top of their cons their consumer list. That
Is right. That is right. Um, okay. So, and, and Catherine, uh, big, thanks. Uh, Catherine, Amanda and Chantel behind the scenes making all happen today. We just got a note that yes, uh, the comments still are not coming through, so Hey, we're gonna work through and, and hopefully we'll have a fix before the hour's done, but Greg, before we get into some of the news of the day, let's share just a couple of, uh, quick announcements. Cause we've got a busy week, right?
Been, uh, it's been a busy several weeks busy beginning of the year, hasn't it?
It really has, uh, historically busy beginning of the year, which is a wonderful thing. So again, today's supply chain buzz where we share some of the leading stories across global business. Uh, and we don't, we wanna hear from you too. So if you can't, if the links aren't coming through the comments aren't coming through, feel free to, uh, uh, hit up amanda@supplychainnow.com and maybe we can find a different way of sharing your, your POV, uh, quick tweet us tweet us. Yeah. Tweet at us tweet at us. Is that a thing? I think I still a thing
Yeah. At underscore supply chain now
Underscore supply chain now. Yes, because we wanna underscore how important the supply chain is, right?
A roll this morning already, Greg. Uh, it is,
I didn't drink anything watching the super bowl last night, which is why
It is the morning after the Los Angeles Rams won the, uh, world championship NFL. Um, so this week, big week, uh, it starts today, of course, but then on Wednesday, Greg, we walk him in port city, logistics and turbo now port city logistics. Uh, we had a ch of, of meeting and connecting with Michael Kaney last week. He's a dynamo. The organization is on a role. Uh, and I can't wait to share some of their story and how turbos helped empower their growth and success on Wednesday at 12. And Greg, you and I both.
Yeah, no doubt. I'm looking forward to it. You know, I got a, a kind of a neat care package from, uh, Michael and his team at port city, really like a Moran. I left it in Atlanta. So otherwise I'd, I'd bust out the cap and
Well, put that on. We'll hold you to that on Wednesday. But uh, beyond the merch, the story, and some of the interaction we're gonna hear about is going to be second to none, and then it gets even better, Greg cuz on Thursday, we've got the legendary Dr. Randy Bradley who's with university of Tennessee, right. Wonderful supply chain program. Some
People may have heard they have a pretty good supply chain school.
Right. And the one not only GE Quan, Quan, I think Kaan close
Enough for rock and roll. Yeah. He's probably used to it.
I'm gonna get that right on. I course, yes. I'm gonna get that on Thursday, but GE and Randy, uh, are gonna bring it as we, uh, look, look at the title here, the supply chain, super bowl, human versus machine. And so we're gonna have a very neat engaging, uh, passion discussion around the gains digital transformations making and Greg, as we've talked to a thousand times, all the dual wars of opportunity that opens for the workforce out there. Right?
Yeah. I wanna know who's paying for that title because you're about to get a phone call from Roger Goodell.
That is a great point. Uh, so on that note, let's just flip really
Quick. The supply chain big game. Yeah. Let's get that off
Supply chain, big game. Uh, that's a great point there. All right. So let's talk about the supply chain and procurement awards, right? 20, 22 supply chain and procurement awards. Greg nominations, nominations, nominations, nominations are open folks. Greg throw that Golet down and challenge our, our global audience to either self nominate. You can nominate cut customers, suppliers, supply chain partners,
Service providers. If you are, if you are involved in the supply chain and you all are, if there's someone you admire or, um, do business with that, you just feel is unbelievably exceptional. Nominate them because this is a global honor and there are nominations in from all over the world.
Over every single continent, I think, right? I mean so far I think
We hit? 'em all. I'm not sure if we've hit, 'em all,
Uh, we've hit every continent. Uh, we've got an executive judge panel that hails for, from, from all parts of the world will have attendees from globally. Again, it is not, you know, this, this is built on the legacy of some really popular and engaging Atlanta supply chain awards, where we were limited Greg to folks that had a base of operations in the Metro Atlanta area. That's no longer the case folks, wherever you are, you can, and we've got nine really cool different awards. It's really something for everybody across that proverbial end to end supply chain. So as Greg said, everybody's in supply chain, y'all get out there and nominate and little sweetener is all the nomination fees. $200 is get, gets donated to our great friends at hope for justice, which is on the, on the move, in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking. So it's a win, win, win all the way around. Right.
All right. So let's see here. Let's check on. Uh, well, Hey, we got a great question from Ts square, Ts square. I hope this finds you. Well, you hold down to Fort for on YouTube. He says, uh, our ACA academicians
Okay. Including academics.
He just did that to throw you off. I
Bet he doesn't take much. Doesn't take much. Yes, absolutely. We're we are including anybody. Um, the awards built and the different categories were really built to offer just enough structure so that they're, they differ they're um, the non different awards are, are different, but yes, anybody is eligible and we'd welcome, uh, you to nominate their Ts scored. Great to have you back here today. All right. We've got a couple comments Gregory. Um, let's see here. And, and again, the comments are not, we
Yes. The comments are not working well today, but I'm gonna read off a couple that the team is posting. So Dr. Ron is with us today. Happy heart day, everyone. She says love that. Uh,
Oh yeah. Nobody forgot that. I hope.
Hopefully not. Um, and if you did, I'm gonna be raffling the, this thing off, uh, later, later today
It started a hundred thousand dollars,
Cheaper. All right. So, uh, Sophia Revi Herrera is with us here today and she was just a minute ago. She was, uh, talking about the real star of the show. The avocado was from Mexico last night. Uh, and you know, there's some supply chain news there as well, but Sophia, great to have you here today. Um, let's see.
Scott, did you have a favorite commercial? Did any of 'em make an impact on you?
Uh, the Toyota commercial about the two Paralympians was awesome. I thought, yeah,
Boy, that'll bring it to, to your eye. Won't it? Yeah,
No kidding. Um, and then there was brothers. Yes. Yeah. And one brother did not let the other brother fall back behind that. That was a, that was a powerful one. And then there was one more in the second half that I pointed out to my daughter and she didn't agree. I can't remember what that was, but, but what about you, Greg?
E-Trade baby? The E-Trade baby is out of retirement. Did you see that?
When they first started that commercial, I was like, that's not exactly the same baby, obviously. Yes. But the E-Trade baby came out of retirement. Check that out on YouTube, wherever it is. It's it's a hilarious commercial. It's very funny.
Well, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to check that out right from the mouth of babes. Good stock advice, I guess. Um, all right. So again, folks, the comments aren't working, but Amanda is giving me Amanda, the team Catherine are giving me updates on the other side, Peter Bole all night and all day is with us today. He had quite spread last night, Greg. He posted about it in supply chain, chow on Facebook.
David Glover, uh, uh, Rhonda, as we talked about Jean pledger from north Alabama is with us here today. Mohe is back with us. Uh, Charlie B uh, David is back with us. Sheldon rose is back. Uh, love that. All right. Um, Keith Conley. Now we ran into Keith Conley at, in Vegas at the reverse logistics conference expo. And we're gonna be interviewing him. He was a, he was a, he was, uh, I believe and Keith correct me if I'm wrong. I believe he served as a chief supply chain officer with at and T and now he's consulting and teaching, uh, at the college of Charleston, we're gonna interview him and a couple of students. So it should be a really cool and
He's just up the street. And by the way, you know, we, we talked the other day about the forthcoming, uh, Hilton head, um, shipping index, right? Yes. Well, because just up the street is Charleston. I did a little analysis on, oh, can you see that?
Just it's little blur. Uh,
It's not gonna fall focus on that. I did a little analysis on Charleston and while, um, and it's, this probably has to do with the amount of traffic while there is, there are no ships offshore of Hilton head anchored, uh, waiting to go into, um, Savannah's Harbor. There are plenty off of, off of Charleston, really.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're, you know, I think much more traffic probably going to Charleston than, than Savannah. That's the only thing I can guess, but there are plenty, but we're also gonna talk about the volume
Are of backup here shortly.
Well, that is a wonderful, That's a wonderful segue and folks, uh, as Greg just alluded to now that, uh, part of his home base of operations is in beautiful Hilton head. We're gonna be getting a shipping index. So stay tuned, uh, for what's Greg white is up to next, but he mentioned maybe
We'll have to combine him the, the, the Savannah Charleston. Yes. Index let's call it that.
Okay. Let's do it. That sounds like
Yes. Uh, and, and that is a great move there, but better yet. We're gonna start with some good news here on the supply chain buzz, alluding to what, where Greg just took it with shipping. So I'm not talking about that epic, epic halftime show last night, which was set our team, our all a buzz. But I am talking about the backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and long beach. And I get this Greg, according to the wall street journal, as of last Tuesday, the backlog was down to only 78 chips, 78 vessels waiting to dock and, and, and offload their cargo containers. So yeah, so a little bit of a mess, but you gotta keep that context. That's down from a peak of 109 ships just a month prior in mid-January. So doing some quick math there down, uh, about 30 vessels, uh, the backlog's been cleared a little bit. Uh, so Greg, your take
Could be seasonal, you know, um, we're just coming and off of holiday. Of course also, it, it is, um, Chi, uh, Chinese new year. So, um, you know, there's no work going on in China right now. Right. Um, just don't know, I don't know that it's definitive yet, but it's, it's at least something to look toward and the number has stopped going down. I don't know if everybody knows this, but they were having ships anchor as far as 150 miles offshore because of the level of pollution that they were putting into the air in the LA area. And anyone who has lived in LA, like me knows that that's bad, had enough, no matter what's going on. Right. It makes for a beautiful sunset blue stream does make beautiful sunsets, but, uh, it is hard to breathe though, in LA, I know there are many people who don't trust air that they can't see. So,
Yeah, I think, I think we're, I, I believe that we are seeing it come down. Okay. Maybe not for good, but, and maybe only incrementally. And there is of course some seasonal effect here, but, um, any break that these ports get with the additional effort that they have put in place should give them some room to, um, you know, to relieve the, the backlog
Agreed, agreed, um, and great Kyle there. Cause we can't just take the number in and of itself and say, oh, the log Jam's breaking for. Good. And, and, and things are gonna be just, you know, sunny and, uh, uh, unicorns and, and candy corns, uh, in the weeks and, and days ahead. Right. Gotta be, we gotta look at that context. So Greg does excellent point there. Um, I wanna, I
Mean, what got us into here was being a bit too optimistic. I mean, hon, honestly, this was let's. We have to face fact this was a black Swan event, but there was virtually no consideration that black Swan events could happen built into many, many, many, uh, supply chain models. In fact, I just, I did a, a summary of an R article today. Uh, speaking to that context, we have to cease to see supply chain as a cost saving exercise and look at it as a risk balancing exercise. And we always have to have our eye on the risk as the sad, but true philosophy that I have around supply chain is assume that everyone will fail you yes. And work to mitigate that
Excellent commentary as always. And folks, you gotta connect or follow at least Greg white, uh, he drops two or three, um, supply chain commentary. I, I call it their they're stop in your tracks, uh, POV, uh, uh, uh, comments and they in articles two or three times a week on LinkedIn. So make sure you find Greg white and make sure it's the Greg white, there's lots of imitators out there. Make sure it's a real deal.
The real deal. Holy field. Um, Hey, so everybody, the comments aren't working still, right? So, so it's a, it's a platform issue stream. It's a streamy yard issue, which we love our friends. It streamy yard, but little bit of glitch. And if y'all know, link in it is constantly updating. So sometimes the plugins don't work well. So we're reading from our production team, uh, what y'all contribute. So Kim winter is with us here today, Greg. Now we big shout out to Kim and the logistics executive group, the global team. They have recently partnered with us on the supply chain and procurement awards and, um, some great partners there. And Kim's talking about how we sent, um, the us Senate squadron of one of the world's most dominant, um, aircraft platforms, the F 22, the lightning F 22, uh, from the first fighter wing from joint based Langley used to Virginia used to be, uh, Langley air force base back in the day, but as the co uh, command structure changed. So it's there to, uh, hopefully keep the peace in the middle east, uh, based on, I think the, the Houthis, um, some of, some of the, um, uh, operations that are going on there, um, in the middle east. So we'll see
Maybe getting a little bit closer to Ukraine also.
Absolutely. That's a great point. Uh, and we'll talk about the impact of what, um, uh, what, of, what any Russian action in Ukraine, what that might me for global supply chains towards, uh, the end of the show here today. So Kim, thanks for sharing that best, all the best of you and the wonderful, uh, uh, logistics executive group team, Jose Montoya is here. Jose, great to see you here. Uh, he says, uh, Chinese new year drives the improvement, uh, going back to the ports, but the number of vet number of vessels will increase again shortly is what Jose projects.
So the, yeah, ships are being built at a rapid pace as a matter of fact, right. Um, you know, one of the things that has led to a lot of this uptick is companies are shoeing some aspects of lean inventory just in time inventory. And now they're building more just in case inventory and that sort of all hit it once, right? And that impacted capacity on the high seas. And of course, where there is chaos, there is profit. And we know that the shipping companies are making piles and piles of it as usual, but especially now, yeah, and they're building ships like they're going outta style, which some of their ships are actually going outta style. Right?
So on that note, let's keep rolling, uh, across the high seas here, and we're gonna arrive at what's really a hot investment world of cold storage, Greg cold storage. We talked about that everybody and brother and sister talked about cold storage. So as reported by supply chain dive the biopharma cold chain source book is projecting global, uh, global cold chain spending to grow 24% from 2020 to 20 24, 4 years, 24%. Now, Greg, that would make it at 21.3 billion industry billion. As in Bezos. Now with that mind DHL is taking decisive action. DHL of course the global, uh, shipping company is taking decisive action to serve the needs in the market. 400 million is what the company is spending this year alone to expand its pharmaceutical and medical device distribution footprint by 27%. Right? So it's growing, wow, it's that footprint by almost a qu over a quarter. Now DHL executive was quoted in this piece by supply chain dive, which is a wonderful resource by the way, big fans, um, said that the investment focuses on lessons learned during the pandemic, including just in case versus just in time. And that that discussion has rippled out across global industry. For sure. So Gregory, I ask you, what do you see here when it comes to cold storage?
Well, uh, this is building on something we saw at the beginning of last year, recall that Americold and linear logistics both acquired a lot of capacity, Vivi other companies with cold storage in anticipation of, um, of storing and, and, and transporting the, the, uh, vaccines. So, uh, I think, I think DHL is prudent. DHL is the German post office or their, their global arm. Right? Yep. Um, so they're very analytical as you might imagine. And they clearly, they see a long term future here for this kind of storage less, they would not be investing. And it's a substantial investment in about 3 million. You may have already said that about 3 million additional square feet of, of storage. And, um, that's substantial, you know, DHL's already one of the world's largest companies in terms of, of employees and, uh, outside the United States, the premier logistics company in the world, I recall 15, 10, 15 years ago, having a discussion with DHL and coming from Atlanta, right. Saying, so what do you guys think about ups? And they said, oh, we don't think about ups. They're not big enough to compete with us. And I, I was taken aback by that. And at that time, that was true. I'm not sure that it is now, but, uh, stunning that they were a, a real education for me, that they were that big of a company and that influential in the marketplace. And it continues here.
Agreed, agreed. Um, well in interesting, uh, this is fascinating cold storage is a fascinating industry and, uh, we expect to have a big interview coming up soon with a move and shaker from that industry. Uh, I wanna share a couple comments and we're gonna go back maybe to the previous story there, but I'm gonna share these. And again, folks, the comments mechanism, the comments machine isn't working. It's a, it's a, it's a platform issue, uh, higher than, than, uh, our team, uh, our pay grade above our pay grade. Thank you, Greg. Uh, Mohe going back to the story a second ago about the ports, uh, he says my take on this is that it is a divine strategy to tip the scale towards insourcing and use of more renewable energy for protection. So the good Lord is getting involved and clogging our ports. So it, so it changed where MOAP, I think you were saying that tongue in cheek, but, uh, I think that's a great, uh, a great idea, Greg.
Yeah, I think so though, the cost of labor, um, I mean, cost of labor is the reason that we have these far flung supply chains to begin with. And the fact that it is, I mean, companies are already paying 10 to 20 times, 10 to 15 times what they were paying for containers. And it's still more economical to do that than to, um, use renewable sources and insource goods or production or storage or those sorts of things. So the numbers are far, far apart for that. Also, um, I read a, an article briefly today that said the investment in purely green companies is declining rapidly and companies and the, and investment is going more towards companies that are making energy transition from, for instance, fossil fuels to the lesser fossil fuels. Right, right. Rather than issuing fossil fuels and just going, I've used a shoeing twice in this show. Yeah. That's
Going immediately to lithium or, or something that's, you know, that's arguably more sustainable. Yep.
Let me see if I've got a dictionary back here. Hang on a sec. Gotta find what the shoe means. Ignoring all right. Something like
Mohi hope this finds you well too in Wichita, Kansas. Uh, great to have you here. Uh, Cheyne, uh, Cheyne sing says, Hey, Greg, good to see you, both sharing your valuable inputs on supply chain, cost optimization, keep sharing knowledge to society. Uh, that that's one heck of a, a comment, some feedback there. Thank you so much. Yeah. Appreciate that. Sheldon rose says I'm concerned about the effect. The log jam is going to have on the CCC and PTR of some of these smaller businesses that have cargo stuck offshore. Excellent point there. Sheldon. Now
Somebody needs to explain what CCC and PTR are for me.
So yeah, the, the acronyms, um,
Yeah. Spell those out for us. Dumies we
Love these acronyms, right. Um, Peter Bo going back to cold storage, Peter says group Robert.
Thank you group. Robert. Thank you. Sorry about, about Greg at eight that's the French gets me every time, man.
The only thing that clued me in was the Quebec, the reference to Quebec. So,
The French, got a different word for everything.
Uh, they're building a huge new, I believe that's a cold storage facility in Quebec where Peter lives, Peter. Excellent point. They're good. Good market Intel. Ooh. Okay. I'm gonna pose this to you. This is a good one. So Dr. Rhonda, uh, and be sure to follow and connect Dr. Ronda, lots of good stuff around wellbeing and, and, you know, kind of maintaining that, uh, work life balance and, and, and beyond leadership,
Just for pictures of Camelback in Phoenix. That's right. Her unbelievable ability to climb it every day. Agreed. She's a great follow, but also some great yeah. Knowledge on wellbeing.
So she's PO a question to you, Greg. She wants to know your take on the potential political discourse unfolding now
Discourse, meaning the discussions. So it depends a on what political we're talking about. Obviously Ukraine is gonna have an impact on oil because we will attack, which I believe is, or, or let's not say attack. And however, pick a U your favorite euphemism for invasion of, of Ukraine, which is virtually inevitable at this point will have, have an impact on oil prices because we will then, uh, sanction Russia for, for that. Um, and so that, that will have a big impact on supply chain. Um, let's see other things, you know, I, I don't know how the Houthis situation really impacts it. Uh, but there, you know, that's probably Russia is the biggest, the biggest impact. Of course, you know, the president wants to forgive something like 1.7 billion to billion dollars worth of, uh, that's kind of the news I saw today, $1.7 billion worth of student debt. Uh, um, but only up to a certain point. So those of you who go get a student loan to after he, he forgives it aren't covered. And those of us who took student loans out in college ages ago, we don't get our money back either. Uh, but I, I think,
I think the general discourse, uh, or, you know, the biggest, most impactful discourse has to be Russia. And, uh, the impact to that is substantial. Um, because fuel prices will go up. Oil will unquestionably reach a hundred dollars a barrel it's already at 93, 41 was earlier today, uh, expected to go to 96 during the week and 99 to a hundred, assuming that something happens in, uh, Russia, which, which will be a spike. And then it will recede is what the experts are saying. I, I'm no expert on oil prices. Um, other than knowing that what they, what impact they have on my gas prices.
I mean, Rononda, if that's what you're referring to, I think that's, that's gonna be a substantial disruption, but not for a substantial amount of times. You know, I watched the stock markets and other investment markets as well. And historically these things have a big spike effect, but not a very long range effect. Um, and, and usually not, uh, not a, a huge dip and it only takes weeks to recover from these sorts of things typically,
Open the door for opportunism, which always occurs when there's a disruption in right in oil, Scott, there's always somebody who's willing to raise the price of fuel on speculation. And yes, hold onto that price long after much like the fuel surcharges we've had since 2008, uh, when fuel was over a are higher than it is right now, those surcharges never went away. Interesting. That,
Yeah. How does that happen? How does that happen? How's that not happen?
Right? Tommy boy. All right. So that, that was the great white political corner. Uh, y'all stopped by next Monday as, yeah.
Wow. That was little bit drawn out. Sorry about
Kinda a stream of consciousness. That's
Good. That's good. Uh, because it's all intertwined. It's all intertwined. Um, right. Roger Carr, who is in cold storage, right? Um, or no, he's not in cold storage, he's in the, kind of the medical supply chain realm. Um, he says medical cold storage requirements for reagents for are leading to the storage increase. Right. So that's an excellent point there. Uh, Sheldon is Johnny on the spot. So CCC is the cash conversion cycle. Ah, yes. And PTR is the payables turnover ratio. So naturally any, any cargo get stuck where you're adding that dwelling time. Anything else? Of course, these financial metrics and, and key, uh, performance indicators are gonna be skewed. So Sheldon excellent point excellent point. Yeah.
Um, interesting that a lot of the forwarders are, are taking the brunt of that. We've been talking with Enrique Alvare from vector global logistics because we share an office with him for the entirety of well, of our existence, but also during this pandemic. And he has taken on a lot of the brunt of the cash flow cycle himself, unable to charge multiples of the rates that he was able to charge before and also forced to pay sooner than he would have previously. So
That's a great call out. There's,
There's an effect on, on, um, a wide ranging number of companies when that happens for
Sure. Excellent call out. And, and by the way, folks, if you're not connected with it, Enrique a Rez and vector global logistics, make sure you look them up. Um, one of the quick comment, because comments aren't showing except from YouTube. Uh, so folks, if you do want to comment on something, uh, that we're hearing here that we're talking about here today, it looks like you can venture over to the YouTube version of the screen and comment there because T squared is keeping it coming. He's talking about sounds like the price of chicken wings when it comes to opportunism, uh, opportunism, right? Yeah. Opportunity maybe. Uh, but the price of chicken wings every year spikes around this time of year. Right. And in fact, yeah,
Well, in this year, the big new was regardless of the price, there just weren't enough.
And I can tell you that where we went, uh, they did not have the, whatever, the biggest sizes that we usually get. Right. So
We had, we had to go frozen this year. We had to go frozen, but you know what, once you get those, those, those bad boys, uh, thought out and you stick 'em in the air fryer, we we've come to love. Yeah, man, it is good. Good eating, Greg.
I'm telling you that air fryer thing is gonna save some American lives as much fried food as we eat and as good a work as it does without oil.
Greed. It's gonna save my life.
All right. So let's move along. What? Gosh, we we're just, it, this is like Baskin Robins edition of the supply chain buds. We're touching on
It's whatever we wanna say. Right.
All kinds of stuff. Um, so next up, I wanna save a little time, talk about Russia and Ukraine a little bit more, especially with an expert on Russia, uh, here at Misa. Um, so let's talk though about what the wall street journal is reporting as where have, have all the coffee cups gone. So Greg, this was, this was new for me. You know, we, we, we, right. I don't buy a lot of coffee outside, uh, Starbucks and, and whatnot. We, we make plenty here at home, but coffee stores big and small are looking high and low in their efforts to find coffee cups, Starbucks, Wetzels pretzels. It's new one for me. Uh, but they've got out 350 units. It's a chain of 350 different operations. How about that? WELS pretzels, Connie's chicken and waffles. I think that's in Maryland, uh, are just a few of the companies encountering the coffee cup crunch.
Say that three times faster. This is a different CCC. So what are some of the root causes let's see here? So cups and cups in, as you might imagine, cups upon cups upon cups are in containers of plenty stuck in the ports. That sounded almost a little bit poetic. Um, so that's one problem. American paper mills are working through labor shortages, which is impacting production as the article points out. And then thirdly, you know, that cold, crazy, unusual weather we had in text a year ago. Well, that's the gift that unfortunately keeps on giving because the us market still hasn't caught back up on the resins that, that a lot of entry in Texas makes to make the plastic cups, but also that makes the coating on the paper cups. So that, ah, that 300 degree coffee, doesn't just melt that paper cup away. There's a lining there. So a lot track here in this piece, but Greg, what say ye
Well, you know, what I, what was interesting is it's also impacting a particular size of cup 24 ounce cups seem to be the biggest problem. And I think obviously because they take more materials, companies are making more of the smaller cups because they can use the same amount of materials and provide a greater amount of cups. Cups is the only thing I can figure, but, but you're gonna be hard pressed to fill a venti cup at Starbucks. My suggestion is you haven't already bought yourself a thermal cup. Starbucks will make your coffee, or would, I don't know if they still will. I haven't been to Starbucks in years, but Starbucks used to make your coffee in your cup if you brought it, uh, to them. So that's an another way for consumers to adapt to supply chain shortage, let like we need another way to adapt. Right.
But right. Well, you know what, um,
But I mean, it's, it is a problem. And truth is labor is at the, is at the root of all of this, because look, let's just face the fact that it's not the first time that Texas has had. And, and these resin plants have had bad weather, right. And had dramatic impact from that. But as every article, we sort of gloss over it. But every article points at labor shortage, driving a lot of these problems. And as long as there aren't enough people working there won't be enough production as automated as we've wanted to make the supply chain. And as automated, if we, as we have tried, since the pandemic started, it still requires a lot of human beings. And remember we were 2 million human beings short in supply in fulfilling supply chain jobs prior, prior to the pandemic. Wow. In 2019, there were 2 million open supply chain jobs just in the United States, out of 44 million supply chain professionals.
Wow. Well, I would just add to all of, of that. Um, perhaps this is a great blessing disguise, right? Cause all of those drinks, well, no, no we can't. We couldn't, we couldn't function with less coffee, but we could have less piles and piles, millions of pounds of into that of cups being thrown into the trap. So maybe it, maybe this will stick around for a little while and change some of our behaviors, Greg, to your point of reusing that cup. Right. And taking it out with you. And just like to some degree we've seen with water bottles. Right. Um, so we shall see, we shall see, okay. Uh, Jose is asking if we're gonna be at the TPM conference and, uh, Jose, unfortunately we will not be at the conference. We're really, uh, that's a great conference by the way. Um, but we have really, uh, um, activity has been so busy that we've, hadn't been very judicious about when to venture out, uh, the studio, so to speak.
Uh, and we hate to miss the TPM conference. Uh, but Jose, we look forward to getting your key takeaways. Sounds like you're gonna be there, um, from that conference. And by the way, Jose, make sure you drop, well, I guess you can't drop your comments because we're still having a, a comment issue except on YouTube. But if you're still on YouTube, drop the link to your livestream there and wanna share that with folks. Um, Sheldon says supply chains cannot outperform their physical limitations contrary to maybe, um, some folks believe that's, that's the excellent point in it, Greg.
Yeah. I mean, and the biggest physical limit they have is the physicality of human beings. Right? Um, yeah. Unquestionably,
Uh, Jose says, talking about shortages. How about my cat's food and litter where I used to buy. They are own back order, man. You are not gonna have a happy cat, uh,
Cat. My cat might be happy, but the house isn't gonna be very happy. Right? You don't have cat letter.
That is true. That is true. I've never owned a cat. So, um, I can't, I can't empathize with Jose too well, but Greg,
You don't even like cats. Scott. Let's just face it. Make fun of the fact that I even had a cat, which I wouldn't, if I wasn't married by the way.
No, you know, I'm not making fun of cats. We love all animals around here and Gracie was, would put up, well, she break my legs. If I didn't, I loved your cat's name. Shenanigans Craig. That's what we poked fun
At. That's totally made up Scott. You know that.
All right, Hey, couple other comments,
Alternate facts or whatever we call that I'm fact checking you on that.
Was even, it was MIS skitters
And rest in peace. MIS critters. That was a good deal deal.
Well, no, no, no. I'm, I'm not willing to give up the ghost on that one. Oh, it was another one. You know, we have coyotes around where we live and cats will get outta the house. No matter what you do, let me assure you.
Oh, that was, oh gosh, Kiki. That cat was Kiki. And he lived a long, a long and dangerous life. I can tell you, he brought me many, many moles and chipmunks as gifts over his years. So
We're going through your, I
Know he went down with a fight.
We're going through your inventory,
We're going through your inventory of cats
Yeah. Yeah. There's a chapter for each, but I love
That. Yeah. And it's hard to keep track because yeah. They keep coming. Yes. Three daughters and a wife. Keep the animals coming. Love
It. Love it. Okay. Um, let's see. Sophia says, uh, going back to the shortages that this reminds her of the McDonald's large size fries
Shortage. We're talking about that. I do recall in Asia. Yeah, right?
Yeah. Two weeks ago. And by the way, Sophia, I'd love for you. If you're, if you're on YouTube, I'd love for you to post your, your, a link to your avocado post earlier today. You know, I saw yesterday, Greg and I saw a glance that the us has for frozen Mexican or imports of Mexican avocados, um, which is in and of itself. That's about all I know there, but what I didn't know is I was reading an article. I didn't realize that the us has only been allowing importing of Mexican avocados since I think 97. Prior to that, I think the band was put in place back in like 1917. So for 80 years there were no avocados allowed to be imported from Mexico. Now I share all that and I'll get your take here in a second. Cause my son Ben, when he was two years old, this came up last night as we were enjoying some guacamole when he was two years old and he, Amanda was taking him into the grocery store. Uh, he was in the buggy and she goes, Ben, I've gotta get some avocados. And he goes avocados from Mexico because of that, that jingle that's been so branded and his brain in two that's, the first date came out. Um, but anyway, we'll see if this is a short term ban, evidently um, a inspector, um, was threatened. Um, and that's what kind of paused the imports. Of course, everything was already in, uh, that was being enjoyed and consumed last night. But, uh, your thoughts Greg avocados or otherwise
An inspector was threatened? Well, I hope no tequila importers threaten inspectors because where would this country be without tequila I'm with you? Um, but yeah, I, you know, uh, my wife not only carries her own hot sauce around, but at certain restaurants, she will bring her own gua Kao because she feels like many, many Mexican restaurants need a message or need a lesson in guacamole. Really. So, yeah. And hers is exceptional by any standard.
I gotta get some of Vicky's guacamole.
I think that the ban originally went into place probably protectionism 1917 sounds like, uh, the right timeframe for that. Right. Yep. To protect California and some of the other producing states, um, for avocados. So, um, but that's interesting. I did not, I didn't read the, uh, anything about the, uh, the threatening. Yeah. I didn't realize I didn't that, that the same factions that run illegal contraband into the states also control the avocado trade.
Well, I gotta tell you, even with our discussion with Mark Holmes, with InterSystems on the buzz a week or two ago with, with the one only Kim winter, we talked about avocados. I was lost. I was just assuming that all the ones that we buy enjoy all are all from Mexico. So I didn't even realize some of the history here in the avocado industry, but nevertheless, um, it has been a big part of super super bowls. Can I say super bowl, the big, the big NFL game, um, for years now, uh, several decades, uh, some of those great marketing inroads. Okay. Uh, let's see here, Mohi going back to disposable cups. This is says, once again, nature is telling you to use reusables I'm with you. Sure. That I am with you let's see here. Um, and all right, so folks, we're, we're just working through the comments, looks like all the YouTube comments are showing up for the most part, but we're still having an issue.
That's okay. It'll get rectified. We'll back normal probably by Wednesday. Um, okay. So Greg Scott, 1244, I wanna move into the final story for today. Let me pull up a couple of items here because, uh, over the weekend, uh, we came across a great post and, and really great information from our dear friend, Cori Ko, uh, with Gartner. Now this focuses on this disturbing situation that's in Ukraine. I mean, to me, just my opinion feels like we're sitting on a power keg, right. Something that can, that can really go far beyond just Ukraine. It could be regional or even worse. I, I believe. Um, so I think it's a very dangerous situation, but setting aside the geopolitical and the military concerns, right. Setting that aside, cause that in of itself, we could talk for ours. Uh, our friend Cora and the Gartner team have analyzed the potential scenarios and their impact on global supply chain.
Now a few notes from their analysis. And I can't share, I can only share the public stuff that we saw, uh, Cora share. Um, but first of all, I think for important context, all of this depends on the scale of the conflict, right? Um, so that's a really important claim upfront cause naturally if it, if it scales far beyond just a local incursion, you know, things, the impact change changes dramatically, but Gartner sees Greg, I'm gonna read these often and I'm gonna get your take, especially as someone has studied, um, Russia, um, uh, so Gartner sees key material shortages. Um, you know, if the conflict doesn't Sue hydro carbons, critical minerals and metals production capacity, uh, impacts, especially in mining, in the chemicals and electronics, logistics routes and capacity disruption, including the key ports and routes, serving Europe, the black sea routes and all the China ports, uh, cyber security breaches, which have already been on the rise, they, those activities surging right.
And get this. Uh, and, and if we can, uh, if we can drop, I'm not sure if our team can get on YouTube and drop the link to Cori KO's post that'd be great. So folks can go straight there and they can also probably find out a way to download this Gartner report from him. But did you know this, Greg, this was new to me. So Daniel Stanton and Chris Peters also shared over the weekend. So neon is critical for lasers used to make computer chips. And we all know all the issues for years now, um, with computer chips and semiconductors, well, get, get this 90% of the us supply of said, neon comes from you Ukraine. So truly supply chain is a global industry. And we uncover examples by the hour. What's your take on all of this, Greg?
Yeah, I mean it, uh, I I'm, I mean, I think the uptick that CORIs sees in some of these things is, is gonna happen one way or the other cybersecurity, as long as we are, as lax as we are in the states is going to continue to be, uh, an issue. And of course, yes, the mining materials, rare earth minerals, China and Russia run very, very close together being former joined communist states. Um, and, and of course, two of the most dangerous dictatorships on the planet, right. Sorry, president Putin. Um, but, uh, I, I think, um, there's, there's a lot of impact here, particularly around minerals. And of course, minerals go to mining, uh, directly, right? When the us was an, a net exporter of these same minerals or, or carbon based, uh, oil, let's just say it oil. Uh, we had a lot less exposure, but the political winds have changed.
And, and now we must, um, you know, we've, we've shut down a lot of our ability to produce and we're at the women fancy of one of the most corrupt and dangerous human beings on the planet. So, um, yeah, I will unquestionably have an impact on it. You know, we certain have the means to mitigate this at our disposal, including the ability to get rare earth minerals, if we will increase our willpower to, to seek them out in Texas and other parts of the country where they are available though, not available in the same, um, volume, at least not historically as China. Uh, but yeah, I mean, think about the inability, think about China's motivation and Russia's, um, joined motivation to disable us from continuing to advance our technological capabilities in the United States. Right. Right. So the, there are a lot of reasons for this and the least of which is some breakaway Republic in Ukraine. Right. That's great cover for what Russia ultimately wants to do, which is significantly hamper destroy the United States. Um, but it's not the reason. So it never is. I mean, you know, having studied not just Russian politics, but talk politics in general, the expressed reason is never the reason. So I think it's interesting that, um, Kaari and the team at Gartner dug into this with an apolitical perspective, but still I think ultimately exposing what is at least part of the larger motivation here. Yeah.
Excellent point, uh, lots of concern, lots of concern. Um, uh, you know, beyond Ukraine and, and to your point, Greg, it's it's about Ukraine, but it's not about Ukraine to your point.
Well, it's not just about the United States, right? I mean this, you know, obviously the European countries, every time Russia edge is closer, closer, and every time Russia threatens to cut off their major fuel, uh, capacity than of course these European states are frankly, they're at the women fancy of, of Russia, right? Because they are such a huge exporter, Russia, such a huge exporter to Europe,
You know, um, five years ago, or so I shared with some friends based on some of the conversations and unusual conversations and some initial military, uh, joint exercises between China and Russia. I was like, man, it's gonna be dangerous or it's gonna be different. If those two countries get closer and can get past some of these historical differences. And we saw the meeting that took place just before the Olympics. And we don't wanna take this all geopolitical and military, but, but, uh, global supply chain, we've been through a lot last couple years. Goodness gracious. If, if, if a regional or worse conflict breaks out, I mean, the game goes without saying it changes dramatically. So hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Um, and, and Greg, hopefully you can make me feel better about that because trade is still important and how commerce takes place is still important. And hopefully those, um, factor will help contain any conflict that does happen. But man, it's, I think it's a very dangerous time we're we're living through right now, Greg, your last, uh, word here,
All of that said, Scott, I don't disagree. That it's dangerous, but first let me say, we have to acknowledge history here. I have an uncle who was stationed in Turkey during the Vietnam war, who was decoding a plethora of messages from Russia to China during the Vietnam war. So these two companies have been, or countries have been working together for 60 years. Basically they and Cuba were the triumvirate, the, um, axis of evil as president Reagan called it that during the height of the cold war. So, um, it's not new this collaboration and it is deeply, deeply ingrained though. Russia is arguably not, not communist anymore. There's still a lot of the, the dictatorial leadership that just and manipulation of yeah. Of elections and things that at someone elected, however many times he's been elected, um, it's a record. So we have to acknowledge that.
But the other fact is that this is a different environment. The, the, this will unquestionably impact the United States ability to lead the world. To what extent? I don't know. I, I don't think it's gonna be news to anyone that the Russians think that our, our current administration is, uh, inept and weak willed. And that's exactly what they're testing like they do with every single other mm, uh, new administration that we have because their administration is so deeply ingrained because they, even, when Putin is not president, he puts a puppet in through which he rules. And, and likewise does the party in China, the party in China, remember there is only one, right.
Um, so, you know, they don't have the same kind, kind of dynamics that democracies and, and representative republics like the United States have where the people actually get a say in the government. Mm. Uh, but, but the world, I think because of transparency, hopefully is coming to understand the danger of these two organizations. And there are just a lot more outlets. We know that we can be energy independent in the states, and we can even provide enough to help some of our allies around the world. We do now, as Michael Ava is saying, right, we're sending a ton, a ton of natural gas to Europe, tons I should, of natural gas to Europe so that they, so that they have some, um, counter
When inevitably Russia tries to, you know, put a stopper on things.
So really quick circling, uh, kind of closing loop here, we've added a link to Cora Jose's post on LinkedIn. And he's got a link to the full report. I believe there, you may have to sign up for some than I imagine might be just for Gartner clients, but regardless, Ry, thanks so much for you and your team, uh, offering up this perspective in a very, very timely manner. And we're gonna, you know, we're gonna watch the situation unfold. Uh, lot of signs have pointed to this week. Uh, we shall see, we shall see cooler heads. Yeah. Peripherally will.
I've watched this for a lot of years. Ukraine standing or falling, unfortunately, sorry to the folks who sold us this house who are Ukrainian. Um, it, it's not gonna end the world Russia and this conflict in Ukraine. They're not even after the entire country. They're mostly after Caria and a couple of other breakaway republics.
So, so, uh, all right, you heard it here. First, Greg White's analysis. You, you gotta come check it out every Monday, 12 noon Eastern time folks, you gotta make sure you connect and follow Greg white as well, because I love, uh, I tell you, we talk about all the time in your post on LinkedIn. A lot of times I'll comment, preach it a little bit louder for the folks in the back, man. Some of that stuff really is so good, Greg. And you're able to kind of challenge folks to think differently than how, um, you know, how they normally interpret news and analysis and you name it. So keep the good stuff coming. Greg white hope. There's no disruption to that, uh, in industry based on everything else we're seeing.
So, yeah, Sheldon is weighing in too. They won't start anything Sheldon says during the Olympics, they wouldn't do that to China. You know, that's a good point. Good point Shelton.
All right. That is an excellent point.
So, um, that kind of, that wraps us up here today on the supply chain. But I hate that we had the technical glitch. One of our favorite things to do is share and really amplify your comments. I think we
Got a lot of 'em though. That's good. Right? I mean, GRE, if anything, our fellow supply chain practitioners are resilient. So improvise, adapt, overcome.
That is right. Improvise, adapt, overcome. And by the way, big, thanks once again, to Amanda, Chantel and Catherine who helped us overcome the glitch here today. And yeah, Amanda says quit apologizing. I'm I, Hey, look, I'm not apologizing. I am, uh, our folks are used to a certain experience and we wanna protect that. Right. And I wanna make sure folks knew that we also, Greg weren't ignoring, Hey Amanda, I got you some chocolates. Okay. Don't gimme a, don't gimme such a hard time, but Hey, kidding thought,
No umbrella, uh, of that note, uh, let's see. No folks, we, we, one of my favorite parts, our team's favorite parts is what our, uh, folks in cheap seats and the sky boxes contribute on the buzz we want to hear from you. And so anytime we have a little glitch that prevents us from doing that as usual, I hate it, but Hey, we'll get, you know, where to find us. Yeah. You know where to find us. That is right. Great point there, Greg, and be sure to connect us, to connect with us across social. Um, you got the supply chain now insiders group that we, um, are growing activity in on LinkedIn, regardless. Thanks for in here today. All right. So Greg is I'll double check and make sure, uh, I mean, nothing, nothing in the, in the private chat, uh, Greg one, I'll give you the last thought here. We, we we've run the gamut from the ports to cold storage to the Ukraine situation. You name it and then some your final thought. And then I'm a call it a day.
I, all of these things can be overcome. I mean, that's, that's the thing we have to think about. Look, we are inundated with news every day and, and last Monday we took on some really tough topics with Kelly Barner, brave, uh, on her part, I think, and, and these are tough topics as well. And when you, when you see an accumulation of this kind of news, it can be overwhelming. But the difference between now Scott, and when we were children is not that this stuff happens. The difference is every single micro, uh, impact is reported. That's the only difference. I, I was a voracious news watcher as a kid, and I know how much of the news we didn't get in the eighties and the nineties. And now we get so much of it. And so much of it. This is, this is an issue so much of it is like my take it is amateur reported or amateur analyzed. And some of us may not know what the hell we're talking about. So don't take this bad news too much to heart. The world has always been a complex place. It's actually been far more complex and far more dangerous in the, a past than it is now. Mm. So take heart know that there is hope there is abundance in the universe, and we shall all overcome
Love that. Uh, that is a great note to wrap on folks, make sure again, nominations are open, uh, check out supply chain, procurement awards.com to learn more about this very important program that we are leading along with our friends at art of procurement and buyers meeting point, check it out, nominate, nominate yourself, nominate a friend, nominate a supply chain partner, you name it. Um, but folks, whatever you do, um, I wanna mention, uh, um, over the weekend, Greg, as we wrap here, I came across an obituary, um, that I, I completely missed two years ago. Lorraine Moses, uh, passed away in June, 2020. And, uh, Greg, as we typically challenge folks to, to take action at the end, you know, because it's all about deeds, not words, uh, which is what we strive live by every day. Lorraine and her husband, Jeff Moses took a chance on me some 20 years ago as I got outta the air force.
And couldn't find that first job opportunity. I didn't know how to interview. I didn't know how to talk about what I did in air force, you know, standard challenges, right? Yeah. And they, they offered me a position and then worked with me to, to make sure I was successful. And they took like a chance on me when not other folks would. So Lorre, Moses, uh, passed away a couple years ago and her and her, uh, husband, uh, quite the entrepreneurial pair, um, are just other people. And I wanted to, uh, share that with all of y'all out there as a way of of saying, Hey folks, we gotta give other people chances. Right. Even if it's not the perfect candidate, even if they, you know, fouled up on how they answered this question or that, that question, we gotta look past some of that stuff.
Cause it's nonsense. And we gotta offer, give folks an opportunity to show you what they can do. Right. And yeah, they'll burn you sometimes. Man. Why of those times when they come through shining, you know, and you've given them the opportunity. You, you got the decision, the power in your hands to, to impact someone else's journey. I believe it's it's uh, the onus is on us to do just that. So, um, rest in peace, uh, Lorraine, Moses and Jeff Moses, if you're watching, I love you. And I appreciate how you've impacted my journey. All right. So Greg white on that note, that's awesome on that note, challenging everyone out there, uh, to be like Jeff Lorraine, Moses. Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that's needed. And on that note, we see next time, right back here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.
Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagrams. See you next time on supply chain. Now.