[00:00:00] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology’s the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

 

[00:00:29] All right. Good morning, Scott Luton here with you,  Supply Chain Now Radio. Welcome back to the show. We’re coming to you today once again from Vector Global Logistics, a company that’s providing world class Logistics services, all while deeply investing into the communities that they serve, based right here in Atlanta. But with international reach, this company is on the move. You can learn more at vector geo dot com. Quick programming note. Like all of our series on Supply Chain Now Radio, you can find our replays on a variety of channels Apple, podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify. Wherever else you find your podcasts. As always, we’d love to have you subscribe to Don’t Miss Anything. Supply Chain Now Radio is also brought to you by a variety of sponsors, including the Effective syndicate, Talentstream, Verusen and Supplychainrealestate.com. Several leading organizations as well. Be sure to check out the show notes to learn more about our valuable sponsors. OK. So let’s welcome in our co-hosts here today. Once again, Greg White co-host here at Supply Chain Now Radio Serial Supply chain tech entrepreneur and trusted advisor. Greg, how you doing? Pretty well, Scott. How are you? I didn’t get up early yet to change out that ad to have on the supply chain tech entrepreneurs saw. We’ll do that next episode. But great to see you once again. Yeah, likewise. Thanks. You bet. Ben Harris, Director, Supply chain Ecosystem Expansion Expansion with the Metro Atlanta Chamber. How are you doing? That’s a mouthful. Scott I’m doing great. It’s more. How about Teamone? We’re doing fantastic.

 

[00:01:57] Only a mouthful because we keep getting good news for Metro Atlanta and what’s going on here? So y’all. You and the whole team, the vast army of folks that make it good. Great to do business here, especially in the Supply chain space. Certainly I’ve had some full plates here lately. Indeed we have. Well, great to have you back here in the studio. And the next up, Jason Moss, CEO of the Georgia manufacturing alliance. Jason, how you doing? Man, I am fantastic. Your cape got stuck and indoors you’re coming in, right? Love, love. I mean, we’ve got folks that love the Indian supply chain here. You know, Jason and the GMAT does an outstanding job advocating for the manufacturing industry right here in Georgia. And, you know, we’re proud of our partnership we’ve got in place both with the GMAT and the Metro Atlanta Chamber. And great to have both y’all here for what’s kind of a crossover episode. Mm hmm. You know, we’ve had this Supply chain City series. We’re Missing Preacher Will here today, but shout out here on the show. We’ve had that series for a long time. Was one of our first series here on Supply Chain Now Radio. And of course, one of our newer series, our manufacturing series that we do in conjunction with the GM May. And now we’re we’re crossing over a bit. But but there’s lots of kindred spirits here around what goes on across the in Supply chain right here in Georgia, right? Yes, indeed.

 

[00:03:13] OK. So let’s welcome in our featured guests here today really excited about this conversation. Guillermo Juvera, vice president of supply chain management at Mitsubishi Electric Train,.hvAC

 

[00:03:24]  U.S. LLC. How you doing? Get Gizmo. All right, let’s go. Thank you very much. We’re really pleased that you’re here. You know, it’s interesting timing and how small this vast metro Atlanta community is, is, you know, we were talking to a few folks who’s got me on the show this morning. They all were singing your praises and saying and Mitsubishi liked trains, praises of which all but doing there in Gwinnett County. So looking forward to not only learning your story here today, but also putting our finger on the pulse of what the organization is doing. Pretty neat collaboration here. All right. Thank you very much. You bet. And feel free. We’re going to you know, we’re going to tackle the news starting off some of the top things known as Supply chain now. But Gamma, as you’ve already struck, as you’re going to feel free to dive right in and in common. Only thing you hear on the front end before we interview you and your story. All right. So with that being said, we’d like to start off our podcast with featuring some of the top things known Supply chain now. Obviously, there’s we could be here for days and days reporting on all the breaking news. But, Ben, for starters, what’s been on your radar more than knowledge right now?

 

[00:04:29] Yes. And no surprise, the trade war obviously is we’re right in the middle of it. Macy right now. So the trade war between the U.S. and China is really reviving, you know, apparel supply chains right now and in a country that had lost business actually because of poor workplace standards originally. So some fashion brands are looking to move their production from China are now turning to Bangladesh. So as you know, we’ve seen lots of things built in the past from Bangladesh. Some stuff, though, still done. But we’ve seen right now a. Major shift in that production now. Going back to Bangladesh. This happens even as there were safety issues that persisted for years after two workplace accidents actually killed more than a thousand workers. Originally, Bangladesh said that was the reason for a big shift back to China originally. But companies have really been bulking up sourcing in this country amid efforts to improve, say, safety conditions there. So the shift has really accelerated the trade dispute. You know, it’s heated up. So we’ll probably continue to see this big shift in apparel exports from Bangladesh going to the U.S. And this will this’ll continue to rapidly rise for friction and challenge for some and opportunities for others.

 

[00:05:42] So we’ll see how that tends to evolve in a variety countries that’s handling some of the the outbound production. Greg, but on your end. Yes. So a back and forth.

 

[00:05:53] Yeah. But related. Right. So I saw an article about the discount stores, the Dollar General, five below Dollar Tree, my wife’s favorite store.

 

[00:06:07] And basically what it’s saying is that so far they have been able to mitigate the impact of tariffs, but they’re testing price hikes.

 

[00:06:14] Now, first of all, my first question is, how does a store that charges a dollar for everything test a price hike?

 

[00:06:23] But the truth is, Dollar General is not only a dollar. Dollar Tree. I love to walk through the store and ask my wife, how much is this? Because I just love her. Love to hear say I love her, too.

 

[00:06:31] But I love to hear you say that’s a dollar.

 

[00:06:35] So but anyway, you know, here’s a here’s a quote from the CEO of Dollar Tree who said, we’ve negotiated price concessions, cancelled orders, modified product specs, evolved product mix and diversified vendor. So they are also going to other places to get product to to maintain the prices. So they say a whole bunch more here. But actually both of those both cut both Dollar General and five below are guiding, though they’ve widened their guidance. They’re guiding about the same on their stocks. And Dollar General actually is predicting that their profit will go up. Wow. So they have been testing some price elasticity.

 

[00:07:20] But look, I think the good news here is that these companies are are working around this condition like others are. Right. And, you know, hopefully to the service of of consumers, because as we’ve said, every single time we talk about tariffs and taxes, corporations don’t pay either. Right. They pass that right on to the consumer. That’s us.

 

[00:07:40] What’s interesting as you are sharing that, it’s been interesting to see the dollar, trees of the world, the friends, all the folks that compete in that space have really cultivated a very strong, loyal consumer base. And I can’t grow. When I was growing up, I can’t say that was the same thing. And I think folks are valuing that convenience. They’re valuing deals. Right. That’s never change. Right. But it seems like they’ve also gotten better at better at really understanding who their customer is. So it’ll be interesting to see how this these pricing tests, how that how it plays out.

 

[00:08:16] Yeah. It’s going to be five below, I think is probably the one that’s going to have the most capability to be to test elasticity because they don’t have a cap built into their name. All right.

 

[00:08:30] Interesting. So. So in honor of the U.S., I’ve been kind of going back and forth like a tennis match here today. And besides guy like, hey, well, we all look for those, the strong Segway Jerai or that some Segway. So, Ben, what else is on your right you’ll look into? Yes.

 

[00:08:46] So, yes, U.S. manufacturing activity shrank, shrank for the first time in three years. Actually going to I assume we you know, we’ve quoted I assume the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index before, but it actually fell to forty nine point one in any reading below 50 shows contraction in the market. So so this is amid the worsening trade battle between, of course, Washington, D.C. and Beijing, which we were just mentioning. So factory employment, U.S. also fell to the lowest in three years, possibly pointing to softer manufacturing payrolls in Friday’s unemployment report. So definitely a couple of headwinds that we’re starting to see in the market. We’re not seeing you know, there’s no major fallout per say, but just definitely more of a contracting market, if you will. So just something to be on top of, you know, as we have conversations around supply chain, around the market in general. So not a major cause for concern, but just something to keep your eye on really out there. Yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:09:48] Hey, if you won’t, that is a great report that we reference all the time. There’s a lot there. It’s chock full. I like how your you gave the executive summary of that report as you dive in and get paid. Pages of really great details and data. Kelly Barner with Buyers Meeting Point does an outstanding job giving back in an extended executive overview. I think she does it for the New York City chapter of PMA. So if our listeners want to know she’s a great fan of the show, a great friend of the show. If listeners want more information on what Ben just shared, which is is not the brightest news, we’ll have a lot more brighter nuggets as we go through the podcasts here today. But check out buyers meeting point. Our friend Kelly Barner over there. For more information. Great resource. OK, Greg, before we bring our featured guests back in any other.

 

[00:10:36] Yeah. So interestingly, there, you know, we’ve talked a lot in previous shows about what’s going on with warehousing. Right. So there are 14 Industrial real estate markets in the U.S. that are being called strategic options for investors by CBRE. So the demand for warehouse space greatly exceeds the supply in several markets, one of which is right here in Georgia, Savannah, by a small margin. But the biggest places where the the net absorption is is so much greater than the completions are Phoenix, Detroit, the Central Valley, California, GO Chino and Reno and Milwaukee, of all places, Milwaukee, eighteen point six million square feet of of absorptions, six point seven million square feet of violations. So that’s a pretty big delta. Mm hmm. So there’s some opportunities in and I think that really goes to how people are shifting supply chains around. Right. To get to get goods closer to the end in consumer. Mm hmm. Right. Always opportunity. Always opportunity. Well, comment about price elasticity. How to go back to price elasticity. Just reduce the content.

 

[00:11:56] It’s true. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well put.

 

[00:12:04] Yeah, that’s right. You’re gonna fit right in Gary. Yeah. All right.

 

[00:12:09] So speaking right on time, let’s bring in our featured guests, Gary Mo Juvera back in Vice President Supply chain Management with Mitsubishi Mitsubishi Electric Train, HP, AC U.S. LLC, which is really neat. We’re gonna learn more about this really neat collaboration between these two well-known brands in a second here. Before we do, Gary Moe, tell us more about your professional journey kind of prior to your current role.

 

[00:12:33] Sure. Well, thank you very much for the invitation to all the team. I’m Industrial near my base and from take them Monterrey in Mexico. So I started my career in the market Dora environment. I worked seven years in north Mexico and a very nice environment, very, very great opportunity to learn about manufacturing for best practices, including access to Apex. So right there, when I had my first year of career, I had the opportunity to get the introduction to the APICS. Yeah, a program that I completed right in the first few years of my career.

 

[00:13:12] And that was basically that set the tone for me in Supply chain, the ability to get that spectrum, that body of knowledge right into my education and in being able to go to a meeting room and then have an opinion and an opinion that you can back with data and you can go ahead and implement things and change things and transform. So that put things in motion.

 

[00:13:35] And real quick for our listeners that may not be aware of the Apex CPM certification. Apex, of course, is not part of the HCM family of organizations, but the CPI AMS been around for it is. It’s been the most tenured apex certification certified in production and inventory management. Correct. Right. It is not something for the faint of heart. Now you’ve got a you’ve got. I don’t have it. Well, I chose to go to see ACP round on turning it into an Apex commercial, but CSC piece is a one exam. And when you went through CPM, I bet that was what, five exam that was.

 

[00:14:12] That right now is five. I was six at that time. Why?

 

[00:14:15] Well, a very rigorous. But. But to your point, you were going through an earning certification, especially from respected board acknowledges you do go. Bodies of knowledge. You do go into meetings with a whole different rooted and expert level point of view, right? Confidence. Yes, confidence.

 

[00:14:33] You go with confidence, basically.

 

[00:14:34] And the biggest thing for me in in education, supply chain core education, is that you understand that there are different manufacturing environments and not all solutions apply to every manufacturing environment. That’s critical. So what happened there is that people have had success in the past in certain industry. And they they they. Had a new product line or they moved to a different company and they tried to put back the same solutions to different problems or different segments of the market. And that’s when things went start to go wrong. So you need to do it. It helps a lot to help the core knowledge on supply chain on what type of tools to apply to different problems.

 

[00:15:20] So you’re so obviously that that certification and that learning professional will and opportunities were important for your early journey. What what to do after you earned a CPM? What type of roles did you move into?

 

[00:15:32] Sure. Well, I I start getting basically the supply chain the planning started initially in the engineering department. Then I moved to the planning department. I took production control. I took procurement. And then I went to management in Supply chain, all that at the manufacturing level.

 

[00:15:52] And it was really interesting that I mean, I’m sitting in a factory trying to control the factory of two thousand people at that moment, consumer electronics. And I’m going through all the difficulties of running a factory. The pressure, but always asking why the forecast is so bad. I mean, we were just there. Come on, guys, don’t change during changing these. So one day I go to my business meeting in the U.S., my monthly meeting with my with the sales office, the company at that moment. And I was sitting there and then the the the business planning director was sitting there, but the manager was not there. The business spending manager. Hey, where is this? Where is this guy? All he listed company. And what about the next person? Well, I’m interviewing. Hey, you want to interview me? Sure. Sit down. So he called the sales V.P. and in five minutes they interviewed me and they say, come back Monday. Show up Monday and come to the US. That was in 2000. Wow. Wow. They move quick. Of course they knew me. Five years I’ve been working with them for a year. They knew me. And I guess they had some concerns about getting to know control or getting to know better manufacturing site. And I had that. So. But that gave me the opportunity to solve that question of why the forecasts were so bad, because now I was in charge of creating different safer.

 

[00:17:17] They suckered you, didn’t they? Yeah. Another bad dad joke that’s been an epic circles for years about forecasting.

 

[00:17:22] Right. What’s the difference between a great forecast and accurate forecasts and bigfoot? Well, at least a couple people have claimed to see Bigfoot. No kidding.

 

[00:17:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Problems of bad jokes. Today is all I got. Well, really? You know.

 

[00:17:36] We didn’t have established a connection for the Apex body knowledge prior to you coming. This is really neat to have you come on and kind of talk about how those rigorous certifications and each other there’s a wide variety of outstanding supply chain certifications out there, but the CPI has been around the longest, has made an impact on a lot of careers especially. I think it’s it’s led folks and tell me if I’m wrong here, but if certain folks, especially in Supply chain, really come to for a real to have a real appreciation around the planning and forecasting. Some folks really until maybe in recent years here and everyone’s really understood about the importance. But it seems like when you go to sort vacations like that, you really kind of are your earliest adopters.

 

[00:18:21] You drink the kool aid quickly as it relates to the value of these key functions, getting little Google and challenge the stand, the start of school. And that’s the key for transformation in a company to go to a company, you go to an environment and you see that people get into new companies and they have an opinion and they kind of various and firm opinion about what needs to be done. And what happens is that you have a new set of eyes and that’s always valuable for a transformation nation. And if that set of eyes you carve out well is structure your mind about what is there, what had been successful, why has it not?

 

[00:18:55] Then then you are you are into something interesting, lets you know CPM Malcolm. Just let me know that that’s about two hundred two hundred to two hundred and twenty five hours worth of study. So that I mean it’s essentially a college.

 

[00:19:11] I believe it. What’s your last name is. Lu. Two thousand hours of study. Is it really rigorous?

 

[00:19:20] So let’s talk about Malcolm. What good would it be looking out Malcolm? Outstanding. So let’s talk about the current organic kind of shifting from because we’re gonna talk about your current role and which I’m sure you don’t get much sleep at night. You’ve got several full plates. But let’s talk about the really unique organization that is now been made of Mitsubishi Electric and Train HBC US. Tell us tell us more about what the organization does first.

 

[00:19:47] Well, the the J. Joint venture, it’s an opportunity for two big companies to basically expand on the use of Douglas and B RF technology on the US. So. One side we have Mitsubishi Electric with great products, with great equipment, quality and recognition. And then you have trained with a great sales force, very recognized, very important brand that have relevant commercial channels.

 

[00:20:14] So is the integration of those two, the product and the channels.

 

[00:20:18] And that’s the big opportunity, huge opportunity now for the facility in Gwinnett County, where I believe your offices, right? Correct. And kind of north Atlanta. Right. North metro Atlanta area or north west metro Atlanta area. What what goes on in that facility?

 

[00:20:34] Well, we heard about IRA. We have team members all around 500 people. And around half of that is only sales and the technical field side of the equation. And the other half is in Swansea. Same in Swansea. We have our engineering center developing products for the U.S. That portion is not part of the J.V.. So that portion is a Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Center. Joe’s with us developing products for the U.S. and Latin America markets. So that’s what we have there at the marketing, sales, marketing operations, of course, all these Supply chain department. And we had distribution centers in and in Swanning in Atlanta for the east side of the U.S. and in Los Angeles for the West Coast.

 

[00:21:18] That’s Keith. How many skews roughly do you distribute from that facility there?

 

[00:21:22] So we have active equipment, large pieces of air conditioning equipment like 2000. And then we have the service parts organization with around 10000 service parts.

 

[00:21:33] It’s a pretty complex supply chain, if you will, when it comes to that many parts. And also that an excuse just for the east coast of the U.S., basically.

 

[00:21:41] Yeah. Correct. And I know you always got the new product introductions and all these done going on. So he’s always fun.

 

[00:21:47] Douglas Calluses is gaining steam, has been gaining steam in the states. I mean, it’s really prominent in non U.S. markets, right? Because in aged buildings, it’s a great way to right to create HVAD.

 

[00:22:01] And about how many people do you have there in the Swansea area? Again, around 400. About 400, 500? 400. OK.

 

[00:22:07] So before Greg White, he had some questions around the collaboration. Right. Between Mitsubishi Electric and Ingersoll Rand. But it’s important to note the company the organization established in 2013 is now the leading provider of Douglas and V RF systems in the United States and Latin America. So you’ll have not waste any time, huh?

 

[00:22:30] Well, we have been our market share has been always in the high 30s, basically number one market share in the in the U.S. And with these joint venture, basically, we are we are very aggressive and we are very optimistic for the next few years. As you mentioned about that, these in these products grown in the U.S. and the air conditioning may be a little bit flat or especially this year. But our technology, Alex Douglas, technology is growing. We have say, let’s say 20 percent per year. And that’s the type of activity we’re seeing.

 

[00:22:59] Well, I think that goes to, you know, the same reason it’s used in a lot of non U.S. countries as is, because now people can get air conditioning throughout a building that’s difficult or impossible to duct, similar to the one that as we look right now, I think, is there anything you can do?

 

[00:23:21] Yeah, but I think that’s you know, that’s an important you know, it’s it’s an important bridge.

 

[00:23:29] So I worked with what’s go one of your customers through Jim Air. I think you said. Right. And and this has become a big portion of their business right there. They’re an HPC distributor and it’s become a, you know, big and dramatically growing portion of their business for some years.

 

[00:23:44] Yeah, well, our main selling point basically disown comfort solution that now you are able to customize different rooms according to your needs, but very important. You provide comfort and you only use the resources for that room. All right. It’s about able split technology. That means variable consumption of energy.

 

[00:24:03] So is the most efficient solution. Yeah. For in the industry and in this I mean that.

 

[00:24:10] Tell us a little bit about how the companies operate together. How do Mitsubishi and train other than being on opposite sides of the shore of the letter? How do you all work that?

 

[00:24:19] That has been a very unique joint venture with that with everything is based on respect? Well, we have two very different companies. We kind of an American company, very recognized, but at the same time very aggressive, very active, which is in the sight of train and then are very concerned about the 100 year old organization in Japan, where this joint venture is based on respect, where the function is operated by the best Dematic core group from Mitsubishi Electric. And we are receiving basically we have one main executive, our CFO, Mr. Andy Kelso from train. And that’s how the collaboration works. Basically, we work with. We do our business and we receive support and also we have our board of directors with members from both companies that guide us.

 

[00:25:05] If I can piggyback on on Greg’s question there. Where did the ball originally get rolling when it comes as joint venture?

 

[00:25:15] I think that we the the market, like many our markets in the US, are very dynamic. And you always management, always looking to maintain their competitiveness, their edge for the next five years. In the US, bodily transformation is manufacturers trying to grab channels of distribution. So if you are a manufacturer where you don’t have a partnership, you are at risk of running out of space so that that concern has always been in mind or any leadership team. So that’s I think that’s at some point someone identified the opportunity.

 

[00:25:52] Yeah, it’s really neat to see that in the modern day global supply chain industry. You’re seeing companies that are looking beyond the four walls of proverbial four walls to really figure out way different ways they can they can increase their competitive advantage while partnering differently. And that’s the that’s the breath for I think one of the big breath breaths, fresh air in the industry in recent years. You know, we had Peter Gibbons been in the couple. And Greg, you may remember as well, Peter Gibbons, the CEO of TARP. And TARP is a really interesting different industry, but but similar joint venture between Goodyear and Bridgestone, you know, two long respected leading brands in the tire industry who also saw an opportunity to combine forces and serve the customer better and protect their competitive advantage and an increase market share.

 

[00:26:41] Yes, it can complement each other. Yeah. How to complement with some strengths and weaknesses and just find the right partner and make it work, which is very difficult.

 

[00:26:50] Yes. While respecting while protecting each of the two respective organizations, culture and other other business offerings. Right. And by the way, Peter, it was a fantastic in and out. I mean, he he is definitely someone that you’d want to work for. All right. So let’s talk more before. But I know Ben’s got a couple questions, General, for a more industry questions for you. But tell us about your current role, GMO as as vice president of supply chain management at this this joint venture.

 

[00:27:24] Well, I mean, as part of Supply chain management, it’s the starts with the demand planning and sales and operation planning. So I’m in charge of that process and generating the forecast now for a company, which we’ll talk about it in a moment. But then implementing that and the Keith collaboration, collaboration with customers to better understand what are their needs and what is moving in the market. We do that through two ways. One of them is analytics, which is that sharing we partner with each of our distributors and we understand what’s going on, what’s moving, what moved last week, how many they sold, how many they have. We aggregate the analytics and we have a body of knowledge that by Monday morning we can see what moves. How much? Last week for the whole country when we aggregated data. Then you have by where that analytics for several years. We know our product seasonality. Right. But for the four different line of product. So we can predict based on that body of knowledge and then things move.

 

[00:28:32] And then the HVAD, the industry seasonality.

 

[00:28:34] Well, know every time. Yeah. It’s everything we kind of heating and air conditioning which may be opposite or very close to opposite. So yeah, every product is different, but that’s the first portion. The other big box units now court is getting that knowledge and transmitting that to the factories and last suppliers to keep us healthy. So the challenge of these supply chain is pretty much how to keep that organization moving in the same direction uncoordinated, which is a lot of sharing get grabbing the knowledge and transmitting the knowledge through the organization and keeping it healthy.

 

[00:29:13] And that is that might sound easy and simple to some of our listeners. That has extremely challenging. Right. You touched on earlier demand planning, but also you touch the S&P. How do it seems like to me that S&P has gotten almost it’s been important for a while, but it has also been there seems to be like a resurgence in the interest of S&P. And we’ve we’ve facilitated a couple events. Epix Leonard’s one of our sponsors here. We’ve we’ve facilitated some events in recent years because of that resurgence in S&P. What? Is there anything if you think about, you know, one or two best practices when it comes to effective S&P or maybe even just common mistakes? Companies make what comes to mind when you’ve seen S&P either get, you know, gotten really right or left, you know, kind of like Daryl. Show us your show.

 

[00:30:09] Show us your magic crystal ball. Because as I sat through one of those courses that Scott was talking about on sales and operations planning, and I had no idea all of the behind the scenes in the lounge, you have to have to be able to properly predict for a company like you said, you know, how can this forecast be so crazy? Well, I happen to know some salespeople and I understand how some of the set of those numbers can be got away. But yeah, I’m really interested to see how, you know, what your magic, your crystal ball looks like anyway. So when I came late, let me go back those 20 years ago when I came back and tried to answer that question. So when I went through the process, I went and asked, okay, how do how what is the current process? Well, we asked the salesman, so. Okay. Let’s go and see how they do it. Problem 1 Team one. So here we go. Half of them don’t like even computers, right? So they don’t like giving Excel. And we are sending an Excel course or a sales force. They have not done analytics.

 

[00:31:05] And then the other half, we’re just surpassing the the document to the customer. They don’t have time. They don’t care because they only care for the next two weeks replenishment. We were asking for a five month forecast. They don’t have time. They don’t know. So very few of them are expert. So does a root cause of the or the one?

 

[00:31:24] Well, one of the comments that I took away from one of the classes is, is a lot of people in business, especially in executive tier, see sales people as coin operated. You stick a quarter and pull handle to get a result.

 

[00:31:34] And man, that’s like and they don’t spend their time. They don’t get paid. Do you know, effect relate to fill out forms and give you a forecast? They get we have a vision to sell product.

 

[00:31:45] However, there is something there. Yeah, they have knowledge. Yes. So and but they have a unique knowledge of the market of their customer. They know trends. They know product date. They have sensitivities right now that are all their knowledge in order. Sight of the conversation. The broader group, the marketing group there is. So the challenge. Crystal ball. Mm hmm. Grab the knowledge. You have about 500 people organization. The challenges you’re going to do, analytics. The analytics are great. Everything that you can do with analytics. Don’t even ask if that is there. If the broker are stable, nobody ability. Come on. You don’t need to do anything but does not business. That’s not reality. You create a base forecast and then you create the process. S&P and more detail collaborative planning where you grab intelligence from different departments in five minutes so you can grab you can create a forecast and asks a salesman, give you your opinion.

 

[00:32:41] And that’s to you’re going to get before or so Bill is thinking. One more question. Go ahead. Let’s go. So the communication between all that, I mean, you just talked about, you know, getting the information out to the suppliers in the factories. But just how critical is that seamless and timely and an accurate communication across that, you know, the different functional aspects of the organization. How critical is that to S&P?

 

[00:33:08] I think the portion of the S&P is to create one plan, because you may have connectivity, you may have your piece develop. But there is three plans going on around the factory. There is a marketing plan, the sales plan. So the challenge on the S&P is the alignment. And having one plan now, you can copy it on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis. You every different industries, according to your lead times, set the timeline, but make sure that is the best intelligence available and everything starts on the demand side alignment and putting a for instance, if you identify a challenge that is going to be different than your business plan, then you need to create a countermeasure. That’s when you in both sales create a plan. Marketing put the funds in place to change the demand to what you need. So that process takes a bunch of people. Yeah, well, point.

 

[00:34:04] And speaking of people and analytics and communication, all those things, that’s got to be synched up somehow. So, Jim, what is your technology stack look like? As we talk about digitalization also and those things, is that how do you guys kind of coordinate all those things? Is there a piece of technology where a group of technologies that you guys use to to do that?

 

[00:34:24] I think we we kind of basic the A.S.A.P. functionality going on very well for many years. So that that always helps to have a place where you have a dad. You can go back to your IDE and master and is audited frequently and the data is good. That’s the first thing. The next is identify your weaknesses. So in that analysis of what information do I need to run, my business is not everything. You have a thousand variables and it’s not the software who is going to solve the problem because the software is going to have thousand inputs, thousand outputs. It’s you then.

 

[00:34:58] Fine. What are the three inputs I need in order to process the data and have these three outputs? Then you’ll develop the whatever you need on extra technology in our case. We created a sales portal to connect with our customers and we partner with them. We not only we partner, we add value to data sharing. So when they tell us how many they sold, that’s good for us. But it’s also good for them because we come back and tell them, hey, why are you ordering these units? If you already have six months of supply constantly people, however, give me an order for these 20 that you don’t have. So we added value to the relationship. We improve their turns, we improve their cash flow.

 

[00:35:44] That’s great. That’s huge. Yeah. Before. Way back in my metal stamping days with a little bit of business with the Vidalia factory in Vidalia, Georgia, the train factor down if you’ve been bit down there. Really impressive facility and great people do business with an end to your point about communication and upstream and downstream models of communication. It really made, you know, in metal stamping, which can be firefighting one or worse. It was a breath of fresh air.

 

[00:36:14] Yeah. One of the elements we are learning from training this collaboration and that they are very deep into the lean methodologies. And we are learning from them. Even though we are a Japanese company and we do have continuous improvement and great quality over the years, the the emphasis on at the office level on lean technologies is helping us.

 

[00:36:33] And given you guys are a very global company, per say, especially with this joint venture with different parts of the world and so forth, you know, as we kind of started the show, we talked about some unique trends and so forth. Supply chain. What is kind of on your radar right now where you kind of looking at when it comes to trends and things like that, social issues, trends, challenges and so forth? What are some things out there that you are looking at closely and how is how that those things might affect you per say?

 

[00:37:02] Well, we focus on the basics, on data integrity. That’s one of them. That obviously ability make sure that we can work on silos through the extended organization. We find very frequently that this specific factory or something is it they have their own objectives, most likely cost reduction and things like that. And many is very frequently those objectives affect their behavior. So how to go back not only to those factories to but to management to align to the overall supply chain performance aligned objectives. So visibility and removing the silos is more it is not the technology thing. So it’s a it’s a more business, an end to end management. The one that concern me the most, that’s what where we make the big problem, the big mistakes that that really affect our performance. And that’s where some of the biggest opportunities are in optimizing in Supply chain real estate Dematic because of Supply chain is about time management. How how fast do you understand the next trend and how fast you communicate that to your last supplier? And that is not only what you do at this level affects thousands and thousands of people. And so make sure that they are working on the right things, but they need to have the right information, the right plan.

 

[00:38:26] Is there anything you’re tracking now that you and your management team are looking at, that you need to attack any of these trends or issues or anything like that, either globally or locally that you’re working towards right now? Of course, ATDC the topic of the day.

 

[00:38:46] And trade war tariffs is tariffs certainly affect us.

 

[00:38:50] And it is tough. It’s tough to be in business just waiting for one day. I mean, it’s important stuff.

 

[00:38:56] What’s what’s been your strategy as far as how you guys know when you talk big strategy about the tariffs and so forth, is it something you’re just going to kind of pass on to the consumer as far as a price hike or so forth? Or you kind of look at some other things, whether it’s shifting production or how has that kind of working for you?

 

[00:39:12] So you said he buys the De Beers manufacturing. We have a diverse manufacturing footprint. I mean, we have factories in Thailand, Japan, small, very small production in China. So we are actually very, very little affected right now. But and then we have, of course, where our operation in North America, in Mexico, Mexicali, Mexico. It’s a great operation that is supporting us. And they are very progressive on flexibility, which is high value added to the whole organization. The factories that we have in other countries, they are long lead time and it is tough to do my and only time. But when not when we have a company that is willing to test new waters on flexibility is always exciting.

 

[00:39:55] So we are. You’re talking about trains, a track. That’s a great Segway forward. We segue way over into the Georgia manufacturing summit Gamma. Can you tell us how can folks learn more about the organization in case you know, you’ve shared so much? I really wish we had it up for five hours. And maybe that was part one with Gizmo here, because there’s a lot we could dive into deeper with what you’ve shared. But. But for starters, how can folks just learn more about Mitsubishi Electric Train ATDC us?

 

[00:40:28] Yeah, we’ll go to our Web site and then we have our Web different Web site for the commercial or for the residential base where we basically you can learn more about the technologies and the relationship with train.

 

[00:40:39] And that Web site is a M80 Metta H backup. All right, Greg. Amy t a h back. Dot com. Good stuff. So if you stick around for a second. We want to target to chime in on some other things we about to talk about because the transit track and Supply chain, we’ve got the honor of leading an esteemed panel of Supply chain leaders once again for the third or fourth year in a row at the Georgia manufacturing summit, which is is the premier the place to be? Yes. If you’re manufacturing, whether you’re in Georgia or regionally or U.S., it’s a great place to be on October 9th. And Jason, thank you first off for letting us. Given this opportunity to assemble a panel and and just sit back and hear their best practices and insights and been there, done that just like Gizmo did in the last 30 minutes here. So before we get kind of latest update on where the summit is, a definite one, encourage our audience, come out and check out the trends of track in Supply chain breakout panel session on October night, which is from ten thirty to 12 noon of a full day of goings on at the summit and beyond Garma. We’ve got Tangerine Bellamy, vice president, Industrial Engineering with U.P.S.. We have Erin Meredith, director of innovation for The Incredible Point, a center for Siplon Innovation, which, of course, is powered by the great folks over at Georgia Pacific, and Michelle Rotman, chief sustainability officer for HMTX Industries, which they just rebranded. And we’ve got a bunch of companies now involved, bigger organization. But formerly there are Halstead International, which was named our Sustainability Company of the year or so Sustainability Excellence Award for the first annual 2019. Linda Supply chain Ward’s been we had Brian Greene just here in the last week or so. There’s our leader. Yeah, and powerhouse drummer. You know, as we form our siplon, we’re now a radio band rock chain. Yeah, yeah.

 

[00:42:37] But but that panel Im not taking anything away from the panel we’ve had over the years, but I am really excited about this panel with those four leaders because I think you can hear a lot more. What I’ve just what you’ve heard here, been there and done that expertise, not theoretical stuff that works. And we know it works because we’ve done it and we’ve let it. So but that’s just tipped iceberg. So Jason Moss, CEO of the Georgia manufacturing alliance, tell us more about what’s going on with the summit this year.

 

[00:43:04] Well, I tell you. You know, this is this is going to be the best of the biggest event we’ve ever had. The trends that we’re tracking right now and the summit, are we gonna work or finalizing all the all the rest of the educational sessions?

 

[00:43:18] The in the past for the past several years, we have noticed that this this session tends to pack out first. You know, when as you’re going down the hall, I’ll see what classes fill up the transom track because of the book, because of the rockstar panels that are always on deck. People are interested. They want to know what’s going on. And the reason that we host the Georgia Manufacturing Summit, this is our keynote. I mean, our Keystone event for the year, our organization is designed to help support grow, manufacture manufacturing across the state of Georgia. For the past 12 months, we’ve had a little over thirty five hundred people attend events that we’ve hosted. And we do plant tours and networking events and educational sessions with the sole purpose to help connect industry professionals and give them the opportunity to see world class manufacturing in action. And we get to see some pretty amazing facilities. We’ve toward everything from Gulfstream to Bluebird Bus to Coca-Cola to Daniel Defense to Keith. And we love going out and seeing these facilities us. We’ve gone to South Y a couple times. I mean, there some of some great facilities around the state. And and again, we don’t do events just to put numbers on the board being it that we’ve done events.

 

[00:44:34] Our goal was to help industry professionals had the opportunity to build strategic alliances and learn from other industry professionals, learn those best practices, be able to to walk through that that conversation and build them, be able to ask questions about how people have have had success on their, you know, operational excellence journeys, you know, their and what they’re doing in safety or maybe what what’s going on and even work for.

 

[00:44:58] Development. So. So this is a culmination of the things that we’ve done throughout the past year. So we’ve got we’ve got it. We’ll have a little over 30 educational speakers on different panels throughout the day. We’ve got three sessions in the morning. We’ve got four sessions in the afternoon. Instead of going through all of those things, just go to Georgia Manufacturing Summit dot com and see the list of educational sessions that we’ve got. But we’re gonna be touching on every department in manufacturing. We’re going gonna be talking about operational excellence. We had a lean session that is gonna be going on because we Greene grew VO Gruber’s collectives knocking it out of the park. He just he just gave me the final layout of his his panel. He slipped one more answer by Jerai to talk a little faster, but that’s fine. But we’ve got a bo bo. We cover that. Jamie Jackson’s gonna be covering our workforce development. He’s our chapter director at La Grange. And we’ve got him again. Too many too many to speak of the the way the day a lay out first thing in the morning, we’ll have an awards program. The Georgia Manufacturing Award will be hosted at the summit.

 

[00:46:03] And will we get forage for awards categories that we’ll be showcasing? And then our keynote speaker for for the awards program is a guy by the name of Warner Washington. He’s right. Yeah. Thirty five year veteran from P and G. And we just toured his facility down. And then in Albany. Yeah, Albany and Albany, depending on where you’re at. But but he’s got over 70 acres under roof of the second largest manufacturing facilities in the US. And it was just fascinating. Have toured a bunch places. But man, that is pretty amazing facility. But but he’ll be one of our keynotes to talk about his his experience in the past 35 years in manufacturing and dynamics. Baker, really fun guy. I mean, he is a great guy. I’m really excited about having him share that. Then we have three educational sessions again in the morning. We’ll have a break break. And then we’ll get exhibitors that will be showcasing some of their products and services that support manufacturing across the state. So people be able to kind of learn a little bit about some of the resources that are available here in Georgia.

 

[00:47:10] And then our lunch session we’ll be doing we’ve got Stuart counts and he is he is the chief operations officer at Keith. Stuart’s a great guy. He’s gonna be talking. Just got promoted raise. Did he advance? I’m stoked about that. So I’ve known Stuart for for quite some time.

 

[00:47:29] And a matter of fact, he is on the cover of the latest Georgia manufacturing directory. It’s getting bigger. Everything is getting bigger every day. Yeah.

 

[00:47:37] Well, no doubt we are. We’re really proud of that. We publish that twice a year to showcase the all of our members and. But. But Stuart is gonna be sharing some of the some of the challenges and some of the things that they’re running into with the.

 

[00:47:51] Tell you add that to you. RAD is a. If you’re not familiar, that’s the new new product. And the other thing is hot SUV that they they’ve developed here in Georgia and it is a rock star and everyone is rolling off has already spoken for. Yeah, yeah. They’ve got it. They’ve got a backlog and so they’re having, you know, scores there. He’s got a good problem to have. Yeah. Yeah. And some of the challenges that they’re having is this is the only place that that vehicles manufactured. So exporting this thing. It’s a whole new piece that they’re getting to go through. And so they’re gonna talk about some of the things that have worked and share some of the insights of what’s working and you know, some of the things that they’ve done that maybe didn’t work so well. And so Stuart is again, he’ll be doing that. And we hopefully the game plan is if you have not seen what the new tell your ads, there’ll be there’ll be a brand new ad parked right up front by the stage.

 

[00:48:40] I’ve been trying to talk, Stuart, into giving me that one, but I don’t know that I can pull that off just yet. But. But one of the GMH benefits as a member of our organization, you get a huge discount for Keith products. Just, you know, which is a pretty neat deal. A lot of folks don’t know about that. I’ll make sure that Stuart reminds everybody to pick one up on the way home. Right. But but we’re again, really stoked about the lineup of speakers that we’ve got the content that will be covered. I promise you, the value will be there. This is a this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear from world class manufacturing how the leaders that the theme this year of the summit is manufacturing success in Georgia. And so, you know, we all know that there’s issues with workforce. We all know that there’s issues with technology and the tariffs and all this stuff. We’re not gonna sit around and bellyache and whine about all the bad stuff going on. What we’re gonna do is we will celebrate the successes that our manufacturers have had and be able to share those again, best practices and what’s winning in workforce and what’s winning and manufacturing a better bottom line. What’s winning for the trains? The track. Right.

 

[00:49:46] And so, you know, the last couple of years, you’ve made it a competition between the different breakout sessions that put people in. Right. I got to tell you, I’m proud of this panel we’ve got. You’re gonna have the number one. Tendons class, your Froome going out. We’re gonna keep it because to your point, it is about. It’s, um, it’s not it’s not fluff. I mean, just like we’ve learned here today, there are some nuggets you can take away and there will be applicable to your business. Of course, most most of the thousand plus folks are gonna be manufacturers. And across the wide set, you know, manufacturing, seeing different sectors will be involved. But but real practical takeaways, what you’re going to have and trains track and supply chain. Once again, we’re proud to deliver with folks like Keith here.

 

[00:50:31] Well, one of that, one of the biggest challenges, I mean, if there is a problem with the Georgia manufacturing summit and we do have we do have a problem with the Georgia manufacturing alliance, I’ll go ahead and just let you know that. Now, the feedback that I always get from these events is at the end of the event, people say every time without fail, I wish I would have had my entire team here because I could only sit in on one of the educational sessions. But if you bring your team, you know, we do sell tickets individually, not very often, but but we do sell them buy half tables and full tables. But our goal is to make sure that every department in a manufacturing facility is served. And I promise you that educational pieces are going to be there. And again, you can’t you can only sit in one session at a time. So if you bring your your finance folks, you bring your salespeople, you bring because we get sales and marketing training, what we do in operations, what drives top line revenue, of course.

 

[00:51:19] Right. And Ben and Greg and I will all be there along with our nine hundred and ninety seven or plus of our four are best friends.

 

[00:51:29] How can folks plug in roster?

 

[00:51:32] And it’s real easy, real easy to plug in. You can you can purchase an individual ticket, half table or full table at Georgia Manufacturing Summit that come in towards your manufacturing summit. That comes really easy to do that. You know, you want to make sure that you’re there and don’t come alone. But we do expect this event to sell out. And so if you have not got your ticket. I mean, we’re kind of constrained by this base that we’ve got leased. So if you had got your ticket that encouraged you to get that quick and and be ready to learn some stuff and meet some great people.

 

[00:52:03] I know I’ve got my calendar blocked. But Jason, remind our listeners, when is it exactly? What’s the date?

 

[00:52:09] Well, more dates, October the night at the Cobb Galleria. And it will be a full day from 830. The doors will open at seven thirty. The kickoff event, the first speaker starts talking at eight thirty.

 

[00:52:22] Actually, Scott will be one of the very first because we always have him do a very special part of that lodge in the morning and then we’ll wrap it at 430.

 

[00:52:30] Now, there has been some talk that we might put together a GM, a band, anybody that can can play anything.

 

[00:52:36] I’m a I’m a great listener. I don’t know. Zero musical Daryl. You’re not going to sing and sell that at a certain level. Right. Right. Georgia manufacturing some at dot com.

 

[00:52:48] October 9th. Place to be. If you love the manufacturing world, be here. Cobb Galleria in Atlanta. We’re proud to be broadcasting live our proud sponsors of the GM May. The manufacturing industry does need advocates like the GM and Jay Small. So this team. So we’re really excited about that. And Greg, while I’ll be on the breakout panel, you’re gonna be rocking and rolling with some great guests as we broadcast live from the summit.

 

[00:53:10] I’m gonna have to go solo and then I’m gonna show you my movie.

 

[00:53:15] Yeah, but you’ve teased this quite some time. We’ve got some VIP guests.

 

[00:53:21] Very VIP. Yes, we’ve got some.

 

[00:53:24] I’m not sure exactly how far to to tease it, but we’ve got some government officials, Pfizer to say some from some other countries that are doing business with manufacturers here in the U.S..

 

[00:53:34] Big thanks to Albert Sorto for arranging. Yeah, a couple of interviews probably. But, you know, go international and you cross barriers across borders and really getting perspective, global perspective, this is what it is.

 

[00:53:49] But now that you mention that, you know, getting kind of outside of our borders, you know, I am focused on anything that is that is beneficial to manufacturers in the state of Georgia now. So two things. I want to make sure that this is open to anybody in the country, actually anybody on the globe. If you want to come check out and see what the cool stuff is going on in Georgia, coming out to hang out with us, I promise you, it’ll be a great event. The things that you’ll learn will apply everywhere. But also, you do not have to be a member of GM A to participate. A lot of times people think that this is our association event only. But now this is open to anybody in the manufacturing space. Open arms? Yes.

 

[00:54:25] Free hugs. Come out. Hang out and coffee. Well, coffee. Yes.

 

[00:54:29] Looking forward to that overnight. Circle your calendar. Be a great event once again. But as we wrap up, we want to touch on a couple of events. We’re gonna be at and of course, we encourage your audience. Come check us out in person Supply Chain Now Radio as we broadcast lab almost across the country for now, or at least have we’ve got half the country. Right. But we are proud a part about a proud media partner of the two thousand nineteen AIG SCA C Supply chain and quality.

 

[00:54:57] Conference, which is just next week. And of course, praying for everyone in the Bahamas. All up and down the south east coast as the Hurricane Dorian plays itself out here. Been a lot of devastation. And so the folks in Charleston, this event, the part not the top of your list right now, but nevertheless come out and check us out September 12th, 13th in Charleston as we’re there at the Automotive Industry Action Group in the South Carolina Automotive Council SUPPLY CHAIN and Quality Conference sponsored by our friends over at the Effective syndicate. Right.

 

[00:55:31] Yeah. We’re gonna interview some folks from Bosch and Volvo and, you know, all of the manufacturers, auto manufacturers that are there, BMW, Mercedes. It’s gonna be interesting talking to them.

 

[00:55:42] Big Blue IBM. We’ll be there talking. That’s right. Technology and it within the automotive space. We look forward to it. Now with them as well. And we’ve we’ve tackled October night, the Georgia Mandate Manufacturing Summit, the place to be. And and then kind of moving into November. Working on a couple other events, especially as we move into the fall season here.

 

[00:56:04] But we’re gonna be in Austin, Texas at the what events coming up there, ground November 7th and 8th at the TFT Logistics CIO forum.

 

[00:56:12] We’re gonna help Austin keep it. We’re.

 

[00:56:15] That’s right. Austin, Texas. And get some great barbecue and. Yeah, talk to a bunch of great people.

 

[00:56:20] And there’s gonna they’re having like three hundred decision makers at this at this and I saw the other day. They’ve been really good about keeping us up to date on what’s going on. They’ve added some additional speakers and, uh, a couple of of new participants. And in terms of companies that are that are displaying or showcasing their as well.

 

[00:56:42] Love are our partners. We have an EMT based in London. In fact, we’ve got them coming up on a podcast next week. So this November 7th, 8th in Austin, the two thousand nineteen Logistics form freight tech Logistics Tech Supply chain, Texas. It’s gonna be an outstanding conference and then flip the calendar real quick. Reverse Logistics Asian Conference Expo out in Vegas in February 2020. I love that new partnership with them. If we have a monthly series that focuses on the ever growing and ever more important role of reverse Logistics and supply chain and returns processing and handling and then Moto X 2020, which we’ve talked touched on about a lot. Lu one of the largest supply chain trade shows in North America coming right here to Atlanta. Ben’s excited about his thirty five thousand best friends that’s right here for Moto X 2020. And we’re giving broadcast love for all four days, but also been that will be the 2020 Linda Supply chain awards.

 

[00:57:40] I will Indy, which we have some fun news recently. We can’t really talk too much about it, but we did. We think we’ve secured a exciting keynote speaker for that event. So there will be more information coming out about that very soon.

 

[00:57:52] Yes. And we hope to secure that net. We’re trapped and we hope they get it locked in. But, you know, it’s organizations that really folks are down here from and that we hope to lock that down for March 10th, 2020 at the 2020 Atlanta Supply chain Awards hosted by our friends at Mode X and about bodyweight Moto X is free to go to Moto X show dot com. GM is gonna be there IMO d e x show dot com. All right. So what a show today. Really appreciate all the kindred spirits around the table here. Greg White Coast Supply Chain Now Radio. What a what a chock full show. You will go our two.

 

[00:58:33] But yeah, let’s not to say we I got a bunch of stuff I’d love to talk about. But you know what? Let’s just let’s table it till the next time. Guess what? We are not starving for content. That’s right.

 

[00:58:41] Let’s consolidate it down to this singular point that that gamble made and that is consolidate those three plans. Right. Your your sales, financial and operations plan into one. Right. That is a great lesson for S&P. If you take nothing else away, that is a really critical lesson. Thank you for that.

 

[00:59:01] Loved. So, Greg, been that big thanks to a Greene Juvera Vice President Supply chain Management at Mitsubishi Electric Train HP AC U.S. LLC. Wow. Yeah. Took my Wheaties this morning. Way to go. And you can learn more about that organization, as we mentioned at Metta. M e t a h vac dot com. Really neat organization that’s doing great things in industry. Big thanks to Ben Harris and Jason Moss. Ben Harris, of course, with Metro Atlanta Chamber, Jason Moss with the Georgia manufacturing alliance. Lots of big events which will include as many on the show notes. So many things you alluded to. You can shoot some some links there will include the show notes and Greg. Be sure to check out other upcoming events, replays of our interviews, other resources where at supply chain.

 

[00:59:49] Now radio dot com draw audience, you can find us an Apple podcast, SoundCloud all.

 

[00:59:57] Leaving sites where podcasts can be found. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything on behalf of the entire Supply Chain Now Radio team. This is Scott Luton wishing you a wonderful week ahead and we will see you next time on Supply Chain Now Radio.