[00:00:06] A good morning Scott Luton here with you, Liveline Supply Chain Now Radio. Welcome back to the show. In today’s show, we are continuing our Supply chain Bus series, a brief weekly look at some of the top news and trends across the global in the Supply chain community. All in fifteen minutes or less. Today’s episode of the Supply chain Buzz on Supply chain. Now radio is brought to you by the Effective syndicate, a leading coaching and consulting firm that helps companies win by optimizing process and developing winning cultures. Unlike many consulting firms, the been there done that pros at the Effective syndicate work side by side with all levels of the organization to drive sustainable improvement that enables profitable growth. To learn more. Check them out at the effective syndicate dot com. It’s Monday, December 16th. Now let’s get to the buzz in our first story this morning. Let’s talk tariffs and trade in big news. This past week, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would not take effect as planned for December 15th, thanks to a trade deal, or at least the first phase of a trade deal. Goods on list for be avoided. The 15 percent additional tariff that was the hit yesterday list for B includes a wide variety of items such as mushrooms, nuts, wide variety of chemicals, imitation gemstones, pet toys, bamboo cutting boards, bathrobes and much, much more.

[00:01:36] List for a which already had tariffs applied from a few months back has also been reduced from 15 percent additional tariffs to 7.5 percent. For its part, China has agreed to make substantial additional purchases of U.S. goods and services in the years to come. Additionally, the Phase 1 deal requires China to reform some of its approach to areas such as intellectual property, technology transfer and others. And it appears that the agreement also includes a new dispute resolution system that is reportedly much better and stronger than what’s been used in the past, which should help settle trade disagreements between the two countries in a more efficient manner moving forward. All that’s good news, it seems. However, we have a lot more work to do. Lists one, two and three items continue to be subjected to 25 percent tariffs on an estimated $250 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods. And our second story here on The Buzz, we’re taking a look at the 2020 economic winds, courtesy of the Home Depot and their crystal ball. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Home Depot is approaching 2020 rather carefully. The company recently told its investors that it expects the long U.S. economic expansion to slow down, and the organization is revising its sales targets for 2010 2020. As a result, according to Home Depot, as chairman and CEO Craig Monnier won, the company still projects to gain a, quote, outsized share in our market.

[00:03:15] Endquote to Home Depot sees slower growth in GDP 1.8 percent growth to be exact, and the company sees a positive housing market. But the level of activity that the last few years has experienced won’t be there. 3 Total sales for twenty twenty four Home Depot is projected to be 3.5 percent to 4 percent. A couple of years ago, the company had projected 4.5 to 6 percent in 2020 total sales. Additionally, Home Depot sees some positive economic trends heading into 2020 to include strong U.S. consumer spending, boosted by factors such as low unemployment and increasing wages. And home equity rates are rising, according to the company, and Americans are staying in their homes longer, which typically means the homeowners spend on home improvement needs. And what I found to be an interesting aside, company executives at the Home Depot are attempting to get a handle on theft from its 23:00 stores. One of the factors cited was the opioid crisis, as we’ve reported in past shows. Home Depot has invested heavily into its supply chain with one of the primary objectives being faster delivery. In fact, the company is in the midst of a 1.2 billion dollar investment in its supply chain. Much of that is focused on distribution centers and automation efforts to partially do some of the massive infrastructure investment and gains.

[00:04:43] The Home Depot was recognized by Gartner’s top 25 SUPPLY CHAIN rankings in 2018 after being absent from the list for years. All right, story number three comes to us from CBS News and really everywhere across the Supply chain world, celadon officially declared bankruptcy this past week, making it not only the largest transportation firm out of the eight hundred carriers to shut down in twenty nineteen, but it it’s reportedly the largest trucking sector bankruptcy ever. Celadon had a fleet of about thirty three hundred tractors and 10000 trailers. More than three thousand drivers were left out of a job with the action, along with another 1000 and other staff members at Celadon. It’s been widely reported that that the employees had very little notice, if any, and some drivers were stranded in the middle of the routes with little indication as to what to do with their equipment and freight. Even company gas cards at the truck drivers had been using were being declined. After a strong twenty eighteen where only 310 trucking companies shut down. Twenty nineteen has been a much different story. The transportation industry has been deeply impacted by lower shipping rates, not helped by higher tariffs and the trade war. On a more positive note. Many firms have been reaching out to the 3000 displaced celadon drivers to get them on board. The American Trucking Association cited a sixty thousand driver shortage number at the end of 2018.

[00:06:13] So hopefully these skilled professionals can find a new opportunity really quickly. In fact, close to the freight waves team for relentlessly covering this story and even creating a job board were former celadon drivers could connect with those parties interested in hiring and helping. You can learn more at freight waves that come. Speaking of trends impacting the End to end Supply chain world, let’s review one company’s view in story number four on The Buzz. According to a story by Sean Garley, a price over at Supply chain digital DHL has identified and predicted three specific supply chain trends that it says will have the greatest impact on North American operations in the next twelve months. Interim number one DHL cites the impact emerging technologies will have on SUPPLY CHAIN 5G a.r predictive modeling. All were specifically cited for not only how commonplace they will be in 2020, but how much more powerful they will be as they work together to move the industry forward. DHL second trend, they predict, will impact the Supply chain world the most in 2020 is product positioning being in the e-commerce age and with the ever growing omnichannel world. There continues to be more and more ways to not only get the products to consumers, but consumers are, of course, demanding more, more ways for their own convenience. Look at the locker’s that a variety of retailers are using, including Amazon and Home Depot.

[00:07:42] In fact, our team has had a lot of luck with the new and improved Amazon locker pickup offering with these strong consumer demands not only in convenience, but of course, in time from today delivered to now one day delivery. It oftentimes inventory positioning is hugely important. DHL predicts the growth of micro fulfillment centers, particularly, it says, in the grocery industry. And DHL is third and final trend. Gender diversity DHL reports that 32 percent of its new Supply chain associates are women. That’s encouraging. But we’ve got a long way to go, especially as we all know and senior level executive positions where women hold hold less than 10 percent of those roles. Let’s look at two items that may be impacting both the number of women entering the Supply chain space, as well as a number of women that are advancing into upper leadership levels. According to Data USA, five schools produce the most Logistics materials and supply chain management degrees in 2016. The Five Schools American Public University System, Michigan State University. The University of Tennessee. Knoxville, Texas A&M University and Ohio State University. If you look at the 2016 graduation numbers, sixty five point three percent of all the graduates in 2016 were male. And if you look at Supply chain and Logistics conferences where many practitioners and I go to develop skill sets, grow their networks and really gain personal brand visibility.

[00:09:21] According to Hugh, who? Indian Ugandan. My apologies. Ugandan consulting research data. These conferences, panelists and attendees are dominated by men to the tune of fifteen to twenty men per each one woman. Regardless, there is always opportunity, and more organizations like the DHL are investing resources to ensure opportunity for all. All right, so stay on the gender gap for a fifth and final story on today’s Supply chain Buzz. In a recent story from Forbes by Patricia Barnes, the explosion of artificial intelligence, while promising and powerful and exciting, could well worsen the gender gap. Divide some background here. So the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society launched an entity called the Women in a Daring Circle as a means to engage and support women in the artificial intelligence world. I call this group the Circle. So the circle is led by Microsoft in collaboration with a variety of other well-regarded global firms, according to their data. Women represent only 22 percent of all professionals worldwide. Julia Harrison is a global hit of public affairs practice at FTI Consulting. One of the largest financial consulting firms in the world. And the circle’s official knowledge partner, Ms. Harrison frames up the challenge that a proliferation poses, quote, The biggest danger to women is chairman. With so few women in technology and in the front in design of algorithms, we risk perpetuating the gender and other biases that already exist as machines learned from existing circumstance.

[00:11:10] And then in self machine to machine learning, end quote. Harrison continued by saying it is, quote, wrong just to think of danger without also acknowledging the opportunity if we can bring more women into the design and application stages of A.I.. We had the chance to change rapidly biases that have been built into our society for centuries in quote. So how do we address the issue? The circle as a first step is calling for its member organizations to make a one year commitment to build a diverse and inclusive Asia ecosystem within their companies. Additional steps and improvement efforts are planned, and that’s a wrap for today’s episode. Several of the leading Supply chain news stories, developments and trends right here on the Supply chain Buzz on Supply Chain Now Radio. You’re going to find links to each of the stories that we featured here today on the show. Notes for your convenience, including a few additional resources. Big thanks to today’s sponsor of the Supply chain Buzz. The Effective syndicate. You be sure to check them out at the Effective syndicate dot com. And to our listeners, on behalf of the entire Supply Chain Now Radio team, this is Scott Luton. Thank you for joining us. And we wish you a very successful week ahead. Thanks. By.