I have been doing video interviews with a number of C-level execs and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New Normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. Here is the index to the growing list of interviews.
This time it is Tom Ryan, President and Founder of tkr Consulting Associates. Tom and I were colleagues at Gartner in the late 90s. He was one of the founding analysts of the Integrated Logistics Strategies service. Before that, he had been in warehouse operations at Procter and Gamble and at a warehouse management systems company. After that he was part of a third party logistics (3PL) firm and has since advised a number of companies on software and 3PL selections.
Tom has a wonderful ability to simplify complex logistics (anyone who can work in Tolkien's Balrog and Moria when talking about reverse logistics is surely gifted). I am glad we discussed how supply chains have been under stress during the pandemic across several industries and how it has taken a lot of creativity especially from small businesses to handle a "once in a hundred years, lifetime" scenario.
We talk about supply chains around PPE, ventilators and other healthcare supplies, dairy, meat, last mile delivery of groceries, restaurant meals, even used cars. We discuss the physical challenges of global supply chains when consumers expect delivery in days, the complexity of reverse logistics and capabilities of 3PLs.
We spend the most time on technology, particularly automation - in warehouses, with conveyors and autonomous mobile robots, drone deliveries and autonomous vehicles.
Love his calm perspective on the performance of supply chains during the pandemic - "Same stuff we have been playing with ...but worse... the intensity, severity, frequency (spiked) ...but I can do this, this hurts, but this too shall pass"
