From Blind Spots to Blockchain: Rewriting Supply Chain Visibility

Jeremy Coote: Thank you. Great to be here.

Bill Wohl: Well, we’ve been having these discussions for about a year now, and the topics have been wide and varied. We’ve talked about transportation snarls, ships blocking the Suez Canal, then the pandemic slowing down port shipments. Geopolitical issues, of course, like the war in Eastern Europe.

All of a sudden, supply chain is very much in the news everywhere we look. What stands out for you, Jeremy, as we look back over the last 12 months?

Jeremy Coote: Well, I think the main thing is people are realizing they just don’t know where their things are, whether it’s inventory or transport inventory, and they’re struggling. And without that level of information, it gets hard to make the right decisions.

Bill Wohl: Well, it’s been kind of fascinating for me to hear you say that. You and I have a shared history that goes way back to the early 2000s when we both worked at SAP, and we both had a focus on supply chain. To hear you, as a CEO today, talk about people in business still not aware of where their finished and in-progress goods are is actually kind of amazing.

Jeremy Coote: It is. ERP and SAP did great things at a macro level, but now people are starting to understand that while they understand the process, they don’t understand the exact status.

And so we see a requirement now to get to the next level of granularity to start serializing or uniquely identifying at the item level to give you that next level of visibility.

Bill Wohl: Is it the nature of these macro trends that has renewed the focus? Or is it the availability now of so-called edge technologies that make a whole new level of transparency possible? What do you think is driving it or is it all?

Jeremy Coote: Well, I think that the challenge is that people, for the most part, have a decent idea of what’s going on in their enterprise. But they certainly don’t have visibility into partners, whether it’s 3PLs that are transporting their items or other practitioners in their manufacturing process.

And so, it’s really hard to get a cohesive status across the supply chain.

Bill Wohl: Do you think that’s more a reality for finished goods as opposed to in-progress materials? Or is that a challenge across the beginning to the end of the supply chain?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah, so we’re seeing both ends. There are ongoing requirements around understanding the ingredients, the components of your product, and where they came from. Are they sustainably produced? Can you trace back to the initial component manufacturer?

And then the tracking of the finished goods at the other end. So, depending on what industry you’re in, you have different requirements for this end-to-end supply chain visibility.

Bill Wohl: You’ve heard me comment on this program, Jeremy, that I’m often surprised I can watch my package from just about any retailer come all the way across the country, even halfway around the world. I can even watch the UPS delivery truck on a local map for the final mile.

If global retailers can provide that level of transparency for an individual package, why does it remain so hard for industrial companies to get their arms around where their products are at any given time?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah, I think this sort of “Amazon effect,” where as a consumer you can sit at your desk and order laundry detergent and watch it leave the distribution center and head to your house, is pretty powerful.

Then you try and order an industrial product as part of your job, and suddenly it becomes a black hole. It’s an interesting phenomenon. We’ve seen this before, where corporate life has been impacted by consumerism and the expectations it sets.

Bill Wohl: As you talk to customers and get a sense of where they’re putting their supply chain investment dollars, where has a lot of the emphasis been these last few months? What are they focused on?

Jeremy Coote: Well, I think the first mega trend we’ve been watching is digitization, or digitalization, which is really just turning analog processes into digital ones and aggregating that information across the entire supply chain.

That means putting in edge devices, adding trackers, being able to collect data digitally. Until you do that, nothing else really happens.

The next trend we’ve been seeing is that digital information drives visibility. This gives you the ability to track components and items across the manufacturing process to their final destination and gives all stakeholders access to that data.

But the new trend we’re seeing that’s really changing things is the focus on sustainability. People are beginning to understand the need to consider social, environmental, and financial impacts of a product’s journey, including the raw materials used in the process.

Bill Wohl: This isn’t just greenwashing of the supply chain, though. It gets down to what Gartner calls a circular supply chain. That includes things like reusable containers, packaging, materials that can move through the system and even return to create sustainable outcomes. Is that what you’re seeing?

Jeremy Coote: Yes. I think every major corporation is taking sustainability seriously. In fact, remarkably so, given that it’s not legislated yet. I think legislation will come. Europe is already further along, but even now, these annual sustainability reports and the accounting tied to them are here to stay. They’re a significant driver.

Bill Wohl: When you talk to customers, are they focused mostly on the gains they can get from reducing waste and using reusable packaging? Is that where much of this interest is coming from?

Jeremy Coote: It’s starting. But we’re still seeing sustainability teams siloed away from operational teams. That’s slowly starting to change. There’s real excitement now that by changing up distribution processes, companies can create sustainability opportunities too.

Bill Wohl: For your customers, this isn’t only about meeting goals. There’s that sweet spot where sustainability and business efficiency align. The supply chain moves faster, becomes less risky, and transparency improves. That’s the win, right? To get outcomes across the board. And at the heart of that is data.

Jeremy Coote: Absolutely. One big focus for us recently has been returnable transport items—whether that’s totes, cases, pallets, or cylinders. We’re seeing a shift away from corrugate to plastic, and with that comes the idea of embedding a tracker into the container itself.

Bill Wohl: From all the work we’ve done over the years, we know how overwhelming the flow of data can be. I imagine that leveraging the right software to manage these massive streams of information is key to building the next generation of supply chain transparency. There’s so much material moving and so much data being captured. Are your customers struggling to get their arms around all of that?

Jeremy Coote: You’re right. We’re talking about the creation of a massive, brand-new data set—information that has never been captured before. That’s where machine learning and artificial intelligence play a huge role.

Customers often say to me, “Don’t tell me about the 95 percent of things that moved and arrived like they were supposed to. Tell me about the 5 percent that didn’t.”

Bill Wohl: It’s exception management. That’s where the real opportunity lies.

Jeremy Coote: Exactly. To start with, it’s about alerts—being able to recognize an activity that’s out of place. Something got stuck, something didn’t show up. Over time, you can build on that and add prescriptive measures. You can actually learn from those patterns.

The ultimate goal is to create some level of autonomy. If something goes wrong, the system identifies it, corrects it, and finds alternate inventory nearby as a substitute.

Bill Wohl: Interesting. Well, Jeremy, you and I have known each other for 22 years now. The opportunity to apply technology to supply chain management has never been greater. It’s good to see ACSIS in the center of it.

And speaking of sustainability, your team has put together a great e-book that looks at the components of sustainability and its connection to the supply chain. Listeners can find it at acsisinc.com/sustainability.

Jeremy, it’s been a pleasure working with you over this first year of the podcast. We’re looking forward to more guests and more conversations in the months ahead. Thanks for your continued support and for being on today’s episode.

Jeremy Coote: My pleasure, Bill. Keep up the great work.

Bill Wohl: Thanks, and we appreciate the support from everyone at ACSIS who helps make this podcast possible. We welcome your comments and questions about anything you’ve heard. You can engage with us directly at the official ACSIS Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Be part of the conversation and don’t forget to learn more about supply chain sustainability at acsisinc.com/sustainability. I’m your host, Bill Wohl. From all of us at ACSIS, thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you soon.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to Supply Chain Visibility Stories, brought to you by ACSIS, the 100% supply chain visibility cloud solution provider. Visit us on the web at acsisinc.com or join the dialogue on social media. Look for ACSIS Inc. on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Join us next time for more Supply Chain Visibility Stories.