Supply Chain Visibility in a Disrupted World

Jeremy Coote: Morning Bill. Good to be here.

Bill Wohl: Great. Can you first start by telling us a little bit about ACSIS?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah, we’re a greater Philadelphia-based software company. And we’re now focused on delivering cloud-based solutions that track products, inventory, and assets and their changing attributes in real-time across the extended supply chain, but in lockstep with people’s existing business systems.

Bill Wohl: Well, supply chain is the topic of the day today. And I thought we’d start by putting this in the context of what’s been going on in the world. It’s been a fascinating, interesting, and challenging 18 months as all of us around the world have had to adapt to operating our businesses during the global pandemic. The impact on work and business has been profound,  for sure. But Jeremy, let’s talk a little bit about how the COVID crisis has impacted global supply chains.

Jeremy Coote: Yeah, I think that everywhere we read now there’s the general understanding that manufacturing companies really struggle to actually understand exactly where their stuff is and whether that’s raw material, whether that’s that’s work in progress, whether that’s finished goods inventory, Whether that’s goods in transit, they really are struggling to have that pinpoint accuracy so that they’re able to make decisions and make commitments to their customers. And that’s really just been amplified over the last several months with plants being on lockdown, ships getting stuck in the Suez Canal, and so on. So, We see this renewed interest and necessity for people to do a better job in having granular access to where their stuff is.

Bill Wohl: Do you think the impact of the pandemic was magnified for the supply chain because of the challenges of international and cross-border shipments?

Jeremy Coote: Well, it certainly was part of the challenge that people have run into, but it’s also just as just as rife domestically.

Bill Wohl: Yeah, that makes sense. And it’s interesting that you mentioned the ship stuck in the Suez Canal because it strikes me that for the broad audience that incident really highlighted for people the challenges associated with global supply chains, that one ship, even at its massive size could have a multi-billion dollar impact on worldwide trade, really highlighted the challenges companies face in moving materials and keeping their businesses functioning. As you look at that incident, what struck you most about how it highlighted the challenges of supply chain tracking?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah. Well, people I think that people just did not understand what elements what items were on that ship that were crucial to either theirs or their customers supply chains. And what everyone is now focused on is how can we understand in the moment when adverse event adverse events occur and what actions can we take once we actually have that information. So had you known that certain parts were in a container on that ship and that ship was now stuck you could then immediately go into looking at substitute delivery processes that could be put in place. case I think the other I mean there’s some other fundamental non-supply chain issues around soul sourcing and the challenge that everyone’s seen with that  but at the moment you know the whole issue is around having the data  in the moment so that you can actually take some corrective action

Bill Wohl: I think it was back in the 1990s Jeremy we all learned about the concept of just-in-time delivery which is a concept that is rooted in supply supply chain. And it’s hard to believe that a ship moving as slowly as the Evergreen stuck in the canal is about real-time delivery. But it is true that businesses moving materials from say the Far East to Europe. For them, the arrival of that ship is just in time. And it highlights the importance of knowing where your materials are, finished or raw goods at every step of the process. Right?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah. I think that one thing that’s going to come out post-pandemic is that inventory is not necessarily a dirty word.

Bill Wohl: Yeah.

Jeremy Coote: So, you’re absolutely correct. For the last 20 years, we’ve been trying to go lean and take all inventory out of the system, but we now understand what the consequences of that are. Having said that, if you have inventory in the system, you better know what you have and where it is.

Bill Wohl: It strikes me that for most people around the world, having to be locked down at home for 12 plus months really got an awful lot of consumers tied up in ordering stuff online and for a lot of them highlighted how strong the systems of delivery have become for consumer delivery. I think about the stuff that I order and, I continue to be fascinated even as an IT professional about how well companies like UPS can tell me where my goods are, even allowing me now in real time to see where the UPS delivery van is in my neighborhood. If it works so well for consumers. Hasn’t then that changed the expectations of business executives who want just the same kind of visibility and tracking for their goods in a B2B sense?

Jeremy Coote: Yeah. No, that’s a great point. And I don’t know whether it’s just executives. I mean, we’re out and about talking to our customers and just the the customer service people themselves are embarrassed as they get a call or an email or a request and they can’t answer it in the moment because they don’t have access to inventory positions and to understanding what’s available or they don’t have the systems lined up that can actually tell them where an item is in the delivery process. And I think that you know I call it the Amazon effect, but people are coming to work now and operating one way when they’re dealing with their customers and feeling another way when they’re ordering laundry detergent and you’re going to see the the these these things merge because companies like Amazon have really led the way as to what’s possible and then what becomes standard.

Bill Wohl: You’ve talked a little bit, and we’ve highlighted in these last few questions global delivery and shipment, but as you talk to customers and companies about their challenges, many of them are dealing with the just the fundamental challenge of locating their own materials in their own warehouses, right?

Jeremy Coote: I mean it is interesting as a ERP guy myself, you know, we understood about goods receipt and bin-to-bin and movement and whatever. But still within large manufacturing plants, people can’t find inventory items that their ERP system tells them that they have. And there’s this next level of granularity that needs to be put in place to provide just much more accurate and efficient process. So, we were down at a plant the other day, one of the first times we’ve been allowed out on a plant visit, and you know, super well-run organization  making  high-tech products for the aerospace industry, but they spend a lot of time on cycle counting and and running and and runners going around trying to find items that they believe they have within their four walls.

Bill Wohl: I find it fascinating, Jeremy, that when I entered the enterprise software business in 1999, it was the heyday of supply chain management software and here we are some 22 years later and the topic of supply chain management is right back at the top of the discussion for business leaders from all sorts of industries and segments.  And that means there’s lots of opportunity for us to talk about a wide range of topics over the course of this podcast series and a good way for us to kick things off. Thanks for joining today, Jeremy, and we look forward to the discussions in the weeks ahead.

Jeremy Coote: You’re welcome, Bill.

Bill Wohl: That wraps up today’s first podcast. My thanks to ACSIS CEO Jeremy Coote for joining and to the entire team at ACSIS for making this podcast possible. We welcome your comments and questions about the discussions on these podcasts. You can engage with us at the official ACSIS Twitter and LinkedIn pages. Please join the discussion. We’d love to hear your questions and comments and even your suggestions about topics you’d like us to cover. I’m your host, Bill Wohl. And from everyone at ACSIS, thanks for joining. We look forward to our next podcast talk 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. That’s acsisinc.com. Or join the dialogue on social media. Look for ACSIS, Inc. on LinkedIn and Twitter. Join us next time for supply chain visibility stories brought to you by ACSIS.