0:00:01 – Announcer

You are listening to the National University Podcast.

0:00:10 – Kimberly King

Hello, I’m Kimberly King. Welcome to the National University Podcast, where we offer a holistic approach to student support, well-being and success – the whole human education. We put passion into practice by offering accessible, achievable higher education to lifelong learners. Today we are talking about the global supply chain and, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine, in a survey of more than 300 supply chain executives, this was conducted at the end of last year of 2023. 64% of respondents marked end-to-end visibility as what they’re most likely to invest in. Advanced tracking systems, the Internet of Things, and AI-driven analytics are becoming standard tools for executives seeking real-time insights into their supply chains.

A very interesting and relevant topic coming up on today’s show. On today’s episode, we’re discussing improving global supply chains, and joining us is Dr. Justin Goldston. Dr. Goldston is the Academic Program Director for the Logistics and Supply Chain Program at National University. His research is focused on blending the practices of supply chain management, emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, and sustainability to create positive global change. Outside of being a five-time TEDx speaker, where he discussed blockchain and artificial intelligence, Goldston has over 20 years of experience consulting with organizations around the world on enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives. He’s also led and assisted in the development of blockchain, supply chain management, sustainability and business analytics programs and courses at the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, and he’s evaluated doctoral programs for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Dr. Goldston is the author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles on supply chain management, sustainability, and innovative technologies of critical success factors in ERP implementations, and of the forthcoming book AI for Good: Achieving Sustainability Through Citizens, Science and Organizational Citizenship. Did I say that right? Wow, that’s impressive.

0:02:39 – Doctor Justin Goldston

It’s a mouthful, right?

0:02:40 – Kimberly King

It is. But wow, kudos to you. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Goldston, how are you?

0:02:45 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Thanks, thanks for having me. I’m doing well. I’m looking forward to this.

0:02:48 – Kimberly King

Wow, this is really. It’s so interesting. Why don’t you fill our audience in a little bit on your mission and your work before we get started?

0:02:56 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Now, this might be an unconventional answer, but there’s a reasoning and justification for it. But so my mission and vision is to disrupt the status quo. And we’ve seen where you know in the past. You know business as usual hasn’t really worked out too well. Now has it, right? So we have to kind of think differently. We have to become more innovative. The world, the technology is changing. We have to think differently. We have to adopt this change. So we have to kind of go against the grain right and adopt what’s coming to actually make this world a better place.

0:03:38 – Kimberly King

I totally agree and we’re in that. It feels like it’s happening quickly, probably because of technology, but yeah, we got to stay with it. So today we’re talking about improving the global supply chain. And so, Doctor, how can companies build resilience into their supply chains to withstand future disruptions?

0:03:59 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I’d say I would say first and foremost is going to is going to come down to collaborations with your business partners. So business partners being – your customers and suppliers, as well as partnerships with your customers and suppliers. Now one thing that I’ve been seeing is that you also will see partnerships with competitors, in some cases, where organizations had no choice but to kind of do a retrospective or a lessons learned based on COVID, right? Perfect example from a supply chain perspective – FedEx and UPS, probably the biggest competitors in logistics, right. Whenever we had to deliver the vaccines, those two competitors had to come together and split the country in half to deliver the vaccines. Right? So these organizations, seen where you’re bitter rivals, can lead to success for the better outcome for the people, your customers, right? Without the customers you don’t have a business. So you have to agree to something, right. So we’re seeing that, for in order to kind of achieve that resilience. You know, because people don’t like me saying this, but we haven’t seen the last of what we’ve seen in the pandemic, right, I think you know and then we’re going to get in sustainability, we’re going to get into those things. But you know, if we don’t, if we continue with business as usual, we’re going to have another event such as that.

Pre-covid, MIT did a study this was back in the early 2000s, if I’m not mistaken, and they said that we’re going to have a global collapse by 2045 or something like that, right? So you know some people, but the thing is it comes down to climate change, right, and the things that we’re seeing and we have all- We have all these- some people, not all these people. We have some people that think that this, you know, climate change is a conspiracy theory and things like that. And then, from a- because I mean, we’re based in the US- because the US has this capitalistic mindset, right, in some organizations, in some cases it’s by profitability, by any means necessary, right, and you can see, I say some things that might be a little, but you have to think that way, otherwise we’re going to have a problem. I always think my daughter is four If we continue business as usual- you thought COVID was bad?- she’s not going to be able to go outside if we continue like this.

It’s like look at the data. Look at the data. You don’t have to listen to me, you don’t have to listen to anyone else. All you have to do is look at the data. Hopefully that answered your question.

0:07:10 – Kimberly King

Yeah, no, but I’m thinking oh man, I thought we got through the worst of it, but yeah, I’m afraid for what lies ahead…

0:07:20 – Doctor Justin Goldston

This is just my two cents though. You don’t have to listen to me. I’m just a man

0:07:24 – Kimberly King

Well, you know what it’s- It’s such an interesting time in the world, like whoever thought we were all going to be going through this pandemic in the timeframe that we just went through, and it’s just, it’s crazy, I feel like you know. But again, what’s going to lie ahead in the future? Technology really has a huge role in all of this. AI, blockchain… Talk about that. What’s that? Enhancing the supply chain, transparency and efficiency. What are your thoughts on that?

0:07:54 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Yeah, I would say that- So, going going back, going back to the pandemic, COVID accelerated the development of these technologies, accelerated the development of these technologies. I do a lot of research on artificial intelligence. I do a lot of research on blockchain. I was talking about blockchain and everybody thought I was crazy. If you go, look at those TED Talks, go on TED.com and type in Justin Goldston.

I said use cases in 2019. Almost every single one of those use cases came to fruition in 2021, 2022, because of the pandemic. Right? Because we had to increase the transparency of counterfeit drugs, of all of these drugs that we were distributing around the world, of the labeling and things like that. You had no choice to do this, and blockchain was just one use case for that, right. If you go back into the research- the vaccine- to get to that vaccine you can see it was unprecedented. They got to that. They did all those tests due to artificial intelligence. So, yes, artificial intelligence was being developed through this time, but they actually had to accelerate it in order to save millions of lives, right? So that’s just a use case. That’s the- That’s the use case that people can relate to, right? Even if you don’t understand supply chain, you understand the pandemic and you can see how, how these technologies tied to that right. So if you fast forward to just again this so supply chain banking, whatever use, whatever industry that you’re in and you can also say that supply chain impacts every single company in the world, you can say, okay, there’s no supply chain in university.

Okay, you said, you said you know national is based, based kind of in your hometown. Right, right, there are students on campus. Right, there’s desks there. How do desks get there? How’s the food get there? Right, how’s all the equipment get there? With supply chain and logistics, right. Everything in your background right now, how does it get there through supply chain and logistics, all of those things in your- and this is anybody who’s listening to this you had to go to the store to get it. Or you had to call Amazon, one of the biggest logistics companies in the world, right, to get it to your house. And then those stores – if you went to a brick and mortar to get all of those goods, right -had to use supply chain to orchestrate. Okay, how much do I need to get those? How much do I need to order to make sure that I’m not out of stock when someone comes here. Right What mode of transportation am I going to order to make sure that I’m not out of stock when someone comes here? What mode of transportation am I going to use to get here? Do I need the air because somebody messed up on my forecasting and I have to expedite this stuff? Or do I have these big, massive I don’t know products that can only get here from China via ship?

0:11:06 – Kimberly King

Yeah.

0:11:07 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Right? But so how does technology play into this? If you have a massive organization, let’s take Amazon, for example right, you have all this data, you have all this demand from Amazon.com. Right, you have to have a type of tool like artificial intelligence to kind of forecast all of this data, to anticipate what people are going to buy, using weather patterns, using buying, using the seasons and things like that. I’m pretty sure Amazon doesn’t- I’m pretty sure Amazon in some parts of the country aren’t carrying snow shovels right now. Right?

0:11:51 – Kimberly King

Well, you know what and that’s funny that you say that so, like just behind me, as you’re talking about these party lights, right, it’s going to be summertime before we know it, and so that’s supply and demand, and that was probably a Costco item, if I recall. But also in San Diego, California, where I’m located, we were looking for beach balls, thinking that it would be year round, you know, just for.

0:12:14 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I think so too.

0:12:16 – Kimberly King

Right, we’re in San Diego. It’s sunny in 70s always here, but it’s funny that was a seasonal item, so in the wintertime- I don’t know what we were using them for, but you would have thought it was easy peasy. You could find it anywhere. Anyway, I just had to talk to that.

0:12:28 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I bet you, if you try to get a snow shovel, I bet you it’s not via Amazon Prime, I bet you don’t get it the same day in San Diego.

0:12:37 – Kimberly King

You’re right, we do not have snow shovels here, unless you go to the mountains. But yeah, that is a good point, and you know what? And, Doctor, this is interesting information because people don’t think about that. You know when you go, when you’re online, necessarily, but when you go into the brick and mortar, if you go to Home Depot or you go to Costco, you’re really, you’re just going there to get it, but you’re not thinking about how it’s been placed there and how they do the checks and balances by ordering the amount for that demand and supply and demand. So, anyway, I think it’s interesting to know what goes on behind the scenes here and how important it is. What steps can companies take to improve the sustainability of their supply chains?

0:13:21 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I would say that- So I go through this exercise often with organizations. I’m an advisor for a number of companies and work with a lot of consulting organizations and the first step I do is for your organization to find sustainability, right. So I’m going to give you a pop quiz, what’s your definition of sustainability?

0:13:43 – Kimberly King

I mean, I guess I would say supply and demand, sustain, sustainability, but also things that are going to be able to last. So when I think of sustainability, I think you know, is this sustainable? I guess I don’t know. That would be my definition.

0:13:57 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Yes, and that’s exactly what I’m saying. So you’re thinking of sustainability from a durability from a product perspective as well as from an organizational perspective. Right, when I think of sustainability, I’m thinking of what I refer to as a quadruple bottom line.

0:14:16 – Kimberly King

Wait, say that again. A what?

0:14:18 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Quadruple bottom line. Okay, so that’s people, planet, profit and purpose, right? So when we talk about sustainability, we’re talking about – a lot of people kind of related to, like, the environmental aspect, right – what are organizations doing from an environmental perspective? How are they saving the environment? How are they reducing their carbon footprint? Right, and, like you said, you make a perfect point. You view sustainability totally different, right, and there’s no right or wrong answer. That’s just how you define it, right. So that’s the first question I ask, and once I explain that, they say, oh, that’s how you’re looking at it. You’re looking at it from the environmental perspective, right, and a lot of people are talking about it.

So California- y’all familiar with that state. So back in October of 2023, California just approved two Senate bills, 253 and 261. That is referred to as the Climate Accountability Package. So organization in California, if you make a certain amount of revenue, you have to disclose a number of criteria from an environmental perspective, from a human rights perspective, right. It goes back to that people, planet, profit and purpose, right, and so, so it’s not a like to do, it’s not a nice to do for a PR perspective, now it’s a must do, right.

0:16:04 – Kimberly King

And I think, because California is progressive in that I mean this has been part of our vocabulary, you know, I would think across the nations California has been one of the pioneers in that environment space. So are there going to be steps that companies can take to implement that, when you know with, I guess, with their mission and their purpose, with their statements?

0:16:28 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Yes, yes, and, and the next step? So, once we define sustainability, the next step is to assess what the organization’s maturity is from a sustainability perspective. Once we assess the maturity of the organization, then we have to define what steps it’s going to take to get to that point.

So, if you are- Apple’s based in California, right- if you are Apple, Apple is a sustainable company. So you know the steps they have to take to address these new Senate bills, these new regulations will not be as many as a billion dollar oil company, for example. Right, I’m not sure how many oil companies are in California, but just work with me here. Right, so you know, you first have to assess, okay, what’s your know. You first have to assess, ok, what’s your, what’s your, what’s your maturity. Now you have to say, ok, what steps do we have to take to address the regulation, to be in compliance with the regulation? Right, and then you have to kind of create an implementation to act upon it and execute it. Right, does that answer your question?

0:17:39 – Kimberly King

Yep, yeah, it does. So how does the integration of sustainability practices impact supply chain performance and resilience?

0:17:51 – Doctor Justin Goldston

It impacts it in every way. So, again, going back, going back to all right, going back to your lights. Right, in order for those lights, in order for those lights to get in your into your room, right, they have to be manufactured somewhere. Right, you have to have – I’m pretty sure there’s, you know, dozens of components just in one light.

0:18:15 – Kimberly King

Yeah.

0:18:16 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Right. So you have to, yeah, in the bulbs and everything right, and you have to have the wire, you have the bulb, you have the little casing, you have the glass. Every single one of those things I mentioned are probably sourced from a manufacturer, right? So, going back to going back to those new Senate bills, you have to disclose one: are those suppliers going to be having any child forced labor, child labor, for example? Right? What’s the supplier’s carbon footprint? Right, so we have scope one, scope two, scope three emissions, carbon emissions. Right, so these organizations are going to have to disclose their emissions. So, when it comes to sustainability, every single part of an organization supply chain, whoever you order from your manufacturing facility, your equipment, your equipment, your forklifts, your trucks right, you have to account for the carbon emissions for every single one of those things. And that’s just one use case for an organization supply chain.

So now let’s go back to Apple. Apple manufactures in China, right? So now they have to track the emissions for their suppliers in Foxconn. Now, they have to account for the emissions for the ships that’s coming from China sitting in y’all’s port. Right, once the truck comes, once, the once, the once the containers come off of that ship, they have to account for the forklift or the crane that’s taking that forklift or that container off that ship, put it on a truck. Now you have to account for that truck. Now that truck has to go to a distribution center. Now you have to track all the emissions in that distribution center, all the equipment in the distribution center, all the lighting in the distribution center, right.

And then, okay, now you have the orders come in. Now those orders are going to a store, to a, to a Nextel- goodness gracious- a T-Mobile or a Verizon store. You have to account for that. All that supply chain, all that accountability falls into the sustainability aspect of it. All that accountability falls into the sustainability aspect of it. So everything I’m talking about is all systems thinking. So in that example, I hope you see that every single thing in this world is integrated. Yeah, right, everything’s a system. Everything has to run, has to run in tandem. Right, one disruption, one chink in the armor, right, and we have problems.

0:21:05 – Kimberly King

Yeah, and again right, but it’s so again. It’s that behind the scenes, everything, every action, has a reaction and you know, I mean you really are spelling it out for every little piece of that supply chain. Yeah, you really just spelled that out. So what are the most significant challenges in implementing a circular supply chain model?

0:21:36 – Doctor Justin Goldston

The unknown-unknowns. Again, COVID. Unknown unknowns. Nobody’s seen that coming. Nobody could have anticipated that right now. You have known unknowns, so okay, a hurricane’s coming, right, y’all have hurricanes okay, I was about to say earthquake but you really can’t anticipate an earthquake. But you can anticipate a hurricane, right. So okay, a hurricane, right, right. So okay, a hurricane’s coming. You have a distribution center in Florida. You know it’s coming, but you don’t know what the damage is going to be. Mm-hmm, right, so okay, you have earthquakes, you know- I guess you know in California that you know an earthquake is coming, you just don’t know when, but you don’t know what the damage is going to be.

0:22:25 – Kimberly King

Right, you don’t know how big it’s going to be and what the impact.

0:22:29 – Doctor Justin Goldston

So you have to have a contingency plan in place for every single location in which you operate. Going back to Amazon, Amazon has a distribution center, or sometimes multiple distribution centers. I don’t even know how many distribution centers Amazon has in like California, for example.

0:22:48 – Kimberly King

Every other block, by the way, right.

0:22:54 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Amazon has a look at every single distribution center in California, Washington State, all the way to Florida. Right, and they have to account for any kind of risks from an environment and we’re just talking environmental. Any type of risk from an environmental perspective across the country. Right, and we’re just talking the US right now. Right? So you have different risk in California, you have different risk in Florida, but you have to account for that from a supply chain perspective, for any type of disruptions. Right, Amazon knows a hurricane’s coming in Florida. Okay, every order that comes from Florida probably has to get routed from, you know, Georgia or North Carolina or something, right, or Tennessee, because North Carolina might get hit too, Tennessee. Right. California- earthquake hits. They have to make a determination like that. Montana, I’m not sure how far Montana is, but hey, Vegas.

They have to have all of those plans in place, right. And going back to the technologies, artificial intelligence can create models to provide suggestions. If this happens, route from this, if this happens, route from here. This happens right from here. Worker strike, route from here, right, right. So those are the plans, those are contingency plans, and we’re talking Amazon, because that’s a perfect example. Everyone can relate to it. Every single organization that distributes product has to have the exact same contingency plan.

0:24:30 – Kimberly King

Yeah, and that is a good point too. Again, when you implement the AI technology, it’s amazing how that can help and the wonders that really shave off of anything that we could probably do in a second. So how can companies balance cost efficiency with the need for a greater supply chain resilience?

0:24:53 – Doctor Justin Goldston

All right, so that’s a good question. So so pre-COVID, the supply chain department was viewed was viewed as an expense. Post-COVID, it was viewed as a competitive advantage. Right? Always say that Amazon saved the country during the United States because they were the only show that was open in town, now weren’t they? Right? How many times did you order from Amazon when you couldn’t leave the house?

0:25:28 – Kimberly King

Yeah, I think we all did that. And now look at the malls. I mean it’s sad to see, but it’s real, right, it’s real. The brick and mortar is suffering because of that.

0:25:40 – Doctor Justin Goldston

You know so. But, like I said, yes, yes, they’ve shut down moms and pops, yes, they’ve shut down malls, but you couldn’t have went to the mall during COVID and picked up whatever you wanted, right? And people are looking at that model. They can’t duplicate it, right, but they can get as close as they can to that model and try to mimic it. But, although it may not be as cost efficient as they view it, if they integrate automation like Amazon did, then they’re going to achieve their ROI faster than previously.

Now, one question I get all the time regarding that is oh, automation is going to displace jobs. But if you look from a supply chain perspective, those people working in those jobs, in those distribution centers, in those manufacturing facilities, they’re reaching retirement age. The people to replace them I’m teaching those people in the classrooms they’re not going to work in a factory. These people graduating from high school, they’re not going to work in a factory. So these organizations need automation to keep their doors open because they don’t have the people to replace the individuals that are retiring soon. Right? You know. So you have to think about that. I mean, have you went to a Wendy’s? Have you went to a Burger King? Have you went to a y’all have Chick-fil-A, have you went to a Jack in the Box? And everything’s automated, right? And people say, oh, you’re taking away jobs. Many people don’t want to work at a McDonald’s or a Burger King or things like that. Those people, they grew up with technology so they can actually get jobs that are above that.

0:27:44 – Kimberly King

But I will say this just because you may or may not even know this but the jobs, the minimum wage for those workers now in California isn’t it over like it’s $20 an hour, 20. I mean, they’re paying them very well. So a lot of people are going back to doing that only because the they the minimum wage for those workers just went up here.

0:28:06 – Doctor Justin Goldston

They had no choice. They had no choice but to raise it. Yeah, they had no choice.

0:28:08 – Kimberly King

Yeah, no, I, I, I get it. And actually I just had a thought, and I don’t remember I’m going to show my age now, but in Jack in the Box back in the day, when I was growing up, you would just talk to Jack’s head, right? So it was actually well ahead of the curve, wasn’t he? You just tell Jack your order. But so how can companies effectively manage the trade-off between the just-in-time inventory and buffer stock?

0:28:38 – Doctor Justin Goldston

So, and for those that don’t really understand just-in-time inventory and buffer stock, so whenever I used to explain just-in-time inventory, again going back, I’ve been using COVID examples for the last three years because people can relate to it, right? All right. So flu vaccines, I’m not even going to use COVID Flu vaccines. So when a hospital orders flu vaccines using this just-in-time method, because you know buffer stock is where you’re stocking up all this inventory. Toilet paper, right, Toilet paper is not going to expire. Toilet paper is not going to become obsolete, right? So I can stock up all this toilet paper and I don’t care, right, yeah.

If I run out of my basic stock, I have this buffer stock. You know, this excess inventory that I can pull down. Right, because I did not anticipate that demand. Right, I can’t do that with flu vaccines because a new strain comes out every year, so you have to create a new batch every single year, right, right, so with just in time, we have something called we have a two-bin system, right, so a hospital would order two cases of flu vaccines, right, they would start to pull from that first case. Once that first case has been done, has been used up. Right, that’s their trigger to order a new case. Right, so, as they’re pulling from a second case, once that second, that, once that second case has been done, this third case is showing up just in time. Okay, right when you need it. So during COVID, you know, there was a there was an article that came out from an analyst to say it’s just in time, dead. Right.

And for organizations, for organizations like you know grocery stores, hospitals, you know, organizations that that you know carry perishable items, right, restaurants, you can’t carry pandemic inventory for certain things you have. In some cases, you have no choice but to have this just-in-time inventory right, especially perishable goods and things like that. Now, you know, emergency goods, yes, you have to carry excess, you know excess, I’m pretty sure. Flu vaccines, yeah, but people, again, people can’t collect flu vaccines, right, and to be an inventory system, you know. So there are certain things you can’t run out of. So if it expires and it expires right, but, but, but. But, like I said, those items that you know you have excessive write-off, you have obsolescence and things like that, right, you’re not going to be able to carry this, these large amounts of inventory, right, just to prepare for something that’s going to happen seven years from now.

0:31:45 – Kimberly King

You know that makes sense and that, yeah, right, it’s true.

0:31:48 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Like, and then you know, yeah, the toilet paper was coming you know it’s coming, but I’m not going to be writing off inventory for something that’s going to happen in the next five years, seven years. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.

0:31:59 – Kimberly King

Yeah, yeah, you’re. It’s like we’re seeing all of this in real time. And again, the pandemic was, you know, our, our starting point, right, we were all getting ready.

0:32:08 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I always say you always have to find the silver lining in things right. And I always say with the pandemic it brought people together, it brought in collaboration from a personal perspective, from a business perspective, it also gave me good material.

0:32:22 – Kimberly King

Yes, right, exactly, and it was something we can all relate to, so we’ve all had to deal with that. Exactly, and it was something we can all relate to, so we’ve all had to deal with that. So what strategies can be employed to enhance supply chain visibility and tracking?

0:32:38 – Doctor Justin Goldston

One is increased collaboration with organizations, right, I mean, I know I keep referring to that, but I keep referring to that, but I mean I can’t get, I can’t get away from it. Right, so you have to, because all organizations aren’t going to be able to adopt blockchain, they’re not going to be able to adopt artificial intelligence, right? Yes, the big companies are using this already, right, so, but the average organization, they’re going to have to depend upon their business partner customers, their suppliers. Right, to increase that transparency and increase that resilience from an organizational perspective, There’s one approach that’s used by Walmart.

I implemented this at the Blue Buffalo Company. So if you have dogs, Blue Buffalo, I was working with them as a consultant when they were two months removed from a barn. Wow, years ago, I forgot. Five or six years ago they were removed from a barn. I celebrated with them when they when they had their first million dollar month.

0:33:47 – Kimberly King

Wow, wow, impressive. Yeah, that’s a great company.

0:33:53 – Doctor Justin Goldston

They got sold for what? Eight billion, ten billion, something like that a couple years ago, right, but the way in which they did and the thing is the amazing thing is back then they did not touch a single piece of kibble. Because they increased their transparency, they increased their collaboration with their customers and their suppliers. So what they did was track their supply- Petco, PetSmart they have point of sale data. Every time you scan a bag of dog food that’s tracking data, right. And then every night, using electronic data interchange, they would send a file to Blue Buffalo. Oh, got it that file fed into Blue Buffalo’s forecasting system, right? And now Blue Buffalo knows how much raw material they need for a bag of dog food. So you have a number of. I’m not going to say what the formula is, but they have a number of items on the bill of material, right. So you might have a number of suppliers, for you know carrots, tomato puree, the kibble, you know the bits and things like that, right? So now you have this information and you’re shooting this information that they got from Petco, PetSmart, and Hunter Supply. You’re breaking down this information based on what supplier supplies them with what, and you shoot that to the supplier. Now the supplier says, yeah, we have this material. Okay, cut a purchase order. Once you cut a purchase order, now that supplier sends it to the manufacturer. It’s the co-packer, right. The co-packer manufactures it and now the co-packer sends it to a distribution center.

Like I said, mind you, Blue Buffalo controls nothing. They have the- All these are suppliers and customers and co-packers. The only way in which they pull that off is with transparency and collaboration among every single business partner.

0:36:05 – Kimberly King

Yeah, and that is the wave of the future, that’s how it should be. And look at their perfect success story to see, with that transparency and collaboration.

0:36:13 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Oh yeah, that’s a great company. Don’t grab some Blue Buffalo if you’ve got pets.

0:36:17 – Kimberly King

Yes, I’ve got two doggies. So, yep, I’m a fan, big fan.

0:36:19 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Not a paid endorsement.

0:36:21 – Kimberly King

Yeah right, ding, ding, ding, brought to you by. Well, this is such. It’s so interesting, this information, and to get the really behind the scenes, look at this. So we have to take a quick break. More in just a moment, don’t go away. And now back to our interview with National University’s Dr. Justin Goldston. And we’re talking about such an interesting I think it’s so interesting to get your perspective but about improving the global supply chain. And, Doctor, we just talked about that importance of collaborations and really how that strengthens supply chains, and it’s something that I think we all learned, especially during COVID. But what are some of the emerging trends in supply chain management that companies should watch out for?

0:37:08 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I mean, I think I think you all know this answer, based on what I’ve discussed and what you all have experienced. But it’s these emerging technologies, right, it’s the artificial intelligence. I’m getting more and more questions in terms of blockchain and the integration of blockchain within supply chain management. I just received a grant from the VeChain Foundation to track the desirability and feasibility of tracking carbon emissions and carbon offsets from the blockchain. Right, you know, yes, yes, you know, California is the pioneers of, you know, regulating, you know, sustainability and climate and climate change and things like that.

But the U.S., the federal government’s actually watching it, watching that to see how it, to see how it plays out. Right, so, 2020, 2022, the SEC actually proposed, you know, proposed a bill for organizations nationally to disclose, you know, their sustainability initiatives and things like that. From a investment and private equity and VC perspective, you know, from a funding perspective for organizations- that’s one of the criteria for the organization, for the companies. Right, I did a, I did a panel discussion with an individual that funds one of the hotels I’m not going to say the name, but he, he’s a funder of the- of one of a large hotel, right, you know so, and that’s their criteria. What are your like, I don’t care about what your roadmap is- I want to see what you’re currently doing to give you this money.

0:38:51 – Kimberly King

Yeah.

0:38:52 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Yeah, because if you’re not doing it, it’s a risk for the investors, for the funders.

0:38:59 – Kimberly King

Right.

0:39:00 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Right, so, so, so you know, in terms of these technologies, in order to disclose this, that data has to be collected. And again, because these organizations so yes, Amazon has state-of-the-art systems and things like that, but the average company, they have data all over the place. They got data in the ERP system, they have data in Excel spreadsheet and things like that, right? So it’s almost impossible. I was an ERP consultant, so know, so I know, I know what I’m talking about, but- But in order to report this information California companies first, everybody else, you know, once the SEC discloses this you have to use technology, you have to use machine learning, you have to use AI to actually kind of review this information, digest this information, format the information, to actually get that information reported out.

Because you’re going to be required to do it, right. You know currently these organizations the Coca-Colas, the Pepsis, you know the Apples, you know they’re putting out sustainability reports because it’s the, the right thing, it’s the nice thing to do, right, it’s for a PR perspective. In the years to come, organizations is going to be required to do that, and so you just can’t, you just can’t put out numbers that are unaudited, right? Because of these bills, these carbon- you know your carbon emissions, your what you’re, what you’re stating, you’re doing from a supply chain perspective, your scope. Three admissions they’re going to have to be audited by organizations. This in place in Europe. If the CFO of the organization signs off on these numbers and the bodies find this incorrect, the CFO goes to jail.

0:40:58 – Kimberly King

Wow, that’s happening now in Europe?

0:41:00 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Right now in Europe, right. So if that’s going to come, if California, if the U.S. SEC reviews that, right, because that’s the foundation,, right. If they look at that and say, huh, they’re doing this, ok, we’re going to say the CFO goes to jail.

0:41:21 – Kimberly King

Wow.

0:41:22 – Doctor Justin Goldston

I bet we’re going to see a lot of change from a supply chain perspective now, aren’t we?

0:41:26 – Kimberly King

Right, absolutely. You said jail, I heard you. Yep. So what is the role of digital twins in supply chain optimization?

0:41:37 – Doctor Justin Goldston

So a digital twin- a digital twin is essentially a digital representation of a particular thing. For example right so, aerospace companies do this a lot. Where you have a, you have a Boeing 747, right so, I create a digital replica of a Boeing 747.

0:42:00 – Kimberly King

Like on a 3D type of thing. Is that what you’re talking about?

0:42:04 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Exactly. Right so, yeah, it’s almost like 3D, right? Yep. So now in that digital twin, I can have every single part of that Boeing 747, right, millions of parts in a plane, right, car, same thing. Actually, factories, from a supply chain perspective, they’re actually creating digital twins of manufacturing facilities, factories and distribution centers. Right, so now I have all these parts from a plane, car, manufacturing facility, distribution center. But now, also with AI, we can have something called predictive analytics. So- predictive maintenance- sorry.

You know we probably heard of preventative maintenance. Right, so, every six months I replaced this filter, right, but now I’m feeding AI, I’m feeding machine learning all this data of when this particular machine one, got replaced or two, broke down. And now I’m increasing my accuracy for every single, you know, sprocket, every single screw, every single filter for Amazon’s hundred and some distribution centers. How much cost savings is that? Now, if I have that and I feed that information to my what we refer to as my supplier portal, and every time my supplier gets a ping, every time that Amazon needs to order filters across their whole entire distribution center. Now I’m increasing the transparency, now I’m reducing my costs, because now the supplier can send that just in time. Going back to what we said. So a digital twin increases the transparency, it can actually make things like we said more optimal, right, and it increases what I refer to as a supply chain orchestration for a finished product like a car or a, or a whole massive facility like an Amazon distribution center.

0:44:11 – Kimberly King

That’s so interesting and I feel like you know it’s a scenario that it’s in real time. Again, I keep coming back to that, but you see it and you recreate that in that digital twin. That’s interesting, interesting. So how can companies use another term, IoT, Internet of things devices to enhance real-time monitoring of supply chains?

0:44:35 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Yeah, so, yeah, so that goes- this goes back to that predictive maintenance. Okay, right, so, and we went back to kind of to the automation and things like that. So the IoT, the internet of things, so it’s. I mean, you have IoT all through your house, right, you can actually control a lot of stuff, you know, from your phone. You can control your doorbell. You know from your phone. Some people can control the thermostat from their phone, right, that’s an IoT device. You can control your refrigerator from your phone- IoT device, right. So, if you scale that out, I can have IoT devices on every single machine within a factory or a distribution center. I can have an IoT device on every sensor. I mean, a Tesla is a big IoT device.

0:45:24 – Kimberly King

Altogether it is, yeah, you’re right.

0:45:51 – Doctor Justin Goldston

SO if we have these IoT devices to provide triggers on when something, one- needs to be replaced or ordered, now an organization can save costs from a workforce perspective, because, I mean, we’ve seen this during COVID, you know, we had, you had maintenance people just sitting at home, right? You had a maintenance supervisor sitting at home and just have people working shifts and they would use IoT devices to say, hey, replace this filter on, you know, machine 30. Right, Because he got the trigger through the IoT device, Just like you get the trigger through your thermostat at your house.

0:46:08 – Kimberly King

Right yeah. Device just like a trigger through your thermostat at your house. Right, right yeah. Or like when a battery runs low, but in a in a very, that was the last generation. Now it’s the new generation. So, yeah, you get that notification. Um, so how can companies prepare for the next generation of supply chain professionals?

0:46:27 – Doctor Justin Goldston

They can- First of all, first, it begins with education. It begins with education from an organizational perspective as well as from a young professional perspective. Right, you have to- You have to, you, as up and coming professionals, have to provide your value proposition to the organization. Right, if you’re in the supply chain discipline, every organization needs supply chain professionals. They are- everyone distributes things and again, you don’t see a school as a distribution company. Right? But they actually have to distribute products to and from the organization. Right, you need that. You purchase things. Right, that’s within that supply chain practice. You forecast certain things. That’s within the supply chain practice. Even if you’re a marketing company, right, you’re forecasting your sales.

0:47:26 – Kimberly King

Right.

0:47:28 – Doctor Justin Goldston

So someone with supply chain expertise will be able to forecast for the organization better than someone with a marketing background. I’m sorry for people with a marketing background, I’m just saying. And then, from an organizational perspective, you have to kind of demonstrate what your pain points are. Everybody doesn’t want to do this because they want to show how great they are. But you have to show your pain points, right. And then those individuals from LinkedIn right, can demonstrate the expertise and now you have the perfect person. And now that person can be from anywhere around the world. And that’s another thing, that’s another silver lining in COVID, right, it showed those organizations completely against remote workers, now I can get the best in the world. For what I want.

0:48:15 – Kimberly King

Right, that’s a really good point. Your pool just got a lot bigger, didn’t it? So how can- This is the last question and, if anything else comes to mind, but this has been so interesting- how can supply chains contribute to the overall strategic goal of a company?

0:48:34 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Again. I think that, again, that first and foremost, you have to view supply chains as the organization’s competitive advantage, right? Like I said, again, you may not know supply chain, but you know Amazon now, don’t you? I’m pretty sure a lot of people on this call are familiar with Walmart. Amazon came on the scene and demolished Walmart right? So you can- and Amazon used to sell books. It used to sell books, but they went into- They found a gap in the market. They found a gap in the industry. They seen this e-commerce gap. Right, they built the world’s best supply chain network. And again, my two cents- I know there’s a lot of behemoths in Europe, right, and in Asia and in India- I know, but they found the gap in the market and they built this behemoth and they view that they can be the best at it.

So, from an organizational perspective, you find a gap in your particular discipline and you have that mindset on how can I be the best at it? Again, marketing, right. How can I be the best at distribution? You can do distribution from marketing through a supply chain lens. How does Amazon get their products to the largest amount of customers? How can you, as a marketing person, get your content to the largest amount of people, look at it through a supply chain lens and then you can leverage this particular practice, even if you’re not in the practice, even if you don’t think you’re in this practice, put it that way. If you do it through that lens, then you can actually create a competitive advantage within your particular discipline, even if you don’t think you’re in a supply chain discipline.

0:50:30 – Kimberly King

I mean I totally understand what you’re saying and I think it has been so interesting because you really did widen the lens as far as I’m concerned, you know, for just really explaining what goes on again behind the scenes and from a marketing perspective, pr, whatever. I mean we are our own PR, right? Every time we’re out, you know whatever the product is, if it’s ourselves. But I like how you say that and look at it through your supply chain lens. So, great information. You have amazing knowledge behind the scenes. Hopefully, if you want more information, you can visit National University’s website and it’s nu.edu and Doctor, thank you so much for your time today. It’s been super interesting.

0:51:12 – Doctor Justin Goldston

Thanks for having me.

0:51:16 – Kimberly King

You’ve been listening to the National University Podcast. For updates on future or past guests, visit us at nu.edu. You can also follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.