The Paradox of Digital - people, processes, and technology in SCM

Summary

本次讨论由MIT运输与物流中心的MicroMasters供应链管理课程负责人Laura Allegue和Kellen Betts主持，特邀嘉宾Adam James，CH Robinson北美地面运输副总裁，分享了他在物流行业的20多年经验。讨论围绕数字化供应链的“数字悖论”，即数字化意味着需要人才、流程和技术的结合。Adam强调了在数字化转型中人才的重要性、流程的标准化以及如何通过数据分析提炼有用信息。他还提到了公司如何通过像Missions IQ这样的工具来衡量和减少碳排放，以及对未来技术如区块链和数字孪生技术的展望。

Takeaways

• 🎓 Adam James拥有超过20年的物流行业经验，从业务发展到多式联运运营、业务营销、销售和解决方案设计等多个领域。
• 🏫 Adam的本科学位是英语和历史，这为他提供了跨领域的知识、沟通、分析和辩论等软技能，这些技能对他在供应链领域的成功至关重要。
• 🛠️ CH Robinson公司支持员工发展，Adam在公司内部接受了大量学习、指导和教练，以及一些正式培训，包括ASCM的CSCMP和CLTD认证。
• 📈 Adam讨论了数字技术如何帮助公司实现供应链的未来，包括自动化、人工智能、数据驱动算法和预测技术。
• 🤔 Adam提出了“数字悖论”的概念，强调数字技术既需要人才也需要流程，而且数字技术可能导致复杂性增加，需要更好的流程来实现自动化和数据分析。
• 🧐 Adam分享了处理不完整、不正确数据的策略，包括明确缺失的数据、评估数据的完整性、优先处理数据较完整的领域，并改进流程以获取更好的数据。
• 🚂 Adam讨论了多式联运的挑战和机遇，包括响应性、拥堵和平衡问题，以及如何通过数字技术提高多式联运的可视性和效率。
• 🌐 Adam提到了与Waymo的合作，探讨了无人驾驶卡车和铁路系统的自动化运输之间的相似性，以及如何为未来的基础设施变革提供参考。
• 🌿 Adam强调了供应链可持续性的重要性，以及CH Robinson如何通过Mission IQ等工具帮助公司评估和减少碳排放。
• 🔧 Adam建议在进行数字化转型时，应从组织一个跨职能团队开始，确保领导层的支持，并从当前状态出发，了解可以改进的地方。
• 🔄 Adam强调了在数字化时代，持续学习和网络建设的重要性，以及如何跟上技术的快速发展。

Q & A

亚当·詹姆斯在罗宾逊全球物流公司担任什么职位？

亚当·詹姆斯是罗宾逊全球物流公司北美地面运输的副总裁。

MIT的MicroMasters供应链管理(SCM)项目是什么？

MicroMasters供应链管理(SCM)项目是MIT运输与物流中心提供的一个专业发展项目，旨在提供供应链管理领域的高级课程和资格认证。

什么是数字供应链的悖论？

数字供应链的悖论主要涉及人、流程和技术之间的相互关系。尽管数字化通常与减少劳动力、自动化和效率提升联系在一起，但实际上，有效的数字化产品需要人才的培养和更新，以及强大的领导力和项目管理来推动数字化转型。

亚当是如何从英语和历史学位背景进入物流行业的？

亚当通过罗宾逊公司直接从文理学院毕业后进入物流行业，尽管没有接受过商业课程或了解物流和供应链，但他的文科教育背景，包括沟通、分析和辩论等软技能，为他的职业发展奠定了基础。

罗宾逊公司在数字化转型中扮演什么角色？

罗宾逊公司是物流行业数字化转型的关键推动者，通过自动化、人工智能、数据驱动算法和预测技术等手段，提供未来的供应链解决方案。

在处理不完整或不正确的数据时，有哪些策略可以用来改善决策过程？

首先，要透明地指出数据的缺失部分。其次，评估数据的完整性，如果大部分数据是完整的，那么分析结果可能是正确的。此外，识别最可知和最不可知的领域，优先处理那些数据最丰富的领域。最后，考虑流程改进，以帮助捕获更好的数据。

如何定义问题并使用数据来指导决策？

首先要明确问题，然后绘制当前状态图，从用户那里了解哪些流程需要改进。使用数据来指导决策，而不是预设结果，让数据本身引导分析的方向。

在数字化转型中，如何平衡标准制定和灵活性的需求？

在数字化转型中，需要创建足够灵活的标准，以便在需要的地方进行配置，而不是定制。这样可以在保持一定标准的同时，满足不同公司的独特需求。

如何利用数字化工具提高供应链的灵活性？

使用像Nanosphere Vision这样的工具可以提供全球范围内库存的实时可见性，帮助公司在面对突发事件时快速调整库存位置，从而提高供应链的灵活性。

区块链和数字孪生等前沿技术在物流行业的应用前景如何？

尽管这些技术目前还在探索阶段，但它们有潜力改变物流行业的多个方面。区块链可以提高供应链的透明度和安全性，而数字孪生可以用于模拟和优化复杂的物流流程。

如何评估和减少货运运输中的碳排放？

可以通过使用像Missions IQ这样的工具来评估和比较特定运输的碳排放，然后根据行业标准和其他托运人的排放来确定改进的方向。

在数字化转型过程中，如何克服人才和技术的挑战？

需要通过培训和教育提升现有员工的技能，同时吸引新的人才加入。此外，公司需要投资于基础设施和技术，以支持数字化转型。

Outlines

00:00

🎉 欢迎与开场介绍

Laura Allegue 和 Kellen Betts 作为 MIT 运输与物流中心 MicroMasters in SCM 课程的负责人，热烈欢迎大家参加此次活动。他们介绍了特邀嘉宾 Adam James，他是 CH Robinson 公司北美地面运输的副总裁。CH Robinson 是世界上最大的物流平台公司之一。活动开始前，Laura 发起了一项投票，询问观众参与活动的原因，包括对数字供应链、物流或处理复杂性的兴趣。

05:00

🚀 Adam James 的职业之旅

Adam James 分享了他作为供应链专业人士的个人经历。他拥有超过 20 年的物流行业经验，从业务发展、多式联运运营、业务营销、销售和解决方案设计等多个方面都有涉猎。他讲述了自己如何从伊利诺伊州卫斯理大学的英语和历史学位起步，进入物流行业，并最终成为一家大公司的副总裁。他强调了文理教育在培养跨领域知识、沟通、分析和辩论能力方面的重要性，这些软技能对他的职业发展至关重要。

10:02

🌐 数字化与人才的重要性

Adam 讨论了数字化在供应链运营中的含义，强调了人才、流程和技术之间的悖论。他指出，尽管自动化和数字化可以提高效率，但同时也需要人才来操作和维护这些系统。他提到，有效的数字化产品需要具备系统操作能力、构建和校准连接以及解释输出结果的人才。此外，还需要项目管理和强有力的领导力来推动变革和新流程的实施。

15:04

📊 数据的挑战与机遇

Adam 探讨了数字化如何带来数据复杂性，包括多个系统、缺乏采用以及大数据和可见性的概念。他提到，信息量过大有时会导致错误信息或信息过载，进而导致决策困难。他强调，没有出色的流程，自动化和数据分析将无法发挥作用，因此需要集中精力、标准化并致力于连接战略和战术的架构。

20:05

🛠️ 解决数据不完整和流程改进

面对数据不完整的问题，Adam 建议首先要透明并明确指出缺失的部分。他提出，如果大部分数据是完整的，那么分析的结果可能是正确的方向。他还强调了了解数据的重要性，并根据数据的完整性来确定行动的优先级。此外，他提到了流程改进在提高数据质量方面的作用，并强调了明确问题的重要性，以便更好地利用数据。

25:07

🚂 多式联运的数字化挑战

Adam 讨论了多式联运的挑战，包括响应性、拥堵和平衡问题，以及铁路运输的局限性。他提到，尽管铁路在提供自动化跟踪更新方面是领导者，但多式联运服务并不总是能够满足当今供应链的需求。他还提到了与 Waymo 建立新关系的可能性，Waymo 是一家自动驾驶卡车公司，这可能为未来基础设施的变化提供参考。

30:07

🌿 减少货运运输中的碳排放

Adam 讨论了供应链面临的可持续性挑战，包括来自监管机构、竞争对手和消费者的压力。他指出，许多公司在测量和减少碳足迹方面面临困难，因为没有合适的工具和数据。他提到了 CH Robinson 推出的 Missions IQ 工具，这是一个免费的自助工具，可以帮助客户评估他们的碳排放，并与行业标准进行比较。

35:10

🤝 跨职能团队与领导支持

在讨论数字化转型时，Adam 建议首先组建一个跨职能团队，并确保获得高层领导的支持。他强调了团队成员的参与和对变革的认同的重要性，并建议从当前状态开始，通过流程图来理解现有流程，并找出可以改进的地方。

40:11

📈 数据分析与 ERP 系统的挑战

Adam 讨论了从 ERP 系统和其他类似系统中提取和使用数据的挑战。他建议首先创建一个仪表板或概况图来可视化数据，这有助于提出正确的问题。他强调了在进行深入分析之前，了解手头数据的重要性。

45:14

🔮 技术视角下的供应链灵活性

在回答有关如何利用技术提高供应链灵活性的问题时，Adam 提到了 Nanosphere Vision 这样的可视化工具，它可以帮助公司在全球范围内实时查看库存情况，无论是在港口、仓库还是运输途中。这种增强的可见性使得公司能够更灵活、更迅速地应对市场变化。

🚀 区块链与数字孪生等未来技术

Adam 讨论了区块链、数字孪生等未来技术在物流领域的应用前景。他没有给出具体的预测，但强调了数字技术在供应链各个环节中的普遍影响。他提到了 ASCM 的趋势列表，其中五个顶级趋势都与数字技术有关，包括高级分析、自动化、可见性、数字供应链和人工智能等。

👋 结束语与未来展望

活动结束时，主持人感谢了 Adam 的参与，并提到将会分享活动的录像。他们还提到了观众提出的问题，将会在活动结束后与 Adam 分享。此外，主持人鼓励参与者继续发展自己的专业技能，并保持对行业趋势的关注。

Keywords

💡供应链管理

供应链管理（Supply Chain Management, SCM）是指对产品从原材料采购到最终交付给消费者的过程中的各个环节进行有效管理的一系列活动。在视频中，Adam James作为供应链专业人士，分享了他在物流行业的20年经验，包括业务发展、多式联运操作、市场营销、销售和解决方案设计等，这些都是供应链管理的重要组成部分。

💡数字化转型

数字化转型（Digital Transformation）是指企业利用数字技术来改变服务或业务模式，提高效率和性能的过程。视频中提到，CH Robinson作为物流平台公司，正在通过自动化、人工智能、数据驱动算法和预测技术等推动行业数字化转型，这体现了数字化转型在现代物流和供应链管理中的重要性。

💡数据科学

数据科学（Data Science）是一门利用数据进行分析、解释和预测的跨学科领域。视频中提到，CH Robinson拥有超过一千名数据科学家、工程师和开发者，他们通过数据科学来优化供应链，提高决策的质量和效率，这展示了数据科学在供应链优化中的关键作用。

💡人才发展

人才发展（Talent Development）涉及对员工技能的培养和提升，以适应组织的需求。Adam提到，为了实现数字化产品，需要对人才进行技能提升和更新，这强调了人才发展在数字化转型过程中的重要性。

💡流程优化

流程优化（Process Optimization）是指对企业内部流程进行改进，以提高效率和效果。视频中讨论了数字化可能带来的复杂性，如多系统连接、数据集扩展等，这需要通过流程优化来确保数据的有效利用和决策的准确性。

💡信息过载

信息过载（Information Overload）是指信息量过大，超出了个人或系统处理能力的现象。Adam在视频中提到，随着数字化连接的增长和数据集的扩展，需要在噪声中识别信号，这涉及到如何处理信息过载的问题。

💡需求预测

需求预测（Demand Forecasting）是预测未来市场需求的过程，对于供应链管理至关重要。视频中提到，即使在不完整的数据和沟通不足的情况下，也需要进行需求预测，这显示了需求预测在物流决策过程中的作用。

💡多式联运

多式联运（Intermodal Transport）是指使用多种运输方式（如卡车、铁路、船舶等）进行货物运输的方式。Adam讨论了多式联运的挑战和数字化视角，强调了不同运输模式之间的接口和数据整合对于提高效率的重要性。

💡碳排放减少

碳排放减少（Carbon Emission Reduction）是指采取措施减少温室气体排放，以应对气候变化。视频中提到，CH Robinson通过Mission IQ这一工具帮助客户评估和减少运输过程中的碳排放，体现了物流行业在可持续发展方面的努力。

💡区块链

区块链（Blockchain）是一种分布式账本技术，能够提高数据的透明度和安全性。虽然视频中没有详细讨论区块链，但它被提及为一种有潜力改变物流和供应链管理的前沿技术。

💡数字孪生

数字孪生（Digital Twin）是指创建一个物理实体的虚拟数字副本，用于模拟、分析和优化实体的性能。视频中提到了数字孪生作为未来技术之一，它在供应链管理中的潜在应用可能包括模拟仓库操作和优化物流流程。

Highlights

MIT交通与物流中心的Laura Allegue和Kellen Betts共同主持了此次活动，邀请了全球最大的物流平台公司之一CH Robinson北美地面运输副总裁Adam James作为嘉宾。

活动开始前，通过投票了解观众最关心的话题，包括数字供应链、物流复杂性处理等。

Adam James分享了他从英语和历史专业毕业生到成为物流行业领导者的职业旅程。

强调了文理教育在培养跨领域知识、沟通能力、分析能力和说服技巧方面对Adam职业发展的重要作用。

Adam提到了他在CH Robinson公司获得的ASCM认证和MicroMasters学位，以及公司如何支持他的职业发展。

讨论了数字化在供应链中的重要性，以及CH Robinson如何通过自动化、人工智能和数据驱动算法推动行业数字化转型。

Adam解释了所谓的数字悖论，即数字化实际上意味着需要更多具备相应技能的人才。

他强调了在数字化产品开发中，需要强大的领导力和跨功能团队合作来推动变革。

提出了数字化还意味着流程的改进，需要明确的目标和标准化来使自动化和数据分析发挥作用。

Adam分享了处理不完整数据和沟通不足的策略，包括透明化缺失数据、评估数据完整性和改进数据收集流程。

讨论了在物流行业中，如何通过定义问题、映射当前状态和利用数据来指导决策。

Adam提到了他在Robinson公司开始的职业生涯是在多式联运领域，并讨论了多式联运在数字追踪能力方面的优势。

探讨了多式联运面临的挑战，如响应性、拥堵和平衡问题，以及如何通过数字化改进这些问题。

提到了与Waymo的合作，探讨无人驾驶卡车和铁路系统的自动化运输之间的相似性。

讨论了减少货运运输碳排放的挑战，以及如何通过物流决策和网络设计来实现减排。

介绍了Missions IQ这一产品，它是一个帮助客户评估运输碳排放的免费自助工具。

Adam给出了对于正在参与数字转型项目的供应链专业人士的建议，包括组织跨功能团队和确保领导层的支持。

强调了在数字化转型中，从当前状态开始，映射流程，理解瓶颈和约束，并从用户角度出发来改进流程。

讨论了创建跨行业和公司的标准在数字化文档和物流中的挑战。

Adam分享了关于数字技术在供应链中的灵活性和应对中断的能力的看法。

提到了区块链和数字孪生等未来技术在物流行业的潜在应用和当前的发展情况。

最后，Adam强调了持续学习、网络建设和理解数字技术在供应链中不断变化的重要性。

Transcripts

(bright upbeat music)

- Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us today.

I'm Laura Allegue, one of the MicroMasters

in SCM program course leads here at the MIT Center

for Transportation and Logistics.

Today I'm co-hosting this live event

with my colleague Kellen Betts,

who is also a course lead at the MicroMasters program.

And we're fortunate to have today Mr. Adam James with us.

Adam is the vice president

for North America's Surface Transportation at CH Robinson.

One of the world's largest logistic platform companies.

Welcome Adam and you for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- Awesome, we are so grateful for having you.

So everyone in the audience, if you have been here before,

you know that we love to kick off our events

with some polls.

So we want to go for it now.

We will ask you, why are you here today?

We want to meet you and learn more about you.

So I'm launching the first poll.

Hopefully you can see it well,

maybe Kellen can confirm that.

And so the questions are

whether you want to learn about digital supply chains,

if you want to learn more about logistics in general

and supply chain or how to deal with complexity.

So why would led that to be populated by our audience?

I will go to Kellen for the agenda of this session.

- Hi everyone, so to start the session,

Laura and I will be asking Adam some questions

about his personal journey as a supply chain professional,

and learn some about the opportunities and challenges

he's experienced in logistics industry.

The last 15 minutes, we'll save for your questions

and please use the webinar Q&A, the Zoom Q&A function there.

That button on the bottom to ask your questions.

Love to see introductions and discussion in the chat,

but please use that Q&A function for questions

so we can keep track of them

and be sure you're logged in with the name.

We won't be reading any anonymous questions.

We'll also share another poll during the event,

so please be prepared to participate.

And so let's check on the results of that first poll there.

Can share the results here.

Awesome.

So the question was, why are we here today?

We see lots of interests across the board.

I'm curious about the paradox of digital.

I should be very fascinated topic.

I'm looking forward to discussion as well.

I wanted to see how technology

can help improve my supply chain performance.

That's great to know.

Hopefully we'll have some great insights

to share there as well.

Also love to see some MicroMasters and SCM students

who don't miss any of our events.

That's awesome.

I'm great to see you here as well.

So with that, Laura are you ready to kick it off?

- Yeah, let's go for it.

So Adam, ask Kellen just say,

we want to know more about your journey

as a supply chain professional.

So we know that you have over 20 years of experience

in the logistics industry

from managing business development,

overseeing inter-modal operations in business marketing

and sales and solution design.

So you have been everywhere until you became vice president

of surveys, transportation for major company.

So I would love to start asking,

how you think your professional journey shaped you

as a supply chain professional.

And how was it like to a very operational

or tactical perspective to a very strategic one now?

- Sure, well I go way back.

So prior to starting with Robinson,

my undergraduate degrees are in English and History

from a liberal arts school in Illinois,

Illinois Wesleyan University.

And I was hired straight outta Robinson from school

without having taken a single business course

or having no understanding of the term logistics

or supply chain.

And so you might scratch your head,

well, how in the world have what's been appropriate

in terms of your education

to allow you to develop in the supply chain realm.

And I think a lot of the soft skills

and particularly if you think about some of the things

that you teach and have your students think about

have been highly, highly important to my development.

So I think about just the liberal arts education itself

and this broad, diverse cross-functional world

of learning across many different segments of knowledge

and trying to understand how they fit together.

An ability to communicate.

I wrote lots of papers

and those turned into many supply chain conversations

on emails and phone calls.

And in meeting rooms, an ability to analyze,

you gotta use a lot of analytical skills

when you're reading a Shakespeare play

or a Thomas Pension novel and trying to make sense of that

and ability to argue.

Everything was an argument in those two majors.

So I was constantly debating and persuading,

and that's really fed into things like business case

construction and the supply chain were realm

and storytelling.

And I could go on and on

where the things that I learned in my undergraduate program

actually set me up really well for development.

And I've been really fortunate to work for a company

CH Robinson that's allowed for my development beyond that.

So I have since received a couple of certifications

from ASCM which is formerly Apex,

both the CSCP and CLTD certifications.

And I recently finished the MicroMasters

and so the last 20 years has been a combination

of a lot of exponential learning

and internal mentoring and coaching

combined with some formal training.

And like I said, Robinson has been a great place

to support my development and continued professional growth.

And as I think about the last 20 years,

it's amazing to think about how we've evolved and changed

and the market itself has transformed.

But Robinson today is a key driver of

digital transformation in our industry.

We deliver the supply chain of the future

through automation, artificial intelligence,

data driven algorithms, predictive technologies,

in fact Robinson labs which is really our tech incubator

that creates and tests and scales a lot of these big ideas.

We have over a thousand data scientists, engineers,

and developers now on staff,

which is just boggles my mind from 20 years ago

when I started as an English and History major

coming out and all of us were just really in the business

to thinking now we have people like data scientists

and engineers and resources like that.

It's pretty fun.

- Awesome, well thank you.

We're very privileged to have you share your time

and expertise with us today.

Very excited to have a MicroMasters alumni

with us here today also, super excited about that.

So thank you again for participating,

and maybe let's just dive into it

and maybe just dive into writing,

kind talk our focus of the topic today.

We're here to talk about what's we call

the paradox of digital,

really tie into some of that digital technologies

that you just mentioned.

So maybe would you share with our audience

how you would define this paradox of digital,

maybe how it relates to supply chain operations?

- Sure, the paradox of digital...

I think the subtitle was something around people,

processes and technologies.

And I think that is really where the paradox comes in.

So the first paradox that I would think about

is that digital means people.

And I say, huh I think many people,

when they hear digital they think things like,

or they hear things like reduction in workforce,

or that automation will allow for more to be done with less.

And there's some truth in that

and certainly that statement does,

like I said, have some truth behind it,

but I also think to have a really effective digital product,

the big disruption to talent is the need to up-skill

and renew the talent.

To evaluate the types of resources needed

and make sure they have the right talent

to be able to execute the digital future.

The truth is in order to get digital off the ground

and embedded into the culture

you're gonna need, first of all people that are capable

of working in the system.

So you have to have some tactical users

that actually understand how to interact with

the new digital platforms,

but then also the resources that can both build

and set up the connections.

And then the ones that can continuously

calibrate those connections.

You also have to have people that can interpret

the output of those connections

to identify insights and improvements,

and you need project managers that can corral

all the resources working on the developments.

And then of course, strong leadership

that can work across functions to embrace the change,

prep new processes that will ultimately enable

the digital transformation to be successful.

The second piece of it, so digital means people,

but digital also means processes.

And again, sometimes I think words like automation,

digital connections, et cetera,

all seem to sound like things are flowing seamlessly,

or in other words digital will disrupt

and replace poor process.

However that digital can mean complexity,

lots of connections, multiple systems, lack of adoption.

You also think about terms like big data and visibility

and information and those are all very exciting terms

and can lead to exciting outcomes.

But sometimes I think information can come

in the forms of misinformation

and too much information as well.

And as digital connections grow and data sets expand,

and it begins to beg the question of

what really is information.

It's the idea of identifying the signal through the noise,

because given the complexity,

we discussed oftentimes data that we review is wrong,

it's incomplete, it's miscoded, it's disparate,

or in the rare cases where you have a really great data set,

sometimes there's just so much of it

that it leads to indecision

because people don't know where to start.

And so I think without great processes, you automation,

the analytics and the data won't come to life.

And so this requires focus, it requires standardization,

and it requires a commitment to an architecture

that ties the strategic with the tactical.

- Thank you Adam.

So I loved how you mentioned that of

identifying the signal through the noise.

So I was thinking while you were speaking

about the fact that on our MicroMaster courses,

and you probably have seen that

we will always tell our students, what's the demand,

what's the behavior of that demand?

Is there a personality or not, how would it be distributed?

And I'm sure that the audience that is part of the courses

knows what I'm talking about,

but we know that when you go back to reality,

people don't have such problem statement things

to guide you or the tools that you should have in handy

to solve any kind of problem.

So we wanted to know based on your experience,

and when you have just mentioned

about this additional layer of complexity,

how do you deal with that?

How do you deal with lack of data

with incomplete, incorrect data,

or even with the lack of communication, like you mentioned,

there is people involved in processing the data,

interpreting it,

how do you deal with lack of communication

that will bring that probably incomplete data.

And mainly if you can apply that too

what you do with demand forecasting,

lead time variability,

or any other decision making process in logistics.

- Sure, and there's no doubt.

Lots of incomplete information.

We discussed that and it was always kind of funny to me

as I was filling out the problems

and the MicroMasters, I would be given all of these things.

I'm like, man, I wish everything

that I was just given the inputs

and then the math becomes easy.

A lot of the work that we do,

that Robinson does is help companies model

and analyze their supply chains

to help them develop roadmaps for improvement.

So we're consistently working with large data sets

from companies to help them figure out

how they should set their course,

both near term and long term.

And so there's a lot of approaches that we could take

and I just think about 'em in my head,

some things to think about,

I don't know if these are in necessarily concurrent order,

but first and foremost,

I think it's important to be very transparent

and call out what's missing.

Part of that is, there's a possibility

that people can get access to different data,

but they weren't really fully aware of what's needed

or why it's needed.

So many times people are pulling data

and there's columns and rows,

but there's key pieces missing that, that maybe they have

but they don't even know that they should use it

or how to use it or why.

Additionally, looking at

the amount of incompleteness is important,

if 90% of the data is there,

then the likelihood of the findings from the analysis

are likely to be directionally true,

if not somewhat precisely true.

And I think all of the students here

probably learned that no forecast

is ever a hundred percent accurate, right?

So there's some level of trusting

that gap between what you have and what you don't

and then you can begin to decipher.

So what areas of opportunity are most known,

and those that are less known.

Those that are most known,

those that have the most data,

these can be more highly actionable or prioritized.

They might be the (indistinct) low hanging fruit

that you can go after because you can take action quickly.

But then there's likely a lot that that's unknown.

And this is where the process improvement piece comes in.

When I think about data, it's both Excel based

and when I say Excel based,

I mean, tables and rows numbers figures,

but data is also information based or process based.

How information is captured or entered,

captured, transferred is critical.

So where there continues to be doubt in the data,

that's when we discuss process improvements

that can help capture better data

to create a clearer picture.

And again, all of this assumes that,

you know what questions are even trying to answer.

So maybe I should have started

at the top before I went through all of that,

because it's important to not lead the witness.

It's like making an argument and then going out

and finding only the research that supports your argument

versus going out and doing all the research

and then forming your argument

based on all of the research that you've done, right?

So many times the best approach is to map current state.

And then from there start deriving the questions

that you wanna answer from the data.

There's a saying that I've adopted from one of my mentors

who loves to say, "Let the data guide you."

Don't pre prescribe let's map things out

and capture what information we can and go from there.

Another similar quote that I've stolen from a colleague

and I think it's attributed to Einstein,

but he said something to the effect of,

"Hey, if I had to solve the world's biggest problem,"

"if I had an hour to solve the world's biggest problem,"

"I'd take 55 minutes just defining the problem."

"And then the other five minutes becomes a piece of cake."

"You can solve it easily."

But I think that's where a lot of people struggle even is

knowing what to start with

before they start this cascading effect of

pulling the data together to answer those questions.

- That's a fascinating concept.

And I love the idea of the challenge

is really defining the problem,

knowing the right question to be asking in the first place.

And then maybe the solution is,

somewhat the smaller piece of the puzzle,

I guess you'd say.

So that's very fascinating.

So I wanna maybe dive on that topic a little bit,

but then kind of bring it to a more concrete

or kind of specific piece of supply chain if you will

just outta my personal interest,

one segment of transportation

that I happen to be interested in is real.

It's not really an area that we talk about often much,

especially today's supply chain

which you are facing many challenges

like the ocean and the ports.

You know, those are highly visible segments right now,

but I think rail's interesting,

especially here in North America,

we have robust rail industry.

And at the same time, we also think that rail,

as a unique niche where it also interfaces with the ocean

and with the trucking segments in this intermodal space.

And so I wanted to kinda maybe dive

into this intermodal space if we could a little bit.

And so maybe you could probably explain a little bit more

about maybe what intermodal is,

but then also try maybe tie into that digital perspective

where with intermodal, you have trucking,

you have maybe even ocean and ports

that are interfacing and all these different modes.

And so then, you know, to me,

that seems like that adds to the complexity,

into the challenge of the data and the digital piece.

You know, you have more parties to integrate,

you have more digital footprints to stitch together.

So maybe I'm wondering if you could share

a little bit about that concept of...

also defining the problem and that being a challenge,

but then also in like the space of

like this intermodal transportation, if you will.

- Sure.

I'd say first of all and I think it was called out,

I started my career at Robinson in intermodal,

but I'm about a decade remove from

really living in that space,

but it's where I started

and it continues to be a core part

of our North American Service Transportation

Portfolio at Robinson.

And additionally, like you mentioned the ocean part of it

is one of the largest importers of goods.

Robinson is served by the railroad

with our global forwarding business,

moving those containers in from the imports

and out from the exporting side.

So the railroads are a key part of the infrastructure.

They're a key part of Robinson's infrastructure

and our portfolio of services.

And I'd say the railroads were one of the earliest adopters

of providing those automated tracking updates.

I think the trucking world

and the other segments have probably followed

a lot of what the railroad started

in terms of some of the updates

that they've provided to their intermodel customers.

So from a digital trace perspective,

they've been a leader in that area,

but just despite the visibility that they can provide,

intermodal does have some challenges.

I think about over the course of the last number of years,

as things have moved more to a adjust in time environment,

omnichannel kind of companies reducing their inventory

reduction in miles and increase in speed

and a reduction in lead time

doesn't play well with the intermodal service fully, right?

They're not as responsive as what you'd get from

a standard truckload service domestically.

I also think about congestion and balances.

And so the railroads are always managing chassis

and yard space and things like that.

So they're challenged there and then size,

quite frankly trains can only be so long and hold so much.

So the railroads are always balancing

how much space do they give

to their bulk customers with more traditional coal

and grain and the big bulk type freight that they're moving.

They're ocean customers,

and then they're domestic intermodal customers.

But in terms of digital outside of the tracking capabilities

and the digital railroad yards

that have been and are being developed,

one last thing that I'd add,

and this is fairly speculative,

but as I was thinking about it,

I thought, well maybe this is an interesting thing

to think about.

And it relates to an area

that Robinson is actually involved in.

You may have seen a press release recently

with us discussing our new relationship with Waymo

who's an autonomous trucking company.

So if you think about autonomous trucking,

driverless trucking, all of those things,

I'd say the railroads in their systems provide

an interesting case study in things like route structure,

density, ultimately a driverless experience,

because those containers are traveling thousands of miles

without trucks pulling them.

So it makes me wonder if the market

might look towards them to better determining

the scale of change needed for our future infrastructure

to support the types of trucking

that may come in the near future.

- Thank you, Adam.

And you're bringing a lot of things

that I would love to know know more about.

So I want to connect those new technologies

you just mentioned to another goal.

So we have talked about the intermodal transportation

and how important it is,

but then we wanted to know a little bit more

about carbon emission reduction in freight transportation.

'Cause we know this is one of the segment

where it is harder to reduce the emission

for a number for instance.

And when we think about developing solutions most time,

it is about the new fuels for the ships to run on

or using electric trucks

to replace some diesel engines on the road.

So those are definitely important opportunities,

but we also think there may be something

in the logistic world that we can do

in terms of decision making processes

in addition to what we mean about fuel and vehicles types.

So do you think anything about the network design,

the coordination or any other logistic aspect

would give us tools to reduce emissions

in the freight transportation world?

- Sure.

You know, in general,

there's no doubt there's heightened pressures

from various sources to tackle

this sustainability challenge that's out there students

that are in the supply chain dynamics course.

I think it's supply chain dynamics course

should be familiar with those causes of disruption.

Things like the random phenomena, government and politics,

societal pressure or social.

I don't remember exactly the terminology right,

but these disruptions can cause significant impact

like loss of suppliers, loss of customers,

brand reputation diminishes things like this.

And I think that's where sustainability

will be really beginning to put a lot of pressure

on shippers regulations or the potential for regulation

puts pressure on companies to adopt new standards.

Competitors are offering sustainable solutions,

which really speaks to societal pressure

from consumers that are demanding

more sustainable business practices.

And you could go on and on, right?

And so companies are having to really

wrap their arms around this and adopt it

and figure out how are we gonna be a citizen

in this marketplace of

reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,

our carbon footprint, et cetera.

And so grappling with UNs sustainability goals,

regulatory requirements,

consumer demands companies

have never been under more pressure to figure this out.

And a recent survey actually that Robinson conducted in 2021

had sustainability as shipper's second biggest pain point.

And the number of companies planning to take action

to reduce their carbon footprint

has doubled since the last year,

but to cut emissions and to figure out how to do this.

The biggest challenge,

that we've found a lot of companies facing is,

it's very hard for them to measure them.

They're not easily equipped with tools

to know, well one what's the standard

that were to measure against.

So gimme some benchmark to help me understand,

am I doing well or not doing well.

And so without those necessary tools and data

as many companies haven't really been able to pursue

carbon reduction at all,

or they're investing a lot of time and effort

to figure these things out.

And so one product that we recently introduced

this past year through Robinson labs

and worked with us to create a product

called the Missions IQ, which is really exciting.

It's a tool that will be...

it's a free self-serve tool

that customers can instantly evaluate their carbon emissions

specific to transportation

and I understand that that space is just one of many areas,

but I think this is where data science

and digital and all of these things

are coming together to create products

for companies to begin to leverage,

to allow them to start to benchmark their carbon output

against their industry, against other shippers

and really allows them to then be able

to take some tangible steps.

So that was an exiting development,

I thought it fit perfectly because,

oh, here's our partners from MIT

that are helping us develop some of these great products

using our data scientists from Robinson labs

to tackle these really tough questions

and hopefully really making steps

towards improving our world.

- That's a great insight,

the concept or the challenge, I guess,

really that companies face in terms of measuring,

what their carbon footprint is and how you define that

and whether it's scope one or two,

or if those are not familiar with those terms,

you know, the activities you control versus scope three,

which is like the supply chain, if you will,

and a lot of other activities and how you define those two

is definitely significant challenges

that companies seem to be facing.

So great insight and great to see

that you guys are participating,

actively working in that space.

So it looks like we have one more time for one more question

on our side and then we'll get to the Q&A

and again please make sure you put your questions

in that Q&A tool that feature on the bottom.

So kind of for our final question here,

before we get to the audience Q&A,

some of our participants today

are obviously involved in our market masters program.

We're excited to have you as an alumni

of our program as well.

And they may be involved in info augmenting new technologies

or projects in their company or their day job

and the complexity of their supply chain.

So this may seem like a daunting task

that complexity of that supply chain

may seem like a daunting task.

And so what advice maybe would you give them

kind of advice?

I mean, where should they start really

with this digital transformation

and the challenges with this paradox

of digital that you (indistinct).

- Well, anytime we're helping companies implement,

some of our digital solutions.

We really ask them by first starting by organizing

a great cross-functional team,

getting access to people, working together,

multiple roles kind of up and down the system

or the organization.

Along with that make sure you get sign off

in leadership from the top.

It's so important for those senior leaders to be supportive

because they have the ability to corral resources,

to add resources, to set the tone and drive the (indistinct)

But on the flip side,

it's also extremely important to establish buy-in

and credibility with those individual contributors,

because they're the ones that are adopting it real.

They're the ones that are gonna be asked

to work inside of it, to keep it updated,

to do the things that really are gonna allow

for the senior leaders to get the most benefit

from whatever investment they're making.

And then I'd say, this is gonna sound really bad,

but begin at the beginning,

start with current state, map out what's happening.

We always start with the current state process maps first

and make sure that we have a really strong understanding

of the life cycle of whatever process

we're trying to digitally enhance

and then begin to understand

what can make their jobs easier,

more productive, try to figure out from the users.

What is it about these processes that aren't working?

Where do the bottlenecks and constraints come into play?

And then how might our products answer those

to improve our employees ability to be resourceful,

to go out there and be strategic,

to do the type of work that

I'm sure many of those employees would like to be doing

on a day to day basis.

- Thank you, Adam.

And I can tell you,

I've been scrolling down the questions from the audience

and you have already answered several of them

with that last answer.

There's a lot of concern on the fact of

how to make that communication

or how to raise that awareness

and how important it is, to have the right data,

to have the right processes

and to communicate the strategy properly.

So it's great to hear a lot of your insights

and connect those with our audience questions.

I will like to launch our last poll for today.

And the idea is that we learn from the audience

on what is it that you learn today?

What is it that you are taking away

from this meeting today with Adam?

So while we'll let that populate,

I don't know Kellen if you have any of the questions

of the audience identified yet.

- You know, I can jump in there with one question.

This question, I apologize

that to pronounce your names incorrectly,

but it's Sebastial Golding.

I think an interesting kind of deep diver specific question,

especially in the logistics space that I find fascinating.

But his question is,

what are the challenges being facing

and creating digital standard for like EBLS,

digital standards for documentation and logistics,

so for example, EBLS or invoices, for example,

what are like some of the challenges

or opportunities that you see in that particular space?

- You know I think maybe this question's about,

how do we create standards across industries,

across companies?

And I think that there are some

things that have become fairly standard,

but there's still so many uniquenesses,

I think specifically about companies,

GL codes, as an example.

And I'm just gonna use this as one example,

but how they want those invoices to come through

and how they want to apply those dollars,

two different parts of their organization,

that's so unique to each individual company

and P&L that it's really hard to create a field

that would be allowable for everyone to use.

And that's just one minor example

where again there's still some accounting things.

And I'll just use that as one example

of probably many where standards become difficult.

And there's some customization

that tends to be required not saying that it's right,

but it's part of what we are challenged with and work.

Obviously what a lot of our work is to help companies

move towards standardization.

But inevitably we find in many of these implementations

that there's these custom elements

that we have to configure things for.

And I think that's an important element.

Maybe I'll continue to answer it is,

there's standards

and then there's the flexibility to configure,

configure is different than customize.

If we can get to a level where our standards

are flexible enough to allow us to configure where needed,

I think that's really where

we can start to make some progress.

- Thank you, Adam.

There are also some other questions,

more referring to the barriers

of implementing those digital transformations.

So I want to bring (indistinct) one here.

I hope I pronounce that well.

(indistinct) is saying that many warehouse and manufacturers

still lack the basic IT infrastructure processes

and tool to enable data,

even the capture of it or of the propagation of the data.

How do you see this changing in the near future?

How have you seen this change in the past?

And if you have anything to share on that?

- Well, I think it's so true that

every company out there I think

is acknowledging they need a digital transformation.

But I also think on the flip side of that,

companies have to honestly assess

where they're at today and they may not be ready fully

for a digital transformation.

There are some very important foundational things

that companies need to be able to thrust themselves forward,

if you will towards a digital transformation.

And in this case, whatever this company is,

they're just gonna have to maybe take a step back

before they can take steps forward.

And that is sometimes the acknowledgement

and it's a painful one and it's costly one,

and it does require investment to improve.

But strong leadership group will acknowledge that

if we don't then we're probably

gonna be even further behind in five years.

So we need to take the time now

to get our infrastructure right,

so that we can begin to move faster

with the things that we wanna do using digital.

- Awesome, I don't know,

should we maybe jump into the poll results here?

I can end and share results here.

- Thank you, perfect.

- So some of the answers are,

most of them are expanding the knowledge of the data usage

in supply chain and also understanding the interaction

of people processes and data.

So I guess we fulfill the goal of this event

with all this insights that Adam shared with us.

I don't know, Adam if you want to share anything else

on those topics that it seems the most interesting

to the audience.

- I won't even get started because they're so big,

but I maybe it's another plug for you

to continue your development.

And we talked about talent early on the upscale

and the renewal of the talent.

There's so much to learn a lot around those topics

to say that I'm an expert in them

is probably a stretch as well

because it's changing constantly

continue to build your network

and interact with some great talent

that can help you understand

not just what's happening today,

but what's going forward.

Maybe the one comment that I would make is

sometimes it feels like with digital,

you take a step forward and you're making progress.

And in fact, when you take that step forward,

the technology can leap instead of taking steps

there it's leaping.

And so it's a constant battle that company are facing

of where do they make investments?

How quickly can they move away from those investments

to reinvest somewhere else?

Because the tools and products that are coming

and the rate in which they're coming is just so fast,

that it's important that we do our best to stand top of it.

And I appreciate forums like MIT and others

that give us access to what's happening

and trends and things like this,

so that we can try to stay ahead of it.

- That's great insight,

definitely the keeping pace of technology,

it's even hard on our personal side,

but definitely in an enterprise setting

where technology's evolving.

So fascinate it's definitely a challenge and to keep up.

And so maybe we have time for a couple more questions here.

And so I have a question

that kind of touches on that a little bit,

but maybe more on a specific angle,

which is using analytics

and then kind of the interface of analytics

with some of these digital systems, you know,

so it might be an ERP or other digital systems

that a company might have.

And so the question here is from I'm Brian,

and again I apologize, I pronounced your name incorrectly,

but Brian (indistinct) I apologize again,

but so his question is with data analytics,

how do you navigate some of the challenges

of maybe extracting data and using the data from ERPs

or other similar systems and how it can vary

so much by company in different levels of maturity,

and all of that.

And so he is looking for kind of some hints

and some nuggets and some tips,

maybe tips and tricks on

how can maybe leverage some of the data in these systems,

given the variability of those systems.

- Yeah, I think one of the first tools

that are very helpful which are at least

when we're working with analytics is

we start with what we might call a profile

or a dashboard first, before doing a lot of true analysis.

It's more visualization.

It paints a picture if you will,

of what's out there without any bias

or any sort of math built in just is what it is.

And many times what we say about these profiles

and dashboards is, it creates more questions

than gives answers

but at least helps you a ask the right questions.

So you might start with a hundred questions

and then you run this profile on.

You're like,

"Well, that question isn't even relevant"

"because as you can see, we don't even have that."

And then as you begin to narrow your questions,

that's when the analysis can come in.

And when you can start asking what if questions,

or how might this be if we did this,

or what would be the result if we did that,

and that's when you can leverage the data.

But I would say, don't go too fast to analyzing first,

understand what you have

and use that picture to start asking questions of it.

So then you can dive deeper

and use your great analytical skills to do so.

- Thank you Adam.

And I love how you like everything come back to the same,

like being aware on where we are,

acknowledging what our weaknesses,

see the opportunities out there to find a goal,

be super clear into where are we going

and where do we want to be in the future?

And then what's the gap and how to fix that gap.

And I think this has come to like the answer

for many of the different things that we have talked about.

And also, I think this is not only

for a very operational thing,

but also for a strategic thing.

We see this happening also,

even in the courses when we tell them

how to approach our problems.

So I love how we can show the audience

that this is how the real world works

when you need to tackle any of the problems.

I want to summarize several questions in one.

So I probably won't name everyone who is asking about this,

but people is asking about how to incorporate

some flexibility into their supply chains.

And they are talking about the use of technology

for incorporating flexibility.

I don't know if you have any example of that,

but they have mentioned the disruptions

that we've had in the past (indistinct) the COVID situation.

So is there anything you have seen

from the technology perspective that can help

supply chains to be more flexible?

- I think about some visibility tools

and maybe this doesn't answer the question,

but just as you put it out there,

we have a product called Nanosphere vision.

It lives inside of our TMS Nanosphere.

And what it does is it gives

a full glimpse globally of all your inventory

that's at rest and in motion.

So whether it's at a port or at a warehouse,

or moving on a ocean vessel or whatever,

regardless of we're you're using it,

you can see it around the world.

And the ways companies like Microsoft,

as an example have been using that tech

is being able to see where a product is at any given time.

If they know they could get it from somewhere else,

"Hey, a big storm is coming here"

"or this part of the world's gonna be locked down."

But we know that we have X boxes over here,

that we can bypass all of that

and bring them in while, excuse me,

while this congestion is happening.

That allows us to be more flexible.

So enhanced visibility,

I think is one area where digital

is really starting to allow customers

or organizations to be more flexible,

more nimble in how they position inventory,

where they position inventory

and ultimately how they go to market with that inventory.

So the consumer can get it in,

in a timely manner and in a manner that they expect it.

- That's visibility definitely is,

seems like via a key area.

And it makes total sense how you could improve your reflect.

You could add flexibility by having greater visibility.

That's great insight.

So I think probably have one we're for one more question.

So I wanted to ask one kind of more of a fun question.

There's a question that we often get,

especially in the digital space.

And it's about you made some forward looking technologies

with blockchain and digital twins,

and I'll just kind of combine a couple questions again

together about these two different areas.

You know, especially with blockchain,

blockchain there's a lot of buzz in the industry,

a years back with blockchain technology

and logistics applications.

And it seems to died down a little bit,

but you also kind of see still some projects

continuing on and some new ideas bubbling up

every once in a while.

So I'm wondering if you had any kind of industry wide,

if you had any kind of interesting insight

or where you think maybe we're going

with some of these new futuristic technologies

like blockchain or digital twins

or some of the others similar technologies.

- I don't know how far I wanna speculate.

We can get a bit science fiction.

Although the science fiction's

turning into more science than fiction,

I guess anymore.

It's all of these.

And it's hard to know what are gonna be the winners

and losers and some of these, because like we talked about,

there's so many that are coming out,

so what will ultimately resonate?

I'm not sure I'm ready to give a prediction,

but what I would say is I talked about ASCM earlier,

and I sit on a board or a committee for ASCM

and part of that committee develops this top 10 trends list.

And what last year five of the top 10 trends

all had to do with digital.

So things like advanced analytics and automation

and visibility and digital supply chain,

cyber security didn't even touch on that today,

but that's a huge topic.

And we've definitely seen people even in our space

get crippled by forces outside of their control

from the cybersecurity perspective,

artificial intelligence, robotics.

I mean, you can go on and on

and depending on where in the supply chain you are,

warehouses are probably thinking about

the warehouse of the future

and what's that gonna look like unmanned warehouses

with robots filling all the inventory

and loading the trucks.

And then you've got the trucking side that's thinking about

autonomous and driverless and all of these things too.

You know the executive suites

that are thinking about ways to harness data

and answer key critical questions.

So I guess my message would be

without trying to pinpoint any single digital product

or application that's coming,

it's in every part of the work that we do

in regardless of where you fall within the supply chain

expect to be disrupted by digital in some way.

- Thank you, Adam.

And you brought so many interesting topics

to that last answer

that I think we should have another

entire live event to cover all those,

because those are super interesting to the audience as well.

But in the interest of time, I will wrap up the event.

We have so many questions Adam,

that we will definitely share them with you afterwards,

just in case you wanna take a look about

the interest of the audience.

And of course, everyone who has been asking

about the recording of this event,

we will share it with you afterwards through emails

and we will post it online.

So don't worry, you will get the chance to see it again

and maybe write some notes down

that can help you in your own professional journey.

So thank you Adam for being here today,

we learned a lot from you.

Thank you Kellen, always an extraordinary co-host.

I dunno if you want to add any final words.

- No, thank you everyone.

Thank you for participation in all the great questions

in the Q&A and good luck in your courses.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Adam.

- Have a great day.

- Thank you everyone, see you in the next one.

(bright upbeat music)