The SupplyChainBrain Podcast

By now, all manufacturers are fully up to speed on the Securities Exchange Commission's new rule about disclosing the presence of conflict minerals in their products … aren't they? Not exactly. A lot of companies have yet to determine their use of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from gang-controlled mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring regions. The complexity of global supply chains makes that a vexing challenge. Still, manufacturers are on their way to compliance. Our guest on this episode is Ryan Lynch, business development manager for the Information Insights division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). He provides a report card on efforts to ferret out conflict-minerals content, while identifying the obstacles that stand in the way. He also offers a solution for companies that have yet to come up to speed, and speculates about how the SEC requirement, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, might be expanded in future to cover additional countries and raw materials.Support the show

Just how unified is the European Union, anyway? Disunified enough to cause an unemployment crisis that won't go away. The average unemployment rate across the 28-country EU is around 10 percent. It's as bad as 56 percent among the youth of Spain. What's more, a hidden army of part-time workers, and the existence of a massive ''gray economy'' region-wide, is making the situation even worse than it appears. What's the solution? On this episode, we get advice from Robin Chater, secretary-general of the Federation of International Employers. Europe, he says, ''is failing its next generation.'' He outlines the problem, explains how the mighty EU has come to this state of affairs, and suggests ways out of the mess. Whether the political climate and bureaucratic nature of the EU allow for substantive change, however, is another matter.Support the show

The nation's infrastructure crisis is crying out for a long-term solution. For years, transportation funding has been falling far short of what's needed to repair, construct and maintain highways, roads, bridges, tunnels and canals. But congressional deadlock has continued to starve the Highway Trust Fund, without devising an alternative means of funding. The federal gas tax hasn't been raised since 1993, and the HTF survives only through a series of stopgap measures, the latest of which puts off the issue until next May. On this episode, we’re joined by Leslie Blakey, president and executive director of the Coalition for America's Gateways Trade Corridors. She puts the infrastructure debate into perspective, and discusses the various plans that might solve the problem once and for all – provided legislators possess the spine necessary for spurring action.Support the show

3D printing is one of the hottest technology developments in supply chain today. Is it for real? The answer is a qualified yes, according to Shashank Narain, vice president of account development with The Smart Cube, a professional services firm. He has seen a 3D printer create a component with 20 moving parts, all on different axes. Today, 3D printers are being touted for everything from food to medical devices to complex aircraft parts. (They can even turn out guns.) The advantages are many: cheaper manufacturing, lower cost of entry into markets, the ability to tailor products to individual consumer tastes. Still, the technology has a ways to go before becoming a routine aspect of many production environments. In this episode, Narain discusses how far 3D printers have come (surprisingly far, it turns out), and how far they have to go, in both the consumer and industrial sectors. More specifically, he predicts how 3D printers will impact global procurement strategies.Support the show

Delivery drones are on their way to your doorstep. And regulators are right on their tail. Amazon and other e-commerce retailers are preparing a fleet of drones that can rush product to the consumer. The craft are already in the testing stage, but the legal ramifications of their use are far from clear. Issues to be addressed include privacy, security, safety and environmental impact. The Federal Aviation Administration insists that it has jurisdiction over drones today, but others disagree, and the matter is currently being litigated in the courts. This episode features attorney Joshua Dalrymple, a professor in the School of Legal Studies at Kaplan University. He offers his view on how regulators and lawmakers will address the coming of commercial drones, and what it means to businesses and consumers alike.Support the show

Time to scrap your legacy I.T. systems. But how exactly should you go about it? Old and outdated applications lie at the heart of many global supply chains. There's a pressing need to bring them up to date, but companies risk undermining their operations if they attempt a wholesale change. How, then, should they make the decision about which systems to tackle first? What are the criteria for deciding whether a given application has outlived its usefulness? And what's the role of the cloud in future I.T. deployments for supply-chain management? On this episode, we get answers from Dominick Paul, national vice president of strategic solutions for Sungard Availability Services. He discusses what supply-chain managers should consider before updating their legacy applications, and why it's important to proceed with caution.Support the show

For international traders who are sick of filing documents with multiple regulatory agencies, help is on the way. Get ready for the Single Window. The term describes a means by which importers, exporters, carriers and third parties can submit standardized information and documentation via a single entry point. In other words, one filing satisfies the requirements of multiple agencies – 48 in the U.S., to be precise. And other countries are embracing the method as well, under the Trade Facilitation Agreement, negotiated by the World Trade Organization at its ministerial conference in Bali. International legal consultant Donald J. Lewis, former visiting associate professor and lecturer at Stanford University, joins us on this episode to explain the thinking behind the Single Window, and how it will transform international trade. For once, it seems, government red tape really is being cut.Support the show

Avnet, Inc. just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a Lean company. But the company's search for waste and inefficiency is far from over. Avnet is a leading distributor of electronic components, semiconductors and computer products. It's been ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the ''world's most admired companies'' for eight straight years. Avnet's strategy draws on classic principles of Lean, Six Sigma and the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. In this episode, chief global logistics and operations officer Mike Buseman talks about how far the company has come in driving waste out of the organization – and how far it has to go. Lean is a journey without end, he says. But companies must be careful not to cut so close to the bone that they undermine their ability to keep product flowing in the event of a supply-chain interruption.Support the show

It might seem like a throwback to the dirigibles of the 1930s, but a new type of airship is another animal entirely. The Aeroscraft is a fixed-wing, rigid-structure vehicle that's designed to carry up to 250 tons of cargo. It's the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, chief executive officer of Aeros. The Ukrainian-born entrepreneur joins us on this episode to talk about his plans for a fleet of airships that will contain more cubic footage than a modern-day freighter, cruise at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, and fly at altitudes of up to 12,000 feet. According to Pasternak, the Aeroscraft will provide an economically viable option to trucks, both in terms of price and transit time. Can he raise the $3bn he says he needs to make his dream a reality?Support the show

Should foreign-flag vessels and crews be allowed into the U.S. domestic maritime trades? They've been barred entry for nearly a century, thanks to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act. The law states that all goods moving by water between U.S. ports must be carried by ships that are built, flagged and crewed in this country. It has been subjected to repeated attacks over the years, including during the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A recent report by the Heritage Foundation argues that repeal of the Jones Act would save the American economy $682m per year. Others say that number doesn't account for the thousands of jobs that the act reserves for American workers. In this episode, attorney and Jones Act expert Charlie Papavizas provides valuable background on the Jones Act, and clears up some key misperceptions about the law.Support the show