Transcript 0:00 [on-hold music] The traditional linear supply chain needs to go away, and we need to move to a more customer-centric, service-oriented supply chain where functional silos are broken down within your organization. 0:19 We need to be fully connected to the supply network. 0:23 [on-hold music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:44 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. As always, I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. So if you are here in the United States today, it's Election Day. 0:54 And since there's been so much coverage on that for the past couple of days, or let's be honest, the past couple of months, I thought I would give you a break from all of that coverage here on my segment right now. 1:06 And I thought I would focus a little bit more of my time on the impact of what COVID-19 has had right now, and I would continue to talk a little bit more about what's been happening specifically on the supply chain and manufacturing. 1:22 And I really have some great examples of how funding is going to be used to spur U.S. manufacturing in the future. 1:28 And I actually think it's apropos that we talk about manufacturing on Election Day as it was, and continues to be, at least in my opinion, the heart of America. So later on in the show, I always have some amazing guests. 1:43 So I want to share with you who's going to be here. 1:45 I have Phil Renaud, who's the executive director of the Risk Institute, and Brittney Schuetz Reinhard, who's the senior researcher associate at the Department of Psychology at Ha- Ohio State University. 1:58 And then I'm going to wrap up the show with David Strayer, the professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. So I've got some amazing guests. 2:08 So I hope you can stick around. So now before we dig into the impact of COVID-19 has had on the supply chain and manufacturing overall, I think it's important to note a bit of history, at least here in the United States. 2:21 So many of you might have remember, I actually wrote a book called Mending Manufacturing about the crisis in American manufacturing. 2:29 I specifically wrote about the history of outsourcing jobs and production to foreign nations. And I questioned back in 2004 whether the U.S. could sustain as an economic power without a solid manufacturing base. 2:45 Even before the pandemic, manufacturers were facing all this change. Ecosystems, business models, customer expectations, everything was changing. 2:57 Add in a labor shortage, you know, the baby boomers, everybody starting to retire, and the advent of a new... all these new technology, and the pace of change was only increasing. Then boom, right? COVID-19 hit. 3:11 And while the world stayed home, the pace of business change was faster than ever before. Now back in March, I wrote a number of blogs about my thoughts about the supply chain and manufacturing and COVID-19. 3:26 And in the spring, I reiterated some of the views that I had a decade earlier about the lack of technology and production weaknesses and all contributing to crippling American manufacturing. 3:38 And sadly, it kind of led to U.S. outsourcing American jobs and U.S. depending on foreign countries. 3:47 And as I stated in that blog, if the COVID-19 coronavirus had taught us anything, it's that we need to constantly invest in our systems and our supply chains. 3:59 It taught us that we need to think strategically, and we need to look ahead at all times, investing in technology and the Internet of things. 4:08 Modern manufacturers need a supply chain where they can actually look at product condition and information and the flow in real time. So how have we made any progress in the last seven months? Did we? 4:23 I guess that's a question for you to think about. Now, my answer to this would be yes and no. 4:28 There's been a lot of discussion around how to digitize our supply chains in the last half of a year or so, probably more than there has been, I would say, in the past decade. 4:40 People recognize that we have a need for digital transformation in our ecosystems. But like always, it's been moving so much slow, not as fast as we'd like. 4:50 But we are moving faster than we have been in the past ten years. Still not as fast as we'd all like, but here's why. 5:00 The traditional linear supply chain needs to go away, and we need to move to a more customer-centric, service-oriented supply chain where functional silos are broken down within your organization. 5:16 We need to be fully connected to the supply network. Now, this is change, and I get that. This is not an easy task, and I get that too. 5:27 We always talk about disruption can sometimes be a four-letter word for manufacturers. But at this point, I don't think we have a choice anymore. COVID-19 has forced our hand to think differently. 5:42 And again, I hate to say this, but it's true. It's a good thing, not only for our businesses, but for our bottom line, for our people, which is the next generation of leaders. 5:54 But even more importantly, what we have to think about, our natural ecosystems, our environment. The challenge is companies need to make supply chains more resilient without weakening competitiveness. 6:07 It might even be very cliché-But it's worth saying, and it's not without our trials and tribulations, anything that we want bad enough, we have to work for. So just look at our children in the next room. 6:23 Sometimes you want to say, "Oh my gosh, they're making too much noise," but look, it's all worth it, right? We're all working harder and more focused than ever before. 6:32 But look, while it might seem complicated, and I get it, and it is, because I've been covering manufacturing for a lot of years. 6:39 But to really overcome all the hurdles, you really have to take a step back and assess the vulnerabilities long before you can take a giant leap forward. As the saying goes, you have to crawl before you can run. 6:54 These steps include sometimes it means beginning with the end in mind. I always like to quote Stephen Covey because I really think he had a great idea, not realizing we'd be talking about manufacturing when we said it. 7:05 Determine the hidden risks and plan to address the challenges so you can overcome the hurdles. We all know there are going to be a lot of them, and some are going to be easier than others to overcome. 7:18 Don't look at your system myopically, i.e. look outside, look at the challenges. Like look at China if you're looking at other countries. If you aren't thinking about safety, you need to be thinking about safety. 7:31 If you aren't thinking about your people, you better be thinking about your people. If you aren't looking ahead, you're always looking behind. And consider process. Consider process innovations. 7:44 Specifically look at how automation, new processing technologies, continuous flow manufacturing, and additive manufacturing, and the other opportunities that will help you. 7:56 Consider where you are headed, and more importantly, think about the design. Keep the end in mind, even though you think the best end is always moving forward, because that's what's happening. So this is the great news. 8:10 We are making steps to go forward. We're taking those right steps. In October, MxD here in Chicago made a big announcement. It was awarded fifteen million dollars to boost US manufacturing's COVID response. 8:24 The funding will specifically support supply chain resiliency, medical device deployments, and pharmaceutical industry production. 8:33 Now, let me give you some examples of what it is doing, because I'm pretty excited for these folks because they're doing amazing things, because this is how change happens. 8:41 A key challenge in the supply chain is the securing of and sharing of data, including performance specifications, factory operations data, or business contracts. 8:52 MxD will deliver a supply chain risk alert framework tool to help the Department of Defense and the US manufacturing industry map existing supply chains. 9:04 This will identify vulnerabilities, foreign dependencies, and single source suppliers. It'll also have the capability to analyze public data and determine future potential disruptions in the supply chain. 9:20 So think about this. This will enable all of you as manufacturers to make data-informed decisions in times of crisis or urgency and minimize the impact of product capabilities. Pretty cool, right? 9:33 Here's another one for you. As I mentioned earlier, additive manufacturing or three D printing or design has given us new ways to manufacture devices. 9:43 But as we all know, there are long lead times for approval and validation. 9:48 MxD is also developing a digital process to proactively connect the US Food and Drug Administration to the medical industry to speed up validation for products during fabrication. 10:01 This would create a standard digital pathway for material testing, approval, and validation of the process or part being produced. Now think about this. 10:13 This would enable digital plans for additive manufacturing to be shared. That's another really awesome idea. Now I have one more for you. 10:22 MxD will provide lessons learned, best practices, and digital tools for manufacturers to accelerate the use of digital technologies to scale or even flex production, increase resiliency, and strengthen their supply chains. 10:38 The assessment will identify the perceived and real barriers to implementing digital technologies that could increase US manufacturing capacity and decrease time to market for medical diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines needed for public health and emergency response. 10:58 Wonderful, right? Another great example. Okay, so you've seen all these amazing things today that I'm talking about. So here's my opinion for today that I want to share with you. We are seven months into this pandemic. 11:10 If you haven't pivoted your business, if you haven't decided how to digitize your supply chain, then I got to ask you, what are you doing? 11:20 I'm going to challenge you here for a minute, and this is what I want you to think about. We need to strengthen our supply chains, and I can't emphasize that enough. 11:30 If COVID-19 hasn't taught us anything, it has taught us that. Now, here's my tip for today. Do something today to consider how to digitize your supply chain. Perhaps you're just starting out. Do more research. Call me. 11:45 I'll help you. Perhaps you are in the early phases of implementing technology. Reach out to partners. Or maybe you just need to take a step back and consider if what you are doing already is working. 12:00 Do you need to tweak something? Take a moment today to consider that. I'm pretty certain you've got some amazing people there. 12:08 Also, since I mentioned it, what is MxD doing in all of this episode that I just shared with you? 12:13 I also wanted to let you know we'll be holding a live and virtual event at MxD on November twelfth through thirteenth for our technology days, and it's a hybrid event. 12:24 We'll be talking about the mission of the event is to apply transformative technologies with people and processes to achieve sustainability to help mankind for years to come in their communities, their cities. 12:37 So if you want to learn more about it in the event, head over to our constructek.com/techdayevent to learn more about what we're doing there. 12:46 I'm telling you, you're going to love to learn about the future technologies, the ways we're building cities, the way we're building communities. It's all important, so it's something to do. 12:55 All right, I'm out of time for this segment. We've got more to come. But most importantly, I want you to tweet at me, @connectedwmag. These are the things that change what we're doing. I'd love to hear from you. 13:04 Put something up on LinkedIn if you need that. All right. Check out our website at connectedworld.com. We put up a new article, so we've got new content up this month. It's a new month of everything. 13:14 And if you haven't gone up to thepeggy medleyshow.com, check out that as well. All right. 13:18 We're going to take a quick commercial break, but remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 13:27 We'll be right back after this commercial break. [upbeat music]
