Art van Bodegraven was, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy. He passed away on June 18, 2017. He will be greatly missed.
Many thanks to Paul Simon for the very sound advice, but we are not seeking one of 50 ways to leave a lover. Of course, the term originated as "What's the plan, Stan?" in a children's rhyme featuring a dog named Stan. But the thought is timely.
Those who have spent much time in the supply chain world can easily fall into a hectic life that is strangely comforting in its repeated challenges and catastrophes. We bob and weave, extinguish fires, overcome ineptitude, work our way up, get caught in rightsizing, move on to the next job, and are rudely awakened one day to discover that it is time to go to grass. Turn in your keys. Enjoy the stale cake at the farewell party. No more passing Go and collecting $200.
Now what? How did you get here? Where are you? What happened to the passing years? Was this the plan? Was there a plan at all?
ENVIRONMENT AND PRECEDENT
We are surrounded by plans and planning in our jobs: targets, objectives, timelines, budgets, and resource requirements and constraints. We focus daily, sometimes continuously, on fill rates, on-time shipments, inventory levels, throughput performance, and more. We face deadlines, measure progress, track milestones, and perform after-action analyses.
True, real life and random events throw us a few curve balls, but we always have the plans to return to, to pick up the pieces, and continue on toward the ultimate objective(s). Do we have something similar to provide a life and career path, a course to return to when things go awry?
Why not? And what should one look like?
STARTING OUT
Everyone's career plan will look a bit different, but they all must begin with an ultimate goal. The goal will then help to highlight some essential steps along the way. Here are some considerations.
The goal must be reasonable, or at least remotely realistic. "Gee, I'd like to be a Formula One racer" is not a goal. PeeWee Herman's envisioning himself as the next Denzel Washington is not remotely realistic.
Take stock of where you are and what you have done to date in order to lay out what experiences you need to gain, what skills you need to acquire and develop, what industries you need to understand, what functionality you must master, and what roles your styles and preferences best prepare you for. Then, translate these to an actionable plan, including a timeline.
And note this well: The development plan that your company has laid out for you, while evidence of enlightenment, is not at all the same thing as your life plan. Also note that the career plan is only one of many that a full and rewarding life leverages. A family plan, financial plan, job plan (whether or not your employer provides one), service plan for causes and communities—all are important and parts of the whole you.
MOVING FORWARD
Unfortunately, the next steps are not a matter of rote execution. They begin that way, but real life will surely interfere. You can't change reality, so you'll need to adapt your plan. As Iron Mike Tyson often says, "Everybody's got a plan until I hit 'em in the mouth." As recently as a couple of days ago, a tough-as-nails U.S. Army general opined that "No plan survives its first encounter with reality."
Some steps will take longer than expected. Some interim objectives (milestones) will prove to be infeasible. Opportunities may become limited at the time they are, by plan, needed. In short, each forward step will help provide deeper insight and greater clarity for both the immediate next steps and the ultimate objective of this self-development journey that you are in control of.
So, we are back to Paul Simon. Make a new plan, Stan. Adjust, refine, recalibrate—continuously follow an elusive, moving, and changing target. There is nothing wrong with that, and a lot that is right.
Don't be afraid to leverage an opportunistic opening, by the way. Just be careful to examine it with some discipline to see how it might accelerate your progress toward your goals. On the other hand, don't abandon all rigor and focus, and fall back into depending on opportunistic openings. To do so would completely invalidate an organized and disciplined approach to accomplishment—and likely considerably suboptimize your potential for yourself and for others.
As you go through the process, enlist a trusted confidante and mentor. Not a buddy from work, probably, but someone who will tell you hard truths, help you think through options, and be a rock when extraneous events threaten your endeavor.
Be prepared to sacrifice, along with working like an indentured servant. A pay cut may be the price of gaining other industry experience. A lateral move might be the painful way to pick up a necessary functional skill. Family time could suffer if additional education will unlock a heretofore-sealed door.
GENUINE PRIORITIES
It's easy to get tangled up in the priorities and objectives of an employer. Make no mistake, you've got to deliver value there, both as an obligation to the organization that ultimately pays the bills and to acquire what you need to keep moving forward with your personal development and achievement.
But if you abandon your own plan to devote your all to your employer's plan(s), you are likely not becoming as valuable as you might be to that employer and quite possibly diminishing your chances of moving on to another opportunity in another setting.
Do be careful to sidestep the trap that sacrifices all in order to meet your plan. Too many postpone quality time, family time, along the path, thinking that it will all pay off in the end. Wrong! Lots of little payoffs in enjoyment, in play, in being a spouse and parent must be taken to keep an emotional balance along the difficult run to the goal line.
Don't forget to plan the succeeding stages of professional life, to avoid Ross Perot's giant sucking sound when you leave active corporate employment. Transitions and roles into the next incarnations are vital to mental health and happy longevity. Forget, btw, your father's idea of retirement; Florida, golf, eternal sunshine, and group activities at the "active living community" are all components of a short cut to the end of one's days—a form of suicide by stagnation.
THE END OF THE LINE
So, here we are at the end of the plan's line. Time to get off the bus at the intended stop. But wait! This isn't where you planned to go. All this, and you've failed?
Not really. Your end of the line is, if not exactly what and where you'd planned, somewhere along the path that you laid out and you controlled. It is not a place you landed by happenstance, tossed about by the swells, waves, and vicissitudes of the seas of change.
This trip, as we so often discover, is much more about the journey than it is the specific destination. It begins with the superficially simple question of what you want to be when you grow up. And you get to ask—and answer—that question over and over again, as you grow, progress, and see more clearly over time.
Just about the last thing you want and need—and deserve—is a firm handshake and a cheap watch of someone else's choosing to close the story of your professional life. So, hop on the bus, Gus.
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”