We stand at the precipice of a gap of our own collective making, a gap that deepens and widens with every failure to address the root causes of our talent shortfall.
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.
I've been increasingly dismayed by the much-heralded and little-resolved skills and experience shortfalls in The Great Supply Chain Management Race—the so-called talent gap.
The "gap" terminology obscures the depth and severity of the challenge. It's a chasm, a gaping crack in the infrastructure. We don't have enough warm bodies to perform the simplest execution tasks, with a further dropoff in adequate numbers when basic arithmetic and/or communication abilities are added to organizational expectations—and needs.
When higher skill levels are requirements for analysis, planning, coding, data management, and other such esoterica, the situation becomes downright embarrassing—and dangerously vulnerable in global competition. In this more demanding arena, we do a most commendable job of education and preparation, but we can scarcely hope to produce enough working talent to meet needs (especially when manufacturing and other sectors would poach our best and brightest without the merest twinge of conscience).
Of course, our managers at various levels are oblivious to factors of time and change, and what it takes to be effective in the 21st century, wedded as they are to discredited models of yesteryear. That old practices and shopworn tactics serve to drive off otherwise enthusiastic and engaged staff only makes things worse.
And our greatest deficiency remains, imho, the yawning abyss of the authentic leadership we crave and have little chance of finding. That shortfall creates a domino cascade of talent shortage throughout an organization.
HOOVERVILLE REDUX
Meanwhile, unemployment is pervasive enough that accounting trickeration is necessary to disguise that a pleasingly plump image is actually morbidly obese. The almost-always-ballyhooed unemployment rate is a pleasant fiction that has little genuine meaning or utility. It, for example, does not recognize the underemployed or the discouraged who no longer bother seeking employment. The portion of the population able to work that is actually working is a frail 62.7 percent and continues to drop.
Politicians, unable to restrain themselves, are what we might politely call nonspecific about creating new jobs, "well-paying jobs," that will restore American prosperity. What they don't talk about, and most likely are clueless about, is the reality that jobs have changed, in numbers to produce given quantities, in content, and in basic skills requirements. Steelmaking, for instance, now requires a few hundred people to make the same steel that took several thousand a generation or two ago.
TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE?
We have all kinds of mobile, wearable, multicapable technologies to help us do our jobs better—faster, more accurately, and more transparently. In a somewhat static environment, this must translate to reduced, or more slowly growing, work forces.
The march of robotics is under way. Can some robotics applications actually add jobs, or a least avoid cutbacks? Sure. In healthy organizations with open needs, growth potential, and an appetite for investment in retraining. But in the larger case, I suspect, the Bean Counter Brigade is looking for, and rewarded for finding, ways to reduce costs, a code phrase for reducing headcount.
This desperate clinging to last-century paradigms is a refuge for those unable to innovate and motivate at a new-century pace. I fear that the dinosaurs are not going to wade into La Brea willingly and are likely to be with us, in uncomfortable numbers, for another generation (one hopes not two).
What will almost surely make this worse is the move to elevate minimum wages. Here's my not-always-popular position: Every adult working at a full-time job should be receiving a living wage. Part-time jobs should pay an hourly rate equivalent to a full-time living wage. Full-time is neither permanent nor year-round. Lower-wage "job lite" options should be available as learner positions for younger employees.
However, we define these things, the minimum wage is trending—fast—toward $15 per hour. Time to get real. A capable lift truck operator or a speedy, versatile order selector is worth more—lots more—than someone asking "Would you like fries with that?" But the industry has been paying execution staff at fast-food levels for a long time, with increases coming in response to competition for a diminished labor pool. The result? Rapidly rising wages in supply chain execution will make it even more attractive to pursue robotic and automated material handling solutions, pushing more experienced employees out on the street.
A GLIMPSE INTO A BRIEFLY ILLUMINATED DARK FUTURE
So, where does all this lead us? So few leaders that they can't spare themselves to lead the country for a while. Managers who have yet to master managing but are persuaded that they are leaders, to the detriment of people and enterprises. Highly rewarded and prized technogeek employees. Well-compensated staff, who have developed and maintain relevant skills. A few functionaries who excite their leaders by seeking, adopting, embracing, and even creating change as (or before) environments and requirements evolve—or erupt.
And then, the rest. An army, easy to stir to mindless action with time on their hands, limited skills, less knowledge of what it takes to be a part of a functioning society—and no money to do much with, save stock up on Kools or cannabis, try to keep up with Anheuser-Busch's production, and some vague notion that their plight is all the fault of Carlos Slim or an Ethiopian cab driver working two jobs to feed his family.
We stand at the precipice of a gap of our own collective making, a gap that deepens and widens with every failure to address root causes of our talent woes. A merit-based class system is nearing open class warfare, made increasingly more possible as the divide between haves, have nots, don't wants, and can't dos grows without much serious effort to realign those who might be salvageable, re-educate those without the most basic tools, and retrain those who have a usable foundation.
Those robots are going to be needing programming, maintenance, and repair. We all have a lot at stake in restoring balance within the economic ecosystem of the nation.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.