Supply Chain Unlocked

Ep. 13 - Industrial Safety AI: Stopping Accidents Before They Happen

Safety is usually treated as a lagging indicator where leaders only react after a claim is filed or an injury occurs. This reactive stance is a massive profit leak and an avoidable human cost that traditional safety walks can no longer manage in complex industrial environments. Vernon O'Donnell, CEO of Voxel, explains how computer vision and AI are flipping this script by identifying risks before the collision happens. We sit down to discuss the practical application of visual AI in distribution centers and manufacturing plants across the globe. The conversation covers the reduction of workers' comp claims through ergonomic heat maps, the removal of "noise" from thousands of daily alerts, and the transition toward 90% true automation in safety monitoring. Vernon shares how Voxel identifies operational choke points—like poorly managed dock doors or incorrect forklift governors—to solve the root causes of near-misses. The unglamorous truth of industrial technology is that many companies fear a multi-year IT nightmare that never delivers. This episode highlights a shift toward lightweight edge devices and software integrations that provide measurable value in days rather than months. You will walk away with a clear understanding of how to treat safety as a strategic lever that increases throughput and reduces employee attrition rather than just a cost center or a compliance checkbox.

Ep. 12 - Automating the Freezer: The Future of Cold Storage Ops

Cold chain is one of those supply chain functions everyone relies on, yet few people really understand until something melts, spoils, or gets rejected at the dock. We sit down with Cindy Parker, Director of Operations at Americold, to unpack what modern cold chain logistics actually looks like and why it has shifted from “storage at temperature” into a true operations partner for food, grocery, export, and emerging pharmaceutical cold chain needs. We get specific about what large retailers now care about most: on-time shipping, product quality, and cost discipline. Sandy explains where suppliers commonly stumble, from weak packaging that collapses over longer dwell times to late communication that forces expensive last-minute labor and space decisions. We also dig into why forecasting matters even before EDI kicks in, and why the best cold chain relationships feel like a third leg of a production facility rather than a disconnected warehouse. From there we move into the realities of running temperature-controlled warehousing: labor and power costs, sustainability pressure to keep food out of landfill, and extreme seasonality like the holiday turkey rush that sites plan for all year. We also explore the tech wave hitting cold storage, including automated freezer facilities that keep people out of the cold, AI-supported labor planning, safety tools that flag risky lifting, and real-time inventory and temperature monitoring that customers increasingly expect. Finally, we talk traceability and FSMA 204, plus the unsexy spot where many temperature excursions happen: the trailer-to-dock transition. If you work in supply chain, operations, retail, food safety, or logistics planning, you’ll walk away with practical ways to cut cold chain cost and reduce risk. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with your biggest cold chain challenge.

Ep. 11 - People-Led Growth: The Invisible Magic of Tech with Vinod Bidarkoppa

Retail doesn’t just use technology anymore, it runs on it, and that changes what leadership looks like at the highest level. We sit down with Vinod Bidarkoppa, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Walmart International, to get a clear view of how modern omnichannel retail, supply chain systems, marketplace growth, and in-store operations connect through a single tech strategy. We dig into the idea behind Walmart’s “people-led, tech-powered” purpose and what it means day to day: using technology to remove friction for customers and members while making associates’ work simpler. Vinod shares how he thinks about “invisible” tech, where the best systems fade into the background and give frontline teams the tools and confidence to serve people better. From there, we get practical about global platform design. Vinod explains the “vehicle chassis” metaphor for building common global platforms once, then layering on what each country needs, from regulation and compliance to local customer behaviors like cash on delivery. We also talk about cross-cultural leadership, why the “what” can stay consistent while the “how” must adapt, and how Team of Teams principles like shared consciousness and empowered execution help distributed teams stay aligned across time zones. Finally, we look at the speed of change in retail digital transformation, why transformation is intentional, and how AI in retail raises the bar on upscaling, curiosity, and learnability. If you lead teams, build products, or work anywhere in the retail value chain, you’ll walk away with frameworks you can actually use. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review, then tell us: what’s the biggest friction point you want technology to remove next?

Ep. 10 - Supply Chain Mastery: Lessons from Georgia Tech

Supply chain leaders love to ask for “the model,” but the hardest part is figuring out what the real problem is in the first place. We sit down with Georgia Tech professor Benoit Montreuil, Executive Director of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, to unpack how his team works with major partners like Amazon, Home Depot, and UPS to tackle frontier logistics challenges with real data, real constraints, and real accountability.  We walk through what deep industry-academic collaboration looks like when it’s built for long-term impact: fewer partners, stronger trust, and projects that evolve from listening and data analytics into simulation, optimization, and digital twins. Benoit explains how his lab avoids the classic trap of treating every issue like a single-method problem, why scientific rigor and publishing still matter, and how to train PhD students to operate in teams, under NDA, while delivering outcomes that decision-makers can actually use.  We also get practical about AI in supply chain. Rather than chasing hype, we talk about generative AI as a tool for faster prototyping and experimentation, plus how to manage scope creep with an agile research program and steering committees that can pivot when mission-critical needs appear. Finally, Benoit breaks down the Physical Internet vision: hyperconnected logistics networks where warehouses and transportation capacity are shared like infrastructure, unlocking big gains in cost, resilience, service speed, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction.  If you care about supply chain strategy, logistics innovation, sustainability, and what the next era of e-commerce fulfillment could look like, this one will stretch your thinking. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review, then tell us: what’s the toughest supply chain question you’re facing right now?

Ep. 9 - Decision Advantage: Winning in a Volatile Market

Volatility isn’t a phase to ride out, it’s the operating system of modern logistics. We sit down with Michael Zimmerman, partner at Kearney and veteran of Fortune 500 supply chains, to unpack how structural shocks from trade policy, weather, and geopolitics have rewritten the rules of planning, sourcing, and execution. The throughline is clear: decision advantage beats tool accumulation. We dig into layered planning that replaces single-point bets with capacity portfolios, flex clauses, and warehouse swing space. Michael shares how to define explicit triggers so teams can reconfigure within days, not weeks, and why the real breakdowns happen at cross-functional seams, order management to load planning, forecasting to capacity commitments. On the people side, we talk about preserving contextual experience, building durable playbooks, and resisting rotations that erase hard-won pattern recognition. If you’re drowning in tech pitches, this conversation recenters the target: invest where most spend and resilience are decided, transportation sourcing, network design, capacity assurance, and supplier performance. We explore why big-bang transformations often fail and how to layer practical use cases on top of ERP, TMS, and WMS. On AI, Michael is blunt: real wins today live in decision compression, freight audit and pay, spend visibility, exception workflows, and sourcing support, while humans keep the negotiation and relationship work that sets advantage when markets tighten. Walk away with a playbook to prepay for optionality, fix the seams, and focus your bets where they change outcomes. If you’re aiming to sense, decide, and reconfigure faster, without torching your budget, this is your roadmap to resilient, high-velocity logistics. Enjoy the episode, then subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help more leaders find the show.