Increasing Supply Chain Profitability

41:32

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, supply chain, customers, transportation, labor, warehousing, work, distribution centers, containers, product, business, store, damon, freight, moving, ship, couple, facilities, important, manufacturing plants

SPEAKERS

Margo Waldie, Damon Pistulka

Damon Pistulka  00:05

All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And I am excited today because with me, I’ve got Margot all the welcome Margot, my swing around here too. There we go.

Margo Waldie  00:20

Definitely. Damon, thank you so much for having me. I’m super happy to be here. And I’m not usually a guest on other people’s shows. I know a little bit different.

Damon Pistulka  00:30

It’s fun. It’s fun, because we get to switch it around. So I was fortunate enough to be on your show last week. I think it was. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, cargo Margaux. So if people don’t know, we’re gonna today, we’re gonna be talking about increasing supply chain profitability. Crazy times for people that are in anything that has to do with shipping anything, which is all, which I don’t know, anything that doesn’t get shipped.

And I think I’ve used anything at least 10 times already in the sentences, but it just affects everyone. It affects everyone. And so I’m really excited to have you here today. Margo, to tell us a little bit about your background and kind of how you got and what you got. Because you’ve been in you’ve been in logistics and moving stuff around. For most of your career, correct?

Margo Waldie  01:22

Yeah, you know, it was interesting. After I graduated University of San Francisco, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I majored in business corporate communications. And I knew I liked people communicating with people, but I wasn’t really sure what direction I wanted to move into. Conway freight. I don’t know if anyone remembers Conway freight. But this is about okay, cool.

Six years ago, they had a business development program. And so I entered into that program, basically learn the ins and outs of the industry, transportation. And through that business development training, you could shadow other operations, teams, you could shadow the sales, teams pricing, and then basically, you know, coupled with your strengths and passions, decide, you know, where you want it to go. And that’s really how I started in the industry.

Damon Pistulka  02:14

Wow, that’s cool. That’s cool. Because, I mean, when you look back, when you started, it was at the, the, you’re the kind of the forefront of the Amazon. I mean, really, we didn’t even because that was a couple years ago, let’s say a couple years ago, not a ton of years ago, but

Margo Waldie  02:34

I had to, I had to deal with the recession. And that was really interesting. So when I first started selling, I mean things. I feel like you could close business anywhere, you know, people were shipping things were just they were going great. And then about two years into it, you saw all the changes that were happening, people were getting laid off businesses were closing. Similar.

Yeah. And similar to kind of what we’re going through, you know, post pandemic, a lot of changes, a lot of supply chain being shaken up. And so people had to get creative people wearing different hats at the time, just like now. Yeah. And so it was similar. You know, you go out and you buy your dollar pizza at your favorite place, or Taco Tuesday, even those of us that have bought furniture lately. We’re all feeling it. Oh, yeah. And these dislocations are coming from the I believe the pandemic.

03:30

Yeah. Oh, that.

Damon Pistulka  03:33

Let’s just start to uncover this a little bit. Because I think it’s cool to have someone that’s right at the front line of the industry like yourself in here because and you glossed over this a little bit so I’m going to look at your LinkedIn profile a bit here and we’re gonna we’re talk some because it your experience, you’re not really given a justice. So you’re at XPO logistics for a while you’re at Old Dominion, you you’re at dependable supply chain services, and you’ve been at Dart entities for four years. I mean, you you’ve been in this for a while you lived it, you’ve had to sell into it, like you said through now you went through the recession in oh eight.

Now you’re back into COVID through it coming out of it. And with dark entities, it’s got to be super exciting because what we did when you started the E commerce and the whole shipping it right away, you know, individual item right away, you know, everything before was big quantities going to the box stores and people taking it from there and maybe some ecommerce but now in the last 15 years, that’s, you know, we How many box stores are dying. And for every box store that dies, how many individual shipments does that mean that we’re doing? And you know, so go ahead.

Margo Waldie  04:57

Absolutely. And you You hit the nail on the head when you You mentioned gi t just in time. Yeah. And that’s really that Amazon effect that you touched on. All of us need something right now, we’re not willing to wait. We’re not willing to drive five miles find a parking spot and mow through a store. We want to right now.

Damon Pistulka  05:20

Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. So how much? How much of what you see in what you deal with anymore is bulk freight truck loads moving or more of a combination of, you know, I might move bulk freight into a facility, but then I want to drop ship to individual individuals out of the that what’s comparatively and kind of the changes that you’ve seen in that?

Margo Waldie  05:48

No, definitely, I think that when you’re looking at how someone is utilizing modes of transportation, and what modes of transportation they’re utilizing, that really depends on a couple things. There’s so many layers. So for instance, geographically, where are they located? Where are their manufacturing plants located? And most importantly, where are their customers located? And with transportation, you know, some of the major supply chain issues, if you will, are related to transportation.

So whether it’s making sure you’re controlling your transportation costs, you’re utilizing the correct modalities to get your freight to whether it be your next dc or to a store. Super important capacity, are you using assets or using brokers or maybe a mix of those? And I don’t think that there’s necessarily one right way, I think that the most important aspect of it is to really analyze your processes, and how they come together, you know, transportation fulfillment, the end user, it’s really like a puzzle and you want those pieces to fit. Otherwise, you’re going to get that disruption in your supply chain, and your customers ultimately feel that pain. Hmm.

Damon Pistulka  07:09

Yeah, we talk about mortality. It’s funny that you said that because I live in in Seattle, and we’re right near the the north south train, the rail lines not far from our house, because we live in north of Seattle and Edmonds, and we were noticing a train going by last night or the night before.

And it was, you know, completely full of containers. And then the the semi trailers that are on the rail cars going is it made me think about all the different ways that freight is moving around us and our products are moving around us every single day. Do you think that this has gotten more complex over the years are there systems and ways to handle it has gotten easier for for manufacturers and distributors and retailers?

Margo Waldie  08:00

I think it’s easier based on the technology that we have today and the support and knowledge based on all these previous experiences. The thing is, is that you need to partner with whether it be a consultant, an asset based company, or even someone that’s involved in brokerage that has the knowledge base and the experience to help you strategize when you’re looking at moving freight, importing freight, working with a warehousing fulfillment center, it’s really important to have someone that’s knowledgeable and has that experience.

And then, of course, coupled with your knowledge of your business, the scope of work that you’re looking to outsource and your product, because you’re the one that knows all of the special intricacies of your product and your customer. And really, you know, here at Dart, for example, we put on our customers uniform, and we’re working through their scope of work wherever that might be, you know, we definitely look back and we analyze those processes and help them streamline them so that they’re saving money overall, but I definitely think it really depends on your end consumer and the product and where you’re located.

Damon Pistulka  09:20

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Because that is the the thing that’s interesting to me when you look at some of the some of our clients and their suppliers and the things that are happening is the the importance of having a you know, if you’re a decent size ecommerce supplier now and you’re on the West Coast, and you don’t have an East Coast present presence, it really hurts you because you can’t get product to your customers fast enough or multiple facilities, you know, to be able to get around the United States to get get product customers. So You see that companies are trying to do that multi distribution centers just to get closer to the customers.

Margo Waldie  10:09

Yeah, you’ll see a mix. So you see store layouts geographically, you’ll see store layouts and DC layout. So distribution centers, and depending on whether or not Dart entities is feeding one of their DCS or feeding the store, so the end user, it really varies. But again, I go back to you want to look at and control your costs, you also want to have that support of capacity with your asset base providers.

And again, it’s really looking geographically at how you can service your customers within that next day point, because like I mentioned, you mentioned earlier, it’s that Amazon Prime shipping, we want it now. So really, I think, looking at what you have going on geographically, analyzing the scope of work at each of those locations, while managing transportation. I mean, this is this is a lot, you know, you can really save a lot of money. But again, I’m going to go back to the transportation control, controlling the costs, making sure you have that capacity in that service.

Damon Pistulka  11:14

Yeah, that’s, that’s cool, because it is. And as you were talking about, I was just thinking about the way the business models have changed for stores, right? Because, for me, we have Nordstroms cost to us. And not that I go there very much. If anyone sees I dress, it’s not that I dress great. But the thing is, is that I know that their store sizes have been reduced over the years, because a lot more of their product is come in and see it in the store, but we’ll ship it to you at home. They have some of each size, but they don’t have the big stacks of the inventory like they used to because they ship it from their distribution centers.

And do you find that your customers at Dart are using that at some places where I might have a store that’s actually or a customer base that’s really close. And we keep lower amounts of inventory in stores and direct ship, maybe bigger items, or, you know, because if I’m selling washing machines or something like that, I don’t need to have 27 pairs of the same washing machine in in a store. I could have three, and then my distribution center could actually even ship those out if people would rather do that. Do you think you see those kind of different scenarios happening? Yeah, they

Margo Waldie  12:31

are happening. And Damon? And also just I mean, one real, simple reason why is space constraints? Yes. Industrial Property is at a peak right now. People are fighting for that capacity. And so like you said, these smaller store footprints can’t hold that extra inventory like a fulfillment center can

Damon Pistulka  12:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because this is, it’s got to be interesting for you to be able to dive in with some of these customers and really get your team looking at the way that they do things, and being able to come up with innovative solutions for this.

Margo Waldie  13:12

Absolutely. And it’s solutions that have to work with their company, their culture, their values, and their products, right. And so to be able to do that can be quite difficult. But once it happens, it’s just fabulous. As far as how the supply chain can really work for you. And getting that product quick out to your customers. There has been businesses that have failed because they cannot get their supply chain, right. Oh, yeah. And that’s, it’s a bummer. And I’m sure you know, you’re in manufacturing. And you you see it,

Damon Pistulka  13:42

yes, yes. And and we’ve had some ecommerce clients that their supply chain is their ultimate weakness. And when that’s the case, you really, you really have to, it’s a tough time running the business successfully, just because you you have to get that in place. Because your product has to be there when your customers want to it’s not theirs going someplace else.

Margo Waldie  14:05

Well, that’s exactly what regardless of you know, any opinions on Elon Musk and Tesla, but you know, he looked at vertical integration, and that’s really taking control of your supply chain. And that’s why he didn’t have as many of these disruptions as other people had.

Damon Pistulka  14:20

Yeah, yeah. That’s a great point. And and, and it did, it did prove, prove out well for them. So what are some of the you know, we’ve we’ve heard a lot of talk about, okay, supply chain, container costs, you know, all that stuff’s gone through the, through the roof and, and now, the fuel surcharges, I don’t even want to think about what they’re gonna do or are doing.

In fact, I need to write that down because there’s a couple of things that I need to look at on that because I’m sure that’s going to increase some some things that I need to consider with clients. But it’s a what are some of the underlying things that that you You see that are challenges coming up that people may not be really aware of.

Margo Waldie  15:07

You know, for me, I think it all really starts internally. When I think about some of our partners, potential partners, people that I’ve worked with and for procurement, planning, forecasting, those are things that come to mind first. Yeah, if you have an idea of what is going to be on the water, what is on the water, and you can plan receiving put away and picking things could be so much more successful, streamlined, transparent. But I would say that is one of the areas where a lot of people struggle is just in that forecasting. In that planning phase.

Damon Pistulka  15:56

Yeah, and you you hit three points that I think people, they, they get, they’re really good, if I’m buying something, making sure I have that, that container that truckload coming. But when you have 100 truckloads coming, you look at receiving put away, and then picking for those orders. That’s where a lot of times they fall down, at least in the people that we work with.

Margo Waldie  16:21

And when you can forecast properly, then your partners are able to forecast properly to support that business coming in. Right. So labor management,

16:31

Mm hmm. Exactly. And, and that’s,

Margo Waldie  16:33

that’s what’s happening right now. With a lot of these supply chain issues is labor management. So if we could forecast and get all of that labor in line, things would run really smooth

Damon Pistulka  16:45

well and to then you’re not you’re you’re leveling your labor and labor needs out, you’re not using too much overtime you’re reducing your cost to to do those functions, if you can keep it steadier.

Margo Waldie  16:57

Yeah. And at the same time, you’re managing your customers expectations, right. And I think the other thing about that is, is managing quality and inventory accuracy. Yeah, that’s another big one that comes up. Yeah, you know, you think it’s pretty easy taking note of what you have. I mean, Damon, I could ask you what you have in your pantry and fridge right now and I I’m sure you feel confident that you would know but there’s going to be some items in there that you forgot or some items that you thought were in there so I think that you know inventory accuracy is so big and plays such a huge part in the supply chain.

Damon Pistulka  17:35

Yes, that is that is something that it’s funny you said pantry because Jeff lamb somebody that he’s in Canada does warehouse stuff he’s not I should just say warehouse. That’s a drastic understatement. He’s he’s written a book on warehousing and developed some nice courses on it and, and things and he looks his book is called. I’ve got it lined here. So funny. You said something about your pantry. Your warehouse is not your fridge. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it’s so cool. Jeff lamb LM, but so is what do you say your pantry right?

It’s not like that your warehouse you have to the the the receiving the put away what inventory goes where and why and all that stuff that to help along with the planning. Because as you see in the companies and you see a lot in dark there I’m sure is your you’re in fulfillment to the customer, when you’re not talking about truckload quantities, it’s much different in the planning is or that as much more it’s more critical. It’s just the picking of orders in the in the the shipping of the individual orders. If you’re going to ship 1000s of orders a day. You got to get really good at picking and shipping orders.

Margo Waldie  18:55

Well think about how many times you’ve ordered something and you open the box and there’s extra items that you didn’t order or there’s items missing. Oh, yeah. And the time, the time and the money that it takes to return. Right to return an item?

Damon Pistulka  19:11

Yes. Yes, that’s for sure. That’s for sure. So accuracy of the actual fulfillment is huge.

Margo Waldie  19:18

Yeah. And I think technology. So we have yard management systems. We have warehouse management systems, we have transportation management systems. These are really important. Yes, really important. And one of the issues that I hear often is we have these systems in place, but to extract data that we can actually use to make proper changes to level up our supply chain. That’s that can be difficult. So I’m not going to give any recommendations on systems but I think it’s important to look into these systems. Make sure that your supply chain tech stack is current and you have have support in that arena?

Damon Pistulka  20:02

Well, and how many years has it been? Since you said those words for the first time your supply chain tech stack? Did people even think about that 15 years ago? Probably, you know, it was probably not nearly as much as today if they did. And, but it’s critical, as you said. And the other thing that you said, I think is is super important is, if you can’t make meaningful changes with the data, it’s worthless to you.

And you hit it, you said you don’t have data to drive the right changes are you can’t get the data out to drive the right changes. And that’s when you’re looking at those systems, it is important to do that. And I just, as you said, from the beginning, you’re you’re planning and forecasting is key that to really be in the most efficient, have the most efficient supply chain you can have.

Margo Waldie  20:53

Definitely, I mean, if you’re looking at some of our clients, they’re bringing us in a couple 100 containers a week. And so a yard management system is super important when you need to find one container out of the 300 that you have in your yard.

Damon Pistulka  21:08

Yes. Yeah, you know, yeah.

Margo Waldie  21:15

Well, yeah. And the data, it also helps us manage that labor, like I mentioned, it helps you support you in holding your teams accountable, as well. So there’s different layers to having a solid tech stack.

21:29

Yeah, yeah.

Damon Pistulka  21:32

Yes, can you think about the things about like you said, I’ve got a couple 100 containers out there, I’ve got I’ve got an that setting outside of my distribution center here. And I’ve got multiple distribution centers around the United States with the same hundreds of containers outside, they’re from lots of different customers trying to do this. And I’ve got in that same inventory inside, and I’m going out with individually fulfilled orders or truckloads of product. That’s a heck of a job.

Margo Waldie  22:03

Yeah, it especially to I mean, think about it, I was on a call earlier, and we’re talking about the different manufacturing plants they have, and what they’re feeding into their current DCS. So that’s interesting as well. So when you have to marry up product, and it’s going to another Dc, you know, it’s not just moving from point A to point B, there are a lot of things that happen in between then, and timing is everything. So that’s why when I said transportation management, your vendor relationships, your carrier supplier relationships, those are super important.

Damon Pistulka  22:38

Yes. Yeah. And if you’re a big manufacturer, and I’ve got one plant that makes one once piece of an another assembly in it, you know, if I don’t make the whole thing in one facility, that adds a ton more complexity, because you’ve got on the road stock, you’ve got stock in the yard, you’ve got socket, maybe a little stock in the manufacturing facility, do you use it and and some stock in the facility where you’re producing it? And that could be multiple facilities feeding into multiple facilities that then feed into distribution centers?

Margo Waldie  23:11

Yeah, and it really depends on I guess, the scope of work in the commodity, too. So you’re looking at the, let’s say, a heavy commodity where you have to use rail. And so you’re looking at that intermodal piece, that rail piece to go into the DCS, but then you’re going to convert it to truck. So yeah, there’s so many restrictions to think about, too, as far as your products. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  23:33

yeah. Yeah, this is awesome. To get to this, think about some of the stuff that you guys are doing there a dart and the challenges that you get to solve. So what are does this go to that, let’s go to that, what are some of the some of the most interesting challenges that you you’ve been able to solve in the last couple of years.

Margo Waldie  23:55

So one of the first one that comes to mind is kind of what I mentioned earlier, is looking at the commodities coming out of manufacturing plants, and getting them to a DC. And one of these was a manufacturing plant that was also doing cold and dry goods. And so to combine the cold and dry and get it to the DC and time, and then out from that DC that we’re feeding out to their stores.

And so we didn’t do any of the transportation, but we did a lot of the labor behind that. And so that was really interesting as well, because when you’re looking at Cold Frozen storage versus dry goods, it’s completely different. It’s a completely different scope of work in our world, right? Because the people that are handling the materials, their experience is different. The equipment that they’re utilizing is different. So you have all of that into that mix. And so, like I said, that’s why you want to really go with a provider that has the experience with your commodity and that scope of work that you’re looking to fulfill?

Damon Pistulka  25:03

Yes, that’s an awesome example. Because it the complexity, like you said a lot, let that alone, if you’re moving the frozen, you certainly don’t want it to thaw. And and the dry goods, you probably don’t necessarily need them to be frozen. And there’s just a lot of things to consider in that.

Margo Waldie  25:24

And I think that with the team, too, so labor, right, we want to make all of our teammates feel special, and welcomed and really be able to fulfill what is it their passion in the industry. And so, you know, only certain people want to work in a frozen cold environment. Just like there’s only certain people that want to work in the dry environment, or people that are okay to lump trailers.

Throughout the day, you know, when we open up that container, you never know what you’re going to get. Yeah. So there’s a lot of moving parts in that sense. And so you really want to make your team feel valued. And, you know, really special because they are and they’re working very hard on these different scopes. So that’s another thing to think about. It’s just, I always go back to the labor aspect.

Damon Pistulka  26:10

Oh, no, no, no doubt. That is that is fundamental. Because if if people haven’t seen what it takes in terms of things coming off of a container, and the whole warehousing process and fulfillment process to get it to you. They should appreciate the people that put in a lot of work to get it there. Except that something. So it talked a little bit about passion. So what I mean you definitely like logistics. So you are you’re in in the Los Angeles area there. So we talked about you had you had a few dogs, so that yeah, that sounds like fun. So what kind of dogs you have.

Margo Waldie  26:51

So I have three dogs. I have a German Shepherd, a Bishan poodle and a Chihuahua. And then I also have two bunnies. Now Neverland, Dorf bunnies and one California desert tortoise. It’s a circus.

Damon Pistulka  27:05

No doubt, this just started the dogs because it’s like, German Shepherd, and then the Busan and then the Chihuahua. And then you said the bunnies and the turtle? Oh my goodness. Yeah, you’re busy.

Margo Waldie  27:19

It’s crazy. You know, I and I want a horse. I know. I’m not so yeah, hopefully in about five years. I’ll have my horse in the backyard. I hope my husband’s not watching. He’s gonna be like,

Damon Pistulka  27:29

yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, that’s cool. That’s cool. Yeah, so the Yeah, cuz that keeps you busy.

Margo Waldie  27:38

It does. And the three girls they keep me on my toes. I have my daughter turned nine yesterday. Oh, awesome. Yeah, happy birthday, Mexico. And then I have a seven year old and that I still call her my baby. She turns to on the 30th She was my Pandem 80.

Damon Pistulka  27:56

Wow. Awesome. Awesome. You You are in for the time of your life. You’re scaring me? No, no, it’s awesome. It’s awesome. I, I I absolutely cherish the time I had raising kids. My kids are in their 20s and late 20s. Now a lot younger, late 20s. And, and I want to tell you that you are in for some of the most incredible times in your life. Your kids, when they when they start to do things like band, or they decide they want to be in choir or play some sports or whatever the heck it is they want to do just reading books playing chess, it doesn’t matter. It’s just so much fun. And you’re right,

Margo Waldie  28:41

you’re right. I love the girls are into horseback riding and I love watching them. It’s amazing. I just damn it. I’m nervous about high school.

28:49

You should be you should be. You should be.

Damon Pistulka  28:54

That’s all I’ll tell you. Because, because it because when we went through and our daughter is 27 now, and it is it is as they say they come full circle. It’s like, it’s like you know, I still remember I told somebody this yesterday, it broke my heart when my son quit holding my hand walking across the street. I can remember when he was 12. And he said, Dad, you don’t need to hold my hand anymore. And I’m like, oh, oh, okay.

But their daughter, the whole high school thing and you get to that teenage years they kind of like go off on their own but then when when it’s like in their early 20s It kind of starts or in college and they get to this later years in college or that age and the 2020s 2223 they start to think about mom and dad might not be so dumb. So you made you made it from we’re complete idiot to now or like not so dumb.

So it’s it’s a it’s a it’s progress. It’s progress, right? And salutely And it’s great though It’s great though when you get a little bit older now I got a daughter I think when she turned 2425 It was like It was it’s just fun. We have fun now and it’s a lot different. But you you are in a very special time. And I’ve got friends with, with your kids that are similar ages. And I just it’s it’s so much fun. I’m just so happy for you to have that opportunity.

Margo Waldie  30:16

They are cute little nightmares they are it is I was telling someone they’re expecting. And I said it’s the best stage. They’re the cutest, but it’s not going to get better until they’re about four or five.

Damon Pistulka  30:27

Yeah, yeah. Yep. That’s good. Awesome. Awesome. So let’s get back to this a little bit more about supply chain, because I always like to let people learn a little bit more about the people that I’m talking to. And that was awesome. And yeah, I’m just happy for you. Giggling elaborate about that for the rest of the day? The. So when we look at the supply chain challenges coming coming to people now, what are some things that you go that you just say? This is the biggest thing that’s going to hit us in the next 12 months? Other than fuel costs? Everybody sees that, but that’s

Margo Waldie  31:08

labor. Yeah, labor, we need to plan for labor, we need to be understanding in regards to the environment that we’re currently in. Right now. Everyone is fighting for the same people.

Damon Pistulka  31:24

Yeah. Yeah. And then

Margo Waldie  31:29

go ahead start. Well, and it’s and it’s easy. So for providers to flex up 25%. You know, I mentioned forecasting, getting accurate forecasts. But it’s really difficult when you tell a provider that, you know, we’re bringing X amount of containers in, and then it’s, you know, 50% higher than Oh, yeah. And we see that we definitely see that. I mean, it goes, it’s the same on the other end. But so I think just having that understanding that right now labor is tight, and we have great partnerships, and we have the labor ready. But if we could get that accurate forecasting to plan labor, things would be perfect.

Damon Pistulka  32:09

Yeah, you’re right, because you know, the flexing up and flexing down is is painful. Because if you’re planning on 200 containers, and you get 45, you got a lot of people standing around. And conversely, on the other side, it doesn’t do anybody good, either. When you got 250 in your planner for 200?

Margo Waldie  32:26

Absolutely. And that was the second point. And poor labor management is definitely an issue that we see is core labor management.

Damon Pistulka  32:34

Well, yeah, in the warehouse, that’s that and warehousing operations, that has to be one of your largest cost.

Margo Waldie  32:43

It is, and it’s interesting when we like to tour potential customers, facilities and our customers facilities. And it’s been some times that you’ll see that there are improvements that could be made, and that you want to help make these improvements so that your customer can focus on their product and marketing that product.

Damon Pistulka  33:05

That’s a great point. And I thought about this before we got on, and I haven’t asked it yet. Because, you know, if I’m a manufacturer, and I’m doing my own warehousing, my warehousing is a much smaller overall portion of my cost structure and other things like that. Whereas you Dart there, you know, that’s what you do.

Do you see that? When, cuz I was thinking about this, right? I’m a big manufacturer, and I’m making stuff and my supply chain or just getting my product out the door. And on the trucks. It’s such a little part of the overall that I do, do you see that you’re a lot more efficient, because you have to be in your business to make money and be successful, compared to some of the manufacturers where it’s not their focus?

Margo Waldie  33:54

Absolutely, 110% Damon, and with all due respect, I mean, we want to be able to help, we want to utilize our expertise and our knowledge and really, you know, level up these supply chains where people need that help. You want to focus on your product, marketing your product selling your product supply chain. I think that the misconception of supply chain is that it’s easier, more simplistic than it really is. And there are more moving parts than people expect. And so they want that control. I’ve seen a couple things I’ve seen startups and midsize businesses, you know, come to me and say, you know, handle all their fulfillment, all of everything.

And they’re just not ready for it. I mean, they could handle it out of their garage, just like steaks. It’s not necessary. And then I see the startups midsize companies, they’re ready for a three peel provider but my mom does all the picking and packing. And my dad does all the labeling Margot, I don’t want to put my family out of a job. And you don’t have to because what happens at that point when you’re scaling, as you’re bringing in that technology, you’re bringing in that management for labor management, and now your mom and your dad, they’re managing the transportation at a higher level.

They’re not just sticking a label on a box. That’s, I mean, that sounds a lot easier than it is. But it’s going to be a higher level view. And so they’ll still be incorporated in the business. We’re not looking to cut heads. In fact, I think that when you look at the supply chain, and increasing profitability through that supply chain, you’re going to be able to add more people to your business. Yeah, we’re going to cut heads, yes, you can

Damon Pistulka  35:35

scale your business because you’re getting your product to your customers faster. And man, it’s the it’s going out the door better. And that helps you to make more business or more sales that will help you to increase the profitability, right. And you can, you can upscale or not upscale, but level up some of your people and give them advantage or opportunities that they may not have had.

That’s, that’s cool, because it is, it was something I was thinking about. Because you can then help your customers be better in their operations. So you can be more successful helping them exactly if they if they can’t get you this stuff like you want or inconsistently and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, there’s a million different things that could happen, then then it’s going to cost you more in your end to handle and do what you need to do.

Margo Waldie  36:23

Definitely. And that’s why you have to manage all these working parts. So you think about the raw materials, and then you think about the packaging, as well. And so all of that just kind of ties into the end product and getting it to your customer as fast as possible before the competition does. Yeah. I mean, you really would just want to be easy to do business with.

Damon Pistulka  36:45

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. Because that man, it just, it’s, it is so much more complex supply chain is so much more complex. It just it is it’s the complexity has gotten crazy with the amount of you know, that the you know, you can get you can be sourcing, I mean, we did a project and this a lot of years ago, we did a project where we were sourcing off of like four continents. And that was crazy in those days, because it was a

Margo Waldie  37:17

bit but demon people are not doing that enough now, right? Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, okay, so pre pandemic, yeah, 70% was coming out of China. And I have some counterparts, good friends in the industry that do freight forwarding, and a couple of them were laid off, because everything shut down. But behind you right before this, people were looking at Vietnam, Taiwan. And they were already starting to look at other places that they could manufacture.

And so they had a head start. And you could see that those are the companies that were really successful in this because they differentiated their manufacturing. After this, people are doing that now again. Now, many manufacturers are where geographically they’re placed. Definitely want to analyze that take a look at it to streamline. But I think it’s a good idea. You don’t always want to put all your eggs in one basket.

Damon Pistulka  38:10

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good point. Good point. So yeah, that’s awesome. The the thing that I think that I’ve learned today talking to you here is that you really need some good partners to look at this, because it’s not something you’re just going to wake up and know.

Margo Waldie  38:32

Finding someone that has experience and knowledge that can help walk you through this, in a basic way, will help you tremendously, I highly recommend it. I am here, as a free resource. People can contact me I can walk them through scenarios, I’d be more than happy to, you know, it’s it is really complicated. But it can be broken down into pieces that are understandable, so that you can really take that and move your supply chain to the next level. And like I said, for that 1,000th time, focus on that product and your customer.

Damon Pistulka  39:12

Yeah, yeah, do what you’re good at and have partners to help you do the other things that you need done that they’re good at.

Margo Waldie  39:20

Yeah, because I mean, if you’re looking at Think about your manufacturing, I don’t know if you look at units per hour units of measurement. I mean, these are things that we’re constantly looking at a daily basis, we look at slot slot and optimization, different things that we can do to really save money in the supply chain so that you can grow in other ways. So I would just suggest getting with a trusted advisor, whoever that may be even there’s some retired people out there and there’s some great people that are in the industry currently, but start this conversation so they’ll be helpful.

Damon Pistulka  39:55

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Margo, it’s it’s been great to talk to you today. Thanks so much for stopping by and just your the cargo Margaux show. If people can listen to that, you got to listen to it. It’s great, wonderful host, I will put that in there too. And and then the work that you’re doing to help people with their supply chain and you’re just improving the effectiveness and increasing the profitability in their supply chain is, is awesome, because it’s something that that, you know, manufacturers retailers, and anybody that’s moving products that have to go someplace else really need to be looking at.

Margo Waldie  40:34

Yeah, I agree. And I’m here connected to me, I’d love to help you out and give you some information and some resources. All right, so much, Damon,

Damon Pistulka  40:43

it’s awesome. It’s awesome to have you on finally and so on LinkedIn, you are Margo cargo. Margo Waldie if people didn’t know that, so that you can find her on LinkedIn, just want to make sure I get that out there will have dark entities and the other stuff in all the show notes here. And if anyone needs to, you can reach out to Margo, connect with her on LinkedIn. And if you can’t find her for some reason, reach out to me. And I just want to say thank you for being here. It was a pleasure. And we’ll have to have you back some time again, and we’ll figure out something else fun to talk about.

Margo Waldie  41:20

I love it. Thank you. Amazing. I appreciate it honored. Yeah, he’s so much You

Damon Pistulka  41:25

bet. Everyone else. Thanks so much for being here. We will be back again next week.