The Buzz: Why Supply Chain Planning Needs a Decision Intelligence Upgrade

Summary

Podcast Summary: Supply Chain Now – "The Buzz: Why Supply Chain Planning Needs a Decision Intelligence Upgrade"

Episode Date: June 26, 2026
Host: Scott Luton
Co-Host: Marty Parker
Guest: Thomas Beal, Founder/CEO of Perfect Planner & UGA Lecturer

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Episode Overview

This episode of "The Buzz" dives deep into how decision intelligence is transforming supply chain planning. Scott Luton, Marty Parker, and special guest Thomas Beal (Perfect Planner, UGA) break down current supply chain challenges, discuss industry news (chip shortages, tariff refunds, workforce shifts), and explore how AI and decision intelligence are shaping the future—from digitizing institutional knowledge to supporting the next generation of supply chain professionals.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Five Characteristics of Leading Supply Chain Organizations

[06:16]

• Referenced Research: Laura “Supply Chains to Admire 2026” identifies key traits of top-performing organizations:
  • Customer focus
  • Leadership alignment
  • Clear strategic direction
  • Balanced performance metrics
  • A culture of process innovation
• Quote:
  "If you're missing any one of those, your supply chain's not going to be successful and your team's not not going to be successful."
  — Marty Parker [06:48]
• Importance of value-driven alignment between supply chain, sales, and customer teams.

2. Technology’s True Role: Success, Failure, & The Human Factor

[07:55]

• Sometimes technology is credited for both success and failure, but root causes often lie elsewhere.
• Quote:
  "Tech gets the credit, tech gets the blame. When I stop thinking about that, I think he's right."
  — Scott Luton referencing John W. Hansen [08:13]
• Marty Parker: Technology projects typically fail due to leadership, not technical issues [08:36].

3. News Roundup: Global Supply Chain Developments

a) Memory Chip Shortage & Price Surge

[18:34]

• Memory/storage chip prices have quadrupled; AI and consumer demand squeezing supply.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook: These price swings are like a "hundred year flood." iPhones, PCs to cost much more.
• Quote:
  "The memory isn't just suddenly scarce because people are buying more phones. The economics of AI are pulling more of that memory capacity towards data center standards."
  — Thomas Beal [20:15]
• Inflation Impact: Manufacturers may have no choice but to raise prices; cost pressures are eroding margins (Marty Parker [21:04]).

b) Retailers Use Tariff Refunds to Lower Prices

[24:58]

• BJ’s, Walmart, Elf Beauty using expected tariff refunds to cut prices and boost value.
• Quote:
  "It's a really interesting case where supply chain savings are being used as a commercial weapon...right now consumers are still highly price sensitive."
  — Thomas Beal [24:19]
• Marty Parker's Take: Tariffs are a net-negative, functionally a consumer tax that’s hard to actually recoup [24:59].

c) Supply Chain Labor & Skills Shortages

[27:59]

• 31% increase in demand for supply chain talent (2026); 387% surge in jobs requiring AI skills; 2M global manufacturing worker shortfall projected by 2033.
• 41% of U.S. construction workers to retire by 2031, impacting logistics and infrastructure.
• Quote:
  "We keep talking about labor shortages as if this is just purely a hiring problem. I don't think it is. I think it's also a work design problem."
  — Thomas Beal [28:07]
• Skills mismatch: Companies buy new tech but train for legacy operations.

4. The Democratization of Expertise via AI

[34:58, 36:32]

• Case from Laser Logistics: “Uncle Phil AI” clones decades of human operational knowledge, making it accessible at scale.
• Quote:
  "One of the most powerful future applications of AI is helping us scale this expertise — taking this process knowledge and making it available to the entire organization."
  — Thomas Beal [36:32]
• Yard/logistics digitization lags decades behind other supply chain nodes; AI will change that.

5. Decision Intelligence: The Supply Chain’s Next Leap

[41:03]

• Visibility is no longer the main barrier; knowing what to pay attention to and what to do next is.
• "Decision intelligence" serves as connective tissue between fragmented IT systems and real-world execution.
• Quote:
  "Most analysts spend 75% of their day on administrative analytic work...If we were able to strip out that waste and give them better decision intelligence, direct them in what they need to do and the actions they need to take...a lot of these downstream problems would be resolved."
  — Thomas Beal [43:31]

6. The Persistence of Spreadsheets & The Need for Better Tools

[51:49]

• Despite billions on ERP systems, most planners live in spreadsheets that patch gaps between systems and processes.
• Quote:
  "Spreadsheets are filling a gap...I don't think they're the disease...they’re a symptom of the system."
  — Thomas Beal [51:49]
• Need for integrated, AI-enabled layers on top of legacy systems.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Comedy, Leadership, and Being Present

• Marty Parker:
  "We had a saying, Parkers persevere...but you know what I really learned in leadership, Scott? It was being present. Be in the moment. Don't be worrying about the past, don't be worrying about the future." [10:57]

On Decision Paralysis in Planning

• Marty Parker:
  "Not making a decision is a decision. So many companies just keep discussing the same things again and again. There's too much data, not enough wisdom." [45:27]

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Future Outlook: Planning Organizations & Professional Education

What Will Supply Chain Planning Organizations Look Like in 2031?

[53:31–54:10]

• Thomas Beal:
  • Admin/analytics will be automated.
  • Planners will shift from data wranglers to decision makers who use insights for strategic value.
• Marty Parker:
  • Integration is the “holy grail”: CRM, ERP, all supply chain silos unified by AI-driven intelligence.

Education’s Shift From Knowledge to Capability

[56:11–58:12]

• Future of education is “capability transfer”—students learn by doing, not just learning theory.
• Real company data and real-world problem solving are becoming the classroom standard.
• Application of tools (AI, robotics, automation) is critical for "now generation" supply chain talent.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:20 — Episode start; show framework and logistics
• 05:26 — Five characteristics of top supply chain organizations
• 08:00 — Technology gets credit/blame, but people/process are key
• 18:34 — Memory chip price surge and AI's role in supply crunch
• 24:58 — Tariff refunds and retail pricing strategies
• 27:59 — Labor and skills shortages in supply chain
• 34:58 — The need for decision intelligence; APL Logistics perspective
• 36:32 — Democratization of expertise (Uncle Phil AI at Laser Logistics)
• 41:03 — Decision intelligence as connective tissue
• 43:31 — Biggest planning challenges and the case for DI
• 51:49 — Why spreadsheets persist (and why that needs to change)
• 53:31 — The 2031 planning organization: predictions
• 56:11 — Professional education and capability transfer
• 58:12 — Closing thanks, contact info

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Links & Resources Mentioned

• Supply Chains to Admire 2026
• Supply Chain Dive
• Perfect Planner
• APL Logistics
• [Business Insider Yard AI Feature](link dropped in chat)
• [Logistics Viewpoints: Decision Intelligence](link dropped in chat)

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Speaker Contacts

• Thomas Beal — LinkedIn | Perfect Planner
• Marty Parker — LinkedIn
• Scott Luton — Host, Supply Chain Now

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Takeaways

• Supply chain planning is amidst a revolution driven by AI and decision intelligence.
• Integrating knowledge, automating analytics, and applying capability-based education are key to future success.
• Organizations must redesign work (not just tools) to address labor and expertise shortages.
• The supply chain professional of tomorrow will be an integrator, decision-maker, and strategic value creator.

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For more on this and similar episodes, visit Supply Chain Now.

Transcript

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Curious about the latest trends in the world of freight dive into our exclusive coverage of the U.S. bank Freight Payment Index and U.S. bank's new quarterly rates Edition. In partnership with DAT Freight and Analytics, the index provides deep national and regional insights. The Rates Edition provides a unique marketplace view of freight rates. Visit freight.usbank.com to explore these quarterly reports and sign up for updates. For a dynamic take on this information and to learn what's happening now in the business world, subscribe to Supply chain now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Scott Luton]

welcome to supply chain now the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Luton and soon to be Marty Parker here with you on Supply Chain now. Welcome to today's live stream. Hey Marty, you had to knock something out real quick, huh?

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, apparently. I am so glad to be back, man. It's been a while.

[Scott Luton]

Well, that and you've been traveling the world which we're going to work in at some point through the conversation. I'm so jealous. What was one of the most beautiful places you you went to, Marty?

[Marty Parker]

Mijas? Spain. It's a small town in southern Spain and beautiful, spectacular. And it was small enough to sort of see it all.

[Scott Luton]

Oh man. Okay. We're going to dive more into all of that and really a lot more, folks, because today it's the Buzz where Every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time we discuss a variety of news and developments across global supply chain and global business News that matters is what we like to call it. And folks, the Buzz is powered by our friends at APL Logistics all month long in June. And if you don't know, if you're the three people out there don't know, APL Logistics is a global supply chain logistics provider specializing in order management solutions. They operate from 180 locations across 93 countries. And to learn more, visit apologistics.com okay, so Marty, big show here today. We're going to be talking about some of the leading performers in industry and what they have in common. We're going to take another look at the growing supply crunch. I guess it's a supply chain crunch too in the memory chip world. Hey, what are some retailers doing with those tariff refunds? We're going to find out. Plus we're going to discuss the power of the democratization of expertise. All that and more. And as if all that isn't enough, in about 15 minutes or so we're bringing in a very special guest, Thomas Beal with Perfect Planner. And UGA is going to be a great conversation. So Marty, are you ready to go today on this big jam up edition of the Buzz?

[Marty Parker]

Let's do it. Really excited.

[Scott Luton]

We are too. So folks, buckle up for a lot to come here on the Buzz. Powered by APL Logistics right here today. And Patricia's out there. Happy buzz day. Say hello. Let us know where you're watching from. Do that. Folks, we like to connect the dots on this big, beautiful world that we're in. And she's already dropped a link to our friends at APL Logistics, so check that out. All right, so Marty, before Thomas joins us, we got three things to work through. And the first one is going to be our latest edition of with that Said, which published over the weekend. And we led off by sharing an interview with Lars Siri, the one and only Lars of Siri who is publishing her supply chains to admire 2026 this week. Now, the research has gone on about 15 years or so. There's lots of nuggets, but according to Laura, get this morning. According to Laura, the leading organizations that she's again researched consistently over the years where they demonstrate five key characteristics. So I'm gonna write these off. Customer focus, leadership alignment, clear strategic direction, balanced performance metrics, and a culture of process innovation. So, so check out Laura's perspective along with a bevy of tools and resources and some terrific live shows. I think for the second week in a row, we have a live show every day this week, man, it's a lot of work. So give it all a read. Let us know what you think. So, Marty, did you get a chance to check out with that said?

[Marty Parker]

I did. And I told you before, I thought it was one of the best. With that saids that I've read. I talk extensively about how strategy determines supply chain strategy. You have to know that. And I love seeing research that supports the five things you mentioned. And if you're miss if you're missing any one of those, your, your supply chain's not going to be successful and your team's not not going to be successful.

[Scott Luton]

I like how you said that, Marty. And and also check this out. I got two more things on this first one if that makes any sense. Check this out though. Her quote, I would like to help spark a different conversation to help supply chain leaders drive value and sidestep the stupidity of existing conversations. End quote. Hey, Laura tells it like it is, Marty, am I right?

[Marty Parker]

Absolutely. And, and she was talking about reducing cost. Right? It's all about reducing cost and value. You know, value when a customer actually pays you for something and the supply chain teams that align with their sales teams align with their marketing teams align with their customer are creating that value. And I thought it was an amazing article.

[Scott Luton]

Same, same. So folks, last things Here, number one, I want to share. So we always get a bunch of different comments own our newsletters, right? And John W. Hansen really brought it here. And folks, y' all can go check out the link and you can, you can chime in and agree, disagree, you name it. But I'm gonna scroll all the way down to John's final comment because he points out a trend that he's tracked for over the past 27 years. Quote, Technology is often credited for success and blamed for failure when the determining variables are frequently found elsewhere in the operating environment. In quote Marty, hey, tech gets the credit, tech gets the blame. When I stop thinking about that, I think he's right. Huh?

[Marty Parker]

No, absolutely. I talk about how I've never seen a technology project fail. Technological reasons, it's always leadership reasons. And so, you know, we've really got to focus on root cause and it's not the technology itself. And it's, it's ridiculous to blame the technology.

[Scott Luton]

I'm with you. I am with you. All right, so folks, go check out. With that said, it's, hey, it got Marty Parker's, the Marty Parker's rubber stamp of approval. So you know, it's good stuff. Trisha's drop link right there. So go check that out. And hey, Adam. Adam, terrific to see you. Fellow Atlanta based dynamo. He says happy buzz day. Enjoying the podcast from Johns Creek, Georgia. And Marty, I think you know Adam, he's done big things with the ASM Atlanta chapter, amongst other things. Have you ever, you, you've spoken.

[Marty Parker]

No, I know Adam extremely well. He comes to our supply chain advisory board meetings and gosh, I don't even know how many years. It's five, six years I've known Adam well and he is a super nice guy, super good looking guy too. I mean, you know, I, he's probably gonna kill me after that comment, but

[Scott Luton]

he always see what he says.

[Marty Parker]

He dresses so impeccably at our meetings. I'm always so impressed.

[Scott Luton]

Same, same. I saw him and, and really the gang at Modex now what a great, great entry bit that was. All right, so one last note, folks on supply chains to admire. We've got a jam up live show tomorrow. That's Tuesday, June 23rd at 12 noon Eastern Time. Laura and friends are going to unpack all the research. There's 33 companies she's identified her and a team have identified as being the top real performers based on the data. And we're also going to talk about a terrific dynamic benchmarking opportunity. So come join us and bring Your perspective, whether you agree or disagree. All right, so Marty, let's see here. Two more things to talk about before we bring on the Thomas Beal. Let's see here. I got a great image here. I love this. Because, folks, we got our own Dave Chappelle right here with us today, right? And we're going to talk about something that I don't think we've ever talked about on the buzz, and that's stand up comedy. So I bet you didn't know this or you may, you may have known this. Marty Parker gave a well received standup show about a month or two ago. So Marty, two questions for you. Number one, how'd it go? Number two, what did it teach you about business or leadership or anything like that?

[Marty Parker]

Well, it went extremely well. And you can ask Thomas his impression of it. And a lot of folks were shocked that I did a, about a 30 to 40 minute set. You know, having never done this before. What did I learn? We had a saying, Parker's persevere. And my wife says you can do hard things. And this was a bucket list item for me. And Ross Kimball from jury duty. And he's also in the new live action Scooby Doo put me through sort of a comedy boot camp. But you know what he really taught me in leadership, Scott? It was being present. Be in the moment. Don't be worrying about the past, don't be worrying about the future. And so to me, some of the best parts of the show were where folks were making comments or the audience got involved. And I wasn't thinking about what I was going to say next. I was actually right there. And Ross, who I hope to have on the show with you again as another person one day teaches that his business is called Show Up Better. And he teaches salespeople how to be in the present moment. And I, and, and I learned that in, in, you know, doing this bucket list activity. And I, I'm not going to lie, it was hard, but it was, it was fantastic. I just loved every minute of it.

[Scott Luton]

Well, hope you didn't have too many hecklers. But I know since Parkers do persevere, I know you could tackle each and every one of those hecklers. And hey, for whatever it's worth, I've had no less than five people come up to me and say, hey, I know Marty Parker is on your show at Supply chain now. He is so funny. So Marty, I'm telling you, you never know you're gonna have your own special Netflix soon. But all kidding aside, really appreciate the Leadership, really the human lessons that this really challenging experiment brought you. And I look forward to your next time on the stage.

[Marty Parker]

Well, and I'm going to bring it into the classroom, Scott. I'm not sure how UGA will feel about that, but I've been experimenting with it at the beginning of class and I think it really engages the students.

[Scott Luton]

I like it. I like it. Okay, so folks, let's see here. Tricia has dropped, going back to the great live show we got coming up tomorrow, right, Supply chains to admire 2026 and and Lar Ceri live. You don't want to miss Marty Parker live. You don't want to miss Lar Live. So check that out. Adam says, hey, thank you, Marty and Scott. So he likes your kind comments there, Francis. Hello, everybody. It's buzzday Health Logistics watching from Nairobi, Kenya. Well, Francis, great to have you here on LinkedIn. Looking forward to your take here today on things we talk about. All right, so we're about to bring in Thomas Beal, but I got one more thing I want to share with folks. Folks, you know I am that supply chain nerd that loves a good case study. And this one here from our friends at Easypost features a recommerce marketplace that ships over 25,000 packages a day. Working with Easypost, get this, they've saved over $2 million and have had 273,000 fewer late deliveries. And get this, it didn't require new carriers or renegotiated contracts. Not even any new headcount was added to the organization. You'll learn more via the link that Tricia has just dropped right there in the chat. All right, so Marty, thanks to you, we've got a great guest joining us here today on the Buzz, powered by APL Logistics. So get this, folks. Thomas Beal brings over 17 years of industry experience to the table, having reshaped operational landscapes. And he spearheaded strategic initiatives to revolutionize efficiency, drive down costs, and amplify profitability. Man, he's like the supply chain whisperer. A certified lean Six Sigma master, black belt and transformation architect, Thomas is distinguished for leading digital transformation teams and initiatives, fostering innovation and orchestrating profound supply chain enhancements across Fortune 500 companies such as Molly Honeywell and Whirlpool. Now, our guest serves as lecturer with the management faculty at the Terry College of Business. And he's an instructor in UGA's Terry Executive Education Department. But he's also the founder and CEO of Perfect Planner. So please join me in welcoming Thomas Beal.

[Marty Parker]

Hey.

[Scott Luton]

Hey, Thomas. How you doing?

[Thomas Beal]

Good. How are you, Scott?

[Scott Luton]

Wonderful. Great to see you. So I gotta. I gotta ask you, Thomas. We were talking about Marty's standup, or should I say Dave Chappelle stand up a month or two ago. You were there in person. How'd he do?

[Thomas Beal]

I thought he did a really great job. You could definitely tell right away all the preparation he put into it. And his Elvis impersonations were next level. Oh.

[Scott Luton]

Oh, Marty. Okay, we got. We got stand up coming to supply chain now soon.

[Marty Parker]

And I sang Elvis Acapulco. He did Acapella. And I looked a little bit like Liza Minnelli and Elvis together. If you could imagine.

[Scott Luton]

I'm trying to. I'm trying to. All right, so here's the official fun warm up question. Thomas and Marty. So we got a lot to celebrate today. It is today. June 22 is National Onion Ring Day. It's National Limoncello Day. And we're celebrating all those wonderful professionals that keep us cool because it's National H Vac Tech Day. So shout out to the one and only Mr. Chris Feather and his sons Luke and Matthew, out in my neck of the woods. So it sounds like a great day at the office. You know, onion rings, adult beverages, and lots of cool temps. I'll take it. So, Thomas, which one are you going to be celebrating the most here today?

[Thomas Beal]

You know, as much as I love lemons and lemonade, I think I'm gonna have to go with H Vac Day.

[Scott Luton]

I'm with you. I'm with you. And what's your tent? What's your AC set at usually?

[Thomas Beal]

Like 71 during the day, 70 at night.

[Scott Luton]

Okay. All right, man, Marty, he like. He does like it. Cool. What are you celebrating the most, Marty?

[Marty Parker]

Definitely Limoncello Day. Because when I was in Spain, took a tour of the largest Limoncello plant, had lemons about the size of my head, and they grind them up. You'll see a post from me, Scott. I've got some pictures, some videos. I'm. I'm excited about the post. Manufacturing is an important part of supply chain. And manufacturing booze is top of the list.

[Scott Luton]

Hey, it's how we cope with all the Braves losses and my Clemson Tiger losses. Come on. Kidding aside. Kidding, kidding, kidding. All right, really quick. Hey, the Doc Hollywood of Global Supply Chain is here. Fred Tolbert. The Fred Tolbert folks. He says Marty Parker and Thomas Beal, UGA supply chain royalty. Well, Fred, it's been way too long. Great to see you here today.

[Marty Parker]

Right back at you, Fred. Fred, some royalty himself. He. He Just a comment about Fred he is the most active member of our Supply Chain Advisory Board and he teaches something like five students every semester as part of his group every two weeks puts them in front of top supply chain leaders. Fred is just incredible.

[Scott Luton]

All right Fred, come on back. We gotta get you on the upcoming edition of the buzz. We gotta catch up.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Curious about the latest trends in the world of freight dive into our exclusive coverage of the U.S. bank Freight Payment Index and U.S. bank's new quarterly Rates Edition. In partnership with DAT Freight and Analytics, the Index provides deep national and regional insights. The Rates Edition provides a unique marketplace view of freight rates. Visit freight.usbank.com to explore these quarterly reports and sign up for updates. For a dynamic take on this information and to learn what's happening now in the business world, subscribe to Supply chain now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Scott Luton]

All right, so Marty and Thomas, speaking of things we got to do, we got a lot to get to here today. So I want to go ahead and dive into some news stories here on the Buzz, powered by our friends at APL Logistics. And we're going to start with this interesting story that probably going to impact all of us. I imagine. We're going to take a look at what's taking place in the memory chip sector. The Wall Street Journal reports that prices for memory and storage chips have quadrupled since 2025 and analysts project prices that continue to increase moving into 2027. Now smartphones in particular use two common forms of memory and this is really putting it simply for the sake of brevity folks. Dram which runs apps and NAND or NAND whatever folks call that to store photos and videos amongst other things. Now Apple CEO Tim Cook said price increases on their devices are unavoidable due to memory market conditions. Cook referenced his decades of time in electronic supply chain over 40 years I think and said these price swings are like a hundred year flood. He's never seen it A research firm Tech Insights and you can see the price journey as well as the estimates there on the on the screen research firm Tech Insights estimates get this $270 will be added on average to the next iPhone Pro model Morgan Stanley estimates that about there's going to be about a 15% increase on smartphones and PCs in the US this year alone. More factories are coming online and production capacity is expected to grow some 30% by 2027 for DRAM wafers in particular. But that as you can tell with those estimates there is still going to be expected to fall short of man. So, Thomas, that's not some of the good news I like to open with, but your thoughts there, my friend?

[Thomas Beal]

You know, when I was reading that story and then there was a couple other, you know, stories and articles I had read, you know, what's fascinating is that this really isn't just a consumer electronics story. You know, it's an AI infrastructure story because the memory isn't just suddenly scarce because people are buying more phones. You know, I think it's really scarce from what I've read, because the economics of AI are pulling more, you know, that memory capacity towards data center standards. And so what you're finding is that, you know, these consumer electronics companies used to not have to compete with AI buildouts and now they do. And so what you're finding is that memory's always for at least for the past, you know, 10, 15 years, been somewhat constrained and now it's extremely constrained.

[Scott Luton]

Yeah, it's gotten a lot worse. Good stuff there, Thomas. Marty, your thoughts?

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, it's interesting. Andy Grove from Intel said only the paranoid survive. And intel and AMD before Nvidia used to battle around chips. And it was, if you look at the case studies, it was about commodity. And so now with the shortage, just like with oil, we saw the same thing. Prices are going to go up. And we're seeing it in the inflation numbers. We, you, you know, you're going to talk about an example, Scott. It's affecting all of us. I think it just ticked to 4.2, 4.3% inflation, you know, and I lived through much higher inflation back during the Civil War when I was a kid. But, but it is. Inflation is hard for everybody. But if you look at it from a company perspective, companies have to raise prices, their margins erode, they get destroyed. They, they can only cost save to a certain point when their material costs are going up, like Apple is saying.

[Scott Luton]

So as both of y' all speak to, there's a variety of factors fueling this, right? Beyond are got to have it and got to have the newest one today, the demand, right? And then of course, data centers are competing for so many different things, but especially technology inputs. And then as, as Marty mentioned, my least favorite, and I'm not economist as y' all can tell, but my, my least favorite economic trend here this year has been the inflation. It's every time I step into a grocery store, which we're gonna touch on in a second, I see it slapped me in the face. But hey, nevertheless, there is good news. If we go looking for it. But it'll be interesting to see how this electronics, some of these electronics trends and pricing trends continue to unfold, folks. But that's just me and Thomas and Marty's take. Trish has dropped the full article right there in the chat. Go give it a go, give it a read and let us know what you think. All right, so here's some we just talked about prices going up. Here's some good news about some prices going back down. So, Marty and Thomas, I'm breaking records here because I haven't said the word tariff in like 72 hours. But that aside, supply chain dive reports on what several retailers are doing with expected tariff refunds. BJ's Wholesale Club, which this article mainly focuses on, has already received tariff refunds and has used them to help reduce overall retail prices by around half a percentage point, trying to gain pricing ground on its key competitors. Quick aside, I'm Costco for life, BJ for life. But following in BJ's footsteps, Walmart is planning to use a big chunk of its expected $2.4 billion in tariff rebates to reduce prices, as is now this company's new one for me. Y' all might know it, Elf Beauty or Elf Beauty, I'm not sure how it's pronounced, is projecting a $58.5 million refund check. They're going to lower prices with that, amongst other things. We were saying a minute ago, Marty and Thomas, we're talking about inflation. Well, folks, I'm a loyal Kroger shopper. We're in there five times a week where we live. I love the company, but yesterday as I was in that store, I saw a can of cream of chicken soup and it was $2 and 99 cents. Oh my gosh. Mr. Craig Foran and Kroger team, hope you are going to follow suit and lower those prices. Thomas, your thoughts on what BJ's and others are doing here?

[Thomas Beal]

The Scott, when you sent over that article on Friday, I read it last night and I was surprised, you know, but I think it's a really interesting case where supply chain savings are being used as a commercial weapon, like that strategic pricing lever. So instead of simply just taking that refund below the line, you know, what BJ's is doing is that they're going to reinforce that value perception with their customers. And so I think that that's a really smart move because right now consumers are still highly price sensitive, kind of like what you're talking about going into Kroger. And so yeah, I Applaud them. Yep.

[Scott Luton]

I think that's a great point. And it serves, it delivers value on a variety of levels. Marty, what you think so?

[Marty Parker]

I've said it many times. I'm not a fan of tariffs for a bunch of reasons. It's a price increase on consumers. It doesn't help with competition. And keep in mind we've already paid this, so it's not really a price cut. And we paid it, we paid it at a lower inflation level like two years ago. So the net present value for us, I don't care how much money they give us back, we are out of pocket by the 25%, 35%, 40%, 110%, whatever percent. You know, it changed every day during that. And frankly, I'm glad they're illegal. I think they're terrible for US Economy. I think they're terrible for supply chain and terrible for the US Economy, so. World economy. I'm sorry. So, you know, I'm, I'm pretty clear in how I feel about them and the impact that they've had on all of us.

[Scott Luton]

Reach, you and the Supreme Court are in the same camp and largely I am, too, I think. You know, and we've, we've had this discussion numerous times, Marty. I think we really, and this is just my take, folks, I think we missed a terrific opportunity to be very surgical with how we apply vehicles and measures like tariffs to work on very specific products or relationships instead of kind of what Marty's talking about, where you want a tariff, you want to, I mean, everything got a tariff. And I don't, I personally, I don't think that's, that is sound policy. But it's just my take, folks. You may, you may feel different. Thomas, I'm not even going to put you on the spot with trade policy unless you want to weigh in. And you can also say, I'm good, thanks, we'll move along.

[Thomas Beal]

I'm good right now.

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, that's what I should have said.

[Scott Luton]

Yeah, this is good. Folks. Trisha is dropping a link, as she always does, to that great Supply Chain Dive article. Folks, if Supply Chain Dive is not on your reading list, that and, and really all the dive publications, you got to add it and do great stuff. All right, I'll pop this up here. Recently, I shared some data nuggets on the supply chain workforce and then some last week on LinkedIn. And I let off with this factoid here that may or may not surprise you. So Talent Traction says that We've seen a 31% year over year increase in demand for supply chain talent in 2026. Now if that's true, of course it comes on top of the talent deficit we had coming into the year. It's only got bigger. Other things we shared on the same post here is Gartner says that demand for supply chain jobs requiring AI skills, well that's increased 387% since Q1 2023. Lloyd Research shows that globally we're going to be short just shy of 2 million manufacturing workers by 2033. And here's an interesting workforce data point that my, I bet is not on a lot of folks radar. It's just my, my prediction here, I could be wrong but a lot of folks aren't tracking this. Reuters reports that 41% of construction workers, that's right, 41% are expected to retire by 2031. Of course that's going to worsen shortages and build out such as logistics facilities, manufacturing plants, those data centers that folks have all kinds of opinions on. Where are we going to find all those people? So Thomas, your thought on that or any of these data points, my friend?

[Thomas Beal]

Well, you know, I really have two thoughts. So I saw that post, Scott, and I thought it was fantastic. The first one I'll touch on is the labor shortage problem. And really what I, what jumps out at me is that we keep talking about labor shortages, you know, as if this is just purely a hiring problem. And I don't think it is. I think it's also a work design problem, you know. So if gartner's right about AI skill demand and supply chain being up almost 400% and that half of all the new warehouses being built by 2030 are going to be robot, robot centric, then the real issue isn't just do we have enough people. I think it's really focused on are we redesigning jobs and workflows for a very different operating model. So the problem to me that really stands out is that I feel like, and I would have to prove this with data, but companies are still training people for the old style of work while buying technology for the new work.

[Scott Luton]

Thomas, I'd love to see that data too, but my gut tells me you're absolutely right.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Right.

[Scott Luton]

We're still, we're talking out both sides our mouth.

[Thomas Beal]

Right.

[Scott Luton]

We're leading digital transformations but we're still acting like it's 1982 in some aspects of our operation. Marty, your thoughts on these workforce nuggets?

[Marty Parker]

Well, it's great for my kids and Thomas and I, along with the illustrious Fred tolbert are working on the supply side of this equation. Fred has been after us for many years to make our supply chain program a full supply chain degree, which we're going to do very soon. And that's going to add, you know, folks coming into it and wanting to grow into that career, which is, as we all know, a fantastic career. They have, the students have great starting salaries and they have huge long term prospects in the company. They can move into all kinds of different areas in the supply chain and even outside of the supply chain as they do that. So to me, and there's opportunity, right. Because AI has been killing computer science jobs as an example. And a lot of those students will start pivoting over to our side of the world.

[Scott Luton]

Love it. Well, two thoughts both Yalls comments. Number one, hey, kudos to what you both and Fred and really everyone at the University of Georgia is doing and not just from a supply chain standpoint, but really in, in business and leadership education. So folks, make sure UGA is on your radar. And then secondly, Thomas had mentioned operating models. Right. And folks, you're going to hear a lot more about that phrase. It's going to be maybe the ecosystem. And when ecosystem hit the scene, it hit everybody's conversations. Well, I would argue these, these operating models is going to be very similar. And if you listen or watch the buzz regularly, you know, a few weeks ago we pointed to research that shows, and don't hold me to this if I get it wrong a little bit, but basically a survey of hundreds of supply chain leaders. Last year they said like 14% were reinventing their operating model to this year like over 72%. Thomas and Marty. So hopefully that will mean, you know, Thomas, going back to your point that we are going to be redesigning roles while we redesign the operating models. But there's no guarantees. We shall see, won't we? Thomas and Marty, Go ahead, Thomas, go ahead. You're going to add something.

[Thomas Beal]

You know, when I was looking at the 41% of construction workers, they're going to be retiring and we've got to do something about this. And I know the technology is, you know, a big appeal for a lot of executives, but I think also the statistics that that stuck with me was that there's a big gap between executive confidence and then the actual workforce capability. Yep. So, you know, you have all these companies out there saying we're ready for AI. And what I think that really means is we bought some technology.

[Scott Luton]

Yes.

[Thomas Beal]

And so that's very different from having your employees and your workforce ready to work in an AI enabled employees environment.

[Scott Luton]

Well said Thomas. And you know we're all, we're already feeling that in an adjacent area. I think folks, have you ever tried to find a plumber or an H vac, a reliable H Vac or you know, other more services related. It's tough to find what, you know, we're trying to get our fireplace cleaned one winter. Thomas and Marty getting ready for like, you know, weekend fires and stuff. It took me months to get on the calendar for folks like that. And that's why, that's why I appreciate the folks like Chris Feather out there. But Marty, you were about to comment, I think what we heard there from Thomas for you move on.

[Marty Parker]

I would add too that it's dynamic. And what I mean by that is you can build buildings and houses in a factory. Now Germany has been building because of these labor shortages, has been building homes for probably 20 years. 20% of their residential construction is done in a factory using robots. So it's absolutely dynamic. And we saw everybody went into computer science degrees because they were encouraged to do so and now the jobs aren't there. There'll be a similar thing in supply chain. Frankly. We'll have a flood of students going into it and it'll, you know, it's a pendulum. It'll, it'll go back and forth because people will automate things as they need to. They have to to stay in business.

[Scott Luton]

That's right. Well said Thomas and Marty. Okay, we got a whole bunch more to get into. But really first I want to share this message from our friends at APL Logistics. Folks, you know the biggest supply chain problem isn't always visibility. We're solving that problem over the last decade or two. It can be though the gap between the plan and what the network can really deliver. Execution gap is the space between a supply chain plan and its actual financial outcome. Is what happens when a carefully built strategy for inventory, transportation and distribution, they all fail to produce the margin working capital or service level results it was designed to deliver. That's where APL Logistics steps up. Apologistics helps customers close the gap between what the plan says and how operations can actually deliver. Because insight matters, execution moves the business. Hey, check. Click on the link to learn how APL Logistics can help you build a resilient supply chain that sticks to the plan. And Tricia's dropping that link. Right.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Curious about the latest trends in the world of freight dive into our exclusive coverage of the U.S. bank Freight Payment Index and U.S. bank's new quarterly rates edition. In partnership with DAT Freight and Analytics, the index provides deep national and regional insights. The Rates Edition provides a unique marketplace view of freight rates. Visit Freight usbank.com to explore these quarterly reports and sign up for updates. For a dynamic take on this information and to learn what's happening now in the business world, subscribe to Supply chain now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast

[Marty Parker]

there.

[Scott Luton]

All right, so Thomas, get ready Was Me and Marty are going to dive into the Thomas Beal chapter here on the buzz for June 22nd. Gosh, can't believe we're almost in July. So Thomas and Marty, I want to start by talking about this notion of the the democratization. I knew that word was going to get me eventually. The democratization of expertise. AI is delivering that, amongst other things. This article from Business Insider offers up an interesting use case and features some friends of the show too. It's focused on a yard logistics company named Laser Logistics, right? Who some might say is attempting to take your company's best manager and clone them. Company's Uncle Phil AI is attempting to take institutional knowledge inside the heads of humans and make it accessible across the organization. In this case the name Uncle Phil what comes from the industry guru Phil Newsom, who is Laser Logistics coo, right? They want to take what Phil knows and he's a he's accumulated over some four decades and share it with 750 sites. Our friend Bart Demonk is quoted an article, he says that the yard is one of the last parts in the supply chain world to get a technological upgrade, unlike warehouses and factory floors. He says, quote, we have very clear KPIs in the warehouse. We have very clear KPIs on transportation. No one has a KPI on the yard, end quote. So we may all have more Uncle Phil or Aunt Sally or Cousin Toya AI's in our future. We'll see. Thomas, your thoughts here, my friend?

[Thomas Beal]

I love this article. I think to me one of the most powerful future applications of AI is helping us scale this expertise. You know, taking this process knowledge and making it available to the entire organization or industry, however we want to do that. And you know, I see this as the competitive advantage of the future. You know, when I think about what hurts the most, it's when our best analyst walks out the door or our best leader walks out the door and they have all this process knowledge and expertise and they were pretty much the only one who really understood every facet of a function or a process. And so, you know, the future in my opinion is these organizations need to find a way to capture and digitize that process knowledge. You know, it'll be game changing.

[Scott Luton]

I largely agree. Marty, do you always. Are all your friends disagreeable like Thomas Beal?

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, Thomas is agreeable and super smart and super nice.

[Scott Luton]

Yes, I agree. Your thoughts?

[Marty Parker]

So, a couple thoughts we're going to talk later about how planning, especially in manufacturing, I've been into several companies where if their planner got hit by a car, they're bankrupt. Literally every bit of planning is in their head as they're trying to put together, you know, 25, 30 different reports in their ERP. And so like Thomas, I agree. If we could get that institutional knowledge automated in some way, it's awesome. But I think the most important thing would be to clone Max Headroom Scott Lewton for a podcast. And, And I think St. Thomas, I think St. Thomas and Max Headroom Luton would be two of my favorite bots. Uncle Marty, I think that's scary, right? But, but you guys, I would love to have bots of you two guys.

[Scott Luton]

You know, they could probably do it better and they definitely would pronunciate things better. Their jokes would be funnier. Marty, I can see it now. I can see it now. Work to that. We'll work on that in the skunk labs. But Marty, I tend to agree with you and Thomas here and it really is fascinating. And you know, I also agree with, with Bart's take, you know, the yard, as it were. It really has been maybe arguably one of the last vestiges of you not having as much techno technological innovation applied to it. But that is changing. So folks, check out this great read in Business Insider.

[Marty Parker]

And one other quick comment. I had a student doing an internship out in a yard and there were like 200 trailers full of stuff. And the way they kept track of it was with sticky notes and pieces of paper. And it, it had literally millions of dollars in inventory sitting out in the yard. And the big technological upgrade was to

[Scott Luton]

move it to a spreadsheet.

[Marty Parker]

So.

[Scott Luton]

Oh my gosh.

[Marty Parker]

You know, I, I really think, and, and this was just a couple years ago, so I really think we're in for a revolution here.

[Scott Luton]

I'm with you. I'm with you. You know, your, your anecdote reminds me. We've got a, a parking yard not too far from where we live here in Walton county, and it's filled in part by trailers. And one trailer has been there for almost 15 years. We've been out there, both doors have been open and they're just a bunch of junk. Hanging out and I'm just waiting. I'm like, I'm like, come on, can we do better there at least a spreadsheet over there that can fix that? I don't know. All right, so Marty and Thomas, speaking of stickies, I think you are just talking about this, this next story. Look at this. That is a wall full of stickies. We're going to be talking about supply chain decision intelligence via Jim Frazier and logistics viewpoints. Jim says, quote, in this great read, we're going to be dropping a link to it right there in the chat. Jim says, quote, in most enterprises, the operational challenge is no longer simple visibility. Companies can already see more than they could a decade ago. A harder problem is deciding what matters, what does not, and what should happen next. In quote, that's where decision intelligence, of course, comes into play. We had the uncle of Di, speaking of uncles, Marty and Thomas, we had the uncle of Di on the buzz a couple weeks ago. We're going to drop that link in the chat. Jim goes on to describe the decision intelligence layer in technology as the connected tissue between all the fragmented systems that can be found in industry, all those silos and the real operating decisions that must be made all day long by both humans and machines for that matter. So, Thomas, this is right up. I bet I was hitting on one of your passion bones, maybe a couple of them with this article here. Your thoughts?

[Thomas Beal]

You know, I love decision intelligence. It's what we are trying to do at Perfect Planner, you know, where we're turning fragmented signals into clear action. You know, I like to, I like to say it's the straight to execution approach, right to where we're able to provide that direction. You can almost think of it as like a shopping list if you're going to Publix and want to shop. Because most of these companies, they have their ERP systems planning tools, visibility platforms, dashboards, you name it. But the problem isn't the lack of data, it's knowing what matters and what should happen next with that data. And so to me, the opportunity is really moving beyond reporting into a layer that helps us make better decisions. And so you're seeing that this is what is starting to come out. More and more solutions are in this space.

[Scott Luton]

Well said, Thomas. And you know, I kind of used Marty, I use this backdrop of sticky notes as kind of a, an antonym to modern decision intelligence. Your thoughts? So, Marty?

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, so Thomas has forgotten more about this than I'm going to ever know. But I would add that think about how hard it is for company to get their CRM and their ERP and their various spreadsheets and all the other, you know, their control systems, their robots to talk to each other. That's intra company. But many of these companies have done acquisitions over the years and have multiple ERP systems that don't talk to each other. And so I agree, and Thomas will get into more detail, but we've got all of these legacy systems inside the company that we bought over the years with acquisitions, and we've got to coordinate those in a really smart way to make better decisions. And that goes back to the process. And that's what, what Thomas is just an expert in.

[Scott Luton]

I'm with you. And you know, he mentioned Perfect Planner. We're going to touch on Perfect Planner in a minute, folks. And before I ask Thomas my next question, I want to make sure, folks, Trish has dropped a link to this article focused on supply chain decision intelligence, as well as the last one where we were talking about yard logistics and a much better approach. But picking up where Marty left off there, Thomas, you know, as I mentioned when I introduced you on the front end, you've spent years doing big things at companies like Whirlpool and Honeywell and Molly, which was new to me earlier today. Don't judge, folks. But what's the biggest planning challenge that manufacturers still haven't solved? Thomas?

[Thomas Beal]

I think the biggest planning challenge, Scott, is that manufacturers still haven't solved the decision support problem. It's all about Di right. Years ago, I remember a Honeywell executive saying that we need both tactical analysts and strategic analysts. And I remember thinking, why, you know, that's a little backwards, in my opinion. Not to knock him, but the nature of the work was there, which is why he was feeling that way. But if the body of work is that overwhelming to understand all these signals, trying to decipher what I need to work on, then the answer shouldn't be splitting the role and creating more labor. It should be let's remove the waste from the role. And all this administrative and analytical work is just waste, you know, especially with the technology that we have today. So Most analysts spend 75% of their time of their day on administrative analytic work. Just let that sink in. Like, what are we doing? And it's not executing, it's not really adding any type of value because of that. And so if we were able to strip out that waste and give them better decision intelligence, direct them in what they need to do and the actions they need to take, instead of having them hunt around for it, Then they can handle both the tactical and strategic aspects of the job. And, you know, if I was a betting man, I think the result would be that all a lot of these downstream problems would be resolved.

[Scott Luton]

Thomas, I agree with you once more. You know, I. Two big things you said that I agree with. Marty, I'd love to get your take here. Number one, a lot of the tedious aspects of the work that humans are still performing in the planning function and elsewhere, so much of that can be offloaded, right, to free up their time to focus on more fulfilling work that takes advantage of unique human skill sets. And then, number two, you shared something. Number two, and I agree with you. I'll think of that in a minute. Marty, what you. I think I take. I need to take more ginkgo biloba these Monday mornings. Marty, what you hear there from Thomas and what do you think that we're still not solving effectively when it comes to planning, especially manufacturing.

[Marty Parker]

So I think Thomas really hit the nail on the head with decisions. Not making a decision is a decision.

[Scott Luton]

That's right.

[Marty Parker]

And so, so many companies just keep discussing the same things again and again. I remember being in meetings for an hour and I would do the math and say we just avoided saving $19,000 with the last hour we just wasted not making a decision. And I think that's one thing that tools like Perfect Planner are doing is putting it in a decision framework so that we can, you know, go ahead and make that move. One of the most powerful tools. And by the way, a lot of we. You didn't mention this. Thomas is teaching people how to be master black belts. So he has got to be the smartest process guy that I know. And so if, if I simplify those processes, I make those decisions clear. I use Pareto to execute the 20% of things that result in 80% actions. Then I don't stay stuck making a decision by not making a decision. I can't tell you how many companies I've been in that are just paralyzed by that because there's too much data. There's not enough wisdom. There's not. There's too much information. It's not well organized. And planners do this every day, and it's in their head. And the only call that a planner gets is when something's screwed up. Nobody calls a planner and says, wow, thank you. 98% of your job doing it right. It's the 2% that the plan planner gets called, oh, you did, you know, you ran out of this thing. And usually it's because of this lack of process view, as Thomas mentioned.

[Scott Luton]

Yeah, we got to fix that. We got to fix that. And you know, to both Yalls points, I was just on a YouTube channel, a new one for me earlier today, and it was a former CPA that left the organization because all they had him doing was these tedious tasks that modern day AI can do. It was not fulfilling. Now he's driving a truck, he's loving it, right? There's other buckets of people, but there's two buckets of people, right? There's folks that will get tired and will leave the organization because of all the tedious work. But then there's also an equally dangerous bucket where folks won't, they cling to that, you know, because they fear change. They want to keep doing that. And unfortunately, as industry continues to evolve, that leads to not so nice list of options, right? We got to be willing to change, including the things we like and the things we gotta learn to like. But Thomas, I'm gonna ask you, we've talked about Perfect Planner a couple times. Tell us what Perfect Planner does in a nutshell.

[Thomas Beal]

So the 30 second elevator pitch, right? All right, so Perfect Planner is really just a decision intelligence platform for mrp make the stock repetitive manufacturer. So the ones that are using that have a lot of purchase parts and they are using bill of materials. And it was really specifically designed for the planner buyers, you know, what a lot of manufacturers will call a material planner. And so when we, we started the company a few years ago, you know, we wanted to create a product that was achieving a simple goal. You know, we wanted to create a standardized, proactive and scalable planning process for the entire manufacturing sector. And so now what we do is our platform is acts as kind of the decision layer above the ERP and MRP system. So we're going to take those data and we actually turn it into prioritized, comprehensive to do lists for those planners. And so instead of them having to navigate thousands of exception messages, reports, spreadsheets, system screens, now what we can do is we can prioritize their day. We can look for shortages, inventory risks, other planning issues, six month horizon, and again they walk in and get straight to execution. And that really allows them to have about four, four times the amount of time each day to be adding strategic value and eliminating tactical issues before they become emergencies.

[Scott Luton]

Thomas, very nice. And folks, if you want to learn more about Perfect Planner, Trisha is going to drop the link here, but Perfect Planner IO and Marty, I know you want to comment and really quick, hey Glenn from Washington D.C. great to see you. Give us your take on anything we're talking about here today. And as a as promised also, Trisha dropped the link to PerfectPlanner IO Marty, you know, Perfect Planner, I think you've seen it in action a little bit. Your thoughts on what Owen Thomas shared.

[Marty Parker]

So it's bringing a bit of ptsd. Early in my career as a process engineer working in a factory and I became the backup planner and I remember it was just treading water. I mean you just literally had 87 balls in the air as a juggler and if you made any kind of mistake, the whole thing just came cascading down. And there was one person that I could ask, hey, should I do this? Should I run this report? Should I do this spreadsheet, whatever it is? And I think what Thomas and team are doing is moving it to a more proactive approach that could actually drive business success and add value, which we talked about before. Let's add value, not let's not just juggle 8,000 balls in the air.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Curious about the latest trends in the world of freight? Dive into our exclusive coverage of the U.S. bank Freight Payment Index and U.S. bank's new quarterly rates edition. In partnership with DAT Freight and Analytics, the index provides deep national and regional insights sites. The Rates Edition provides a unique marketplace view of freight rates. Visit Freight usbank.com to explore these quarterly reports and sign up for updates. For a dynamic take on this information and to learn what's happening now in the business world, subscribe to Supply chain now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

[Scott Luton]

I'm with you. I'm with you. Well, speaking of what we've been juggling with for decades, we've touched on this spreadsheet so Thomas industry. We've invested in billions if not trillions of dollars in all sorts of platforms, erp, MRP systems and the like. Why are we all special planners to some extent living in spreadsheets?

[Thomas Beal]

That's a great question, Scott. I, I think the truth is that the spreadsheets are filling a gap. I don't think they're the disease. Although a lot of companies will be like we want to get away from the spreadsheets. I think they're a system or a symptom of the system. And so you know what we have is we have ERP systems that are just systems of record. I don't think they were ever really designed to fully solve, you know, the planners day to day decision making. And so you know what they're good at is, you know, storing transactions, keeping parameters, they'll have outputs. But if we need planners to quickly understand what matters most right now and why it matters, and then take actions to address those things, these systems were not designed for that.

[Scott Luton]

So what the.

[Thomas Beal]

What you have with the planners and why we pay a lot of money for these planners is that we need that process logic to either be already in their heads or to be developed over time, because they're using the spreadsheet as layers to help prioritize that work or combine data from multiple sources. As Marty was talking about all these different systems or applied business rules or logic. And so that's what they use the spreadsheets for.

[Scott Luton]

You could have a whole spreadsheet series to really get the. The stories of the good, the bad and ugly while they're still around out there. We'll have to think about that. That may not be a. That may, may be a real popular series. It may not be. I don't know. But, Marty, I want to get one more question out. I want to get both of y' all to peer deep into your crystal ball and predict the future. I'm going to start with Thomas here. So, Thomas, if we think five years from now, so it's at 2031, what will the planning organization of 2031 look like?

[Thomas Beal]

Thomas, you know, I think in the next five years, what you're going to have is that the leading organizations are going to have a lot of this administrative and analytical work automated or systematized. And so then if it's planning, I think that that role is going to shift from being a data wrangler into being a decision maker, and then also using those insights to drive strategic value. I think that's what we're going to see by 2031.

[Scott Luton]

Well, I wonder if data wranglers will wear red bandanas like the cowboys and what's that great Western movie. All right, so, Marty, same question, same question. What will planning organizations look like five years from now?

[Marty Parker]

One word integrated. And that's where the spreadsheets are. I was in a company once that had 40 pieces of software to run the company, and everywhere there was an interface, there was some sort of custom code and. Or spreadsheets. And so now if I have this AI interface that's able to sort of look at all of those processes at the same time, which is part of what Perfect Planner is doing from both the reporting and process perspective, then I'm integrated, and that's the holy Grail, because, you know, we know this CRMs have nothing to do with the ERP. We pretend they do, but they don't. And so we've got all this forecast data, we've got all this customer data that isn't talking to our planners, it isn't connected to our inventory management. And that, that's what I see in five years. And I'm, I'm, I'm excited to see that too.

[Thomas Beal]

By the way.

[Scott Luton]

I like it. I am too. We live in exciting times, really do. Challenging times, but exciting times. Hey, Dr. Valerie Fuller, great to see you. Says Perfect Planner sounds amazing. I'm with you Valerie. Great to have you here today. And McLean Babcock, still amazed I get to learn from these two gentlemen on the world of supply chain. Keep it up. McLean from UGA. I think someone just got some extra credit. McLean, Babcock, I love it. Great to have you here and that really, you know, we could talk about supply chain planning and innovation and technology. What to have you back, Thomas. And talk more about the Perfect Planner journey. But folks, you can learn more Perfect Planner IO but I want to ask, you know, both of y' all are doing really noble missions because you're in classrooms and elsewhere helping turn on the light bulbs in our bright, bright now generation, right? Folks either in the industry or they are about to get an industry or maybe they've been there for a couple years or getting, you know, four year degrees or advanced degrees and you're really just like McLean here. You know, you're helping them really piece everything together and figure out what they want to do and then some. Thomas, how do you see the professional education space evolving over that same 5, 10, 15 year time frame?

[Thomas Beal]

You know, Marty and I and Troy and our group over there at uga, you know, we're a really close knit group and Derek, we talk about this quite frequently and what can we do? And I think the future of education is going to move from knowledge transfer to capability transfer. I talk about capability a lot for a long time. A lot of education was built around transferring knowledge. We're going to give you the theory and you know, we want you to have that knowledge and you should be able to use that when you get into your career. And I think that that still matters. It absolutely is critical. But I think a bigger need moving forward is helping people apply those concepts. All that theory that they learn in messy real world environments. And a hat's off to Marty and everything he's done with the supply chain Advisory board to make that happen. Get, you know, our students into internships. You really work Hard to do that so they can get that experience, but also bring it into the classroom so they can use real data. In our supply chain analytics class, we're using real data from real companies solving real problems. And so if you think about supply chain, you know, those questions that we're going to ask aren't going to be clean. So that's what, what we need to prepare the students for.

[Marty Parker]

Yeah, I'd add it's all about application. I used on my recent epic trip, I used Claude to run the dishwasher, Claude to operate the oven, Claude to turn on the microwave. Because think of the language barriers. Claude decided where we were going to go, what our activities were going to be. It optimized how we were going to walk around the city. Think about that for a minute. I didn't have Claude on my last trip and this trip was so much better, so much more efficient. It allowed me to take two hour naps in the middle of the day, which I couldn't do. So it's all about application. Just like Thomas said. If we can teach our students how to practically use these AI tools in their jobs when they go in to make things better, then we will have done our job. And I would throw robotics in there too. But that's a whole nother podcast.

[Scott Luton]

Yes, it is. Marty and Thomas, we got so much more to talk about. I hate that our time here on the Buzz, powered by APL Logistics, is almost at a close. But you know what? I know both of y' all got big afternoons, you know, including maybe a two hour nap if you're lucky. Marty. We'll see. All right, so let's do this. You know, folks, we love sharing resources. Beyond the great resources that Thomas and Marty are, we're going to make sure y' all know how to connect with them. Just a minute. But the resource hub over at relatively still new supply chain now.com we got a variety of blog articles and white papers. I bet we load three or four new ones each week, including one of these newer ones here, which offers terrific perspective from my friend Richard Howell. With SAP. He shares some intriguing key takeaways from SAP, Sapphire 2026. And by the way, make sure you catch Richard's podcast, the Future of Supply Chain. He's doing good work. Let's make sure we can connect folks with Thomas Beal and Marty Parker. So, Thomas, how can folks track you and the Perfect Planner team down?

[Thomas Beal]

Well, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. You can also go to our website at PerfectPlanner IO if you want to know more information about Perfect Planner? You can email us at infoerfectplanner IO and we would love to connect and I would love for you to even, you know, get involved with all the great things we're doing there at UGA.

[Scott Luton]

All right, folks, Trisha's on it, dropping. Thomas's LinkedIn dropping again. Perfect Planner IO and Marty, same question. If it's not at a comedy stage near you, how can folks track down Marty Parker?

[Marty Parker]

Same thing easiest on LinkedIn. But you can also Google Marty Parker, UGA. And that brings up all kinds of stuff I want you to see. Probably some things I don't want you to see. But yeah, we won't be saying Google in five years, but right now you can Google me. See me on LinkedIn.

[Scott Luton]

So true. And folks, if you heckle Marty Parker, you will have a price to pay. I'm gonna put that out there. All right, So I want to thank our esteemed panel here today. Really enjoyed Thomas Beal, founder and CEO of Perfect Planner. He also serves over at the University of Georgia. Thomas, thank you so much for being here.

[Thomas Beal]

Thank you for having me, Scott.

[Scott Luton]

You bet, you bet. Stay out of that Chattanooga traffic, okay?

[Thomas Beal]

I'm gonna try. Okay. I'm gonna be moving to Athens is what's okay.

[Scott Luton]

All right, we'll connect and, and, and break bread soon. And of course, my terrific co host and overall industry dynamo, comedic dynamo to Marty Parker. Marty, always a pleasure, my friend.

[Marty Parker]

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me, Scott.

[Scott Luton]

You bet. And we also dropped Marty's LinkedIn profile. So go check that out, folks. A big thanks to our friends, APL Logistics. Be sure to connect with them APL Logistics.com and big thanks to Amanda and Trisha. Behind the scenes making production happen each and every time. And most importantly, most importantly, big thanks to our global audience for tuning in. Though we couldn't hit everybody's comment and question, y' all keep the feedback coming. Okay, folks, hope you enjoyed the show today. You know the homework. Take one thing. And Thomas and Marty gave you lots of options. Optionality is a great thing. Take one thing they said here today. Do something with it. Put it into practice. Deeds, not words. That's how we're going to keep transforming global industry and leave no one behind. And with that said, on behalf of the entire supply Chain now team Scott Luton challenge. You do good, get forward, be the change that's needed. We'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody. Join the Supply Chain now community for more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation. Check out supply chain now.com subscribe to Supply Chain now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain Now. Wherever you get your podcasts.