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Warehouse automation can increase throughput while quietly creating a new failure point: maintenance that has not kept pace. When critical assets fail, the consequence is not an engineering inconvenience. It is downtime, lost service and interrupted revenue.

My guest is Asim Akram, CEO of MultiSensor AI. We look at what happens when conveyors, motors, chillers and electrical systems become more digitised while inspection and maintenance remain periodic and manual — a mismatch that matters directly to supply chain resilience and business continuity. 

We examine why degradation happens gradually while failure can arrive in one shot, why more automation can increase operational dependency, and why AI-based detection still achieves nothing if teams do not trust the signal enough to act. We also challenge the idea that maintenance is simply a cost centre rather than part of protecting throughput, service and the top line.

Listen now to understand where hidden warehouse risk is moving,  and what separates proactive operations from expensive firefighting.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

If you’re buying 120% of the food required to serve 100% of your customers, you don’t have a waste problem. You have a forecasting, procurement and margin problem.

My guest is Olaf van der Veen, co-founder of Orbisk, working with commercial kitchens to track where food is being lost. His point is blunt: much of that loss happens before anything reaches a plate, through overproduction, overstocking and weak operating procedures. In a low-margin business, that is excess inventory turning directly into lost profit.

We examine why food waste is often misdiagnosed as bad behaviour, what changes when kitchens can finally see where losses occur, and why AI forecasts perform better when combined with experienced human judgement. We also look at a hotel that cut one chef to save cost, only to discover the extra waste was expensive enough to pay for two and a half.

Listen now to understand where poor planning is quietly eating margin, and what better demand, procurement and operational data can reveal.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

Heavy equipment electrification has a hidden problem: the machinery itself can waste most of the energy you put into it. That means bigger batteries, higher capital costs and a weaker business case before the machine has even started work.

My guest is Hiten Sonpal, CEO of Rise Robotics, who is working on replacing conventional hydraulics with belt-driven actuation. We get into why hydraulic systems can be roughly 25% efficient, how that inefficiency drives battery and charging requirements, and why downtime and maintenance failures may matter even more than the emissions case.

We examine why better batteries are not always the answer, what changes when heavy machinery becomes drive-by-wire, and why industrial AI and autonomy depend on something far less glamorous: machines that can actually generate useful operational data. We also look at prognostics, digital twins, teleoperation and the prospect of one operator supervising several machines rather than controlling just one.

Listen now to understand what is really constraining heavy-equipment electrification — and where better engineering can cut cost, downtime and operational friction.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

Supply chains have more operational data than ever, yet warehouses still miss carrier cut-offs, misallocate labour and react too slowly when conditions change. The problem is often not seeing what is happening. It is turning that signal into the right action quickly enough to protect cost and service.

I’m joined by Scott DeGroot, Executive Director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee, and Keith La Londe, VP of Systems at PathGuide Technologies. Between them, they bring the enterprise and warehouse-floor perspectives on why ERP, WMS, labour, transport and automation so often operate on different clocks - and what that disconnect costs.

We examine why “dashboard theatre” can leave leaders informed but ineffective, why near-real-time data may be more useful than chasing perfect real-time awareness, and what happens when expensive warehouse automation collides with physical reality. We also challenge the metrics leaders trust, the temptation to wait for certainty, and the assumption that more data automatically means better decisions.

Listen now to understand what is really slowing supply-chain execution - and what separates useful visibility from expensive firefighting.

Could your supply chain take the hit? Download my free 15-minute resilience scorecard to uncover hidden vulnerabilities, calculate your score and turn the results into a practical 30-day action plan: tomraftery.com/scorecard

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

AI models are getting smarter at an astonishing pace. But if they can't reliably sense what's happening across your supply chain, they'll still make poor decisions. The real bottleneck may not be intelligence at all, it may be the quality of the physical data feeding it.

I'm joined by Doron Hazan, who leads AI at Wiliot, to explore why the next step in AI for supply chain isn't another model or agent, but a stronger data foundation connecting products, pallets and warehouses to real-time decision-making. We discuss why incomplete physical data creates misleading dashboards, slows operational decisions and increases the risks of automating the wrong actions.

We examine why AI in supply chain is fundamentally different from AI in the digital world, why many organisations are investing in AI before fixing the data beneath it, and what changes when individual items become continuous sources of operational data. We also explore where human judgement remains essential, how continuous sensing supports faster decisions at scale, and why better models alone won't solve supply-chain execution.

Listen now to understand what is really limiting AI in supply chain, and why the organisations that invest first in their data foundation will be better placed to make faster, more reliable operational decisions. 

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

Carbon data is moving out of annual reports and into the transaction itself. If your product-level information is incomplete, market access, customer trust and supply-chain decisions can all suffer.

My guest is Stephen Jamieson, Chief Marketing Officer for SAP Sustainability. We examine why Scope 3 emissions, digital product passports and product carbon footprints are becoming operational requirements, not side projects, and what happens when procurement, finance and supply-chain planning rely on disconnected or average data.

We challenge the assumption that more AI automatically means better decisions. AI will optimise what the business measures well; if carbon, water, materials and supplier data are missing, it can simply accelerate the wrong outcome. We also look at why the real bottleneck is integration, how agentic AI could reduce the cost of product-level analysis, and where human accountability must remain.

Listen now to understand why carbon data is becoming a licence to sell—and what supply-chain leaders need to fix before compliance becomes a commercial constraint.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

Supply-chain mapping can now take five seconds. The harder problem is deciding which supplier risks matter, who owns the response, and whether procurement can act before the data creates paralysis.

I’m joined by Justin Dillon, founder and CEO of FRDM, whose work focuses on human-rights, geopolitical and sustainability risk beyond tier one. As import restrictions, tariffs and customer requirements reach deeper into supplier networks, weak due diligence is no longer just a compliance problem; it can interrupt supply, delay sourcing decisions and expose the business.

We challenge the assumption that full supply-chain visibility is necessarily expensive or difficult, examine why supplier surveys are starting to resemble fax machines, and look at what happens when companies suddenly receive more risk intelligence than their teams can absorb. We also discuss where AI in supply chain genuinely helps—and why technology still cannot decide which supplier conversation needs to happen next.

Listen now to understand why finding supplier risk is becoming easier, while turning that intelligence into faster, more defensible procurement decisions remains the real test.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

An autonomous truck does not create an autonomous yard. Without aligned decisions, reliable data and clear ownership, smart assets become expensive distractions.

I’m joined by Matt Yearling, CEO of YMX Logistics; Chad Fox, Manager and Delivery Lead at Miebach Consulting; and Kurt Neutgens, CEO and co-founder of Orange EV. Together, we examine why supply chain resilience still breaks down in the yard — a neglected part of logistics that can disrupt warehouse flow, transport performance and customer service.

You’ll hear how the biggest failures often sit in handoffs between inventory, warehouse, yard and transportation, where visibility exists but nobody owns the next decision. We break down why automation only works when the process is clear and dependable — and why an autonomous truck cannot coordinate the operation around it.

You might be surprised to learn that electrification may deliver the more immediate resilience gain. Kurt explains how moving from roughly 80% diesel uptime to 97–98% electric uptime can cut interruptions, remove fuelling downtime and improve fleet efficiency while reducing emissions.

The core question is simple: can your operation act on what it sees, or is the dashboard merely documenting the delay?

🎙️ Listen now for a practical look at supply chain visibility, sustainability, risk, data and the decisions required to turn technology into execution.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

What if your ERP only sees the supplier decision after the real battle is already over?

In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I’m joined by Spencer Penn, CEO and co-founder of LightSource, a direct procurement AI platform. Spencer brings a practical view from high-pressure hardware and autonomous systems environments, and we look at why procurement, data, visibility, and supplier risk now sit right at the heart of supply chain resilience.

You’ll hear how direct procurement can still run, quietly and expensively, across Excel, email, and institutional memory — even inside companies that believe they’ve digitised the function. We break down why that matters for manufacturing speed, cost control, sustainability, and the ability to move before disruption hardens into margin loss.

We also explore where AI agents may add real value first: not by replacing procurement teams, but by helping them manage the decisions that can create or destroy hundreds of millions in value. Spencer shares how better sourcing workflows helped one automotive programme shorten sourcing cycles by 25% and cut cost creep by 37%.

And you might be surprised by his analogy: procurement is like running water. Nobody notices it when it works. Everyone notices when it stops.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how Spencer Penn and LightSource are rethinking procurement, supplier visibility, and the next phase of resilient supply chains.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

How many fulfilment failures start as “just this once” exceptions?

In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I’m joined by Leo Rodriguez, VP at River Plate Inc., a Southern California 3PL working across e-commerce, retail, warehousing, distribution, freight logistics, kitting, and assembly. We look at fulfilment through the lens of supply chain resilience, risk, data, visibility, and the operational discipline brands need as channels multiply and complexity rises.

You’ll hear how small workarounds can quietly become broken workflows, why inbound setup often matters more than outbound execution, and why clean item data, packaging details, carton markings, EDI, ASNs, and warehouse management systems are not back-office admin. They are the plumbing that keeps customer experience, margin, and retail compliance from falling apart. Glamorous? No. Expensive when ignored? Very.

We also break down why more software does not automatically mean better logistics. Leo explains where AI and automation can remove repetitive decisions, where human judgement still matters, and why the physical operation and the system reality have to run in tandem. You might be surprised to learn that a box designed to fit beautifully in a container can become oversized, overweight, and costly once it hits a retail fulfilment channel. Tiny cardboard decision. Big margin consequence. Supply chain, naturally, finds comedy in the most financially painful places.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how Leo Rodriguez and River Plate Inc. help brands build more disciplined, visible, and resilient fulfilment operations.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.

Send me a message

How much do we really know about the minerals powering the energy transition?

In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I’m joined by Johan Oosthuizen, a responsible sourcing specialist based in South Africa, working across mining, operations, supply chain governance, and regulatory due diligence. His perspective matters because he works in the uncomfortable gap between boardroom expectations and site-level reality, which is exactly where supply chain resilience either holds firm or quietly comes apart.

You’ll hear how critical mineral supply chains are being stretched by the booming demand for batteries, EVs, and energy storage, while compliance, data, and visibility struggle to keep pace. We break down why self-reporting is structurally weak in high-risk mineral chains, and why third-party verification is becoming less of a nice-to-have and more of a strategic necessity.

Johan also explains why a mine is not simply “one company digging a hole”. It is an ecosystem of contractors, labour providers, suppliers, communities, regulators, and investors. You might be surprised to learn that a mine employing 1,000 to 2,000 people directly may need around 10,000 people in the first tier alone to support it. Tiny governance gaps can become very large operational risks. Funny how supply chains keep refusing to behave like neat little org charts.

We also explore how audit data can move beyond compliance and become a tool for supplier development, sustainability, risk reduction, and real supply chain resilience.

🎙️ Listen now to hear Johan Oosthuizen explain why the hidden risk in critical mineral supply chains may be three layers deep, twelve months behind, and far closer to extraction than many leaders realise.

 If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

Support the show

Podcast supporters
I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers:

• Alicia Farag
• Kieran Ognev
• Gary Lynch

And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber  - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis.

🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability?
I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. 

Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck

Finally
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, or send me a message using this link.

If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. 

Thanks for listening.