On today’s episode Jim Owens, Chief Growth Officer at SDI, joins us to discuss leveraging your competitive advantage, why technology is now a must-have, and the importance of levelsetting what you can and cannot control in an unpredictable supply chain landscape.
Three years ago the average person might’ve had to Google what supply chain means. Today, most people are familiar with the term, and we’re dealing with mainstream supply chain challenges that affect us all. Today’s guest is sharing how to overcome them.
This episode features an interview with Jim Owens, Chief Growth Officer at SDI. SDI is the supply chain solutions and services company that specializes in helping large, multi-site facilities and plant maintenance leaders to reduce costs and risk while driving overall performance results and outcomes.
On today’s episode, Jim joins us to discuss leveraging competitive advantage, why technology is no longer a nice-to-have in supply chain solutions, and the importance of level-setting what you can and cannot control in an unpredictable supply chain landscape.
Guest Bio:
Adept at building high-performance sales organizations and establishing integrity-based client relationships within highly competitive markets, Jim brings a unique blend of strategic and creative thought to every client engagement to create an environment of proactive collaboration and common value for both SDI’s clients and the market at large.
With a history of commercial and industrial business development for companies like EMCOR, Transfield Services and IFCO, Jim excels at creating and implementing successful and strategic value-driven solutions that transcend industry sectors. As a business development leader, his passion has driven him to develop innovative ideas and strategies to help clients solve their toughest challenges. A member (and former chair) of Penn State University's Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) Advisory Board, and a member of the ConnexFM Technology advisory board, Jim Owens is committed to supply chain and facilities excellence, has co-authored research on Last-Yard logistics, and has presented at several educational symposiums.
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Guest Quote
“If three years ago I was at a cocktail party and somebody asked me what I did and I told 'em, ‘supply chain,’ they would look at me with confusion. Today you can't wake up in the morning and open your computer, turn on your television, or look at your phone without seeing some story related to supply chain. So it's mainstream. It's front of mind. To answer your question, is it getting better? I think it is incrementally, and I think we have a long way to go.” - Jim Owens
Time Stamps
**(02:21) The SDI model
**(06:12) Supply chain challenges
**(14:50) How to avoid supply chain disruption
**(18:54) The retail space in an upcoming recession
**(23:40) This is how we do it
**(29:47) How businesses can be proactive
**(36:47) The future
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Sponsor:
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Links
Narrator: Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance. On today's episode, we talk with Jim Owens, Chief Growth Officer at SDI. SDI's Digital Supply Chain Solutions coordinate and align with overall facilities management, enterprise risk management, and reliability strategy.
Adept at building high-performance sales organizations and establishing integrity based client relationships within highly competitive markets. Jim brings a unique blend of strategic and creative thought to every client engagement to create an environment of proactive collaboration, a common value for both SDIs clients and the market at large.
In this episode, Jim discusses leveraging your competitive advantage, why technology is now a must-have, and the importance of level setting what you can and cannot control in an unpredictable supply chain landscape.
Here's your host, industry and FM technology, thought leader and chief business development officer at Service Channel, Sid Shetty.
Sid: Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to the show. I am here today with Jim Owens. Jim, welcome. How are you?
Jim: I'm doing great. Sid, how are you?
Sid: I'm doing well, thank you. All right, Jim, so let's dive right in. What is your role at SDI and what are you responsible
Jim: for? So, um, I'm Chief Growth Officer at SDI.
I've been here about eight years, and I'm responsible for both organic growth, uh, with existing customers, existing markets. And then more recently as we've embraced, uh, different types of technologies, we've expanded our footprint into new markets, new applications, new solutions. So that's a, that's a, a much.
Part of my role going forward within, um, my role, I'm responsible for marketing, uh, and, and our brand, uh, lead generation solution design and, and pricing as well. Got it.
Sid: So tell us more about SDI. What do you offer?
Jim: Let me tell you who we're not first. Cuz our, our model is somewhat, um, unique and it's not, not necessarily intuitive.
So oftentimes when people think of MRO or parts, they think of distribution and so we're not a supplier of parts. Uh, the second thing people usually think is, Well, maybe you're a tech company, cuz they see all the technology that we employ and, and technology is a key enabler of what we do. But we're not a, we're not a SaaS platform.
We don't sell technology alone. And, and we're not a consultant as well, so we. Uh, solutions, you know, sometimes complex, sometimes simple for our customers. The difference with us is we actually deploy those solutions and managed to, you know, those outcomes and results they want under a performance based agreement.
Sid: Got it. How, how did you end up in this
Jim: space? Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a good question. It's, it's not something that when I was sitting in a, in a college class, um, you know, 25 years ago that, or, or more actually, um, thinking, Hey, I'm gonna end up someday in the, in the MRO parts supply chain business. But you know, in reality, when I look.
Back across my, my resume, I guess I've been in the supply chain business about 20, 22 years, and it started with a, a, a German logistics and supply chain company that, that specialized in multi-site retail. And we were doing, uh, I think what today would be called, uh, the circular economy stuff. We were doing a lot of services related to recycling, uh, Reusables, Redeployment of Returnables, um, you know, not only at the store level, but also at the DC.
And I spent about eight years there. And I really loved, you know, working in that retail space and, and working in a, in a supply chain function. And I was presented an opportunity, I guess it was around 2008, 2007, to join a, um, a facilities management firm that had recently been acquired by, uh, an Australian integrated facilities management firm.
And they were, they were focused almost exclusively on multi-site. And so, you know, I had a lot of experience there. I was really intrigued by their model and, and they, although they called it integrated facilities management or in some cases managed services, I looked at it as, you know, really as a supply chain solution.
You know, you were delivering services to. Uh, thousands, in some cases, tens of thousands of sites through a highly fragmented base of service providers, you know, but there were KPIs and, and SLAs that had to be complied with and, you know, a very complex solution, um, to a, a much needed, uh, problem. And so I looked at it as, you know, really is supply chain.
Um, but the serv, you know, the product really was the service. And, you know, I was there I guess about seven or eight years as well. And then I was presented an opportunity to join SDI and I was really intrigued by the model because SDI does, uh, supply chain services and solutions for MRO parts exclusively.
And we're the only ones, uh, we were the only ones then. And we're the only ones now that, that focus this like this and have a model like we have. The thing that really inspired me though was, was the leadership and the vision they had for the organization and what they were doing around technology. And so the, the company, um, started in 1971.
But is, you know, continued to grow. And as, as we embrace more technology and technology advances, it allows us to extend our, our reach into a whole lot of different verticals and different applications that maybe even five years ago were not thought of.
Sid: Great. Thank you. So, you know, supply chain, you know, more people are talking about supply chain today than I, than probably ever.
Right. So let's, let's get into the meat of the discussion. So let's talk about some big picture objectives and the way teams can move them across the goal line.
Jim: We're gonna go inside, we're gonna go outside, inside, and outside. Point to get him on the run. Moise, once we get him on the run, we're gonna keep on the run and then we're gonna go, go, go, go, go, go.
And we're not gonna stop telling it across that whole
Sid: line. So let's talk about the biggest challenge everyone is facing today, right? This massive disruption to our supply chain. What happened and what's the situation now and is it getting any. Yeah,
Jim: it's a, it's a question that I get asked a lot, you know, if, if three years ago I was at a, at a cocktail party and somebody asked me what I did and I told 'em, supply chain, you know, usually they, they, they'd look at me like with just, um, confusion.
What is supply chain? They, they would equate supply chain with trucking. Today, you, you know, you can't wake up in the morning when open your computer, turn your television on, look at your phone without seeing, you know, some story related to supply chain. So it's, it's mainstream. It's it's front of mind. Um, to answer your question, is it getting better?
I, I think, I think it is, um, incrementally and, um, I think we have a long way to go. Yet. And there, there's, there's certain spaces where it could get worse before it gets better. Um, so it's sort of a wait and see. But in terms of what happened, you know, it's, uh, you know, it was really unprecedented, um, by historical standards.
And what, what occurred in the spring of 2020 was you had a simultaneous. You know, supply shock that was met by a demand shock. Everything basically shut down. And so consumers stopped spending, um, producers stopped producing and everything just kind of came to a standstill for, you know, a matter of weeks.
Um, When demand started to return, it returned in a very different way. And I'm talking about both from a consumer side as well as business side. And so product demand was, was different. The preferences were changing. And I think what we found pretty quickly is just how lean the supply chain was. And it really performed as intended.
It was, it was designed to be very efficient, very lean. And with that, um, what that means is there's very little slack, uh, very little inventory in the supply chain itself. So, Uh, after those f first few weeks, we started to see massive stockouts of almost everything. And if you think back to March, April of 2020, you know, paper products, toilet paper, uh, different food products, all kinds of items that, that, uh, you would typically find on your grocery shelf that were suddenly gone and, and nobody had any, uh, you know, real clear path forward as to what the future was gonna look like.
And, and so, you know, things have gotten. But what, you know, in, in the parlance of supply chain, what we're seeing right now is all these bull whip effects. So a bull whip effect is when you, you know, you have a disruption to a supply chain. And, you know, our supply chains are, are increasing global and are more and more complex.
And you're starting to see that the demand signals and the supply signals not necessarily sinking. And so you end up with inventory in certain places in the supply chain where you have too much and other places you have too little. And all of those, all of that noise that exists in the supply chain just continues to create imbalances.
And so it's gonna take some time for us to get through this. Um, you know, some of the experts are saying it's gonna go all the way through 2023. Some are saying 2024. Uh, I think it's gonna be a wait. Yeah, I
Sid: mean, I think this time, especially during covid, the impact that it had on consumers was profound, right?
Like you mentioned toilet paper or paper products in general or anything, consumers really felt it. Like they, you'd go to a, a store and CMT shelves, and then now when you look at it, um, you know, in the current state you've got some extremes, right? Like you, you still have a situation. That are parts and supplies that take weeks and months to actually fulfill or, or get your, um, orders fulfilled.
And in some cases you're seeing where businesses and retailers have overstocked and over I invented. And, um, and that produces a whole sort of new challenges. So, you know, what is, like, how do you think this has impacted. You know the business that we are in, like facilities and operations and retail and restaurants, and how is that, again, impacting the
Jim: consumer?
You know, to say that it was a huge impact is really an understatement. That's right. So if you go back to March, 2020 and, and, you know, think about, you know, FMS across, you know, pretty much any indu industry vertical, whether it was retail, K-12 education, healthcare, you know, warehouse and logistics class, a office space.
Suddenly they had to wear two hats overnight. And so they, they had their day. You know, so to speak, which was, you know, do doing what they've always done, repair and maintenance, scheduled services, preventive maintenance, and then suddenly they had to retrofit their facilities to, to be compliant with, you know, the new reality.
Right. And, and be able to keep those, those buildings open and the occupants feeling safe. So that meant they, they had to become sourcing experts in ppe. They had to, they had to understand, you know, all about social distancing. They had to go out and. Be able to source lexan partitions for, you know, countertops at a retail store or for desktops in, in a school, um, installation of hand sanitizers, the acquisition of hand sanitizer, um, all the PPE products that had to be purchased while at the same time as as demand started the return for, you know, the normal products.
What we started to see was these massive stockouts and those stockouts led to a lot of problems in, in the FM parts supply chain. , which had me, you know, a whole lot of unintended consequences. So we started to see it show up in, in KPIs and SLAs. You know, first call fix went out probably 30%, 40% because of this.
Meantime re to repair was spread out, you know, 20 to 30%. These things still exist. Um, We're, we're finding that there's suppliers, putting contractors and, and enterprise organizations on allocation for parts and for materials. So these are things that were, were more acute, say, a year, a year and a half ago, but, but are still with us today, and they're still having a tremendous impact on the FM space.
Sid: Yeah, I mean, you hear anecdotal information and, and you know, you see customers and providers talking about lead times of months Yes. On parts and, you know, depending on the equipment you're ordering, like if it's an HVAC unit, You know, you're hearing like months, like that could go into like beyond a year.
Like is that, is that something that you are seeing in the data? Is that something that's standard and expected? Like should we be talking about that more and you know, what's, Is there an end here?
Jim: There is an end. I just don't know when that is. So right there, there's two parts to I, Question. One is, you know, from, from a capital asset perspective, we're starting to see a, and we've continued to see a lot of shortages, right?
And so think about your HVAC unit, you know, your rooftop unit. You talked about what, what a lot of people don't know or, or just beginning to learn is that HVAC unit may be produced in a factory in South America or Mexico. That, that factory really is just the assembly point. And what people are beginning to learn is that, you know, there's, you know, in that HVAC unit there may be 250, 300 sub-assemblies and, and component parts.
Um, those sub-assemblies and component parts can be purchased from 150 different suppliers, maybe across four continents. When you think about what that means is that, that that creates a whole lot of complexity, a whole lot of uncertainty as it relates to capital assets. And, and then from a consumer perspective, you know, the, the probably the best example is what's going on in the automotive world right now.
There's a lot of trucks, there's a lot of cars that have been produced, but are waiting on lots by the thousands for, you know, chips to be available, to be inserted so that that car truck can be sold to a consumer. In the FM space, we're, we're seeing these shortages, um, across the board. And so we have customers say in, in retail, and, you know, if you think about a retail environment, they have, um, uh, these, these mobility carts for, um, disabled folks and people that need assistance.
So those, those carts are, you know, are, are comprised of thousands of parts and those parts come from, you know, all ends of the earth. And, and so what we saw about two summers ago, You know, there was a shortage on, you know, key components of that equipment. And so we had to scour the earth to find alternative sources, um, looking, you know, high and low to find, to find parts that we could use to have those, um, those carts repaired and maintained properly so that they were able to be used by the consumers and not disrupt the, the, you know, the customer experience too much.
Sid: Yeah. What are some of the ways that companies can work around this disrupt.
Jim: Yes, I, I get that question at least weekly. It used to be more frequently, and, you know, at the height of the pandemic, we were actually producing a newsletter with, you know, lessons learned as well as, you know, best practices going forward.
That the first thing I usually tell people is differentiate between what's in your control and what's outta your control. And for those things that are outside of your control, you just have to level set with the stakeholders that you're dealing with, both internally and externally is to, you know, what's the real situation that's going on.
With the supply chain and, and for those things that are inside your control, it's, it's a great time to ask for help. You know, so most organizations, whether it's a retailer or education, uh, institution, they have sourcing and procurement people that can pitch in. And so what I tell people most, you know, from a, from a short term perspective, is first, first things first, right?
You need to identify what are your critical assets, and then within those critical assets, what are your most critical spare? And the essential items that allow you to keep that, um, that facility open, operating and, and healthy. And so once you understand what, what those critical spares are and those essential supplies, the next step is to understand what's the, who is the manufacturer, not the supplier, but who's the manufacturer?
What's the name of that manufacturer, and what's the part number? And then once you have. That's when you have data that's actionable in terms of being able to source and procure. And so what we're telling, what we're telling our customers and prospects that are interested is, you know, historically most had one single source of.
We're recommending that you have at least a secondary, and ideally you have a tertiary source as well. So you want to have backup supplies. You have resiliency in your supply chain. The the second thing we're, we're advocating as well is, is something we call functional equivalents. So, Maybe it's not the same exact OEM part, but there's a, there's a, there's another part that's available that's, you know, functionally the equivalent of what you're using to get you through a rough spot.
Um, those are things that we think are, are mission critical that The last thing I would say, Sid, is that people should start really thinking about keeping a safety stock if you're not doing it already, Understanding what your needs are for the next 12 to 18 months, and then coming up with, you know, a, uh, a subset.
Say, I'm gonna hold this in, in safety reserve. So when I do experience a stockout at, you know, in one of the local municipalities, I can ship it from the central location or this regional location. The, taking it a step further, when you think about longer term. When I say long term, I'm saying like three to six months.
Um, great time to ask for help. You know, with the crisis, um, there's a, there's a real business case here, a burning platform that FMS can go to their leadership. To, to ask for more help in terms of technology, people, process, and to develop a solution that, that lasts beyond, um, the pandemic. That's
Sid: great.
You know, a follow up to that right, is a human beings can sometimes have short term memory and, and, and businesses even more so, right? Yes. I Is there an understanding. Of like the continued impact that this is having on the different departments and business units that serve within an organization and the impact that it might have on consumers.
Like is, are you seeing that? Businesses have moved forward in terms of the expectations have changed, but the reality is still a little different and hasn't caught up to expectations. How can our audience do a better job in articulating and explaining the, the challenges that our industry still faces and finding ways to kind of report on it?
Jim: Uh, I'm seeing evidence that there is a change that, that people do, um, recognize that these issues are not temporary and that they're more systemic and they're gonna be with us a little through a, you know, a longer term. Um, I think that message and that, um, momentum is different at different levels in the organization.
You know, right now, you know, if you think about the retail space, there's, there's concern about the uncertain economic environment that's, that's heading towards us. And some consumers are starting to pull back and, and spend. But, you know, there was a, there was a great report on cnbc, um, I think it was about two weeks ago, and they were talking about, you know, some of these larger retailers, they're doubling down on technology investments.
And so despite the, the uncertain economic. They're starting to invest a lot more because they've realized that this is the future. Um, so that, that's one part of it. The, the second part, when it gets down to the, the, uh, the FM space, I'm starting to see more evidence of that as well, is, you know, we've been, we've been experiencing, you know, the exodus of, uh, the tenure, uh, tradespeople that have been leaving the, um, leaving the industry in, in pretty big numbers.
And I think that the pandemic. Was was a point where it was really a point of inflection. We saw a lot more exit. And, and so there's not enough new folks coming in to the industry and the FMS that I talk to, and it's across all these different industry verticals, they're looking to technology as a way to fill some of those gaps.
It's certainly not a silver bullet, but there's a lot more receptivity to change than there was, say, two or three years ago. So they're looking, they're looking at everything in in, in our space, what we're trying to do, and we're trying to help people understand is the direct connect. Between, you know, poor, um, parts management processes and how that affects, you know, their work process and how does it show up in their KPIs and their SLAs.
And there's, there's a very, um, direct and very clear quantifiable connection. What we see and what we've seen historically is that, you know, well, mobile maintenance technician may spend 20% of his or her. On parts related issues, it's driving to, it's searching for shopping, for waiting for parts, and then spending time on the back end with, with paperwork through the pandemic.
What we're seeing now is that's stretching out the 30, 40% of their day in some cases. And so you think about the, the productivity loss, um, that's associated with that type of activity. All that wrench, time goes away in, in an environment where labor's already scarce. You know, skilled trades are already scarce.
So we're, we're, you know, our message to the market is, Hey, here's a lever of value that you can pull, um, that that's right in front of you. And there's things you can do today that impact not just the parts price and availability, but your overall effectiveness as a, you know, as an FM organization. That's
Sid: great.
Jim, as a, as a partner and service provider, you know, to a lot of retailers and business. What are you seeing or hearing from brands when you talk to them about what they care about? You know, especially as it relates to facilities, but maybe even broader. What's important to.
Jim: The two things that seem to be most front of mind, um, for the folks that we're talking to is, is labor and the supply chain disruptions.
So those are two things that are the burning platforms that people are addressing, you know, each and every day of, of their professional lives. The, the other thing that we're, we're hearing. Um, you know, when you get deeper into these conversations is sort of, you know, what's the, what's the post pandemic consumer look like?
What's the, what kind of behaviors are they gonna have? What kind of expectations are they gonna have? And then what does that mean from a facility perspective? You know, so there's, there's all kinds of things that are changing and they're changing rapidly, you know, whether it's omnichannel or, you know, friction free.
Uh, commerce or, you know, um, you know, there's really a, a multitude of things that are happening in, in, not only in the consumer space, but also in, in the, in the B2B space, and expectations are changing. And so I think there's a, there's a little bit of a wake up call that's, that's happening in terms of, um, facilities management.
It's that technology is no longer a, it's a nice, nice to have. It's really a must have. That's right. And it's becoming mission critical because it's not just. You know, doing your work more efficiently. But the, the facilities are changing. The facilities are becoming much more digitized and automated. And so that even the skill set to repair those facilities and maintain those facilities is, is changing as well.
So, lots of change. Um, lots of uncertainty, but I think there's, um, Probably more than anything I see it just a more open mindedness of, you know, with within the industry people, there's a much greater curiosity as to what others are doing, looking for best practice sharing. I think, you know, podcasts like this or a great idea at a time that's, you know, it's absolutely needed where people can share their perspective and, and their experience and, and others can learn.
That's great.
Sid: Perfect. Thank you. All right, so moving on to our next segment. Let's talk. How we do it,
Jim: This is how we do that, how we do it, and
Sid: doesn't feel like nobody, So Jim. How does SDI help with addressing, you know, the need for parts and supplies, especially through this Very interesting, you know, time in moment in time we're going through right now.
And how
Jim: do you measure success? Great question. So, One thing that's unique about us is this is all we do. So we, we, our only business is the MRO parts supply chain. And so we work with, with our customers, and we've been doing this since 1971, so we're in our, we're in our 51st year, and so we've built a, um, a very.
Reliable and scalable infrastructure of people, process and technology that's designed around delivering what our customers need and want in terms of parts supply chain. So when the, um, when the pandemic hit, you know, obviously it was unprecedented and, and it impacted us just like, just like any, any other organization.
The good thing. Um, SDI was that we had been through, you know, other supply chain disruptions in the past, certainly not to this scale, but there were a lot of lessons learned. Um, and there was a lot of mitigations and, and workarounds that we came up with over the years, you know, since we were founded in 1971.
And technology is a big part of what we do. And, you know, in 2018, uh, the senior leadership team and, and the board agreed that we needed to make a, you know, a pretty big leap. This was, you know, before the pandemic and it make a major investment in digitization and automation, um, within our own business.
And, you know, originally it was designed around efficiency, competitive advantage, you know, certainty of outcome, that sort of thing. But what we found, When, when, when the, when the pandemic struck is it made us highly resilient, made us very agile and allowed us to scale very quickly. And so we went from, you know, and otherwise probably 80% of people working in offices to, um, 0% working in offices almost overnight.
But generally, we start with the end in mind and we work with customers to understand what their needs are, what they're trying to get to. Is it reliability? Is it cost efficiency? Is it something related to their esg? Um, and we design a solution that produces those results, and then we tie ourselves to the performance of that solution under a performance based contract.
So we measure ourselves based on the KPIs that are most relevant to that particular customer.
Sid: Got it. Are there any interesting stories that you've either seen, you know, through your customers or within the industry that you just, or, or in the news right. That tell you how certain customers have found unique ways to maneuver through these challenging times as it relates to parts and supplies and the whole supply chain disruption.
Jim: I could tell stories for days on the, the things that, that we encountered and, and things that we did. But pr probably maybe one of the best stories, and I'll try to keep it brief, is we, um, we have a customer that's, um, one of the largest, if not the largest school district in the world. Certainly in North America, and we've had that customer for about 22 years, and we we're responsible for managing the supply chain for the maintenance, repair and operating supplies to keep, you know, 1800 plus school buildings open and operating.
And those, those school buildings, as, as you can imagine, they, they, there's a lot of variability. In size and scale age, Some of them are less than a year old, some of them are a hundred plus years old. And, and, you know, we've, we do that very, very well. And the, the supply chain was very efficient, um, very reliable, and customers very happy.
So you fast forward to, you know, March of 2020 and within a three day period, we, we shifted from, Repair and maintenance to keeping those schools open for the children and keep making sure that the children in those schools, the, the educators and administrators were safe and, and protected from the virus.
So we went just like a, a lot of others in our space. We, we had to very quickly become sourcing experts with ppe, you know, protecting a million plus students and under three or 400,000 administrators. And, and staff. Um, so we had to supply in 95 masks and hand sanitizer and dispensers and backpack, uh, electrostatic sprayers and partitions for desks.
And, you know, that went on for a while and every day was really a new challenge, and it was all about. You know, the occupant experience, it was all about keeping those schools open as long as we possibly could. And, you know, the theme running through that was really a theme of collaboration. So it was, we collaborated very closely with the mayor, with the, the city, um, the city council, the school board, the administrators of the schools, the, the families, and even the students teachers.
To get through the day every day and get through the week and the month. Um, there were a lot of challenges, as you can imagine, but one of the things that, you know, we learned was it's not just about education too. So out of those 1800 and some odd schools, 600 served as food service centers. So there's, there's a lot of children in that school district that, that need to get their nutritional needs met, um, through school, you know, on, on any given day.
And so it wasn't a choice whether or not we could keep those schools open. We had. So it was mission critical in our, our team. You know, it was really gratifying to me to see what our team did here at SDI to make sure, um, that those schools stayed open, those schools were safe, that they had, you know, the right type of materials as well as, you know, indoor air quality, all that, you know, fell under our responsibility.
So, you know, there's, there's a lot of other stories similar to that, but that's one that's, um, you know, still very near and dear to my heart.
Sid: That's, that's great. Do you, do you think that, um, businesses can do anything proactively to ensure business con continuity? You know, And, and stay ahead of the challenges for the next two years.
What are the, are the different pieces that they should account for today to ensure that there's minimal disruption as we move forward? Because, like you said, we don't know when this is going to end. What I tell
Jim: people is they, they should be looking at least near term. They should be looking at, um, parts in the MRO supply chain through de prism of risk.
And you have to have a risk management plan in place to go forward because we're not out of the woods. And you know, I'm, I'm certainly not an epidemiologist, but you know, everything you, you read and you see, we don't know what's gonna happen when winter comes. We don't know if there's gonna be a spike.
We don't know if there's gonna be another variant. We really have no idea. So, you know, I, I think there's been a tremendous amount of, you know, great lessons learned over the past two and a half years. But to your point earlier, I think a lot of times people have short memories, uh, and they don't codify this stuff.
They don't capture it and write it down as a, as a standard best practice. So what we're we're telling people is, Hey, you need to be prepared for that. And you need a mechanism to make sure that if you're a retail operator or school district or whatever, That you have, you know, ample supply of, of ppe, you know, from a, from a safety stock perspective, maybe 10 days, uh, supply to get you through a rough patch.
Same thing with parts. So it's understanding, you know, going back to what we talked about earlier, is understanding the manufacturer name, manufacturer part number and having a secondary, but ideally also a, a tertiary sort of, Source of supply, identifying others that could be functional equivalents and then accumulating, you know, investing some working capital in inventory.
Um, because again, some of these parts that, that people buy and need are mission critical. Without that part, that asset has to go down, and maybe in some cases, that facility has to be closed. If it has, you know, health and safety implications or it's a major, you know, in-store customer experience implication.
So I you. Short term, I think it has to be a risk management prism. Longer term, I think there's tremendous value that can be driven through, you know, more purposeful strategic parts management.
Sid: Yeah, because, you know, I, I don't think consumer expectations are going down, right? I mean, no co consumers have come out of the pandemic with maybe higher expectations on a lot of different pieces, and so businesses are going to have to figure.
Where they invest to ensure that they stay competitive, are fulfilling the expectations of the customer and delighting the customer. Because if they don't do that, you know the customer has options, right? They, they, if you're gonna, if they're gonna walk in to a facility that. You know, doesn't have their HVAC in order, um, and doesn't have the refrigerated assets in order because, because of the supply chain disruption.
But the, the organization maybe hasn't invested, um, in planning for the future. They're going to walk out and they're gonna find the next location that has thought about the future and has invested, um, in their teams and in their programs, uh, such that, you know, maybe they might not be completely, uh, you know, siloed from what's going on in the world, but at least they're better prepared than the one that didn't even invest in it.
Jim: Yeah. A absolutely. And I, you know, I think as, as you know, we're all consumers, right? Right. And things are evolving, um, so rapidly because of technology and just disruptive change all around us. It's really hard to predict what it's gonna look like, but. But one thing is for certain, if you have a bad experience at, at a, at a, whatever kind of building it is, whether it's a retail facility or it's a, it's a community store or restaurant or a school building, you know, that that's a, that leaves an indelible mark, you know, and, and, um, you know, your, the chances of you going back to that facility.
Are are pretty slim. Right. Especially now because we have a lot of choice. You know, if there, there's, there may be items that you went to a particular store or restaurant to buy previously and you have one or two bad experiences and all of a sudden you switch to a, uh, a competitor or you switch to a competitor who has an online offering and, and that that consumer may never.
So, you know, that goes back to that old saying too, It's, you know, good news travels fast, bad news travels faster. That's right. And I think that, um, that in-store customer experience has never been more important than it is right now. That's
Sid: right. I mean, I think one, one of the biggest, uh, missions I think of, of our podcast as well and to giving this platform to, you know, thought leaders like you is to.
Put that message out, which is to say, ultimately what we do is preserve the brand. Um, and our job is to think about the broader picture, which is when a consumer walks into our physical space, what are they experiencing? And what they're experiencing is the. The, the critical part of any business, which is, you know, how do you make the customer feel?
How do you make the customer feel valued when they walk in? Um, and do you help ensure that that physical location represents your brand? And if it doesn't, you know, then there's this huge gap in consumer expectation and what you're able to offer them. And the consumer will find another location that does value them, right?
Jim: Yeah. And it's, and it doesn't take, you know, multiple touch points to have a bad experience and maybe one. And then, you know, one thing we haven't talked about is the impact of online reviews. That's right. So it's not just that somebody has a, a bad experience because of that one touch point. And it could be a, a dirty restroom.
It could be, you know, something really the signage or a particular asset that is down the rotisserie oven. They wanted to get their chicken and it wasn't available. But they, they don't just leave and, and as dissatisfied, uh, consumer, they leave and oftentimes they write a bad review. That's right. And that may be seen by 10, a hundred, maybe a thousand people and has a, you know, not always, you know, it's, it's not always a that everybody's gonna turn away, but a portion of those people that read those reviews may turn away and say, You know what?
I'm gonna go to the competitor. That's right. So again, that's why I, I'm a huge believer, um, that this customer experience, the in-store experience, Um, is, has never been more important, especially as we kind of return from this pandemic where so many people shifted to e-commerce and they're finally coming back.
The last thing you wanna do is when people come back to your facility that they have a bad experience because maybe they don't come back forever. Right. You
Sid: don't wanna put them off and turn them away. Right. You know, delight them and have them want to come back. Absolutely perfect that. So, So let's talk about the future.
Jim: The future, the future, the future.
Sid: Before we talk about like what the future looks like, I wanna take a moment to talk about the past and how we got here. So Jim, how do you think the industry has evolved over the past 10 years? And, you know, how do you think, uh, the way we procure, pay for and track parts and supplies has changed?
And, and then would love to, um, hear from you about how do, how would you like to see it going forward?
Jim: Yeah, I, I wish, you know, my, my answer is that it's been slow. It's been, you know, change has been incremental. Um, I think there's been this, there's a, you know, a certain amount of inertia in any, any organization where, unless there's a burning platform, um, people are sort of reluctant to change.
You know, we, we see signs of. Organizations and individuals embracing technology, but usually on a, on a point basis. So it's, they're, they're using apps to order parts or they're, they're starting, you know, more recently starting to leverage, um, advanced, um, inventory management capabilities through platforms like Service Channel that maybe five years ago they, you know, they sort of ignored or neglected.
So we we're starting to see change that way. Um, I think the, the pandemic. You know, and we will look back at a certain point and we'll say this was an inflection point. I think the, the idea of, um, treating technology as a nice to have, uh, is going away. It, it's, it's becoming very quickly mission critical and, and a must have.
And it's not about, about whether or not, you know, you should or shouldn't do it. It's about survival because. These problems we're talking about, and these challenges aren't going away, and other organizations are embracing them, and so that makes them that much more competitive and you can't, and you can't stand still anymore.
I'd like to say that the last 10 years that, you know, there was a whole lot of progress. Uh, not nearly as much as I would've liked, but, um, I think what we're seeing at least anecdotally, anecdotally over the last couple years is the demand for, you know, a supply chain solutions. That the fact that parts are front of mind, the embracement of technology.
I think we're starting to see more and more. So I'm, I'm, uh, optimistic and, and very hopeful about the future and, and where we're. So Jim,
Sid: you know, when you look at what's going on today with, you know, the different kinds of businesses, restaurants, retail, um, there's a lot of, you know, advanced, uh, machinery, robotics that's being used to, first of all, like, you know, make sure that they're ahead and are able to address the labor shortage, but also repurpose the, the labor they have today to bring them from back of house to front of house and have them be in front of the customer.
Any arising trends that you are seeing on your side and how that would impact, um, you know, the whole parts, supplies and supply chain? Um,
Jim: motion. Yeah, it is interesting. It's gonna be a driver for the supply chain business. So what, what we saw before the pandemic and what we saw accelerate during and after the pandemic is this shift towards automation, uh, across almost every vertical.
And I think the, you know, the tightening labor market that we're experiencing now is only gonna accelerate that shift. So as, as organizations begin to install more digitization and more automation, those systems, you know, are inherently, um, mission critical. And so when that system goes down, because a part's bad or a part's effective or or whatnot, you can't throw labor at it, right?
So you, you have to have those parts available in order for that, that that asset to become operational again. So organizations need to think. Differently about, you know, their parts supply chain and, and what are they gonna do from a supply perspective? What are they gonna do from a safety stock perspective?
What are they gonna do from a, a, a technician training perspective? All of those things, you know, kind of fit into this. Sort of new world. And in that new world, I don't, I don't see it slowing down. I think it's gonna accelerate even further. Uh, I don't know that we'll ever get to a hundred percent, you know, automated facilities.
Um, but I think we're gonna get close. There was, um, a friend, a friend of mine in the industry sent me a, a deck that was presented by a consultant from McKinsey earlier this week at a, at a conference. And the, the theme was the future of the retail store. And that's just one vertical that they're looking at.
The technology that's already here, that's already mainstream. That's right. You know, it hasn't really been embraced, you know, completely, but when it is, it's gonna have a transformative effect on the shopper experience and on the operations of those stores, but also downstream as it relates to us in the maintenance world.
So it's, it's a really exciting time to be in this business. Um, a little scary too, if you're not keeping pace.
Sid: That's right. That's right. We have to all adapt and keep pace and try to stay ahead of it. Right. Any advice, uh, or final words of wisdom for the folks in our audience who might be in different stages of maturity within the facilities, programs or, um, are having all sorts of different challenges within their own, own organiz?
Jim: Yeah, it's, you know, I think the, the first thing is really, it's just sort of acceptance that, that what we're starting to experience, what we've been experiencing from a technology standpoint has been disruptive, to say the least. And everything that I'm seeing, reading, hearing says that that is not gonna change.
If anything, it's gonna accelerate and it's impossible for one person, one organization, to go it alone. So, I, I think the, the, the theme going forward has to be collabo. And people need to be willing to collaborate. They need to be willing to, to, um, network. And that that requires a, you know, a certain level of humility to admit that you don't know what you don't know.
Um, but that best practice sharing, you know, things like this, this podcast that you're hosting, I think is a, is a great, um, example of what can be done and, and how we can get best practices out there. Share lessons learned, you know, share the things not to do. Of course. Um, I think the other thing is be curious.
Explore, do some experiments, take some risks. You know, obviously you don't want to be, uh, take, um, uncalculated risks. You want to, you want to have, you know, some, some, um, some mitigations in place, but you, you gotta be willing to fail.
Sid: Well, Jim, this is a great conversation. Really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time today.
Jim, can you tell the audience where they can find you? Yeah.
Jim: First said thank you. I I really enjoyed the conversation and, and, uh, appreciate the opportunity to sort of share my perspective with your audience. Um, best place to get me is on LinkedIn. It's Jim, uh, Owens, o w e n s, and the company is SDI. And, you know, anything that I shared today, I'm happy to have conversations with anyone who's, who wants to have discussions.
I, I love to, um, have, you know, explore and, and, you know, share best practices and, and build my network. So by all means, please reach out. That's
Sid: perfect. Well, thank you again, Jim. Really appreciate it. Thank you. And to all in our audience, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time. Thank. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar and for subscribing to our podcast.
We truly appreciate it. If you enjoyed this conversation and have thoughts, comments, or questions, be sure to follow Service Channel on LinkedIn so you can be part of our community of like-minded folks as well as have access to a lot of other great content. Feel free to also connect and follow me on LinkedIn.
I'm your host Cichetti, and I'll see you on our next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar
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