Curtis Spencer of IMS Worldwide joins Tom Raftery to examine when US foreign trade zones protect sourcing flexibility, and how customs compliance, supplier data and implementation costs affect the business case.

Artificial intelligence promises to accelerate supply chain operations, but automating execution does not automatically improve decision-making. In a recent episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Elon Salfati, CEO of Salfati Group, about the organisational changes, governance requirements and operational constraints that determine whether AI agents deliver measurable value. Their conversation examines why successful adoption depends less o

A missed outbound shipment may originate in a warehouse aisle or trailer yard long before the delivery window closes. In the latest episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Phil Newsome, Chief Operating Officer at Lazer Logistics, and Todd Boone, Vice President, North America at Dexory, about the operational disconnect between warehouse inventory and trailer movements. Their discussion examines how incomplete information, physical congestion

Supply chain forecasting is becoming more sophisticated, but better predictions do not necessarily produce better operational decisions. In the latest episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Benji Price, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Wild Ducks, about the gap between forecasting accuracy and operational responsiveness. Their discussion examines how fragmented data, misaligned incentives and rigid planning systems contribute to exc

As supply chains adopt AI agents and more autonomous decision-making, a long-standing weakness in enterprise data is becoming harder to ignore: many systems have worked because people quietly supplied the context, judgement and restraint that the data itself lacked. In episode 144 of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Sagar Paul, Chief Revenue and Growth Officer at The Modern Data Company, about what happens when those human corrections are remov

The latest Resilient Supply Chain Podcast examines a problem many organisations now face: having more operational data without necessarily making better decisions. Host Tom Raftery is joined by Scott DeGroot, Executive Director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee, and Keith La Londe, Vice President of Systems at PathGuide Technologies. The discussion focuses on the disconnect between enterprise planning systems and warehouse-floor execution, an

Supply chain disruption is usually associated with ports, suppliers, transport capacity or geopolitical shocks. Episode 143 of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, hosted by Tom Raftery, examines a less visible source of operational risk: the spreadsheets, document hand-offs and improvised processes connecting formal systems. Guest Patrick Van Hull, now an Agentic Operations Consultant at Salesforce and an Industry Consultant at Tungsten Automation when the conversation was re

The latest roundtable edition of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, hosted by Tom Raftery, examines why better visibility does not automatically produce better operational performance. Raftery is 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. The discussion focuses on the gap between seeing what is happening across warehouse, yard and transport operations, and havin

AI systems can deliver impressive performance while leaving organisations exposed at precisely the moments when failure matters most. In episode 142 of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Josh Gould, Group CEO of The Big Word, about the operational boundary between automation and human judgement. The discussion examines why AI performance should be judged by what happens in exceptional, high-consequence cases rather than average success rates alon

Workforce planning is often treated as an HR responsibility, but its consequences are operational: missed shifts can mean lost throughput, delayed orders, higher churn and, ultimately, lost customers. In the latest Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with James Terry, Head of Revenue at Indeed Flex, about the trade-offs involved in matching labour capacity to volatile supply chain demand. Terry brings more than 15 years of staffing and workforce management

For many importers, the most expensive supply chain disruptions no longer begin in the middle of the ocean. They begin after the container reaches the port. A shipment arrives on schedule, clears discharge, and appears to be moving normally. Then the warehouse receiving window shifts. The drayage carrier cannot secure a new appointment quickly enough. Containers sit at the terminal while warehouse teams, transportation planners, and carriers exchange emails and spreadsheets t

The latest episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast examines a growing problem in digital supply chain investment: organisations can see more of their networks without necessarily making better decisions. Host Tom Raftery is joined by Lara Schilling, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Technical University of Denmark, and Professor Stefan Seuring of the University of Kassel, whose research analysed 52 podcast conversations on digital technology and sust

Yard management continues to expose one of the most persistent operational bottlenecks in modern logistics. Despite heavy investments in transportation management systems, warehouse automation, and advanced forecasting tools, many facilities still rely on fragmented visibility and manual processes at the physical point where inbound trailers, outbound loads, dock scheduling, labor, and inventory converge. Execution gaps here quickly cascade into broader network disruptions, a

Food waste is often framed as a sustainability problem, but its causes lie deep within operational decision-making. In the latest Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Olaf van der Veen, co-founder of Orbisk, about how forecasting, procurement, inventory practices and process design shape waste in commercial kitchens. Their conversation examines the tension between maintaining customer choice and controlling the cost of excess capacity. For supply chain

Heavy-equipment electrification is often framed as a battery problem, but the machinery consuming that electricity may be the more fundamental constraint. In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery speaks with Hiten Sonpal, CEO of RISE Robotics, about the relationship between machine efficiency, downtime, predictive maintenance and the gradual shift from analogue equipment towards digitally controlled and eventually semi-autonomous operations. For