Transcript
Christine Barnhart (00:10)
Hello, wherever you are in the world, we are so glad that you joined us. I’m Christine Barnhart, your host for Supply Chain Unfiltered. This is where we provide a candid look at the challenges that supply chain professionals face and bring in forward thinkers and innovators to share their insights on the strategies, technologies, and collaborative efforts shaping the future of supply chain. So please take a minute before we get started and let us know where you’re located today. by posting in the chat. So me, I’m at home in Evansville, Indiana. I know two months in a row, who would have thought, but happy to actually see my husband and family and whatnot. So let me know where you’re at. We’d love to give you a shout out. So we have an action packed agenda this morning, super excited about our guest. So we’re not gonna waste any time. We’re gonna pull him right on into the podcast. Welcome Philip. We are so happy that you’re here this morning. Philip is the Chief Commercial and Markets Officer for OMP. So I would love for you to tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
Philip Vervloesem (01:23)
Well, thank you, Christine. Very excited to be here as well. And just as you called out, today, luckily, I made it to Atlanta because I had a very delayed flight overnight. But I’m here in Atlanta, Georgia at our OMP Headquarters 2 in Georgia. So a little bit about myself. So in my role as Chief Commercial and Markets Officer, I cover and I am very passionate about the overall global commercial operations and expansion of OMP. And in that, I focus on the expansion into new markets, so new and emerging markets as well, like ANC, like Japan, Latam, and so forth. Also focusing on the business alliances that we go to market with and our technology ecosystem build as OMP and NulliG grow closer together as well. The OMP strategic community build, the Gartner connects with Zero Hundred as well, and overall just ensuring from a vision point of view that we are heading out to the right direction and fuel the roadmap and the vision globally in all of the industries. But to me, look just as you passionate about exploration, discovery and new worlds.
Christine Barnhart (02:38)
Yeah, I mean, think the first time I met you, you and I kind of hit it off because we both like this vision, that supply chain, right? Can solve the problems in the world, which I love. and I don’t know that our audience appreciates what your schedule is like. Philip is incredibly busy. So I appreciate you taking 30 minutes out of your day to do
Philip Vervloesem (03:04)
super happy about it. I know we had to plan it for a while, but I’m super happy about it. So thank you for giving the opportunity. Yes.
Christine Barnhart (03:11)
I love it. Looks like we have a pretty good crowd already on the podcast this morning. I see Pittsburgh, see Tennessee, I see Austin, Texas and Toronto, Canada. So we got the Americas covered. I find Philip that Europe tends to watch us on the replay. So we’ll get those statistics later. So let’s just jump right in. I would love to get your perspective, because you’ve been doing this a long time. How have things changed in the last year or two? And given what I’m going to call the current hyperdynamic geopolitical environment, how have things changed in the context in particular for supply chain and planning?
Philip Vervloesem (04:01)
Yeah, so I’ve been doing this now for just over 25 years and my first three, four years were actually out of Europe and the last 22 out of the US. It’s also good to see the difference between the regions and how to deal with supply chain challenges as well. And if I look at the last two, three, four years, I would say even just looking at the five years mark, it’s about overlapping with the start of the pandemic, right? And that just seems like a minute to go. And if I would summarize a couple of those changes to my perception is one of the keynote speakers at Gartner Orlando worded it quite well. He was Peter Hinson. He’s actually a Belgian who was speaking in Orlando for Gartner. He called it a poly crisis. Like he is like, well, from the pandemic, it led to more kind of constant stream of disruptions. which led us into the need to responding faster and faster to all of those events coming up. And that’s why concepts like decision-centric or insight-centric planning have become so big and also crossing more than just the enterprise wall. So that’s definitely one. The other one is the expectation of companies in driving or getting value out of a digital transformation. I feel, I know what you think, but I feel like the expectation is it needs to go faster. more incremental and often more in a self-funding way. I know if you feel the same way.
Christine Barnhart (05:31)
No, agreed, completely. I mean, my first big implementation was at me Johnson and we did an SAP implementation during our IPO. And it was, you know, more than $100 million investment. took, you know, like 22 months, which for a global SAP implementation is great, right? But you start to think about those numbers, the payback was like six or seven years. And I just don’t think companies have the appetite for that in today’s.
Philip Vervloesem (06:03)
Indeed, And next to the appetite, there’s also concepts like even look at three years ago, no one had heard it on true gen AI or even less about agentic. And now the expectation is rightfully so because a big bet is on productivity to embed those concepts more and the functionality more in every digital transformation and drive value. That to me is very, very key to take into account and just to build up. in the enterprise platform as well. And then maybe question to you as well, because we’re seeing that the boundaries of the enterprise are blurring out. for example, a supply chain planner is not looking anymore just at what’s happening in the manufacturing distribution operations of their logo or their company, but looking beyond that to suppliers. And that’s where we come in together as well, I think as a good compliment from an ecosystem point of view, right?
Christine Barnhart (06:57)
Yeah, it’s interesting. That concept right there is actually what drove me out of manufacturing and into technology, right? I had been a planner. And honestly, some wonderful tools out there, OMP does a great job. But it was like, I would make these investments in new business processes and a new tool, and I still had issues. And inevitably, when I would trace that back, it would be a material that didn’t make a truck. or an external manufacturer that started production late, so it got into the warehouse late. I’m one of the culprits, right? I can remember going into Whirlpool in the 90s and being one of the people going, this is not a core competency. We should move this to a third party, right? So we went from vertically integrated to… to having 20%, 30 % of what we did with third parties, unfortunately, I don’t think we thought about what the ramifications were in times of disruption, right? So when everything is predictable, it’s easy. But we don’t live in that reality now. Which brings me really to my next question. So what do you think the biggest challenges are right now? What’s keeping you up at night?
Philip Vervloesem (08:21)
Good point. I would say the biggest challenges I see and I am confronted to it on a daily base is one, making sure we put the right business priorities in every digital transformation. Just exactly because when we talk about fueling a business case, it’s about, okay, what are you going to drive through that? And what can I expect every six months out of it? Is that productivity? Is that better inventory turns? Is that better management of my assets is that supplier visibility. So really concretizing that early on and setting the right expectations there is one together with delivering faster, still not over promising, but delivering faster in a reality based way. That’s another important one. I see we so last month, just to put the context in on how important this and how big of a challenge it also is, that we had three innovation councils on how from a solution point of view, we can help driving a better level of adoption and adherence to the solution. So to make sure it’s not just used, but it’s optimally used. And it’s, let’s say, adhering to the level of autonomous that is expected as well. I those are some key ones. I wanted to make one more note is people ask me quite a bit about, well, what’s the importance still of green planning? Because sustainability was a top-of-mind priority for the board. two, three years ago, or even a year and a half ago, and then you had tariffs coming in and other so-called priorities. And if you were to ask, is sustainability and green planning still important? I answer, well, we see it still as dimension to take into account, but it is more balanced than it was before. It cannot be just driving decisions without being still profitable or without taking into account the other Cs like customer cash and cost.
Christine Barnhart (10:17)
Exactly. Yeah, I don’t think it’s, it’s not extraneous. It has to be part of how you do business. And, and I think, you know, what I’ve seen is kind of people, companies adopting the attitude where it, it’s just, it’s expected. It’s part of, it’s part of business as usual now, right? Like we want to minimize our impact to the environment. We want to minimize, you know, the material, the waste and, and, you know, things of that nature. So I would agree with you. And I think that’s exciting to see. It shouldn’t be extra. It should be part of how we run our business every day, right?
Philip Vervloesem (11:00)
Exactly, indeed.
Christine Barnhart (11:01)
No, I like that. I like that a lot. So like, are there things that you’re seeing in the industry in terms of like, are there critical changes that businesses are making that are, that are, you know, just really fundamentally different than what we saw, you know, three to five years ago?
Philip Vervloesem (11:20)
I would call out two big ones. One is the way of thinking, the global thinking and companies from a value chain point of view, not having a good evolution in not any more thinking in a siloed, more segmented way, but thinking, okay, how these global value streams will be affected by all of these disruptions and how can we build it in a more resilient way and see where we should localize, where we should… globalize more and so that global thinking, that change of mindset is definitely there. And I think there’s still an evolution to go through because there’s always some lead time to get it actually materialized. The other one is on yesterday, it was in a life science community event in New Jersey. And one of the key topics was I’ll talk about the planner or the user of solutions of the future. They’re very different expectations. And that role evolution is very important to one. recognize and prepare for, but also on the source and making sure that programs, universities, colleges work on that to be able to sync that up with the business roles that are in need. And that sync is, I believe, not entirely there yet.
Christine Barnhart (12:36)
would agree. I don’t think it’s well designed or well understood. I mean, I think right now a lot of the big even education, you know, kind of organizations like, you know, I’m on the board for the Association of Supply Chain Management. I work with supply chain leaders in action. And I think the question that we’re all asking is, well, how are young people really getting their education and where are they going? you know, deep dives in YouTube because the traditional learning model that maybe you or I used, does not seem to be, doesn’t seem to be effective right now.
Philip Vervloesem (13:17)
Exactly. And I think sometimes it’s a little bit of a trial and error as well. was talking to AstraZeneca yesterday, who’s trying out through avatars and snippets to form a training in a very different way, just to get people, younger force, more motivated and excited about working with solutions, working with processes and adhering to them as well.
Christine Barnhart (13:40)
Yeah, I will tell you, since I started using ChatGPT, I’m kind of addicted, right? where I would go out and just spend hours doing research and following an endless array of links, right? I go into ChatGPT. I’ve gotten much better at like wording my prompts to really give it the context that I want. And then, you know, it has, I know that it’s shaved at least 50%, 60%. of the time off just in that one case, right?
Philip Vervloesem (14:14)
Yeah, exactly. That’s part also of the, when you look at it from a value point of view, the productivity expectations that companies have, but even for us from a solution provider point of view, how fast new consultants can onboard into the role and how they can access documentation and training elements. so it’s already much faster. And now we just have to double it down on more advanced use cases as well to make their life easier.
Christine Barnhart (14:42)
So, mean, on that note, mean, based on what you’re seeing, how has the digitization journey evolved for your customers? mean, is it really different now or is it just faster?
Philip Vervloesem (14:59)
For sure. If I look at how we position it, see two big items. is quality is still for us, number one. We adhere to our five P’s, which are the values where the DNA is really in forging and building long-term partnerships. for example, P &G’s over almost 30 years partner with us, J &J is same. And to me, while the transformations themselves and new incremental scope extensions and so are running faster, that overarching umbrella of driving quality is still there. And to me, I’m most passionate about really seeing customers get value out of it and seeing that in, for example, the councils that we organize, the conference that we organize, and also learn, of course, from anything, any hurdles that are coming up on how to optimize their journeys and then covering the needs both from a tangible quantitative value point of view, but also from an unhappiness and being excited about working with the solution and the processes that were drawn out. So yes.
Christine Barnhart (16:05)
And I will say maybe a follow up, because I think we could do a whole session on your councils. I got a little behind the scenes last week with P &G on some of what’s happening within the innovation councils. And I will say, and I’ve worked for other technology companies, I think your model of bringing together these large stakeholder groups and really diving into what is the problem and Why aren’t we solving it? Right? I love that, Philip. I think it’s great.
Philip Vervloesem (16:38)
Yeah, that’s a good point. me, it’s also what is for me big in the innovation councils is having a representation from our core six industries that we call because while consumer goods might be more ahead in certain areas, maybe chemicals or life science or metals are more ahead in others like center of excellence buildup. And so and it’s good to see their peer sharing. And that’s also what they appreciate more and saying, OK, we didn’t expect that. So it’s good to talk to some peers about a topic that we might not be as much ahead in and that’s a good learning for us as well.
Christine Barnhart (17:14)
So for people in the audience that maybe haven’t heard the term before, and Gartner has kind of called it connected planning, which is kind of what Nulogy has been talking about. I think OMP, decision-centric planning, give the audience a bit of that. Like, what’s that definition from your perspective? What does it look like and why is it important?
Philip Vervloesem (17:36)
Yeah, and I would say many interpretations and definitions of connected planning, because if I ask what Nestle means with connected planning or J &J or General Mills, they will have slightly different meanings, But for to me and how we bring it forward to the community is that connected planning is a way of planning in an integrated way, both vertically and horizontally integrated. Vertically meaning blurring a bit the horizons from strategic to very execution operational and being more centric based on decisions, events, insights that are coming in. So that’s the vertical aspect. The horizontal aspect is where we together come in as well, is being able to connect more and more real time as well between, of course, sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution operations, syncing it up with the demand, of course, as well, but going there beyond the wall. from a sourcing point of view, for example, looking at the supplier connectivity and collaboration beyond the wall, so towards a tier one, a tier two suppliers and both, you mentioned earlier an example, both operationally. So in, let’s say, how do we respond? Do we respond if, for example, there is a batch declined or there is a truck delayed or a vessel delayed or so? So both agile and reactive based on what’s operationally happening, but also more strategic in understanding if in that region, will be hit by a certain percentage of tariff, how can we mitigate that? How can we build resilience for our alternative suppliers, for example, and working with visibility to their capacity reservations, to the contract management and so forth as well? That, to me, is really a true end-to-end and beyond end-to-end connected planning.
Christine Barnhart (19:24)
And it seems to me that, you know, I think when I think about like when I started in supply chain, we talked a lot about SNOP, right? And the monthly cycle, it seems to me that the technology now is to the point that we A, truly can do sales and operations execution, but we can blur the line between what is SNOP and what is SNOE because we have the technology to have that real time data, right? Or real time data.
which, know, when I, in 2008, when I went to meet Johnson, if I got an update from a supplier once a week or once every two weeks, like that was world-class, right? So it, and it’s interesting because I think that your tools have, they’ve been there for a long time. It’s been that multi-enterprise connectivity that’s, that was really missing in a lot of contexts.
Philip Vervloesem (20:23)
Yeah, it’s a combination of the multi enterprise connectivity and also exactly as you say, right, the lines are fading also from an approach and process point of view between, for example, as an OP and even sometimes between the network design and the strategic capacity management and the layers of as an op and as an OE. And with that you get into a mode of being more always on and more driven by decisions you have to take. But that also means and that’s why we built in the last year a complete new framework to be able to. run that more always on type of planning and on the fly run whatever amount of scenarios based on the US versus Canada. What are the tariffs that are likely coming up? Run all the scenarios and then when it actually plays out pick the one out of it that is best fit and make it also operational at that time. That’s key indeed.
Christine Barnhart (21:11)
Yes. It’s interesting when I talk to boomers and Gen Xers like myself, I tend to explain it as virtual vertical integration. like, you don’t want to own that asset, but you want to be able to manage it and plan it and execute it like you do own it. Right. And so I like the concept of blurring the lines.
Philip Vervloesem (21:33)
Exactly. And it’s what I would call like the extended visibility and management. Like you don’t indeed own the asset, but you have that level of visibility over it that you can make decisions, of course, in collaboration with, but anticipate much faster than when you’re in an open loop and you need to wait until feedback comes back and you’re basically too late to the facts to respond to an event or a disruption that’s happening in the test.
Christine Barnhart (21:57)
So I want you to get out your crystal ball for me here and tell me what lies ahead for supply chains from your perspective.
Philip Vervloesem (22:07)
What lies ahead for supply chains? One is what we already were talking about. think the two things, one collaboration between players in the market. So like from a client-supplier relation that that will get tighter in a tighter loop over time because while technology wise it’s possible. Sometimes you have other hurdles coming into play, like on the data security, on legal aspects and so forth, on sometimes regional aspects as well. So I think further optimizing and synchronizing that is key. What we also see between actually some of our customers that are collaborating and sometimes playing CMO for each other is to tighten the technology ecosystems between them as well and correctly complementing each other in that sense as well. And then of course, When you look at the buzzwords, agentic is a big one right now that everyone is talking about. For me, it’s the ability to use the right agents from a value use case point of view in automating planning more. And the role of the planner will be focused more on analytics, on validating, and on anticipating than just running numbers and interactively touching numbers.
Christine Barnhart (23:24)
I think for me, the promise there is there’s always been so much just non-value added activity gathering the data, cleansing the data, making sure that the data is what you want it to be, or even routine tasks that you’re like, god, this is so boring. I don’t want to do this. I love that the technology finally is there and people trust it. Because I think that’s the other key thing we didn’t talk about because There’s a lot of analysts out there that are like, in two years, you’re not going to recognize supply chain and manufacturing. I, maybe I’m jaded, but I don’t buy that, right? I’ve worked for a lot of big companies. Maybe the technology is capable, but I’m not sure people are capable of change that quickly. But I think we are in a paradigm shift. think people have gotten used to. managing their supercomputer, right, on a regular basis. So I am excited and I knew you would have to hit on AI because it’s just such an integral part of where everybody’s making investment.
Philip Vervloesem (24:32)
Yeah, and it’s also how fast and you can you can start running as well. Like last week I was in in Basel in one of the quantum computer facilities there and when they presented them some of the use cases cross not not just in supply chain planning, but you know beyond that and see like what the impact could be. We’re also testing with that mainly from an optimization point of view and you fast forward 5 to 10 years. I think the capabilities are infinite, right? So it’s nice to see.
Christine Barnhart (25:02)
So, I mean, I’m gonna ask you a pointed question. Why Nulaji, Phillip? Why is there a relationship between OMP and Nulaji?
Philip Vervloesem (25:11)
Yeah, I think the bottom line there is that based on what I mentioned earlier, the need for that multi enterprise planning and what we cannot do is have a easy consolidated integration with all these data parameters in real time coming from suppliers that are using different systems. So harmonizing that and creating that multi enterprise visibility to me, that’s where the one plus one is multi more than two for sure.
Christine Barnhart (25:37)
And I think it’s an area that our two companies missions align. Because you hit on this earlier about how do we start delivering value faster? And so Nulaji has made a ton of investments in Connect and our DAS solution and whatnot, really with this goal of how can we make it easier for suppliers and their customers? to connect to one another because it shouldn’t be difficult, right? It shouldn’t take weeks and a team of IT professionals to create that connectivity, right? Yeah. And look, I lived that when I was with Berry Plastics and nobody would be like, we got to make a change to the EDI. And you’re like, my God, do you know how complicated this is? So yeah, I love that we now live in the realm of like, low code, no code integration and APIs and whatnot. So we are actually almost out of time. So what is your one piece of advice that you would give the people listening to the podcast today?
Philip Vervloesem (26:51)
Well, my one piece of advice is when you, you you’ll hear AI as a term in all kinds of interpretations. What’s interesting is just last week, Gardner released one of the hype cycles, but specifically on AI and all its components and not all directly connected to supply chain planning, but it’s interesting to read through them and say, okay, pick out of those, the ones that to you are most valuable and create some pioneer and test cases. as soon as possible because having that embedded in planning and we provide it from a solution point of view, but you need to have also the right governance around it, the circle of expectations around it and so forth. So I think that’s one to really double down on, provide also the right resource investment of time into it and so forth. And that all supports the journey to more autonomous planning.
Christine Barnhart (27:47)
So how can folks connect with you, Philip? what’s the, because I can guarantee that we have a lot of questions that we didn’t get to answer today.
Philip Vervloesem (27:56)
Yeah, so the easiest is you can, of course, go to the website to understand more about OMP solution, Unison planning. And so you connect to me on LinkedIn as well. I’m quite agile in responding there. And I’ll provide also on that platform some other research work and e-books that we can provide to give some inspiration to you.
Christine Barnhart (28:14)
love it and when when’s your next event you got anything coming up?
Philip Vervloesem (28:18)
Let’s see, next event coming up is, well, we have a big event coming up towards end of year, which is our yearly conference under the real solutions, real results umbrella, which will take place at a quite inspiring place. It’s in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and that will be on the 18th and 19th of November. So anyone who would like to see me there.
Christine Barnhart (28:39)
It’s a great time to be in Florida too in mid-November.
Philip Vervloesem (28:44)
Yes, absolutely.
Christine Barnhart (28:47)
So the same would be true for me. LinkedIn is the best way to get in touch with me. I’m pretty good about responding to everybody as quickly as possible. We did have one question and we have one minute. So I’m gonna go ahead and I’m gonna ask you this question from Odetta. She wants to know how often you’ve seen working built-in like data series cleaning agents within planning systems and as well as optimization agents.
Philip Vervloesem (29:16)
I’ll answer first on the data cleansing or data management agents. We see that as I would say the fastest growing one. It’s under the umbrella of we have a function called data genie that’s focused just on the ability to agent-based assess data, synthesize or create some synthetic data where attributes are missing and make it visible also where there is inaccuracy, where there are gaps in data input and really take that on in a very pragmatic way. think when I look, for example, yesterday at some of our life science clients that were with us, what they call VUCA is the variability, uncertainty, and support of data. That was the key point where they need to also foresee their right ownership and resources for it to be able to handle that.
Christine Barnhart (30:04)
Perfect. Perfect. Okay, great. I’m glad we got one question in. If anybody has any additional questions, please reach out to either myself or Philip directly on LinkedIn and we will definitely get back to you. I, unfortunately, Philip, our 30 minutes is up. told you. Super fast. Thank you so much for being here. This has been delightful. And I can’t wait to see you again in the fall.
Philip Vervloesem (30:21)
No, it goes fast, right?
Christine Barnhart (30:34)
Hopefully you have a great summer.
Philip Vervloesem (30:36)
Well, you too, Christine.
Christine Barnhart (30:38)
Alrighty. So I would be remiss if we left this morning or this afternoon, depending upon where you are in the world. And I did not give a shout out to our show producer, Let’s Talk Supply Chain, and encourage you to take a look at the wonderful work that they’re doing to build up supply chain communities. So if you’re struggling to find a community of like-minded professionals where you can level up, network, learn about best practices from experts, look no further. Sarah and her team at Let’s Talk Supply Chain have created the Secret Society of Supply Chain to provide a safe space. They offer unique opportunities for everyone to connect and grow in three distinct and value-packed communities, the supply chainers, the women in supply chain, and the creative room. So do yourself a favor, head over, it’s kind of long, but it’s secretsocietyofsupplychain.com, pretty easy. to explore which community was made for you. I also need to thank our show sponsor Nulogy, an innovator in supply chain technology focused on decreasing the friction between suppliers and customers to everyone’s benefit through collaboration and synchronization. On that note, we must say goodbye, but I’m hopeful that we connect again in the future and everybody have a great summer and we’ll see you soon.
