00:01.96 bizzyweb Dave refresh my memory where did you what? what? where when did you get your car. 00:06.86 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well let's see it was right at the middle of the whole covered thing and right it I think it was black friday of 2020 so and yeah, it was. It was an adventure. No no, it was in um Philadelphia. 00:15.69 bizzyweb Yeah, and you got it from the dealer down the street right? It was in Philadelphia the city of brotherly love that's weird because about four months later I bought my car. Ah, my new car. 00:24.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yes, what. 00:31.22 bizzyweb Um, and I got mine in Northern Virginia why did you have to go all the way up to to Philadelphia. 00:31.52 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb It was the only 1 available trigby and I wanted it very badly. So I I decided just make the make the trip and I grabbed my father and we grabbed a plane ticket and we flew out and. 23 hours after we hopped on the plane we were home. 00:55.48 bizzyweb Yeah I had ah a similar thing I couldn't I couldn't find the car that I wanted I bought a hybrid so I get about thirty eight miles to the gallon in mine and I um couldn't find it anywhere. So finally I went to the dealership and I said you know I got my wife's approval and she said. 01:01.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And. 01:13.47 bizzyweb You know, just go get the car you want so sat down with a guy and I said okay, here's what I want and he kind of went well okay and he and he did. The worst thing you can ever have in a sales presentation. He turned the laptop around showed me the spreadsheet. They said there's a big dealership and they said you know you said I got 5 coming in in the next five months yeah msrp is the starting bid recently and it's like oh what this is ridiculous. Why is that he's like well you know the supply chain and I kind of nodded politely like I knew what I was talking. Oh sure. Yep supply chain and then um. 01:45.85 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, a. 01:48.60 bizzyweb In a sense that's happened and since you know you and I had to fly halfway across the country and drive our car back ah cars back cannon ball run style. Um, the supply chain comes up so much more in business. So I thought well let's let's find an expert and ask ah ask her some questions about it. So today. Our guest is. Emily Levasser from waypost advisors emily works with manufacturing and distribution clients primarily b two b she offers interim staffing solutions. Ah for things like resignations maternity leaves or temporary projects and she also helps. 02:06.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Like a Emily. 02:08.13 Emily LeVasseur I. 02:22.90 bizzyweb With supply chain improvements so things like managing their inventory cash flow working capital needs. Ah time shipment of goods transportation of raw material costs all sorts of good stuff. So thanks for joining us Emily. 02:36.10 Emily LeVasseur Thanks turg v for a shining introduction and it was definitely interesting to hear you and Dave talk about your car purchasing I'm ah I'm curious what kind of cars you guys are buying these days that you're chasing them around the country. 02:49.70 bizzyweb Dave what it? What do you what do you drive 02:51.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So mine is a very strange one. It's um, a audi RS 7 which is a 605 horse kind of crazy thing. So it's it's really fun. 02:56.42 Emily LeVasseur Okay. 03:05.37 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb But it was also very specialized so there were only like two of them in the country when I was looking near. 03:08.98 Emily LeVasseur Wow Wow. Okay. 03:11.25 bizzyweb And I drive a toyota rav 4 hybrid limited so it is it I get about forty miles to the gallon. But what I wanted out of my new car is I wanted leather seats because I have an eight year old 03:14.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Or i' read live easy. 03:17.31 Emily LeVasseur Hi. 03:29.78 bizzyweb And I wanted heated seats because I'm middle aged and I have a bad back and and I live in I live in Minnesota and so but that was a trick that I learned from a buddy of mine who you know during the summer if his back hurt. He'd tell his wife. He'd go to the grocery store and then he'd turn the air conditioning on high and turn his back with the seat warmer on. 03:34.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yes, yes. 03:34.64 Emily LeVasseur Um, and we live in Minnesota let's be honest. 03:47.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb 4 03:49.30 Emily LeVasseur Um, ah. 03:49.59 bizzyweb But the only place I could find it in the car that I have it's it's it's a deep red burgundy color and it's got tan interior and there were it was one of 5 that was made that year 03:58.83 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Excellent. Yeah. 04:01.62 Emily LeVasseur I'm fascinated by that guys because those are those are not you know, crazy collector vehicles that are super rare. You know and that which was what I was thinking when you were talking about it I mean those are. 04:05.34 bizzyweb Who. 04:05.76 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Coming to new. 04:12.28 bizzyweb Um, yeah. 04:12.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, yeah, yeah, and. 04:13.45 Emily LeVasseur I Mean they're special. Don't get me wrong but relatively standard type vehicles and that you experienced having to fly around the country to find what you want um, is a ah great example of our Hashtag supply chain problems. 04:19.43 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb He. 04:22.80 bizzyweb Yeah, yeah, and my my son even ah my I'll tell you this and then we can talk about what we wanted to talk about but my son sort of ruined my childhood. Ah, okay and that. 04:24.00 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Friend. 04:31.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah, we lost Emily up. No, she's back. 04:34.19 Emily LeVasseur Um, am I back did can you hear me. 04:37.66 bizzyweb Four thirty five. so yeah I was my son kind of ruined my but yeah, you're offline though? Yep, but you're not recording. 04:40.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb We can you hear us wait a minute. Are you there? Emily. 04:42.95 Emily LeVasseur I I'm here. Can you guys hear me and see me. 04:52.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh I can't hear her at all. 04:54.32 bizzyweb Let me pause so we and you know the funny thing about my car emily is my son just recently complete was 8 He completely ruined my childhood I sat sat him down and we watched that couple episodes of night writer and so and then he and I went out to there is like oh what do you think of the show. He's like well. 05:13.32 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 05:13.54 bizzyweb And think it's boring like what are you talking about? this is a car that talks to you and he goes um your car talks to you dad and like yeah, but no, you don't understand that he kid had Tv screens. He's like well your car has a Tv screen. 05:21.70 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I. 05:32.29 bizzyweb Ah, but you don't understand he has like all the information in the world to help Michael fight crimeing he goes so Michael plugged his phone in and then it's like but he's got that cool watch where he can talk to the car and he literally reached over and pressed the bezel on my Apple watch and goes. 05:37.72 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb It is with. 05:50.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A liquid. 05:50.86 bizzyweb Serious start daddy's car right? So anyway, yeah I guess I guess driving a family car so you know Emily I I know all about the supply chain and I know every idiosyncrasy of it. But you know. 06:04.59 Emily LeVasseur Ah, right. 06:07.43 bizzyweb Since Dave's here why don't we start with the basics Kent what? what is that. 06:12.45 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Faint reacts If think. 06:16.30 Emily LeVasseur Um, you are a night rider. 06:21.63 Emily LeVasseur Yes. 06:28.11 Emily LeVasseur Um, life. 06:33.70 Emily LeVasseur Yeah for for Dave's benefit and for the benefit of our listeners. Yeah so I would define supply chain as obviously it's a physical movement of goods and all of the activities required for that to happen including the informational interchanges. So when I think of it. It starts with well it really starts with the planning process if that exists in a supply chain and this is sort of the this is the mathy sciencey nerdy piece of it that is a little bit more new. It's a younger portion of the supply chain. So this would be forecasting right? forecasting the demand. Would be supply planning understanding how we bring in material to satisfy our production and inventory needs. This would be inventory optimization setting setting our optimal stocking levels so that we're not spending an extensive amount of money on inventory but we have enough to overcome any of the um. Any of the variabilities that might cause us to need to chew in the stock and then capacity optimization particularly in a distribution and a manufacturing model the next piece then pushes into what are we going to buy and where are we going to get it from. So in supply chainy terms. We would call that sourcing where the material comes from procurement kind of the management of the categories in that and how we buy optimally and then the purchasing which is actually creating the purchase orders submitting it to suppliers and then. 08:04.77 Emily LeVasseur Manufacturing is actually a piece of the broader supply chain. So when ah when the materials come in. Um, you know they're going to get used in the production of an eventual finished good that then will be stored in a warehouse for a period of time and shipped to an end user a customer retailer whoever that is. 08:20.78 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Got it and so where did our car supply problems come in. You know what? what's happening in this in the news cycle right now that everybody's blaming the supply chain on missing vehicles and in late phones. 08:24.32 Emily LeVasseur And then eventually on to a consumer. So. It's all of those pieces from the planning to the purchasing to the production to the distribution and storage of it all the way driven by what essentially a consumer needs if we don't have consumers buy in stuff then the whole rest of the Upstream supply chain is. Generally not necessary. 08:58.47 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, great question Dave and I think at a high level what we're experiencing is just significant and completely unpredictable variability in the supply chains and I'm going to caveat that by saying the last. 3 to six months have started to cool off a little bit and we're getting back to periods of stability but certainly from March of Twenty twenty through we'll call it summer of 2022. What we've been living in is this unpredictability on both sides of the equation. 09:15.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb He. 09:28.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb 4 8 09:33.92 Emily LeVasseur And the two sides I'm speaking about are demand right? The need for the products and then supply the the ability to get them and Covid was an unprecedented time of variability on both sides. Demand went crazy and it moved all over the place for various reasons. Then we also basically had every possible constraint you could think of in terms of resourcing and labor for manufacturing and for the supply chain operations warehouses Ports vessel operations all of those different things and then our suppliers also had those same labor constraints and issues. So. 10:06.27 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here now. Hey. 10:09.23 Emily LeVasseur What happens then is we call it a lead time from the moment you place a purchase order until the moment product is delivered that time extended significantly. So the problem is if you have a normal eight week lead time and all of a sudden your eight week lead time extends to twelve weeks you are going to have. 10:11.76 bizzyweb So ah, how that how that affected the cars I think was that the car it wasn't that people couldn't buy car make cars. It was the the computer chips that went into. Ah, optimizing cars right? That's that's really what the the hiccup has been for most Auto manufacturers. 10:28.44 Emily LeVasseur Ah, four week gap where you are not going to have product if I'll just pause there. Yeah. 10:51.58 Emily LeVasseur Um, yeah, at the time that the period that you guys were talking about I mean you think of the thousands and thousands of components that go into the final finished good of an automobile. Many of those components were significantly disrupted. Ah the chips and the circuit boards being a couple of the big ones that continue to be problematic on a worldwide scale and we're certainly crunched at that time because of the limitations of that supply chain. Um. But there were many many other problematic components because I think what we don't often think about is as consumers is just all of these components that go into the things that we like circulate around the globe they come from different places around the world and a lot of times. They have to move from place to place. They're going to go from point a to point b and be assembled into a subassembly and then in that subassembly, they're going to move to somewhere else and they're going to be put into a larger subassembly and then they're going to be moved somewhere else. So you know we operate on this really global um on this really global scale and. 11:49.60 bizzyweb So and even it's before it gets to that Sometimes Raw materials are affected too right? Where component Manufacturers can't even build their the things to give to the people to build the thing. 12:01.32 Emily LeVasseur Any of the disruptions and particularly in the shipping industry were really highly impactful of that and impacted the lead time of the availability and the final delivery of your automobile. 12:15.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Me Hidden. Yeah. 12:19.30 Emily LeVasseur Absolutely. 12:19.33 bizzyweb Oh yeah, one. Ah. 12:27.80 Emily LeVasseur Absolutely um, we work a lot with food and beverage companies and there was a period in 2021 maybe kind of in the middle of the year for six months where they couldn't get aluminum I don't know if you guys are beer fans but you know there wasn't. 12:42.10 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh that. 12:44.20 Emily LeVasseur There was an issue with being able to get enough cans aluminum cans for beer. Um, there was an issue with being able to get little aluminum caps for bottles. You could get the glass bottles but you couldn't get the aluminum caps and then of course we have you know the issue. Um, okay, we might have to edit here. 12:46.60 bizzyweb The ice storm the 10 the the the Ted Cruz Memorial ah trip to Cancun. 12:47.55 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, and a fight right? right. 13:03.39 Emily LeVasseur What was the winter storm that went through Texas last year what did they call that. 13:10.89 Emily LeVasseur yeah um yeah I'll just describe it that way. Yes, exactly? Yeah, okay, so then of course we have you know the winter storm an unprecedented ice storm that hits Texas. 13:15.10 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh wow, Yeah me. 13:24.82 Emily LeVasseur Last year in 2021 and really significantly impacts oil refining and and plastic production right? Energy production and subsequent plastic production. So then there was a period where you couldn't get plastic components for things as simple as packaging right? So we had product but not packaging. Um. 13:25.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Unique. 13:33.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Wow. Okay, so we work with a lot of manufacturers of course and 1 of the common questions that we get are certainly 1 of the complaints is yes, we're having problems with this particular component or like you said packaging all the way back to any. 13:42.99 Emily LeVasseur Plastic resin worldwide has been an issue up until maybe the last 3 to six months that market has finally started to catch back up so there's all these things that we don't think about that go into building all these pieces and basically they were all in a chokehold for the last two years 13:51.23 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Different or any any kind of supply material can be affected. How can small manufacturers in particular kind of plan around some of these supply chain issues or you know are are there Good places for them to look if they run into a roadblock. 14:03.64 Emily LeVasseur Um. 14:10.27 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb With their supply chain. 14:14.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb He she. 14:30.60 Emily LeVasseur Um, me. 14:34.85 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, that's ah, it's a great question Dave and there are a lot of components to this. So I love that you used the optimal word in my opinion plan. How can small manufacturers plan around this and I think that it starts with the planning piece right? it's. 14:41.86 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, me. 14:51.78 Emily LeVasseur Almost impossible for your supply chain to have any hope of being proactive if it doesn't start with some sort of a demand-driven plan and that's that's a forecast right? and there are different methods for forecasting. But I Honestly think that what's most relevant at this point is. Leveraging your sales and your customer service teams or your engineering teams that are working with your customer or client base to understand what are your clients seeing in their markets in terms of their demand and how does that reflect to your customers or clients and what they're going to need. 15:14.58 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Me. 15:20.89 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 15:30.46 Emily LeVasseur And then that drives back everything a supply chain and an operational supply chain should be doing so I think that's my that's always my first recommendation to smaller companies especially because the the planning piece is kind of a younger discipline in supply chain and many companies. Either don't have that talent or just aren't even aware of how it should be structured so then from there once you have like essentially the question is what are we going to sell in the next six to twelve months to our best knowledge and ability. What are we going to be able to sell and then the other piece that I think. 15:51.26 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb He. 16:07.94 Emily LeVasseur I See a lot of falldown is pushing that back into the supply chain in a way that they actually are set up for success in being proactive rather than reactive. So here's a great example. It doesn't do a lot of good. 16:12.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Food Yeah, and. 16:24.65 Emily LeVasseur If marketing is going to put on a bogo by 1 get 1 sale and you're gonna anticipate a lift of 50% in your sales volumes if you're gonna plan that Bogo for two weeks out but it takes your supply chain eight weeks to actually get the inventory you need. That's. 16:29.44 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And. 16:42.12 bizzyweb That's one of the things that we talk to people all the time as we're trying to plan out a better source of sales and marketing alignment in a company is you know they say oh well, what would you like? Well we you know we'd like more leads. Okay, great if I give you a hundred leads. You can close tomorrow is that gonna. 16:43.51 Emily LeVasseur That's a big miss if you haven't thought that far out so really creating that cross-functional awareness with the sales and marketing teams of hang on a second. How are we stocked? What's our production capacity and what's our lead time to be able to buffer our inventories if we need to. 16:59.16 bizzyweb How how crushed are you going to be and they go Oh well I had really thought about that so growth for so being smart about your growth is absolutely it sounds like it is just as important in the front of the house as well as the execution model behind where you're following almost the same model of needing to forecast. 17:02.19 Emily LeVasseur And then we can start talking about promotional lifts. 17:16.89 bizzyweb Ah, what you need and then how to how to deliver it. So Emily what? Ah we we we kind of had some fun poking it at the car industry. But what are so and and you mentioned the interesting thing about plastics is as a consequence to the. 17:18.75 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here. 17:34.56 bizzyweb Texas issues in 2021 so what into other industries are being affected right now by supply chain issues. Her. 17:43.12 Emily LeVasseur Absolutely and. 18:04.36 Emily LeVasseur Ah, many industries it is getting better though guys I do want to make sure that the listener base is aware that things are loosening up quite a bit drivers of that being that demand. Consumer demand has cooled in the last couple of months for whatever the reason may be but it has cooled so um, purchasing is down production utilization is down in many sectors many sectors so it is helping but we really got caught on everything. 18:18.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And here. 18:29.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here. 18:37.36 Emily LeVasseur Up until about probably 3 to six months ago because of shipping constraints right? and the 2 so us-based specifically manufacturing and and consumer sales. We got really choked on containers right? Container has been a big challenge. 18:39.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb With it. 18:54.39 Emily LeVasseur And a couple of reasons for that being just the incredible amount of demand. Um, the springboard of demand that came loose after we got a little bit more comfortably through covid and then the other challenge really has been China and the 0 covered policy which. 19:02.12 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Wow. 19:10.79 Emily LeVasseur You know they have a couple of cases of covid in a very what would be a large city to me and they shut the whole city down so it really reduces their port through put capacity and 7 of the largest port of the 10 largest ports in the world are in China so that. 19:16.37 bizzyweb If. 19:23.24 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Hit. It is. 19:28.83 Emily LeVasseur That has been a huge problem as there's been a really big kind of back and forth in terms of the ability to move freight and then of course trucking trucking in the Us was a problem as well and I'm sure many of our listeners are well aware that trucking capacity is is and is going to be an issue for years to come because of the lack of drivers. 19:36.35 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb My old. 19:48.51 Emily LeVasseur And because of some of the regulations that have been enforced with good intention intention around safety but some of the regulations that have been enforced that limit a driver's ability to drive a number of hours. Um, again that wave is receding a bit right now because Demand is down and warehouses are full so shipments are down. 19:52.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Do you feel like with and and at the time of our recording we're in the second week of November going into 2022 here. So ah, the holiday season is fast approaching. Do you see another crush of you know, shipping problems and and trucking and and that kind of are there other big things that you see in the near-term future that might be impacted in the supply chain that our listeners might want to know about. 20:08.30 Emily LeVasseur But once we kind of spring back to a more normal level of consumerism. It's going to continue to be a problem. 20:22.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 20:25.80 Emily LeVasseur Yeah. 20:36.31 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I I. 20:39.81 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, so yes, there are always impending supply chain issues. They're different right now. So what I can tell you is from a consumer goods holiday perspective retailers brought in their holiday inventory six months ago because what happened in 202021 is they didn't bring their stuff in for enough in advance. So then it didn't get there in time so that that means that we should have better stock shelves for the items that we want. However, the flip side of that is that. 21:03.71 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 21:16.90 Emily LeVasseur A lot of sales have slowed in a lot of places so we have warehouses that are literally packed to the gills guys warehouses everywhere. You cannot find warehousing space right now because it's just stuffed full of everything and so the problem that that creates is. 21:31.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, yeah. 21:34.90 Emily LeVasseur It slows down the receipt of inbound containers and trucks. So I'm going to send a container to a warehouse and it's going to sit there for thirty days at this point waiting to be unloaded because there isn't warehouse capacity. So what that does is it ties up the container availability and more importantly. 21:51.19 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Turn. 21:53.93 Emily LeVasseur Chassis that they use to pull the containers around. So now you have trucks waiting for hours and hours at container in Inland and port container ports to pick up their containers. So there's still a lot of congestion. There is still a lot of trouble in those types of areas. 21:56.33 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A warning. 22:12.13 Emily LeVasseur And then compound that right now by the time this airs I'm not sure this will be relevant, but there's another potential railroad impending us railroad strike um that could go as early as December fifth I don't think it will um a railroad strike would be. 22:16.86 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Well. 22:28.89 Emily LeVasseur So detrimental to the economy and to so just to business and people in general that I think the government would step in and intervene there which they've done a couple of times with other potential railroad strike issues this late this year. But I mean that would be huge, almost everything. 22:30.83 bizzyweb So as things are backing up in warehouses which then Iss backing up the trucks which is then backing up the the boats which is done backing up what I'm interested is is sort of an interesting Ju juxtaposition with the idea that and consumer buying that. 22:46.41 Emily LeVasseur Has some component of being impacted by a rail whether directly or as a trickle-down effect that would be hugely impactful. 22:49.12 bizzyweb Ah, that inflation is getting so high and things are becoming even more expensive and is there a tipping point where somebody's got to clear out the way the warehouse. So then all of a sudden. There's an 80% off sale at tj max or how does when when does when does when's that inevitability come come into play. 23:15.49 Emily LeVasseur Um, you need. 23:18.54 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So you can see that. 23:24.76 Emily LeVasseur Um, yes. 23:28.82 Emily LeVasseur It did happen I forget what month it was maybe it was September or August even that Target announced a 90% dinger on their profits because they took a massive write down on their inventory because they just had so much and they needed to move it and you could see that at the store level. 23:37.32 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Forgive. 23:48.57 Emily LeVasseur Remember going to I have a 5 year old daughter and going to target to buy her some new little leggings that are normally $5 not a bit big expense right? But $5 pair of leggings had been marked down to $3 right like they're just trying to get stuff to move at this point and. 23:53.20 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb The. 23:56.66 bizzyweb So let let's maybe play this out and in in terms of a real case scenario. So um, when Covid hit I You know like everyone else rented the store and got toilet paper and there wasn't any but they were there empty store shelves and they said well we'll get it when we get it. 24:03.97 Emily LeVasseur So a lot of that is happening kind of across the board and I would I would continue to see prices on consumer goods fall even through the holiday season because they just want to move inventory. Um. 24:14.51 bizzyweb So what are some of the what why? Why didn't Why didn't we have toilet paper. Why did it take so long. Get toilet paper pack. 24:25.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb The I. 24:43.46 Emily LeVasseur Yeah I think the biggest thing on toilet paper was the run on demand right? Everybody had this panic moment of you know this is the classic story This panic moment of oh my goodness I may not be able to leave my house for a while I need to make sure I have toilet paper. 24:49.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah. 25:01.43 Emily LeVasseur Right? And so everybody went out looking to stock up on toilet paper and that's that variability that probably probably what happens with toilet paper is. It's a very very stable. What I call Pull Pattern right? The the purchasing is very very stable on an aggregate level right. 25:19.40 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Sure. So so basically ah set us any given store gets so many cases of toilet paper because people know that our the stores know this is about how much it's going to use but then all of a sudden everybody slapped up and and they're like oh my gosh we got it and it's not like it was a stomach flu. 25:19.52 Emily LeVasseur And now all of a sudden you're doing double or triple the volumes you're pulling your inventory down immediately. But that lead time to order new product for the for Charmin or whoever it is to order new product hasn't changed and in fact, it's extended So you've drawn down all your stocks and you don't have new stuff coming in for weeks now like. 25:26.70 bizzyweb And that's their forecasting. 25:35.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb So I don't I Still don't know why toilet paper went crazy but it's It's just the wildest thing. But so all of a sudden everybody was asking for it and there's no like it's It's like a just in time kind of thing sort of isn't it with with supply on on that kind of consumer good or is it. 25:39.40 Emily LeVasseur That's it I mean that's where the toilet paper went and what happened. 25:46.46 Emily LeVasseur Yeah. 25:52.50 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, yeah. 25:54.95 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Just that it with those able. Yeah yeah trick. 26:15.00 Emily LeVasseur Yeah I don't think so it's not that type of thing is not just in time I would say there's there's inventory stock. You know I'll go back to my favorite again because we're in Minnesota Target has some stock of toilet paper right. 26:18.54 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah mean. 26:31.11 Emily LeVasseur And then the distributor who distributes that has a stock of toilet paper and then Charmin has their stock of toilet paper and and all those types of things so there is buffer stock in the entire supply chain. But there's only so much we don't have it. You can't keep infinite because if you think of it this way think of inventory this way I Love relating this to to. 26:31.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Me. 26:37.10 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? so. 26:45.60 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, brain um and they have to pay to store it? Yeah yeah. 26:49.26 Emily LeVasseur Ah, human being who may not work in supply chain if you're going to go buy more toilet paper you have to pay money for that right? You're spending now twice as much on toilet paper. That's just going to sit there a little bit longer and so a company has to do the same thing if they're going to increase Buffer stocks. They have to spend money then to increase those stocks that are just going to sit there on the possible future that they would need to sell a little bit extra so that costs a lot of money and they have to pay for it and move it and you get increased damages. There's all sorts of stuff that happens so there actually is an optimal. 27:19.22 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And that's where waypost comes in right. 27:19.55 bizzyweb I. 27:25.32 Emily LeVasseur Mathematically statistically optimal stocking level based on some different parameters that many companies try to operate that way so that they're not overextending themselves on their their working capital their cash flow. 27:27.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You. 27:31.22 bizzyweb So like because I I don't like single play. It's just a thing I have so I I sketch this out a little and and loosely speaking because I'm really not an expert at this for toyt paper to get into my house. 27:38.90 Emily LeVasseur But they also have enough to overcome kind of normal fluctuations in demand we can help we can help companies understand what their optimal stocking levels are yes, that's actually 1 of my favorite studies to do so yeah. 27:48.23 bizzyweb Ah, it would have had to ah it started as a tree so there would have had to have been a a logger to cut it down a lawyerer to break it down and then it would have had to have been delivered on a truck to a milling factory which then would have pulped it in some way. Which then. So now we have a paper product of some kind now we have to take that raw material then and that's so we've talked talked about 3 different styles of people so far. The fourth is that has to be converted in some sort of ah manufacturing way into toilet paper. 28:13.22 Emily LeVasseur Make me the head is good. 28:26.11 Emily LeVasseur We had. 28:26.86 bizzyweb To play a course and then ah it has to be packaged which is if the the fifth different specialization then that has to be ah um, put into a warehouse for delivery then it has to be put into my store. 28:32.25 Emily LeVasseur A head. 28:39.33 Emily LeVasseur Okay. 28:42.78 bizzyweb For delivery and there's trucks along the way. So there's 9 steps in just something as simple as toilet paper. 28:53.82 bizzyweb Yeah, yeah. 29:04.36 Emily LeVasseur Here. 29:11.46 Emily LeVasseur At least if not more because there's probably a distributor somewhere in the middle there and then not only do you have to get to the store. So then the retail store has to receive it into their inventory and then they somehow have to get it out to their shelves. 29:13.81 bizzyweb So at waypoint advisors Emily what are some of the things that you are seeing that are sort of common fails that businesses are are hitting with this this kind of thing right now. What are what are some. What are the? What's the frequently asked issue question that you get, you're getting a lot of right now. 29:29.68 Emily LeVasseur And and that actually is a very challenging piece of the whole retail food and and consumer good retail distribution is just getting things moved out to the shelves. 29:36.37 bizzyweb Wait Post sorry wait post. 29:56.81 Emily LeVasseur Sure. Okay, so 2024. So um, way post way post advisors not waypoint. Yeah way post? Yeah ah okay so frequently asked questions the most frequent thing we're getting asked right now is about inventory and staffing. So almost all of our new clients that are reaching out at this point are saying I have too much inventory. My warehouses are overwhelmed. My production operations are overwhelmed I'm seeing ah an incredible amount of scrap. How do I fix this. And that goes back to really understanding. What are those drivers of the inventory. What does the forecast look like what is the lead time look like what is your purchasing team doing is your purchasing team. Well connected enough to what your inventory levels should be to make the right decisions and do they have the data in information to do so. And think the second biggest thing that we're getting questions on right now. Um, and again we're in the second week of November and we just saw a rate height by the fed and we're seeing some inflation numbers that are coming down and we're seeing a lot of layoff information coming out but up to this point. 30:58.18 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, who. 31:05.50 Emily LeVasseur It's been taking a hundred at least in in the upper midwest in the twin cities area. It's been taking one hundred plus days to fill supply chain roles and more specifically supply chain manager director and above so purchasing sourcing planning. Whatever so the other. Question we get a lot is hey I can't have this role open for three to four months do you have someone who could step in and keep us moving and keep my team engaged and make sure that we're continuing to improve processes. Oh and by the way can you shed some light on how we could continue to improve processes and yes that is. 31:28.32 bizzyweb What are some of the industries that your clients are are in. You have to say the exact ones but you just what what kind of supply chain is issues are are you are you focusing on right now. 31:43.32 Emily LeVasseur Absolutely something that we do and we love to do and it has been a huge value for companies so that they're not just hanging back in the pocket for three or four months while they fill that role. 31:53.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Who. 31:57.23 Emily LeVasseur Um, fuden. 32:02.78 Emily LeVasseur Sure So our biggest ones and I think this is just kind of a factor of our our network and and where we're located physically but food and beverage is a big one for us food and beverage ingredients and you mentioned it in the beginning Trig V Thank you B Two B right? so. 32:06.12 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um. 32:19.66 Emily LeVasseur We tend to not do kind of the retail or direct to consumerer side. We we can but b 2 b and then um, almost fell off my chair there guys. Um and then medical device was another one that we got into early on and so we've seen a lot of activity around medical device. 32:36.91 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Amazing yet you you mentioned balloons is Helium really in short supply now. 32:37.20 Emily LeVasseur Then to be honest with you. The rest of it What we say is as long as it moves a product. So if there's a physical manufactured or distributed product. We can. We can be helpful in that space. We've done board games. We've done. 32:49.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb All right of course. Ah. 32:50.84 Emily LeVasseur Balloons We've done um towels we've done pots and pans. We've done clothing I mean we've done automotive. Um, so there's a lot of different places that we can play. 32:59.27 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Cook right. Sure sure and did that. 33:06.21 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, it it was I'm not super close to the helium market in the last we'll call it three months but I mean it it was in in very short supply and actually it was one of the biggest drivers of of. 33:09.90 bizzyweb You ukraine's big in Ukraine's big in the helium space or. 33:20.73 Emily LeVasseur Demand reduction for the balloon companies out there is they just haven't been able to get the helium they need and a lot of that that's geopolitical disruption right? A lot of that is coming from the conflict in Ukraine and Russia yeah. 33:24.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Wow. Okay, fascinating so still Putin is trying to ruin my kid's birthday party is what you're telling me that's terrible. Yeah well and that's that's one of the things that's really fascinating about all this is that it's not just the US. 33:26.58 bizzyweb How. 33:35.27 bizzyweb There's a if I. 33:39.40 Emily LeVasseur Yeah I think that that area of the globe um supplies if I'm not mistaken I don't have my statistics on this here guys but supplies the majority of the helium. Yeah yeah. 33:40.68 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb That we're talking about here I mean it is truly the entire world is interconnected now and so shipping and all of those things that come in when that evergreen blocked the canal and that that were the ever given it was so huge. It was like well it's just 1 boat but no it. 33:53.50 Emily LeVasseur I amongst other things Dave yeah. 33:59.81 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Cut off the entire it. It added like three months to the shipping times for things that were critical. 34:07.24 Emily LeVasseur Yes. 34:14.00 Emily LeVasseur Ever given. Yep. 34:15.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 34:19.93 Emily LeVasseur A. Okay. 34:25.65 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Ah, people. 34:29.91 Emily LeVasseur Yeah, absolutely and part of the issue with that is just how long it takes to get around the globe if you're not going through the suez canal right? So if you got to divert your ships around you know the horn of Africa or in other places it takes a really long time to get through there. 34:30.66 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb A. 34:43.29 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Me. 34:48.85 Emily LeVasseur Think one of my favorite examples guys and I doubt that consumers saw this because this was very much a b two b issue. Um, when the conflict in UKUkraine and Russia began and as it continued companies decided they didn't want to do business with the russian oligarchs right. 34:52.71 bizzyweb Yeah, yeah, yeah. 35:08.73 Emily LeVasseur So what? what we didn't realize is and Trig V when you were going through kind of like the steps to get toilet paper right to a consumer what you're talking about are the tiers. The tiers of a supply chain right? So there's There's Us. We're going to get our Product. We have our tier one who's the distributor that's sending us our product. Tier two would be well whoever is supplying the distributor tier three would be whoever is supplying the the wood pulp or the sorry the pult paper to the toilet paper production tier four would be whoever is bringing the wood pulp to the Plant. So Those are your different tiers. So What ended up being sort of true and interesting is. 35:46.49 bizzyweb Wow. 35:46.93 Emily LeVasseur A very large portion something to the effect of 80% of white paper food paper bag packaging so like a £50 bag of food starch. For example is packed in um, a 2 ply bag that has like corrugated paper on the inside and then white paper on the outside and then the logos are printed. 35:57.27 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Oh. 36:05.15 Emily LeVasseur Something like eighty eighty percent of that white paper was owned by russian oligarchs and so if you didn't want to do business with russian oligarchs anymore you didn't really have any other options because the other 20% came from China and there were some serious you know shipping constraints out of China. 36:06.36 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Wow Yeah I thought it was just seizing yachts. 36:13.32 bizzyweb This. 36:15.69 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? right? right? Oh my goodness. 36:22.54 Emily LeVasseur So a lot of food production suppliers were on their heels trying to find alternative solutions to that white paper bag issue and who would have um. 36:22.88 bizzyweb That's like the worst Fbi seizure ever ever. You know you're not taking down capone you walk into a warehouse that's full of paper bags. Yay we did it. 36:29.63 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Pro Oh my goodness get. 36:33.42 bizzyweb Oh yeah, that's true. So what? what steps emily can small businesses do to to do better and in incoming years 36:37.47 Emily LeVasseur But more more than that I mean maybe a little less important on the white paper bag side than a yacht. But yeah, absolutely. 36:55.22 Emily LeVasseur Ah, right? But worth so much money at one point earlier this year yeah 37:06.20 Emily LeVasseur Yeah I think great question trigby and I think back to that planning piece if if your business if you can't clearly answer the question of who's responsible for making sure that we're taking those consumer customer client insights. And driving them back through the supply chain in a way that helps us make better decisions. Um, if you can't answer that question then I think that's a good question to start asking is how do you mature your your supply chain planning organization then also the whole end to end and the second piece I would give to that is data. 37:27.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Now. 37:41.00 Emily LeVasseur How can you make sure that data and information are flowing through the organization as well. So that it isn't reliant on Bob going and talking to Marge to you know convey that message to the supply chain. 1 other thing I didn't mention that I think is really important is also making sure you're not getting caught on your heels. 37:47.59 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Row for roof. 38:00.72 Emily LeVasseur In terms of supplier management. So we would always recommend where possible that you have more than one supplier for a particular material right? So you're not beholden to them. 38:11.88 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Is. 38:12.88 Emily LeVasseur Those are the companies that got really caught on their heels in 2021 specifically with price increases or lack of product availability if they didn't have a qualified substitute now there are legitimate reasons you may not have a qualified substitute if it's a highly specialized material if you simply don't have the volume. 38:30.21 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb More different. 38:32.10 Emily LeVasseur Where it doesn't make sense to divide the volume. You do have between 2 suppliers. But then what I would suggest is making sure that your supplier management strategies match your needs. So if you have particularly highly specialized material or a critical material. 38:48.16 bizzyweb A. 38:48.49 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Thousand big pieces and. 38:50.20 Emily LeVasseur You don't get this material delivered when you need it every day your production facility is down that is a critical material. You need to make sure that you have a very strategic and tight relationship with that supplier that you're sharing information openly that they understand how critical they are to your operations. 39:02.56 bizzyweb Yeah. 39:06.39 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Yeah, right? um. 39:06.75 Emily LeVasseur Um, because you are beholden to them and they have the ability to really impact your business. So those those are probably the biggest pieces I would recommend. There are other things out there that I know Manufacturers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis that we don't have a good solution for manufacturing labor. 39:20.75 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Do. 39:26.66 Emily LeVasseur That's that's going to be a problem for a while and we can't help in that space necessarily apart from potentially being able to plan and our recommendation would also be to drive efficiencies at a plant and there's a lot of talk of automation at production facilities. 39:29.79 bizzyweb I Think one of the things we've seen in in that same space and in in the recruitment is um, you not don't don't sell the thing sell the results. So we we one of our recruiting companies that we worked with you know they. 39:42.24 Emily LeVasseur Um, that's not specifically our space I'm happy to talk to anyone about it. But um, you know those are just things that we're going to languish with a little bit for years to come. 39:45.51 bizzyweb 1 of the things we found is they what they blamed the website they were saying oh the website's not not functioning and we were like well no, it really is but they were putting up job posts that said something like ah you know second shift machinist in in and in white bear lake is like. 40:03.85 bizzyweb And that that was the job description is like well a how much does it pay. Yeah, why do I want to come work. 40:11.96 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb What's it like working there your website look like it's from 1983 why would I want to work at a company that I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to scrape on to stone tablets in order to work there out. Yeah. 40:20.67 bizzyweb So just even had a from from that sense I know you know this is primarily about supply chain. But we found just there's so much more context and what and in in selling the end result of you should come to work here because of. 40:23.70 Emily LeVasseur Um, and. 40:27.41 Emily LeVasseur Me. 40:36.97 Emily LeVasseur Ah, okay. 40:37.48 bizzyweb X that we just aren't seeing a lot of people doing because it's just so they're so ah, they're so strung out and they're going right into trying to get into just just come here. Just come here. Just no, you still got to sell it somehow. 40:48.77 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right? Emily is as we look at this from a planning perspective I think we talked a little bit of ago about you know if if you're trying to plan for the future. What do you need to know how about for a company that. Hasn't really given any serious thought to supply chain what kind of systems can they put in place or what kind of steps would you consider or or encourage them to try in order to start planning for supply chain and start taking it seriously like where do we start. 41:12.26 Emily LeVasseur Shame. 41:30.92 Emily LeVasseur My. 41:44.27 Emily LeVasseur yeah yeah I love that question Dave um, so my my answer based on observations is that a lot of smaller manufacturers have a supply chain that is very very tactical transactional reactive. 41:44.55 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Movie. 41:59.25 Emily LeVasseur And part of that is because a lot of times supply chain gets wrapped up under operations right? It falls under a C O O or a Vp of ops which is fine. That's not a critical point for me. But I think what's important is to start. 42:05.47 bizzyweb Yep I got it. 42:12.79 Emily LeVasseur Thinking about your supply chain as a critical capability to your to your business that needs a strategy it needs a leader that knows how to effectively take the team. Okay I'm pausing it's 37 oh 5 chose dave offline 42:31.94 Emily LeVasseur So thinking more strategically about the supply chain and what it needs to be for your company and where you need those capabilities to be and 1 of my favorite examples is so many people in supply chain get addicted to it I think because it's It's fun and it's a different challenge every day and it's I get to get in and figure out how to do this and it's high intensity and a lot of them are the types of folks that maybe didn't enjoy a different role in the business so they got dumped into a supply chain role right? but they don't necessarily have a background in it. They don't necessarily have a lot of. Um, different experiences. They just kind of got put there because they were willing to do it and my challenge to companies is to really kind of think differently about how you elevate your capabilities and your strategic thinking there because you might be shooting yourself in the foot a little bit on your execution by not thinking more strategically about your supply chain. Um, so enhancing those capabilities and I think from a system perspective. Great question there too. Dave is just how there are a lot of tools out there on different I'm going to use the term tier but I mean something different right. 43:43.46 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Here. 43:45.10 Emily LeVasseur There are a lot of tools out there generally called an Erp Enterprise resource planning system that will get you off of excel and will allow you to kind of tie together your whole business operations. Including giving you visibility to what we're purchasing how long it's taking to get it like what are our forecasts look like what are our pull patterns look like so you can make better decisions. Once you have those capabilities that you've built in your teams then you have the data and analytics. 44:07.94 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb In here. 44:11.75 Emily LeVasseur Use some buzz terms to actually make more insightful decisions on what you need to do and I would say don't overcomplicate it. Not every company should go out and buy Sap that is a very complicated system right? There are much simpler systems that are going to be a step change from recording data or not in excel. 44:23.82 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb In. 44:29.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 44:31.48 Emily LeVasseur That that are very easy to not very easy. Nothing's ever easy to implement but much easier to implement much more insightful and much less expensive without overcomplicating things. 44:47.72 Emily LeVasseur Snake. 44:55.89 Emily LeVasseur Um, for you. 45:08.15 Emily LeVasseur Um, yeah yeah I cannot answer the cost of an Erp implementation. What I will say is um, the minimum requirements for an Erp in my opinion and. 45:09.96 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb We. 45:16.13 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb We with that. 45:22.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Is there a continuum of like service. So if you start on a very small Erp or in a system where would you consider like the absolute table stakes like how how big of a Erp or what's what's a minimum investment that people should be ready. 45:23.80 Emily LeVasseur In any erap is going to be your finances and your order your order management right? So you need your customer service teams to be able to enter orders in the system you need to have visibility to inventory. So that you know the system connect that all out. Um, that's a minimum and then your finances need to flow through. So. Um, once it ships you got to trigger an invoice and there has to be some way for when payment comes in that that all gets tracked in the system. Those are those are table stakes on an yeah Erp I would say a table stake that I would say also is what's called material replenishment planning or Mrp and that's essentially the purchasing side of an yeah erp. 45:42.53 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb To to be spending in order to get an E Rp and then how much might it take to actually get that thing online because there's a lot of sunk costs that are involved in setting it up right? Yeah, um. 45:59.16 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And then sort here. 46:01.62 Emily LeVasseur So you can set up very basic parameters that will take here's what we have on order here's what we have an inventory here's the production plan I'll come back to the production plan piece and here's what we know of our order lead times and the system will trigger you to say this is what you need to buy and when particularly if you have. 46:08.58 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb April. 46:20.00 Emily LeVasseur A lot of skews and not so many buyers thousands of skews a couple of buyers you need that automation because it's not realistic to be reloading spreadsheets every single day and looking for which ones are running out two months from now. So I I would say the Mrp is also a table stake. 46:30.48 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Project. Yeah. 46:39.00 Emily LeVasseur The other 2 pieces that from a supply chain perspective I would also recommend is that planning piece. You can implement pieces. They're usually what's called like a bolt on it's not a standard yeah erp module but you can add them on. 46:40.85 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb E. 46:54.10 Emily LeVasseur But that's what will allow you to take in forecast information and pump that into the system. So. It's not just what we have on order. It's not just what we have in inventory and then we can also bring in what are our anticipated sales and forecasts and inventory stocking points that will then have the mrp system tell your buyers what they need to buy. And then last component of that which I would say approach with caution can be very valuable but in in my experience in 17 years I have seen a lot more companies struggle with implementing production planning modules than I have seen them be successful. 47:14.50 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Breath. 47:31.23 Emily LeVasseur But that would be the other piece of the equation right is not only what you have on order. Not only what you have on inventory. Not only what you are forecasting. Not only what your targeted stocking levels are but then let's bring in then let's bring in the production plan from the plant. 47:42.42 bizzyweb Well this all just sounds awful that there are dozens of people involved and dozens of plates spinning at any given time. 47:47.68 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, will. 47:49.66 Emily LeVasseur And then have that tell the buyers What to buy. You can get a lot more accuracy if all of that stuff is functioning correctly. Um you can get a lot more accuracy in your purchasing signals. But again the production planning piece depending on the business can be quite complicated. 47:54.40 bizzyweb Any that could fall at any time and you need to have a complete backup and all that all just so so that I can have my toilet paper with a little nice little red bear on it. Well I mean I think if anything's painfully evident of this is this is not for the amateur this is if if if this is something that is affecting your company. You need to have a higher level of expertise than just somebody an entry level person to do this kind of work. 48:26.47 Emily LeVasseur Some of us enjoy this stuff trig me. 48:28.19 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb It. 48:45.67 Emily LeVasseur I Really think that is the tip of the iceberg that and not to say that there isn't value in the entry level right? But if you're just gotten it out and reacting to everything then it's time to start thinking about how do you get the capabilities in place to not to enable you to be more. 48:46.15 bizzyweb Wow! All right? Well ah Dave and do you feel like you understand supply chain a little bit better now. 48:49.30 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb With it. 48:53.54 bizzyweb I I my head hurts too. Yeah, it's just that. 49:05.21 Emily LeVasseur Proactive than reactive for sure. 49:17.00 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 49:27.82 Emily LeVasseur Sure. Yeah, absolutely. 49:35.15 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb It just everything. 49:48.60 Emily LeVasseur Yeah I think all of those things and you know cautionary with the the consulting word I know that frequently puts people off but there there are a lot of ways to approach how you get better practices I know everybody likes to talk about How can we be? You know best in class or implement. Best practices. 49:49.62 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Why don't you. I don't know if I'm a pro but I sure I'm a whole lot smarter than I used to be which which is fantastic. Yeah, and that the the biggest thing that I'm taking away from from our chat Emily and again the the theme of our podcast right is dialing it in. 50:07.15 Emily LeVasseur How about we just go for better practices and let let that step change occur before we shoot for the moon in that case. Um, but yeah, it's It's definitely not for the faint of heart and it can be really really hard work. 50:09.30 bizzyweb Emily if if ah people feel like I feel which is just I'm just exhausted thinking about all this and thinking. thank thank god I know you? how can if you want to get ahold of you. What's the best for for help how how can they find you. 50:11.29 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb And there's a lot of knobs and dials in the supply chain and so planning and looking at alternative sources and making sure that you've got the right person in the seat and definitely hiring a consultant to help guide you along the way. 50:21.62 Emily LeVasseur But getting to that more planful proactive place is going to put a little less burden on the teams and make them feel a little bit more fulfilled in their work Shall we say. 50:28.34 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Are things that our clients should be thinking about. 50:37.43 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, believe. 50:44.16 Emily LeVasseur Sure so you can check us out on our web page at waypostadvisors.com we have a couple of buttons you can push there to contact us. They could also reach out to me at Emily L at waypostadvisors.com via email. 50:46.38 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb I. 50:54.74 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Will it. 50:59.23 bizzyweb Wow wow! No no just I want no yeah yes, yes, we are. We are the weakest links. So Emily thanks so much for joining us and thanks so much for giving us a good once over on what this is so. 51:01.46 Emily LeVasseur I could geek out on supply chain stuff all day long. So I always encourage people to call and have a conversation and you know we can share a lot about what we're seeing in terms of practices with our clients and what we know that might be helpful. Um, by the way guys I mean. 51:10.54 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Right. 51:17.31 Emily LeVasseur If you're looking for a job I'd be happy to work with you at any point because you're half experts now so give yourself some credit. 51:18.70 bizzyweb And again if anybody is looking to find her. Ah you can find her in the show notes and as she said at waypostadvisors.com 51:48.50 Emily LeVasseur Thanks guys, Really appreciate the time great conversation and I'm glad you both got your cars. 51:52.81 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb You don't have any help coach. 52:06.80 Dave Meyer_ BizzyWeb Um, row we would be the weak links in the supply chain. How that yeah.