Speaking of Supply Chain

Hosted by Miebach

BusinessInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

About the show

Welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain – your go-to podcast for real-world insights and forward-thinking strategies in logistics and operations. Whether you’re a supply chain leader, industry innovator, or operations professional, this show delivers expert perspectives and actionable ideas to help you stay ahead. Each episode dives into the most pressing challenges and exciting opportunities shaping the future of supply chain, from risk mitigation and automation to sustainability, digital transformation, and beyond. Featuring conversations with top minds in the industry, you'll gain the clarity and inspiration needed to navigate a rapidly evolving logistics landscape. Subscribe now and join us as we speak with the people who are shaping tomorrow’s supply chain.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 29, 2026Episode 8925 min

Swapping Lessons with the Next Generation

Ellen Wood talks with Lisa, Derrion and Jeremy, three Miebach consultants who came to the firm after careers in manufacturing, distribution, academia, WMS, and pharma. They explain why they made the switch and what they've had to learn since. Darian describes going back to training and feeling like a college freshman. Lisa, a former professor, shares how she coaches junior colleagues, and all three admit the new hires have taught them a lot about AI. They finish with what they wish they'd known when they started. In this episode: What Derrion learned about clients from years on the other side of consulting projects How Lisa helps junior colleagues work through a problem without leaving them stuck What happened when a group of analysts turned a multi-day task around in five minutes How Jeremy handles global clients and still keeps his evenings for family

October 15, 202622 min

The Classroom Can’t Teach You What a Client Will

School teaches you how to solve problems that sit still. Clients hand you problems where the numbers flip overnight and the answer is due tomorrow. In this episode, Ellen Wood is joined by three early-career Miebach consultants, Jack Ferletic, Mark Rapp, and Jennifer Gillman, to talk about what happens when theory meets the real world. They share what drew them to consulting, an overnight go-live where a new analyst had to win over a yard full of veterans, a first client project 20 hours away in South Africa, and why the best senior colleagues let you fail in the right places. They close with what they wish they’d known when they were picking a major. In this episode: • Why classroom problems are static and client problems never are, and how that changes the way you work • What it takes to convince experienced operators to trust a new system when you’re the youngest person on site • Why good mentors let you fail, and why an internal workshop is the place to do it, not a client call • Why no career door is ever fully closed, and why building relationships early matters more than the major you pick

October 1, 202647 min

Diversity Alone Will Not Fix Your Bench

Everyone talks about getting more women into supply chain. Almost nobody talks about what happens once they're in the room and the diversity has to also be the most qualified team on the project.That's the harder conversation, and it's the one three Miebach colleagues are willing to have. In this episode, Ellen Wood is joined by Sisi Ren, Diana Bocsanczy, and Christina Schuehle, recently honored with the 2026 Women in Supply Chain Award as a Rising Star, a Trailblazer, and a DE&I Pioneer. They talk about what it actually takes to be heard in a room that's still mostly men, why confidence gets built through preparation long before anyone hands it to you, and why a diverse team that isn't also a skilled team doesn't help the client or anyone else.In this episode: Why over-preparing for a client meeting is where real confidence comes from, not a personality trait Why treating diversity as a representation metric backfires, and what "qualified and diverse" actually requires What a "safety net" is and how mentors and managers build one for the people coming up behind them Why the real marker of progress is a room where nobody is counting who's in it anymore

September 17, 202635 min

Technology Alone Never Transforms a Supply Chain

Most planning transformations don't stall because the technology fails. They stall because nobody built the ecosystem around it.Every supply chain leader eventually asks the same question: why not just build this ourselves, or bolt together a few point solutions? In this episode, Christine Barnhart is joined by Chris Singerman, Global Commercial Alliances Manager at OMP, to talk about what actually separates a planning investment that pays off from one that quietly underdelivers. They get into why proof-of-concepts are shrinking, why AI is adding as much confusion as clarity right now, and why no single technology provider or consulting firm can carry a transformation alone, no matter how good the software is.In this episode: Why customers are demanding proof before trust and what that's doing to the sales cycle The real reason "why not build it ourselves" is the wrong question to ask How to tell whether a technology and consulting partnership is complementary or just crowded What separates incremental improvement from an actual transformation

September 3, 202638 min

There Is More Than One Definition of Success

Everyone is talking about what AI is going to automate out of supply chain. Far fewer are talking about what's actually left standing when it does.In this episode, Christine Barnhart is joined by Emilie Laliberte , Head of People Development for North America at Miebach, who moved from client-facing consulting into a role she pitched to the CEO herself because it didn't exist yet. Her argument is blunt, a consulting firm has three assets: reputation, client relationships, and people, and only one of them is a differentiator once every competitor has the same tools. She makes the case that employee experience and client experience aren't two scorecards but one, and that the qualities separating people who succeed from people who stall have almost nothing to do with technical depth.In this episode: Why the "one definition of success" for women in supply chain is the thing worth dismantling, not meeting What "high standard, low ego" actually looks like in a hiring decision and why it predicts who lasts The real learning curve for a 20-year practitioner moving into consulting, and what it isn't

August 20, 202630 min

Design the Process With the People in Mind

Everyone is talking about AI, analytics, and the next planning platform. Far fewer are talking about the reason two teams can sit in the same meeting, look at the same data, and walk out with completely different conclusions. Process design assumes people will read it the same way. They don't, and that gap is where most transformations quietly stall. In this episode, Christine Barnhart is joined by Eric Wilson of IBF, author of Beyond Borders, who spent a year on research and hundreds of global interviews after realizing his own S&OP framework was missing the layer underneath it. His argument: structure is necessary, but structure is not the same as inflexible, and the sequence most companies use: build the process, then hand it to the people, is backwards.In this episode: Why the number one missing skill in forecasting and S&OP isn't analytics, it's communication and business acumen What it means to design a process with people in mind, instead of designing one and assigning people to it Why trust is the golden thread across every cultural dimension and why "do I trust the person or the output" is a different question in every region Where the framework transfers beyond national culture, to generational and functional divides inside your own building

August 6, 202630 min

Building the Foundation for AI Success: Real Lessons from SCLA 2026

Everyone is talking about AI—but the biggest lesson from the Supply Chain Leaders in Action Conference wasn't about technology. It was about the leadership, trusted data, standardized processes, and cross-functional collaboration required to make AI successful. Christine Barnhart and Cate Davis reflect on the conversations, customer stories, and practical insights that emerged throughout the conference, sharing why organizations should focus on building strong operational foundations before chasing the next technology trend. If you're wondering how to move from AI experimentation to measurable business value, this episode offers practical guidance grounded in real-world supply chain experience.In this episode, you'll learn: Why AI capability is built through experimentation—not perfection. How leadership, governance, and trusted data determine AI success. What one participant's transformation reveals about building the right foundation. Why human expertise remains essential as AI becomes more embedded in supply chain planning.

July 9, 202648 min

Two Miebach Chiefs Read Between Gartner's Lines

Every system integrator, software vendor, and blue-sky strategy firm now calls itself a supply chain consultancy. Before you sign anything, it's worth asking who actually gets paid once you say yes. In this episode, Christine Barnhart is joined by Jorge Motje, Chief Growth Officer for Miebach globally, and Nick Banich, Chief Revenue Officer for Miebach North America, to dig into Gartner's first-ever Magic Quadrant for specialist supply chain consulting. They make the case that the real differentiator in a crowded market isn't AI or proprietary tooling - it's having zero financial stake in which system, vendor, or integrator a client ends up choosing. In This Episode: •Why the sharpest conflict of interest in consulting is the one most firms never say out loud •How a simple question about loading-dock space turns into a five-whys exercise that exposes a much bigger supply chain problem •What “outcome-oriented” actually means once you strip out the consulting jargon •Why thinking in decades and moving fast aren't actually in conflict — you just need both clocks running at once Interested in the report discussed in this episode? Get your copy here: https://bit.ly/4h9KG2d

June 18, 202611 min

Half of Outsourcing Projects Never Pay Off

For years, outsourcing came down to a cost decision. Run the numbers, pick a provider, move on. The easy math no longer holds: companies are outsourcing more than ever, and most of them still aren't happy with the result. In this episode, Ellen Wood sits down with Bernd Müller-Dauppert of Miebach, who co-authored the firm's new outsourcing study, Outsourcing Under Pressure. He makes the case that the real risk today isn't cost or quality. It's how dependent you become on a provider once the contract is signed. He also gets into why automation and data demands have changed the math, why only about half of these projects actually pay off, and what the companies that get it right do differently. In this episode: • Why dependence and the lock-in effect now rank as the single biggest outsourcing risk — well ahead of cost • How automation and data-quality demands quietly rewrite the economics of the outsource-or-not decision • Why most of a project’s success or failure is locked in before operations ever begin • When a hybrid model — insource what’s critical, outsource what scales — beats betting on either extreme

June 4, 202628 min

Automation Will Not Fix a Broken Process

Everyone is talking about warehouse automation. Far fewer are talking about whether they actually need it.The headlines suggest warehousing is racing toward dark stores, lights-out operations, and full robotics. The reality on the ground is quieter and a lot more careful. Companies are introducing automation in stages, weighing real labor and service pressures, and sometimes discovering that the smartest move is not to automate at all. Because if the underlying process is broken, automation just makes it fail faster.In this episode, Ellen Wood is joined by Sophie James from Miebach's UK team to cut through the noise around warehouse automation. They talk about why projects succeed or stall, the real cost of automating a process that has not been optimized first, why cross-functional alignment matters more than the technology choice, and how flexibility and scalability should shape any solution that has to outlast today's assumptions.In this episode: Why the hype around full warehouse automation does not match what is actually happening The cost of layering automation onto a process that has not been optimized When "do nothing" is the right answer and how to recognize it How 3PL versus owned operations change the automation calculus