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Daniel Most: Making the Pieces Fit
Daniel Most loves a good brainteaser. Give him a tough sudoku or a flood of orders from the stores he serves, with no obvious way to fit the goods on available trucks, and he’s a happy man. So when Most got a chance to test his logistics smarts in a global arena, he grabbed it. […]
Read MoreJoe Steffney: One for the Books
Examine Joe Steffney’s early career and a theme starts to emerge. He paid his way through college loading trailers for UPS. His first post-graduation job saw him supervising warehouse staff for Kmart. Then the story takes him to a series of distribution centers—Macmillan Publishing, Koen Books, Harcourt Brace, Houghton Mifflin, and Ingram Book Group. The […]
Read MoreJennifer Hughey: Cleaning Up
Jennifer Hughey wasn’t looking for a career in logistics. But somehow, it sucked her in. In 2003, Hughey was senior finance manager at Whirlpool Corp. when her former boss, Dan Clifford, recruited her to join him at The Eureka Company. Clifford, president of Eureka, now called Electrolux Home Care Products North America, wanted Hughey to […]
Read MoreCharles Graffeo, Sr.: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
Coffee drinkers in certain regions of the South should raise their cups in salute to Charles Graffeo, Sr. At Community Coffee Company in Baton Rouge, La., Graffeo is responsible for the whole process chain—purchasing, logistics, manufacturing, and distribution—that takes coffee from bean to cup. Graffeo joined Community Coffee in 2006 as general manager of manufacturing. […]
Read MoreBill Justus: Home Sweet Home
Throughout your industry, sales are down. But the cost of materials keeps going up, and those higher prices sure don’t help you draw in hordes of new customers. What to do? Get all your partners working together to drive costs out of the supply chain, says Bill Justus, vice president, supply chain services at David […]
Read MoreJames Bradley: Supply Chain Management is in His DNA
Is there a gene for supply chain management? If so, James Bradley must have it—his father worked in logistics and supply in the Air Force, and Bradley has been focused on the field since college. If scientists do discover such a gene, chances are they’ll be working with technology from Bradley’s employer, Affymetrix, a Santa […]
Read MoreSteve Schad: Navigating a Career in Supply Chain Management
As a college student studying business management, Steve Schad thought a lot about links, but not the ones in the supply chain. “I thought I’d be on the PGA tour,” says this avid golfer. “But that didn’t work out.” What did work out was a 30-year career in supply chain management and operations. And for […]
Read MoreShawn Surber: Going Whole Hog
Farmers feed the world, and Shawn Surber moves the feed. As logistics manager for Premier Feeds in Wilmington, Ohio, Surber coordinates ingredient flow into three feed plants and product delivery to distributors and farmers in his region. He manages a 26-truck fleet, occasionally hopping into the driver’s seat himself. When needed, he also lends a […]
Read MoreJose Flores: Zooming Right Along
On April 24, 2008, Jose Flores broke a record. That day marked his 45th year at Yamaha Corporation, and with that milestone he became the Japanese company’s longest-serving U.S. employee. Since Flores joined Yamaha in 1963, much of his work has had a strong logistics component. Currently, he’s administration manager in Yamaha Motor Corp. USA’s […]
Read MoreAutumn Bayles: Taking the Cake
Autumn Bayles has a big job, but it’s also a sweet one. Most people who grew up in the mid-Atlantic region know the Tastykake brand as a popular lunchbox staple. Bayles’ employer, the Tasty Baking Company, has been turning out snack-sized cakes and pies under that name in Philadelphia since 1914. During three tough years […]
Read MoreFred Clark: Just What the Doctor Ordered
In January 2003, Army sergeant Fred Clark was on leave at his home in Fort Hood, Texas, when his colonel called him into the office. Clark, a senior logistician, learned that the Army was moving him to a different unit, which would deploy to Kuwait in 10 days. For 48 hours, Clark and his new […]
Read MoreBarry Schap: Pumping It Up
The United States is expected to produce 13 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. Barry Schaps, senior vice president of logistics at VeraSun Energy in Brookings, S.D., moves most of that supply. By the end of this year, when it completes a merger with U.S. BioEnergy and opens some […]
Read MoreMichael Strauss: Putting Military Training On the Line
In the early 1990s, artillery officer Mike Strauss was leading an Army convoy down a German country road in the middle of the night when he got word of a breakdown three-quarters of the way back in line. The stopped vehicle blocked the road so completely that nothing behind it could squeeze past. One of […]
Read MoreKathy McCurry: A Wild New Ride
More people would swap their cars for motorcycles if only they knew what to wear. That’s the premise behind Classy Rider Apparel, a business that makes motorcycle jackets with mainstream appeal. In the five years she has been running Classy Rider as a one-woman operation, Kathy McCurry has learned to manage suppliers in China, coordinate […]
Read MoreJamie Meadows: He’s Got Your Back
Jamie Meadows was still completing his college degree when he reported for a summer job at ConAgra Foods in Newport, Tenn. The plant was adding a new ketchup production line and needed some reorganization. “The plant engineer called me into his office, threw a blueprint on the table, and said, ‘Design our warehouse,’” Meadows says. […]
Read MoreBethany Adamonis: Ready for the Real World
When Bethany Adamonis headed for her co-op job last January, she didn’t know a great deal about supply chain management, her college major. Up to that point, she’d taken only one course on the subject, an introductory class that was so theoretical she couldn’t see how the principles she learned would play out in the […]
Read MoreMelanie Foster: Raisin to Believe
Although Melanie Foster has lived in California’s Sacramento Valley all her life, her influence reaches around the globe. As distribution and transportation manager for Sunsweet Growers Inc., she is one of the people responsible for making sure that much of the world’s supply of prunes and other dried tree fruits reaches customers. “I handle all […]
Read MoreGreg Schwartz: Smooth Operator
In the smoothie business, hot weather is a blessing; as temperatures rise, so does demand. But when the sun blazes too long over peach orchards or berry fields, it may ruin the crops. Then, bringing in the fruit needed to whip up a perfect healthy drink becomes a complicated puzzle. That’s why Greg Schwartz, vice […]
Read MoreJim Calo: Under Armour’s Over Achiever
Active people look to Under Armour’s clothing, footwear, and sports gear to help them stay at the top of their game. Since last October, Jim Calo has been giving Under Armour a similar boost. As the Baltimore firm’s first chief supply chain officer, Calo spends much of his time with the operations team, scouting for […]
Read MoreNorbert Ore: The Creative Touch
When Norbert Ore looks back at his career, he recalls with special satisfaction a phase that started in 2001, when a job switch took him from Chesapeake Corp. to Georgia-Pacific (GP) LLC, Atlanta. His new position, the one he still holds today, was group director, strategic sourcing and procurement. Even for a supply chain veteran […]
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