How Would You Explain Supply Chain Management to a First Grader?
Supply chain management = how your Pokemon cards go from pulp, to paper, to showing up in stores for your parents to buy.
–Brian Malinowski
SVP, Business Development,
TA Services
Operation Santa Claus
Supply chain management is like Santa delivering gifts—every toy, every stop, perfectly planned and timed. Today, artificial intelligence is the elf that makes it all happen, knowing which sleigh to load, the fastest route, and who’s getting what before anyone asks. AI is the magic behind the scenes, ensuring every delivery feels like Christmas morning.
–Rajesh Asher
Associate Vice President – Business Development
Trigent Software
First, Santa listens to what kids want at the mall (customer service). Then, the elves buy what they need (raw materials), the elves make the toys (manufacturing), and then Santa delivers the toys to the children (transportation).
–Todd Bauman
Senior Supply Chain Director
Ascential Medical & Life Sciences
You’re turning 7 and having a birthday party. You need cake, balloons, and party hats. These are at different stores. Supply chain management makes sure the right people get the things you need from the different stores at the right time, so you’ll have everything you need for your party.
–Scott Sangster
General Manager, Global Logistics Service Providers
Descartes Systems Group
It’s like a big adventure. Supply chain management is the way things we need, like toys or food, are made and brought to us.
–Nick Osbern
President
Shipstore
Say you want a cookie, but you don’t have all the stuff to make it. Here’s how it works:
• A farmer grows wheat for flour, gets eggs from chickens, and milk from cows.
• A factory turns milk into butter and wheat into flour. Another makes sugar and chocolate chips.
• Trucks bring the ingredients to the store.
• You buy the ingredients and bring them home.
• Now the cookies can be baked!
–Josh Dunham
CEO and Co-founder
Reveel
Think about that toy car you love playing with. There are a lot of people who help build that toy car. Someone builds the wheels, the body of the car, and someone even paints that toy car. Supply chain management is making sure all of those helpers work together so you can get a toy car when you want it.
–Jeff Goins
Director, Carrier Sales
Circle Logistics
It’s like running a race. Sometimes, you’re running with the wind, and sometimes you’re running against the wind, but the goal is to always keep moving no matter how difficult it is.
–Bill Heaney
Chief Commercial Officer
Odyssey Logistics
Picture a candy factory—supply chain managers help make sure the factory has all the sugar, chocolate, and boxes it needs, but no more than it needs. They also make sure the candy gets to you in time for Valentine’s Day.
–Brian Dean
President, Managed Transportation
RXO
Imagine making a delicious pizza. The supply chain is like all the steps to get the ingredients to you: growing the wheat for the dough, raising the cows for the cheese, and bringing them all to the pizzeria. Logistics is how those ingredients get there—the trucks that carry the cheese, the boats that bring the tomatoes, and ensuring everything arrives on time.
–Jason Minghini
Senior Vice President,
Supply Chain Solutions
Kenco
Think of planting a garden. You need seeds, water, and soil. But you don’t have everything, so you ask a friend to bring the seeds, a friend to bring water, and another to bring soil. But, there is a specific order: soil, seeds, water. Supply chain management is being the person in charge of making sure everyone brings the right stuff at the right time so the garden can grow.
–Jeffery Benore
President and CEO
Benore Logistic Systems, Inc.
Supply chain management is like making a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich. Farmers grow nuts, berries, and grains; factories turn them into peanut butter, jam, and bread; and trucks deliver them to stores where families buy them. The supply chain helps make sure we have all the things we need to eat and enjoy every day.
–Richard Howells
Vice President, ERP, Finance and Supply Chain
SAP
Imagine you’re building a Lego castle, but you need help getting all the right pieces. You ask one friend to give you some bricks, another to deliver the doors, and another to get some knights. Supply chain management is like being the boss, making sure the right pieces arrive on time and fit together perfectly to build something awesome.
–Ed Rusch
Chief Marketing Officer
Magaya
Riley and Alex want to make their friend, Robin, happy. Riley gets paper from the cupboard and crayons from the drawer, takes them to Alex at the table who gets creative, drawing a picture. Alex gives the artwork to Robin and they smile! Riley and Alex just managed a small supply chain (and they made their friend happy!).
–Jim Heide
Chief Operating Officer
Loadsure
You and your friends visit the biggest toy store in the world. You get to play with any toy and take your favorite home. Supply chain management is the magic that ensures all the toys are made, delivered, and ready for you and your friends to enjoy.
–Stephen Dombroski
Director, Consumer Markets,
QAD, Inc.
Think of ice cream. Ice cream flavors are stored in a big building called a warehouse, ice cream truck drivers stop by the warehouse to get all of the flavors displayed on their truck, and they take the flavors to individual neighborhoods to be sold to people there. Supply chain management means getting the right flavors (products) from where they are made to you in a quick and organized way.
–Sankalp Arora
CEO & Co-Founder
Gather AI
Supply chain management is like getting your favorite toy to your house. First, someone makes the toy, then it’s put on a truck or ship to travel to a store or your home. People work together to ensure the toy arrives on time, without breaking, and at the right price. It’s all about teamwork and moving things from one place to another!
–Iryna Stepchenko
Content Manager
Adexin
Pretend your bicycle has a flat tire. Your dad removes the leaky tube and then drives you into town to buy a brand-new one, but the two stores you try don’t have what you need. When you get home, you ask your mom to order a new tube online. When the tube arrives, you finish fixing your bike. Supply chain management is making sure everything you need to fix your bike is available when you need it.
–Eric Allais
President & CEO
PathGuide Technologies
It’s about making sure all your ingredients—flour, sugar, and chocolate chips—arrive at your kitchen on time. It’s the process that guarantees you can bake cookies and share them with friends.
–Jason Raper
Board of Advisors
Logic Pallet
Supply chain management is like a team working together to get things from one place to another. Imagine you want a toy. First, the toy is made in a factory. Then, it rides on trucks, boats, or planes to get to a store. Finally, it waits for you to come and buy it. Lots of people make sure everything moves smoothly so you can get your toy on time!
–Jennifer Chew
VP-Solutions and Consulting
Bristlecone
It’s everything it takes to make and send a toy to you. First, we need to get the parts. Then, we need a factory to put the parts together. We might keep the toy at the factory for a while if you don’t want it yet. When you want it, we will put your toy on a truck and send it to you or to a toy store near you for your mom and dad to pick up.
–Tracey Smith
President
Numerical Insights LLC
Supply chains connect people and the things they create. For example, if you make a car with your Legos and want to send it to a friend in another country, supply chains help to move the Legos from you to your friend sometimes on a boat, plane, train, or truck.
–Jason Merz
Regional Director – Northeast
PSA BDP
Supply chain management is like being the boss of a big treasure hunt. Imagine you want to build a toy car. First, you need to find all the pieces, the wheels, and the plastic. Then, you send those pieces to a factory to put the toy together. Then you pack it in a box and send it on a truck to a store. Supply chain management is the job of making sure all the pieces get where they need to go.
–Steven Henderson
CI Specialist
TA Services
Supply chain management is like putting together a giant puzzle. Each piece—ingredients for snacks, parts and boxes for toys, trucks for delivery, and people who make it all happen—has to fit perfectly. My job is to make sure no pieces are missing, everything connects smoothly, and the puzzle is finished on time so stores have what you need, exactly when you need it.
–Rodney Manzo
Founder and CEO
Anvyl
Supply chain management is like making a sandwich. First, the bread comes from a bakery, the peanut butter from a factory, and the jelly from a farm. Someone has to make sure all those things get to the store where your family can buy them. It’s about getting everything to the right place at the right time so you can enjoy your sandwich!
–Dennis Moon
COO
Roadie
Supply chain figures out how to get everything we need to make stuff to a factory at the right time to put together, then gets it sent out to the stores so that you can find the latest toy or your favorite snack.
–Joe Adamski
Senior Director
ProcureAbility
Logistics is like Santa on Christmas Eve. He has lots of toys and needs to figure out how to get all the toys to the right kids. It’s about making sure the toys go to the right place at the right time. They must get delivered before Christmas morning no matter the weather or what is happening in the world!
–Kelly Martinez
President
ePost Global
Supply chain management is like making a peanut butter and jam sandwich. First, you need bread, peanut butter, and jelly from the store (suppliers). Then, you spread them together (assembly). Finally, you put the sandwich on a plate and give it to someone to eat (delivery). It’s about getting the right stuff, putting it together, and making sure it gets to the person who wants it the most.
–Wesley Ekman
VP EMEA
CGS BlueCherry
Supply chain management is like making sure all the pieces of a puzzle come together to get something you need, like a toy or snack, to your house. It starts with making the parts, putting them together, and delivering them to a store or your doorstep. It’s a process with many steps working together to move things from creation to delivery.
–Jason Kasper
Senior Director of Product Marketing
Aras
Imagine you want a cookie. Before it gets to you, lots of different ingredients need to come together – flour, sugar, eggs, and chocolate chips. Each ingredient comes from somewhere different, and they all need to arrive at the bakery at just the right time.
The cookie captain makes sure this puzzle fits together, planning deliveries and getting cookies to stores on time.
–Nick Rakovsky
Founder & CEO
DataDocks
You want chocolate milk for lunch. First, a cow gives milk on a farm. Then, the milk is mixed with chocolate, poured into cartons, and shipped to the store by trucks. Supply chain management makes sure there’s enough chocolate to mix with the milk, enough cartons for the milk, and then enough chocolate milk on the shelf so everyone who wants it can enjoy it.
–Amanda Oren
VP, Industry Strategy, Grocery,
North America
RELEX Solutions