Art of Supply

Kelly Barner, Art of Procurement
  • 5.0 (19)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

Art of Supply, hosted by Kelly Barner, draws inspiration from news headlines and expert interviews to bring you insightful coverage of today's complex supply chains.

  1. 4d ago

    Foreign-Trade Zones in a 20 Percent Tariff Environment

    "When the government starts collecting money as a tax, they don't normally give it back." — Curtis Spencer, CEO, IMS Worldwide For most of the last sixty years, the average U.S. tariff rate was two and a half percent. Duty was a rounding error, and import networks got designed accordingly.  Curtis Spencer, CEO of IMS Worldwide, says the floor is now 20 percent, and plenty of importers are still treating that like weather that will pass. He has spent more than four decades in foreign-trade zones. When he started, the United States had twelve of them. Customs is about to issue number 302. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner and Curtis Spencer discuss: - Why the business case for an FTZ went from 2- or 3-to-1 to 10-to-1 without the paperwork getting any harder -  What "substantial transformation" means now that customs is chasing country of origin into second- and third-tier suppliers -  The 1 percent of cases where a bonded warehouse beats a zone, and how to tell whether you are in it Links: Curtis Spencer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-spencer-0a553010/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  2. Aug 27

    The $604 Million Freight Broker Liability Verdict

    "C.H. Robinson does not employ drivers." - C.H. Robinson Chief Legal Officer Dorothy Capers This May, two courts drew a new line for freight brokerage liability. The U.S. Supreme Court stripped brokers of a federal defense they had leaned on for years. The Texas Supreme Court turned around and told Home Depot it wasn't liable for a fatal crash involving a carrier hauling its freight. Two companies, both a step removed from the truck. Opposite outcomes. The difference came down to control. And then, in July, a separate jury found that C.H. Robinson might be responsible for the actions of a driver that did not work for them, but a carrier they hired. In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers: - Why a jury decided the driver was C.H. Robinson's "borrowed employee," and how that turned 23% of the blame into 68% of the bill - What protected Home Depot, and how fast that protection disappears -  Why the industry's response could pull carriers out of the market you buy from, concentrating volume and raising prices Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  3. Aug 20

    What "Dignity of Work" Means for Supply Chain Operations W/ Robert Martichenko

    "You know, Robert, I have no expectation to ever be happy at work. I just hope to be a little less miserable."  That's the line from a restaurant server that Robert Martichenko, board chair of TrailPath Workplace Solutions and founder of the lean consultancy LeanCore, can't shake.  Operational supply chain roles aren't easy, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible for people to find dignity in their work. Hoping to be less miserable one day at a time does little for individual frontline workers, and it does even less for the company that employs them and the customers they serve. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Robert and Kelly Barner dig into what dignity means in the workplace, and why it is not the same thing as respect: - Why "respect for people" is the wrong frame, and what dignity actually requires - The four states TrailPath's research finds people in at work — and why nearly half of most workforces are declining or surviving, not growing or thriving - What the second law of thermodynamics has to do with your supply chain, and why chasing unit cost quietly cost procurement its relationships   Links: Robert Martichenko on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmartichenko/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  4. Aug 13

    The $285,000 Electric Truck Nobody Can Find

    In December of 2025, a $285,000 Windrose Technology electric semi-truck went missing. It still has not been found.  Reportedly, two mechanics who kept it running, Travis Waite and Harold Keller, left Windrose Technology owed a combined $91,000 in back wages, and (according to the company) are holding the truck until they are paid. That's not the strangest thing about Windrose Technology. It's just the most dramatic. Windrose is a Chinese-founded, Belgium-headquartered electric truck startup. It was founded in 2022 by Wen Han, a 36-year-old Stanford MBA and all-around colorful character.  By most independent accounts, the truck itself is good, but that does little to explain the public disputes with former employees.  Is this a well-engineered truck buried under a chaotic company with an eccentric founder or a company whose chaos is a preview of what may happen when production has to scale? In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: - Why a $285,000 electric truck is currently sitting somewhere nobody at Windrose can find, and why the two guys who allegedly know where it is aren't telling - How a truck built in China ended up with a VIN that says it was made in Georgia, and what that suggests about trucking safety compliance's dependence on the honor system - Why Nikola's pardoned, convicted founder made a lowball offer for the company, and why that story gets a lot more complicated once you see the actual trucks Windrose has on the road in Texas and Chile   Links: Troubling Times for Electric Trucking: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-troubling-times-for-electric-trucking  Why is nobody talking about China's new supply chain regulations?: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-why-is-nobody-talking-about-chinas-new-supply-chain-regulations  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  5. Aug 6

    CMA CGM and FedEx Supply Chain: The Deal Behind the Deal

    "FedEx is not simply selling an asset, it is trading a warehousing unit for a deeper transportation relationship with one of the world's largest container lines, which is a smarter reallocation than a straight divestiture." — Bruno Digital FedEx just sold its Supply Chain unit to CMA CGM for $1.4 billion. It sold for the same price FedEx paid for the same business, under a different name, back in 2015.  But FedEx didn't just sell an operating unit. They also entered into a larger agreement for ocean and air cargo that highlights some interesting trends in global logistics. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: - What the $1.4 Billion deal includes, and the multi-year ocean and air cargo agreements worth an estimated $3.5 Billion that are riding along with it - Why U.S. law would make it impossible for CMA CGM to ever buy FedEx outright - Whether CMA CGM's growing air cargo fleet is competition for FedEx, or something else entirely   Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  6. Jul 30

    Checkbox Supply Chain Compliance Just Got a Lot More Expensive

    "AI will never replace that human judgment. And the number one reason for that is responsibility." — Elisar Nurmagambet, Co-Founder and CEO, Tesari AI When Meta acquired the Chinese AI agent startup Manus for roughly $2 Billion, the due diligence looked clean.   Four months later, China's government blocked the deal and ordered it unwound.  Elisar Nurmagambet, Co-Founder and CEO of Tesari AI, and Brian Andersen, their Vice President of National Security Applications, join Kelly Barner to explain why the compliance model most companies still run on wasn't built for this moment, and why some of the sharpest early-warning signals in global trade never show up in a standard database at all.  In this episode Elissar and Brian discuss: - Why "checkbox compliance" has become a board-level, CEO-level liability - What a government-licensed social media influencer in China revealed about the Meta-Manus deal, months before it collapsed - Why "substance over form" now determines whose jurisdiction your supply chain falls under, regardless of where an entity is legally registered - The investigative mindset that supply chain professionals have to develop to succeed in today's challenging conditions   Links: Elisar Nurmagambet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elissarn/  Brian Andersen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbrianandersen/  Tesari AI: https://www.tesari.ai  National Security Starts in the Supply Chain (AOS, Ep 211): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-national-security-starts-in-the-supply-chain  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  7. Jul 23

    All Forecasts Are Wrong W/ Michael Murray

    "Just-in-time inventory is great when it's working, but when it stops working, it's a huge disaster because you don't have material staged and you don't have strategic reserves." — Michael Murray, Senior Director of Global Supply Chain, DSV Inventory Management Solutions For most of the 2000s, the mandate in manufacturing was lean: hold less, order just-in-time, and keep working capital off the balance sheet. Then came a string of shocks: COVID, the Suez Canal blockage, and a global chip shortage.  All of a sudden, just-in-time started looking more like just-in-trouble. Companies swung hard toward just-in-case, stockpiling inventory as insurance against the next disruption. Michael Murray, Senior Director of Global Supply Chain at DSV Inventory Management Solutions, isn't ready to declare just-in-time dead.  In this episode of Art of Supply, Michael joins Kelly Barner to talk about the cost challenges that can result when inventory is managed reactively:  - Why the pendulum keeps swinging between just-in-time and just-in-case - Why trade policy is becoming a bigger driver of inventory strategy than COVID ever was - How a consolidated VMI model changes the math for OEMs, and why suppliers may be harder to convince than CFOs   Links: Michael Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mp-murray/  Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

  8. Jul 16

    182,000 Pounds of Nectarines Too Valuable to Sell

    Earlier this month, thousands of people descended on a small orchard in California's Central Valley to receive free nectarines. The crowds became so large that the California Highway Patrol temporarily shut the event down because of traffic and safety concerns. At first glance, it looked like a feel-good story—a farmer sharing his harvest with the community. But that wasn't the whole story. Third-generation farmer Cesar Mora says he gave away more than 100,000 pounds of nectarines because he couldn't sell them. The fruit wasn't spoiled. There wasn't a bumper crop that overwhelmed demand. The giveaway stemmed from a legal dispute over who controls the right to market and sell a specific variety of nectarine. This story raises questions about intellectual property, exclusive supply agreements, and market access. It also demonstrates that sometimes the biggest supply chain constraint isn't producing something, it's having permission to sell it. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: - How proprietary fruit varieties became valuable intellectual property. - Why one California farmer says he had no choice but to give away his crop. - The legal dispute over contracts, exclusivity, and commercialization rights.   Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/  Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193  Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com  Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

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About

Art of Supply, hosted by Kelly Barner, draws inspiration from news headlines and expert interviews to bring you insightful coverage of today's complex supply chains.

Information

  • Creator
    Kelly Barner, Art of Procurement
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    233
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright (c) Art of Procurement
  • Show Website
    Art of Supply

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