[Transcript]

[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: This is the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast, and we are on a mission to bring you the latest insights and thought leaders leading the charge on supply chain transformation in our beloved automotive industry. This podcast is powered by QAD and AIAG.

I'm Jan Griffiths, your host and producer. Let's meet your co-hosts.

[00:00:27] Jim Liegghio: I'm Jim Liegghio from AIAG.

[00:00:29] Terry Onica: I'm Terry Onica from QAD. Let's dive in.

[00:00:36] Jan Griffiths: Today, we have a special episode of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast. We are on the road and we are coming to you live from the AIAG Supply Chain Conference in Elevate, which is at number One Campus Martius, right in the heart of downtown Detroit.

Now, what's special about this venue is it has an entirely different vibe to it. It's very upbeat, modern, innovative, and it is right in line with the brand new AIAG brand. So we are all about uniting minds and elevating standards, that's what AIAG is all about and the podcast is one part of that. So, I have to tell you, I am thrilled to be contributing to the new vibe of AIAG, and here we are. Jim, what are you looking forward to today?

[00:01:29] Jim Liegghio: A couple things, Jan, honestly. The velocity of supply chain always just astounds me, how much is going on and how fast it's going on. So, when I can get to things like this and just kind of feel the energy and see what's going on in supply chain and just really soak that up, that's huge for me.

Number two, like you said, uniting minds, elevating standards. The power and the talent and the brilliance in this room is second to none. We've always been excellent at bringing people together. That's what we do. We collaborate, we bring experts together, and that just forms an energy that you just can't really describe.

[00:01:59] Jan Griffiths: So true.

[00:02:01] Terry Onica: For me, this conference has been excellent. I love it. If you look at the topics that we're gonna see just in the morning, you got EVs, you got battery, the future of EDI, oh my God. EDI's been around my whole career, and to think that it may start changing is amazing. You know, supply chain data. I mean, it's huge.

And then, this afternoon, I'm really super excited. I'm gonna do a panel with Megan Hunter, VP of Supply Chain at Martinrea, and also Jenny Smith, VP of Supply Chain at Royal Technologies.

So, I can't wait to dig into their minds, and find out what they're dealing with right now in spite of all these disruptions we're gonna hear about today.

[00:02:38] Jim Liegghio: Andrew gets to talk about MMOG/LE, right? Right?

[00:02:41] Terry Onica: Maybe.

[00:02:43] Jan Griffiths: Well, we are gonna get inside of those minds that we're uniting. We're gonna capture the voices and we are gonna bring them to you on this episode. Stay tuned.

The Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast is on the road, and we are coming to you live from the AIAG Supply Chain Conference in downtown Detroit, and we have our very first guest with us today, John LaGarde. John is a student at Wayne State University. John, welcome.

[00:03:12] John Lagarde: Hello, thank you for having me.

[00:03:14] Jim Liegghio: John, I want to know, as a young supply chain—budding supply chain professional—what excites you most about global supply chain management?

[00:03:21] John Lagarde: I would say, growing up in the metro Detroit area, I've been able to be surrounded around the automotive industry, and my passion for just cars has taken off. And so, I think that goes kind of hand in hand with of course, supply chain. And specifically, for me, purchasing really kind of entices me. I think that having that negotiation aspect and being able to connect with different suppliers and things like that and negotiate prices. It just sounds really interesting, and so that's what excites me about supply chain.

[00:03:52] Terry Onica: John, we've had a couple great presentations already on tariffs and also electric vehicles. So, what excites you, a supply chain student, to be here at the conference? What are you looking to learn today?

[00:04:03] John Lagarde: I would say just continuing to learn more about supply chain, of course. But, I think, even so far it's been really insightful to kind of learn. Well, this is my first supply chain conference. I've never really been able to hear from like industry professionals about the really technical and specifics about what's going on right now in the heat of the tariffs. And also, just the upcoming industry of electric vehicles and things like that. And so, learning about what goes behind the scenes with supply chain in regard to that is really exciting. And so, I'm hoping to just continue to learn more about the automotive industry, of course, in regard to supply chain.

[00:04:40] Jim Liegghio: Make sure you network. Today's a great day to do it.

[00:04:42] John Lagarde: Yes, I will for sure.

[00:04:43] Jim Liegghio: Welcome to the show. Enjoy today.

[00:04:45] Jan Griffiths: There's lots of people here. There's a lot of buzz. We're talking about tariffs, but we're really looking forward into the future. And I really liked listening to Paul Eichenberg's presentation. What was the key point that you got from Paul's presentation? He's the strategist that looks out into the future.

[00:05:01] John Lagarde: Well, one thing that really surprised me was how the combustion engine was like really built right in Detroit, and that's where all the pieces are being built and supplied to the automotive manufacturers. But also, that China was where all the electric vehicles were being—that's where that hub is. I didn't really know that, to be honest. And that was really interesting.

And then, of course, just learning, one, that we will still see the normal combustion engine in the future. It's not just gonna be like a hole. Like I thought pretty soon we were just gonna be fully electric and autonomous and all that. But it's interesting to know that we still have a good amount of time with the historical combustion gas engine.

[00:05:46] Terry Onica: I have one quick question. What could an employer do to attract a bright young student like yourself? I'm sure there's many of our listeners out there. What do you want in an employer that would attract you to a company? I'm sure they're dying to know how they could attract you.

[00:06:02] John Lagarde: I would say, well, of course, it could be different from individual to individual, but I'd say definitely giving the opportunity for continuous learning. I think a lot of people say that, but especially when you're just entering the workforce. I think is gonna be some just like work that you may, I don't wanna say not want to do, but may feel like repetitive or just a task, like a report that you just spit out.

But just the continuous opportunity to learn and develop and send, like I've seen some younger professionals here at this event, so like sending your younger, new professionals to new events like this to learn and network.

And so, providing that would be, I think, really cool. And then, you know, I think a lot of people, of course everybody's gonna say like work-life balance and I can't say a hundred percent what that would look like, but I think of course that's important as well. But I'm sure a lot of younger people, and I think Gen Z especially is like really taking a stand on work-life balance. And so, that as well.

[00:06:59] Jan Griffiths: There it is. Well, thank you for joining us and sharing your thoughts on the conference today.

[00:07:04] John Lagarde: Of course, thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

[00:07:06] Jan Griffiths: And join us at the mic today is Fred Coe. Fred is the Chair of the EDI Advisory for AIAG. Fred, welcome back to the mic.

[00:07:20] Fred Coe: Thank you. It's great to be here in person.

[00:07:22] Jan Griffiths: You are no stranger to the microphone on the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast. For our loyal audience, you may or may not know, that Fred is one of our highest downloaded episodes so go back into our back catalog and check it out.

[00:07:37] Fred Coe: I do love that EDI is drawing so much attention. It is fantastic to have an audience.

[00:07:42] Jim Liegghio: And I'm just thrilled to meet Fred in person. We worked together for a couple of years now, and back during the COVID days, actually.

[00:07:47] Fred Coe: That's right.

[00:07:47] Jim Liegghio: Everything was virtual. So, it's my first time meeting Fred in person, so it's lovely to meet you, Sir.

[00:07:51] Fred Coe: Likewise, likewise.

[00:07:52] Jim Liegghio: I have a question for you, Fred. There's a ton going on in supply chain right now. How do you find what the most important thing to talk about right now? What do you think the most important theme of today is? Let me say it that way.

[00:08:02] Fred Coe: I've been really impressed with the presenters so far and what they've talked about in terms of the tariffs, and I think that is definitely casting a shadow over the automotive industry. And I think that's really where a lot of the attention is going right now.

[00:08:13] Jim Liegghio: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Thanks. I agree.

[00:08:16] Terry Onica: And you're no stranger to our podcast for sure. We've done a couple episodes around EDI. Very knowledgeable. GM, I know, even as an OEM, I'm sure you've got tens of thousands of EDI connections. EDI is near and dear to the industry's heart. You are our Chair of the EDI Advisory Work Group, and I know we are working on an EDI survey. Can you give everybody an update on where that's at right now?

[00:08:39] Fred Coe: Oh yeah, absolutely. So, we did finish the survey back in February and consolidated the results, and a lot of those we're gonna go over today. We had overwhelming response relative to what we thought we might get.

Almost 500 people responded to the survey. Really gave candid answers in terms of what they think of their EDI systems today, their readiness potentially to adopt APIs and in what spaces. So, a lot of positive feedback and a lot of enthusiasm both on the, "Don't change my EDI, it's not broken," and "When can we go to APIs?"

So, filtering through a lot of that information has been fabulous. And getting back with some of the respondents has been a good experience as well.

[00:09:17] Terry Onica: Can you give us a little sneak peek about what you're gonna be talking about in a few minutes?

[00:09:21] Fred Coe: Yeah, absolutely. We're, you know, really we're gonna be focused on some of the questions that I found the most interesting. Henriette Douglas from Stellantis will be with me on stage, and she'll be reviewing some of that feedback as well.

And then, what our next steps are in terms of the EDI advisory council and how we move forward with potential API standardization.

[00:09:38] Terry Onica: What was your favorite finding?

[00:09:40] Fred Coe: I was actually really surprised of the number of people that are still using fax and email for EDI.

[00:09:45] Jim Liegghio: Wow.

[00:09:46] Fred Coe: And the number of people that have already adopted APIs and it's almost balanced. So that was one of the things that surprised me the most.

[00:09:52] Terry Onica: It's almost like they say the best of the best and the worst of the worst were on the survey.

[00:09:56] Fred Coe: Right. Exactly. So, we're really looking forward to sharing this information with the audience.

[00:10:00] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Well, the crowd is starting to gather and the excitement is starting to build as Fred gets ready to take the stage. So, Fred, thank you for joining us today.

[00:10:08] Fred Coe: Thank you very much.

[00:10:13] Jan Griffiths: And we are heading into the lunch period here at AIAG, at the Supply Chain Conference. And joining us at the mic is Dr. Bing Xu. Bing is the senior director of Catena-X at AIAG. Bing, welcome to the mic.

[00:10:27] Bing Xu: Thank you. It's my pleasure to come here to meet you again.

[00:10:30] Terry Onica: Great session today on the EDI survey. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. So what's been your major takeaway? What are you hearing as you're in the conference and talking to people?

[00:10:40] Bing Xu: I think this things surprised me is I thought this is kind of a traditional supply chain management type of things. But I think for the last few session, you are all heard, it's not just the simple old way. It's keep moving, keep improving, getting even the high tech involved.

So, as far as I can see, people talk about the data already. How to use the data. And you already heard that people—quite a few people—mentioning that AI tools should be utilized to actually help managing the huge data set type of things.

So, again, the topic that I can hear so far: data, how to use data, how to actually use data smartly.

[00:11:23] Jim Liegghio: Yeah. It's a brave new world out there, Bing. For sure. What's one or two key takeaways you hope our audience takes away today from the conference? If nothing else.

[00:11:31] Bing Xu: I think it's quick implementation. The reason is that we're really in a short fuse that if you just look at the first two speakers talking about the tariff things and the impact and the supply resilience. That's all actually coming. So, as far as I can see, the quickest things need to be done—to quickly implement whatever the things available, whatever the people are talking about. And try to managing the data, the transparency—supplier transparency—and finally, the resilience. To hopefully, to really get the whole supplier more resilient in facing so many, you know, challenge type of things.

[00:12:12] Terry Onica: What I really liked in the last session is how they're talking about how they're digging into the supply chain data.

[00:12:17] Bing Xu: The supply chain. Exactly. That surprised me.

[00:12:19] Terry Onica: That's what we need. There's so many mandates and information, we gotta get down the chain. And I love that.

[00:12:25] Bing Xu: Usually, even the EDI session that we talk about, it's mainly point-to-point, kind of not going down deeper, whatever. But now all of a sudden you heard everywhere global, doesn't matter, the shipyard where. That doesn't matter. The ship is whatever. They're all actually covering that down all the way to a lower tier.

[00:12:44] Terry Onica: Yes.

[00:12:44] Jim Liegghio: We need to learn how to distill data into useful information.

[00:12:47] Bing Xu: Yep.

[00:12:47] Jim Liegghio: And I think you need smart technology.

[00:12:48] Bing Xu: That's where smart time technology comes in. Absolutely.

[00:12:50] Jan Griffiths: There it is.

[00:12:51] Bing Xu: Yep.

[00:12:52] Jan Griffiths: Bing, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:12:53] Bing Xu: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:12:56] Jan Griffiths: And joining us at the mic is Sig Huber. Sig is no stranger to the microphone. Sig is the Chief Commercial Officer at Elm Analytics. But Sig has a deep, deep history in understanding the suppliers from an OEM level, both at Toyota and Stellantis. And he is now our expert on supplier risk management. So, Sig, welcome to the mic.

[00:13:25] Sig Huber: Thank you. It's great to be here.

[00:13:26] Jan Griffiths: Sig, quick question. We're at the lunch break, but so far on the sessions this morning, what's your key takeaway that you got from this conference so far?

[00:13:35] Sig Huber: Well, to me, the key takeaway is the uncertainty that's been plaguing the industry now for quite a while, and it's now halfway through the year, there's been a lot of uncertainty, and I don't see that uncertainty clearing up anytime soon.

[00:13:49] Jim Liegghio: So that was gonna be my question. Are the clouds clearing at all? Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel? I know uncertainty is the name of the game for the first six months of 2025. What do you think for the next six months? What's your prediction?

[00:14:00] Sig Huber: I don't think that uncertainty is going away, unfortunately. Everyone would love to see it go away, but I don't think that we're gonna be getting away from this uncertainty. And people don't know what to do because of the uncertainty in policies and the uncertainties in consumer demand and the uncertainties in regulations. Companies are frozen right now, and it's gonna present a really interesting problem because if by some magic, all the uncertainty starts to clear up by the end of the year, you know what's gonna happen is there's been delays in shipping, right? There's a bunch of ships that are either stuck at ports or haven't unloaded or anything.

[00:14:39] Jim Liegghio: Yeah, a bullwhip effect.

[00:14:40] Sig Huber: And we're gonna have the bullwhip effect come back just like we did with the microchips and just like we have from COVID and others. So, if things get better, we're gonna have a big supply chain problem. If things don't get better, we're gonna have a demand problem. So, either way, we're not really clarifying for executives what the right course of action is gonna be.

[00:15:02] Jim Liegghio: I love how you brought up the demand side of it, 'cause that's something people don't always think about, right? They think about the push side or the pulling the parts inside. The demand side, like you said, customer predictions. What customers are gonna want? Who knows what the name of the game there is gonna be, right? That's the other side of the equation.

[00:15:15] Sig Huber: Yeah. And there's a really interesting dynamic that I've been noticing over the past few months, which is the entry of political affiliation or political slant into how people are perceiving the world right now.

People that are Conservative or Republican, seem to be much more optimistic about how things are going and where things are going. And people who are more left-leaning are much more pessimistic about how things are going.

I saw a very interesting piece on CNBC actually this morning about this, where people's investment strategies have taken a huge divergence based on their political. And so, some people are very fearful, and they're taking their money out of the market or they're putting it into other markets like Europe and others. Or like gung-ho, I'm gonna go into all the growth stocks here in the US. And it's been really interesting.

And I think that is also now raising its head into the corporate environment. And corporate managers, their perception on what they need to do is influenced in some respects by their political affiliation and their political leanings. And it's a really interesting dynamic I haven't seen before.

[00:16:34] Terry Onica: I know your organization does a lot of work on tracking risk. What are the top three risks that you see right now facing the world?

[00:16:43] Sig Huber: The number one risk right now is the uncertainty. Because of the lack of uncertainty, there's a lack of capital investment taking place. And with the pace of technology and the change that's needed and the pace of change that's needed, that lack of investment right now is gonna come back to bite us as an industry.

I think that's a really important problem that we're facing. The second one is financial health of the supply base. It's been sort of rumored that, yeah, suppliers are not in as good a condition as they should be. Our data is showing that. If you look at profitability metrics for suppliers across the board, especially if you get to tier two and below, profitability is suffering.

And when profitability suffers, it churns through the available cash that companies have stockpiled to save for a rainy day. And now we're seeing the liquidity metrics start to drop, which means that there's going to be real financial stress in our industry as we move forward into the second half of this year and in the first half of next year. That, to me, is a very, very important trend to watch.

We did a sensitivity analysis at our firm and we looked at the effect of tariffs. Even if they're not massive tariffs, the effect of even small tariffs on the supply base is massive. So, in our analysis, we found that just a 5% increase in cost of goods sold will more than double the number of suppliers that will be rated red from a financial health standpoint.

So you're now looking at an industry with all this uncertainty. And you've got a supply base, which is not equipped to handle uncertainty. And with tariffs creating more complications and more difficulty for those companies. There's just a lot of things coming at the industry at the same time, this confluence of things. And I'm a huge fan of the industry and the resilience of the industry, but this is a tough road ahead for the next 12 months.

[00:18:47] Jan Griffiths: Yes, it is. Well, Sig, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today.

[00:18:52] Sig Huber: Pleasure to be here. Thanks again.

[00:18:57] Jan Griffiths: We've had a lot of conversation today with OEMs and tier ones, but an area that needs a lot more love is the tier two space. Joining us at the mic today is Jennifer Smith and she is the Vice President of Supply Chain. Jennifer, welcome to the mic.

[00:19:14] Jennifer Smith: Yeah, thanks for having me.

[00:19:15] Terry Onica: So, Jenny, what do you see going on in the lower tiers of the supply chain? What are you focused on right now?

[00:19:22] Jennifer Smith: I think right now we're focused on a couple things, but the major one is the push for cost reductions from the OEMs down, along with the push to ensure profitability from our suppliers. We're kind of being stuck in the middle of that. And managing through the VAVE process up the supply chain with speed has been one that I think we're really, really focused on right now.

[00:19:45] Terry Onica: And how is it going on at the lower tiers? In like in the tier three and lower, what kind of feedback are you getting from them? Or has it been difficult for them? Are they struggling? Are some doing okay? Or a mixture of both. What would you say?

[00:19:58] Jennifer Smith: I think it depends on what's really going on in the industry. So, at the beginning of the year, I would say people were really concerned on where we were going and volumes. And right now, I think things are picking back up enough with where we are in the market. That things are kind of stabilized, and everybody's just kind of hanging on for what's gonna happen next.

[00:20:18] Jim Liegghio: If we knew that we'd have, you know, endless resources, right? If we all knew what was gonna happen next, right? So, Jenny, this has been a great conference so far. We've heard from a lot of experts, a lot of different information. What are some key takeaways for you and maybe some things you're gonna bring back to your team that you've learned?

[00:20:32] Jennifer Smith: I think there's a couple. The first thing I think we really focused on was the whole conversation around AI. How are we gonna use it? What are we gonna do with it? How do you actually leverage the data has been one that I think we really need to have major conversations on.

And then the other one is the EDI and API and where are we gonna go with it? As we go on our EDI journey through the platforms to the supply base, how do you engage API early in that transition versus waiting until after the fact? I think those are really big things that I'm gonna go back to the organization to have conversations on.

[00:21:05] Jim Liegghio: You mentioned volume is picking up and things are kind of picking up, in general. Do you see volume fluctuations or mixed fluctuations impacting you at all? What's going on in the on the demand side, let's say.

[00:21:14] Jennifer Smith: I do. I think it's just depends on what the market's doing. So, with the stall in the tariffs, I feel like people are bringing a lot in early. We're having really strong demands coming into the 4th of July where we normally wouldn't. And so, it's really anticipating what's gonna happen after that July 9th date in the tariffs and what will that do to the market. So I don't know how much of that's built ahead versus actual demand.

[00:21:40] Terry Onica: One of the things is, with the demand volatility, it's been a problem ever since I've been in the industry. And how you deal with that, going from the OEM, to the tier one, to the tier two. What's your recommendation as a tier two supplier? How can they better mitigate and communicate that going down the supply chain?

[00:21:59] Jennifer Smith: Yeah. I think we're gonna actually talk about that this afternoon, but one of the things I think is really important is we rely so much on data, right? Just follow my EDI. Follow the path. And what we don't always understand is the "why".

And if we could—if we could get our material managers to really understand the "why" behind the "what," I think we would run through walls a lot faster. For our OEMs to get their product. If we knew what was really going on.

And we have some OEMs who are really, really good at it that have conference calls that enjoy the tier twos that are involved in on a weekly basis. And if we could see that visibility, we'd be able to plan better or we're able to respond faster. And we can tell the story to our team and our suppliers as to what the real need is. And I think that's really the big thing. Data's great, but data with a "why" is even better.

[00:22:49] Jan Griffiths: Terry and I were at the WRI session with MEMA a few weeks ago, and Toyota has just announced in response to a request from the supply base that they're gonna show 52 weeks visibility.

[00:23:02] Terry Onica: Yes, it did.

[00:23:03] Jan Griffiths: Which, from my experience in supply chain, that's like, what?. 52 weeks? I mean, it's not gonna be 52 weeks firm, of course. But, at least, as a supplier further down the tier, you can see what's coming at you and you can plan better. You can be prepared. We talk about trust and transparency. This is where the rubber meets the road. It's in the data.

[00:23:27] Jennifer Smith: It is in the data.

[00:23:28] Jan Griffiths: Trust us, give us information, and be transparent about it.

[00:23:31] Jennifer Smith: Right. Give us information and then tell me why it changed. So did you add a super? Did a supplier go down and you're not able to work for two weeks and now you're picking everything back up? Help me understand, not only the data, but what's going on with the qualitative side of it too. Yeah.

[00:23:48] Jim Liegghio: Angela Johnson for Plante Moran just talked about that, right? Understanding the why, to your point, Jenny, gives a little bit of empathy for the supplier. They can kind of jump through walls, as you said, I think, or jump over walls. Try a little bit harder, you know, just get there with some empathy. So that's interesting. Really.

[00:24:03] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. And that's a beautiful message to go back up to the tier ones and the OEMs, is to please tell us why things changed?

[00:24:12] Jennifer Smith: Right. Yeah.

[00:24:12] Terry Onica: Just a simple explanation. It helps you better plan, better understand what's going on.

[00:24:17] Jennifer Smith: The people who are doing the work, right? The material managers at the floor, they may not even know, right? And so, how do the OEMs and the tier ones get that information to the right people who can actually respond, right? So, they're only saying, "I need this release today." How do we get them that right information to pass the message on?

[00:24:35] Jim Liegghio: Great insight. Yeah, great insight. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:24:37] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, thank you so much and good luck with your session today. I know that you're about to take the stage.

[00:24:42] Jennifer Smith: Thanks.

[00:24:42] Jan Griffiths: Thank you. Jennifer Smith.

And joining us at the mic is Tanya Bolden. She is the Vice President of Supply Chain and Corporate Responsibility for AIAG. Welcome to the mic, Tanya.

[00:24:57] Tanya Bolden: Hello, thank you for having me.

[00:24:59] Jan Griffiths: It's an exciting day. A new venue, a new vibe, a new brand to this conference. How are you feeling about it?

[00:25:06] Tanya Bolden: Well, I love it. We're right here in the heart of Detroit with some beautiful views. It's a wonderful day in Detroit. Who could go wrong with that?

[00:25:12] Jan Griffiths: Right. And there's definitely a vibe. There's a buzz here. There's an energy that's different. This is definitely not your traditional supply chain conference. There are new topics, new speakers, and a whole new vibe.

[00:25:26] Tanya Bolden: Correct. I mean, but that's reflective of the industry. There's nothing mundane about the industry right now. It's changing every day with what's coming out of our companies and what they're trying to do to be innovative with products and how we're evolving and we're challenging the supply chain. Coupled with some of the—many of the mandates and requirements that are being placed on manufacturing as a whole. We can't sit back on our laurels. We have to stay up on our toes and be just focused on, innovation, focused on technology, and how that's gonna help us meet the challenge of today, tomorrow, and beyond.

[00:26:02] Jan Griffiths: There it is.

[00:26:03] Jim Liegghio: Yeah, for sure. So, Tanya, we always talk about the breadth of supply chain and how many different topics are out there. How did you pick your ingredient list for today?

[00:26:10] Tanya Bolden: When I approach an event agenda, I like to start with a macro view because you have to meet your attendees where they are. They come from different perspectives because supply chain has so many valuable facets to it. So, we like to start off the agenda with a broad scope, a broad perspective, and then drill down so that our attendees can get something out of the event. Every session, every speaker may not speak to them, but many of them will and do.

[00:26:37] Terry Onica: Kudos to you. It's been a great conference. I love it. Lots of great speakers. You could just hear the discussion beyond after you get in the hallways of people really enjoying it. So my question for you is, what did you want the people to take away from today in supply chain?

[00:26:54] Tanya Bolden: So, for today, we had a lot of students that were there. We had at least eight students that were there. So these are wide-eyed, curious, future professionals, and I like to be able to share with them and show them the vastness of the supply chain.

[00:27:10] Terry Onica: We need to attract them into the industry for sure.

[00:27:13] Tanya Bolden: Right? For sure. Because that's the way we're gonna survive. I think automotive manufacturing has certain stigmas that are so not true today. There's so many exciting things that are going on, and I want our audience to take away from our agenda that there's so many facets. Again, we've talked about everything today, from tariffs to technology, to EV batteries, to decarbonization, and carbon foot printing—and we're still going. So there's so much.

We're gonna conclude the day with an OEM panel because we wanna hear from the OEMs how are they taking all these issues and managing them into not only their organization, but their supply chains.

[00:27:54] Jim Liegghio: Yeah, that's perfect. You're really shattering that stigma of manufacturing and supply chain being kind of dull and archaic. There's a lot of technology out there. There's a lot of really cool topics. So yeah, thanks for bringing that into the agenda for sure.

[00:28:04] Terry Onica: And I know even in my position, I'm sure everybody in supply chain, you have to understand all of this. You cannot be in supply chain and just pick a little cubby hole to be, you gotta understand all the impacts of everything on it. And it really brought that to the forefront today.

[00:28:17] Tanya Bolden: You're absolutely right, Terry. We've gotta talk about everything from materials management on the inbounds side, to the outbound side with finished vehicle logistics. How do we move these products safely? There are just so many things that you have to take into account. I think we should start with all new entrant to automotive, giving them a pair of roller skates because they're gonna need it to keep up with how things have gone.

[00:28:39] Terry Onica: Good one.

[00:28:39] Jim Liegghio: Well said.

[00:28:40] Jan Griffiths: This is a great way to close us out. Well, it has been an excellent conference here in Detroit with AIAG with the Supply Chain Conference. And for those of you who might be feeling a little bit of fomo, listen to the podcast, share it with your friends, and join us next year. We'll see you then.

We love to hear from our listeners, reach out to any one of us, our contact information is in the show notes. And if you want to dive deeper into our content, check out our website at autosupplychainprophets.com.