In this episode of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast, Beth Crowley, Chief Resilience Officer and president of the Crowley Group, joins hosts Terry Onica and Jan Griffiths to dive into the topic of resiliency and its significance in today's auto supply chain.
Beth starts by defining resilience, explaining that it's more than just an industry term; it's the ability of organizations and supply chains to adapt and bounce back from challenges.
The pandemic has heightened the urgency for companies to adopt resilient practices, and the data suggests that major disruptions are becoming more frequent. That's why Beth suggests that resilience should be woven into the culture, with everyone—from the front lines to the C-suite—playing a part in strengthening the supply chain.
Reflecting on the common tendency for companies to prioritize immediate crisis management over proactive planning, they discuss how automotive culture often glorifies the "firefighters" who save the day rather than encouraging a resilient mindset from the start. Beth suggests that organizations shift this perspective by training an "army of problem solvers" and integrating resilience into daily operations.
She shares practical advice for training teams, suggesting that even small organizations can identify recurring issues and use them as learning opportunities to build a stronger problem-solving culture.
Beth urges leaders to invest in their people, build resilient processes, and rethink their view of contingency planning—not as a task but as an integral part of their organizational mindset. Tune in to discover how to turn resilience into a foundational practice that drives success for your supply chain!
Themes discussed in this episode:
- Understanding resilience in today’s automotive supply chain
- The importance of organizations adapting to unexpected events and preparing for future disruptions
- The role of leadership in building resilient organizations
- Creating a culture where all employees are equipped and empowered to solve problems
- Moving away from a “firefighting” mentality to a proactive approach focused on continuous improvement and long-term resilience
- Rethinking contingency planning as an ongoing cultural practice rather than a one-time task
- Why investing in people and problem-solving training are essential components of a resilient organization
Featured on this episode:
Name: Beth Crowley
Title: President, The Crowley Group
About: Beth Crowley’s passion for Operations and Continuous Improvement runs deep in her family, tracing back to her grandfather’s pioneering work at Ford during World War II. After earning a BA and MBA in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University, Beth’s career began with roles focused on Lean and Continuous Improvement. She has since held positions at companies like AlliedSignal, UNISYS, and Maytag, where she advanced her expertise in transforming organizations. A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Beth is now a sought-after consultant, part-time faculty member at Oakland University, podcast guest, and regular contributor to the Lean community.
Connect: LinkedIn
Mentioned in this episode:
- QAD Transform Europe
- Path to Resiliency: Build an Army of Problem-Solvers
- Art and Craft of AI for Business Resilience
- 100 Resilient Cities
- Past episode with Beth Crowley: Lean Manufacturing: Thriving or Dying in Today's Automotive Supply Chain
Episode Highlights:
[02:05] Bend, Don't Break: Beth defines resiliency as the ability to bend without breaking, whether in people or supply chains. She says a resilient organization is powered by an army of problem solvers—individuals equipped to adapt, tackle challenges, continuously improve processes, and face whatever comes their way.
[05:10] An Endless Journey of Improvement: Executives understand the importance of resilience but often struggle to achieve it. Beth points to the value of empowering teams to handle disruptions, drawing from a recent AI and business resilience class to emphasize that resilience isn't a final goal—it's a continuous journey of improvement.
[07:56] The Secret to Resilient Organizations: Building a resilient organization isn't just about having a backup plan; it's about fostering a culture where everyone feels empowered to tackle challenges head-on. As Beth points out, with unexpected events on the rise, cultivating a team of proactive problem solvers ensures everyone is ready to support each other when crises strike.
[15:13] The Chief Resiliency Officer: Beth explains the evolving role of a Chief Resiliency Officer and how building a resilient organization is more than just strategy—it's about creating a culture of problem-solvers across every department. From high-level leadership to day-to-day operations, resilience starts with empowering teams to tackle issues head-on.
[18:05] Training Your Army of Problem Solvers: Beth dives into the practical approach of turning everyday challenges into training opportunities. By jumping in, mapping out the issue, and leading by example, employees learn to tackle future challenges on their own.
[19:48] Start Small, Bounce Back Big: Beth calls on leaders to start small and use what's available to build resilience. Empowering teams to tackle issues head-on creates a culture where challenges are met with a proactive approach and the ability to bounce back stronger each time.
Top Quotes:
[03:03] Beth: “Resiliency, when it goes from being people to being whether organizations or it's a supply chain or something like that, it means that it's so good that you can throw anything at that process, and it's going to bounce back. It's going to adapt to whatever that is. It's got the flexibility and the toughness to handle whatever comes at them. And in these uncertain times, we all need that with organizations, with our supply chain, with the economy, with people.”
[04:40] Beth: “If you're resilient, that means you're always looking at these processes, and you're always striving to get better because you're trying to manage all of the defects out of whatever that process is. So, it's the same thing with your supply chain. You're trying to manage the risks. You're trying to identify what they are, but you need the people who are trained on problem-solving so that when one of these issues comes up in front of them, they have the tools to deal with it.”
[09:36] Beth: “The only things at the time they had a contingency for were IT and big systems. It wasn't the supply chain. And if this supplier goes down, where are we going to get that from? And even though we have second sources and all that, there was no real good laid-out plan because nobody thought something like the pandemic would happen that would cause the global supply chain to be in crisis, right? Now, the data is saying every 3 and a half years, something major is going to happen. So, it's imperative that we build a process that's adaptable and flexible to handle it to say, uh-oh, this just happened. But I know what we're going to do. We're going to have a team. We're going to go through this, whatever the process is. And we know that we're going to come out on the other side in a better place”
[17:20] Beth: “There are two kinds of resiliency like I was saying, there's one that's high-level strategy, organization, supply chain, financials. And then, there is the how do we get there? And no matter where you are in the organization, I still believe that it's about that culture of problem solvers. So, would you need somebody in every department? Probably. It's just like the total quality that we did in the nineties and doing Lean and continuous improvement in AlliedSignal and everywhere else that we did this. You have to have the mindset of the people and leadership going in the same direction. And it's hard. It's hard to do because everyone is used to doing things the way that they've done them.”
[20:00] Beth: “Use the resources that you have. And again, it might just be in a different way. Whatever that problem that gets you, like I said, daily, weekly, monthly, the ones that repeat; start attacking those. It doesn't take much. It might take a whiteboard and a person or two, and a lot of times, it's a couple of hours. These are the things I do for companies when I go in as a consultant trying to help them. What's your biggest problem? Okay. Point me in the direction. I'll go do some digging, and I'll be back, and then we'll talk about it some more. And that's all it takes.”
[Transcript]
[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: This is the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast, where you'll hear from experts of all facets of supply chain in the auto industry to help you prepare for the future. I'm Jan Griffiths, your co-host and producer.
[00:00:17] Terry Onica: I'm Terry Onica, your podcast co-host. Let's dive in.
[00:00:23] Jan Griffiths: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast. Let's check in with my co-host, Terry Onica. Terry, what have you been up to?
[00:00:31] Terry Onica: Well, I'm headed out this weekend to our transform conference that's going to be held in Brussels. So, I'm super excited about that. And I'm going to be talking about the 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes. And I'm going to do a little workshop in the presentation on supplier performance. So, I'm excited to head over next week. And I always love being with customers; you learn so much when you're with them.
[00:00:53] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Well, next week, I am head down delivering workshops. Terry, I don't know what's happened lately, but my business has taken off like crazy. It's amazing how many Tier Ones want workshops on culture and leadership offsites.
[00:01:11] Terry Onica: That's awesome.
[00:01:12] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, but you know, Terry, it's the entrepreneurial journey, right? It's up and down, and you ride the wave when it's high, but then, you know, January, who knows what January is going to look like? I don't know. You've certainly got to be tough, and yes, you've got to be resilient. And that's why our topic today is resilience. I couldn't think of anybody better than the author of an article that was published earlier this year in the Lean Mag, the Lean Magazine for Lean Practitioners, and it is titled The Roadmap for Organizational Resiliency: An Army of Problem Solvers. And it is written by none other than Beth Crowley, who is no stranger to this podcast. Beth, welcome to the show.
[00:02:02] Beth Crowley: Thanks for having me, ladies. Good to see you.
[00:02:04] Jan Griffiths: Beth, you are the Chief Resiliency Officer and, indeed, the president of the Crowley Group. What on earth is going on with this word resiliency? We are throwing it around everywhere these days, and it's one of those terms, you know, it's more than flavor of the month, but Beth, help us here. Please deconstruct it. What is resiliency? And more importantly, what is resiliency in the supply chain?
[00:02:33] Beth Crowley: Resilient people, they bounce back, they bend but they don't break. The Detroit Lions Dan Campbell talks about how the Lions are resilient; they have grit. I love the word resilient. I don't like it when we change terminology all the time, right? Why don't we just use words that everybody understands? Everybody understands what resiliency is. Everyone has had someone who has fought a bad health problem, and we talked about them being resilient. So, resiliency is when it goes from being people to being kind of in objects that aren't people, right? Whether organizations or it's a supply chain or something like that, it means that it's so good that you can throw anything at that process and it's going to bounce back. It's going to adapt to whatever that is. It's got the flexibility and the toughness to handle whatever comes at them. And in these uncertain times, we all need that with organizations, with our supply chain, with the economy, with people.
So, what's interesting to me is we're talking about a resilient, as an example, resilient supply chain. Last week, I was at a conference at Michigan State, the Supply Chain Conference, and Liz Door was there who's the VP of Supply Chain for Ford. And she was talking about building a resilient supply chain, and she had things like value chain transparency and mitigating risks, and worry about your suppliers and what are your suppliers going to do. But what about the people? What about the problem-solving? What about the organization? That's where I'm interested in resiliency. I believe if you build an army of problem solvers, they will build processes that are resilient with built-in discipline and ownership. If you have a seat at the table to create something new and you feel ownership within that, it's going back to TPS and lean and the things we've talked about before. But if you're resilient, that means you're always looking at these processes, and you're always striving to get better because you're trying to manage all of the defects out of whatever that process is. So, it's the same thing with your supply chain. You're trying to manage out the risks. You're trying to identify what they are, but you need the people who are trained in problem-solving so that when one of these issues comes up in front of them, they have the tools to deal with it.
[00:05:10] Terry Onica: How do executives take action toward building a resilient organization? A lot of companies I know really struggle with it. So, how do companies start?
[00:05:20] Beth Crowley: Well, everybody struggles with it. I've read reports from Deloitte, and there's all these different resiliency indices that exist. And it's basically asking executives, do you need to be resilient? Do you understand the need for a resilient organization? And they all say, 'Yes,' and then, the next thing they say is, 'but we don't know how to do it.' And that's where my perspective came in when I was reading all these different articles and seeing things on the news, and everybody was talking about resilience. They were talking about it at a really high level, but you have to have those people; you have to have them trained. They have to be able to. They have to understand what to do when something comes at them that's out of the norm. And then, come up with a way to eliminate that possibility again happening in the future. It's continuous improvement. There was a class that I was taken the other day, literally this week, I think, before Jan, before I even talked to you about this, and it's called Art and Craft of AI for Business Resilience. And the guy who was leading this, his name was John Maeda. He's the VP of Design and AI for Microsoft. So, he knows what he's talking about. And all throughout this whole class, he kept talking about disruption and TPS and continuous improvement as examples of things that have come before us that caused a big change, like AI is causing a big change for everybody.
So, the very last line of the class, and I went back and grabbed the transcript so I could, you know, so I would have the quote exactly right for you ladies today. And the last line of his class was, 'After all, resilience is about continuous improvement, not a final destination. So, keep on pushing forward.' And I just thought, this is exactly, my whole life, this is what I'm trying to do. To say, Okay, if we have executives that have the strategy, but they've got to invest in the people, they've got to invest in problem-solving processes so that when something happens, not only do they know what to do, all the employees, but now the leadership, if there's a decision-making framework within these problem-solving processes, now leadership understands exactly the process that this team or this person went through to solve this problem. So, now they know, yes, we checked this. We did this because it's part of that process that they always follow.
[00:07:56] Terry Onica: How do you create a culture where the executives make time to make this happen? Because I see that happen a lot where, oh, I got to write up a contingency plan. I got to look at this, and, you know, we all tend to think we've got 20 other things to do, and I don't have any risk going on today, right? Or anything happening. So, how do you do that? How do executives or what do you recommend to get people to make time to make this happen and build good strategies, and make a resilient organization?
[00:08:29] Beth Crowley: Well, the pandemic, I think, helped because we all had to change. It was a matter of literally survival at the time. Think of all the rapid changes that happened during that period of time, right? So, one of the things that I was impressed with Liz's presentation last week is that as she was going through talking about why do we have to be resilient. She talked about black swan events and how we've had a decade of black swan events, and she had a timeline, and she listed them all out and saying each one of these is a once-in-a-lifetime situation, but somebody did an average of one of these reports that I was reading and they said that one of these black swan events happens on average every 3.4 years. So, now the data is telling everybody we need to get ready for this. They even went back to companies, and they said, 'Did you have contingency plans before the pandemic?' And they said, 'Oh yeah, we had some of them.' Did they work? No, not really. And the only things that, at the time, they had contingency for was like IT and big systems. It wasn't the supply chain. And if this supplier goes down, where are we going to get that from? And even though we have second sources and all that, there was no real good laid-out plan because nobody thought something like the pandemic would happen that would cause the global supply chain to be in crisis, right? But that's the whole point. Now, the data is saying every 3 and a half years, something major is going to happen. So, it's imperative that we build a process that's adaptable and flexible to handle it to say, uh-oh, this just happened. But I know what we're going to do. We're going to have a team. We're going to go through this, whatever the process is. And we know that we're going to come out on the other side in a better place.
[00:10:29] Jan Griffiths: You know, I'm listening to you talk, and I know you're right. However, when I was in the role of running supply chain organizations, I never wanted to spend one minute of my day on contingency plans. Now, true, I had not been through COVID or the chip crisis, but I've been through crisis situations before. But isn't there something in our culture, Beth, particularly in automotive, where we sort of celebrate, and we look up to those crisis leaders, you know, call them firefighters, call them whatever you want?
[00:11:05] Terry Onica: Oh, we love firefighters.
[00:11:07] Jan Griffiths: You know, right? So, we applaud them when they come in and save the day. And, somehow, we just know that those people are going to come in and save the day. Could that possibly be what's stopping people from spending time on contingency planning? I mean, I really don't know the answer. I can only talk about how I felt about making contingency plans, and I did not want to; I wanted to work on new programs. I wanted to work on cost reduction and supplier relationships, and technology. That's what I wanted to work on. If you were to say to me, 'Work on a contingency plan.' I mean, the eyes would roll to the back of my head.
[00:11:45] Beth Crowley: Absolutely. Well, and I'm saying, executives, you go work on whatever strategies you want. I'm talking about in the real world, all employees, including leadership, you know, organizations like Danaher do this well, and Toyota, where leadership goes through all the same problem-solving training that the rest of the employees go to, and they're expected to follow that same process, to believe in continuous improvement, to experiment sometimes to try to find, you know, new ways to do things. And when I'm talking about an army of problem solvers, that innovation is the creativity of all these individuals when faced with a problem, to come out with a way to fix it and solve it forever so that it's never around again. It's back to the TQ, respect for people. It's that same, in my opinion, it's that same bucket. If you build an army of problem solvers, then you've got that culture where people are ready if an issue happens. We don't need those guys to save the day. Now, those who are saving the day, they like to save the day also.
[00:12:58] Jan Griffiths: They'll even create a crisis or two so they can
[00:13:02] Beth Crowley: Absolutely. So, you have to get them on your side, and you're going to have to get those people. They need to know what the benefit is for them. Maybe they are on a golf league every Wednesday at four o'clock, and maybe you incentivize them by saying, 'Our objective is to make sure that you are in your car at 3:30 on Wednesday, so you can get to that tea time. So, you're not running and sweating and jumping out of the car. You know, whatever it takes. Because that will happen, right? If you let people understand that we can work where it's calm or we don't have to be in a frenzy all the time, we can still get the work done. And, oh yeah, maybe I can make it to my golf game on time.
[00:13:46] Jan Griffiths: I like that approach. Here's where I think my thinking was flawed. I think that I've looked at contingency planning as a task, and that's the flawed thinking. It's not a task. It has to be, just like you said, it's got to be an army of problem solvers. It's got to be the way that you think, the way that you do things; it's got to be ingrained in your culture. And that is very difficult, but it does go right hand in hand with the principles of Lean, as you've said many times, and the authentic leadership culture. It all works together, doesn't it?
[00:14:25] Beth Crowley: Absolutely. And I guess that was my whole point when I started to hear the word resilience. Again, I don't want to confuse people. So, I'm saying this is exactly the same thing that we've been talking about for decades. It's just got a new title to it, but oh, by the way, I like that title. That is a great word. Every individual knows exactly what that means, right? And everybody wants to be tough. Everybody wants to be resilient, right? So, if you frame it that way, and that will get some personal things out of it, like making your golf game or whatever else you want to do to get anybody to change anything. It's the what's in it for me, right? It's going to make my life better. It's going to be higher quality for me. It's going to be an easier thing for me to get through the day, whatever it is.
[00:15:13] Terry Onica: Who should own resiliency in an organization? Is it something there's an owner at some level, or is it something that every department needs to have a lead to look at what are the areas that they need to be resilient in? What do you think about that?
[00:15:28] Beth Crowley: It's interesting because this idea of the Chief Resiliency Officer is a new one as well. Actually, when I started doing some research after I heard the word so many times, I stumbled upon a report about the 100 Resilient Cities Program that the Rockefeller Foundation started I don't know, I think in like 2013 or something. And that's when it really started talking about what is a resilient organization? What does it mean? How do you get there? And within that framework, they said, 'Okay, we're going to fund some of this for you, but part of what we're going to fund for you cities that we choose is you have to have a Chief Resiliency Officer.' and that person has to be on the C-suite level. And their sole purpose is to create a culture and an organization that we're ready to take on whatever comes at us, and we're able to turn that around. And how do we react when disruption or something comes towards us? And so that is a really interesting position, but again, that's a high level. That's not getting to how you execute this strategy. At that level, you're cross-functional, you're looking at every part of the organization, again, to see that resiliency. How many times do we let a customer complaint go through? Or does a customer have a complaint? Because that is right there, you can start there. That number, whatever it is, if that starts to come down when you're starting to build your army of problem solvers, then you know you're getting more resilient, right? There's less defects. That's the whole point. Whether it's a production process or a leadership process. I guess there are two kinds of resiliency, like I was saying; there's one that's high-level strategy, organization, supply chain, and financials. And then, there is the how do we get there? And no matter where you are in the organization, I still believe that it's about that culture of problem solvers. So, would you need somebody in every department? Probably, right? It's just like your total quality that we did in the nineties and doing Lean and continuous improvement and AlliedSignal and everywhere else that we did this, right? You have to start; you gotta have the mindset of the people and leadership going in the same direction. And it's hard. It's hard to do because everyone is used to doing things the way that they've done them.
[00:18:05] Terry Onica: How do you train this army? What's the best way to do that?
[00:18:09] Beth Crowley: I would say, especially in small organizations, I did a presentation in March for the Michigan Lean Consortium, and we were talking to small businesses, so they didn't have a lot of extra resources. Like, we can't get a team and, you know, train 50 people at a time or whatever it is. We don't have that. We don't have those resources. So, what I'm saying is, okay, think about that one thing that bites you every day or every week. There's always something, there's always one piece of information that's wrong, or whatever it is as you're trying to run your business. So, stop tomorrow when that thing hits you. Stop right there, take the people that are with you, and go start researching, right? Or map out the process. How did we get here? If you take that, it's like taking that upfront time; think about what you'll save in the end. So maybe it's me and two people; let's just go find out what's going on. And we go ask some people and we map a process. Those two people that are with me going through that first time, they are going to be more apt to do that without me the next time, right? So, there's leading by example, obviously, especially if you're in a small organization. Big organizations, they have their own problems. They probably already got somebody named Resilience or Lean or Continuous Improvement. Use those same resources, right? Change the name, don't change the name, I don't care, just get the work done.
[00:19:48] Jan Griffiths: What advice would you have for leaders in the automotive supply chain as they embark on their resiliency journey? What would you tell them? How would they start?
[00:19:59] Beth Crowley: Use the resources that you have, right? And again, it might just be in a different way. Whatever that problem that gets you, like I said, daily, weekly, monthly, the ones that repeat, start attacking those. It doesn't take much. It might take a whiteboard and a person or two, and a lot of times, it's a couple of hours. These are the things I do for companies when I go in as a consultant trying to help them. What's your biggest problem? Okay. Point me in the direction. I'll go do some, you know, some digging, and I'll be back, and then we'll talk about it some more. And that's all it takes. And then, to all of the people that you're talking to, that you're asking for their opinion, all of a sudden, they feel heard again. And then next time, they're like, 'Oh, maybe we can get some of these things solved because we did last time.' They start asking more questions, you know, that kind of thing. But you've got to; it's a mindset for leaders; leaders have to give up a little control, right? But if you give that problem-solving process to them, again, you know exactly what they're doing. You know what they're thinking about as they go through these processes. So, it's not something new. Everybody wants to be resilient. It's getting bigger and bigger. When I first wrote the article, they talked about three things that made up resilience, innovation, sustainability, and risk management. Now, in the last week, I've read all these more, now there's six, now there's a, now there, you know, they're all operational resiliency, financial resiliency, organizational. I mean, it's getting big. Just like these things tend to do. But if you go back to the definition of what the word resilient means, it means you're not going to beat me no matter what comes at me. Do you guys remember the Chumbawumba song? I won't sing it, but I'll say the word. I get knocked down, but I get up again; you're not ever going to keep me down, right? Isn't that resiliency?
[00:22:08] Jan Griffiths: That's it. That's it.
[00:22:11] Terry Onica: Love it.
[00:22:11] Jan Griffiths: I would like to close us out today with a quote from Beth's article, it says: 'It's a change in mindset for all, one that might determine whether an organization survives the next disruption.' So, again, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Beth, thank you for joining us.
[00:22:34] Beth Crowley: I love it. Thank you, ladies.
[00:22:36] Terry Onica: Thank you.
[00:22:40] Jan Griffiths: Are you ready to find the money in your supply chain? Visit www.autosupplychainprophets.com to learn how or click the link in the show notes below.
