Episode 10: 2020 Supply Chain Vision with Jonathan Kittow

Jan 7, 2020

In this week's episode of The Grocery Insider, in association with HRA Global, we speak to Jonathan Kittow from Simply Supply Chain. 

Supply Chain as a Career - 0-6 minutes

• Introduction to Jonathan and Simply Supply Chain
• How attractive is the supply chain industry for graduates?
• Is Supply Chain being broken out from operations structurally?
• For B2B contacts for Supply Chain and Sales are the two parts of any grocery business that touch other firms the most, would you agree? 
• Are you starting to see, due to tech and therefore how things are being measured, has that lead to the roles within supply chain being up-weighted or new roles within Supply Chain?
• As a profession has it got more strategic less exceptional?

Defining Supply Chain and the role of Logistics - 6.00 - 11.30 minutes

• A definition of Supply Chain - where does it stop where does it start? What is it doing?
• Where would see procurement fit?
• Outsourcing logistics? Is this something that is new?
• Do you think the third-party logistics providers are making it easier for product-focused firms to do that?

Retailers Priorities - 11.30 - 18.00 minutes

• Are you seeing people coming in straight into Supply Chain from the data sciences or are they making a segway in from operations?
• Just on the retailers, we have seen quite a few changes in recent years in terms of how the retailers are prioritising certain channels, how they are organising them. Do you reach into that world and how would you summarise these changes from the last three years?
• Are they integrating the supply chain across those trading businesses?
• Charging models particularly around groceries changing with more of a subscription-based offer, how do you think that will change going forward, will there be more Amazon-style strategies moving forward?

Wholefoods and the Discount Model  - 18.00 - 20.45 minutes

• Wholefoods, has much been going on there?
• The discount model, do you think they will be changing their model or if it’s not broken, don’t fix it? Take Aldi for instance.

Supply Chain and Manufacturers -20.45 - 27.30 minutes

• Supply chain management in individual food and drink manufacturers? How do they know they have got it right? How do they benchmark and set areas to improve?
• Is there anything else that can be done?
• In terms of how simply supply chain work with firms, is there one area that is in particular demand?
• Are you typically working at Supply Chain level, at board level or do you work with MDs, where do you plug in firms?

Accounting - 26.00 minutes

• So talking about behaviour change, do you think the accounting within companies has progressed enough to pull out product costs and how they vary in different channels?

The Future of Supply Chain - 27.30-37 minutes

• Looking forward to 2020, what can you see happening in Supply Chain?
• Do you see much ex-retail supply chain folk, popping up in manufacturing?
• If you were a fresh-faced grad starting out in supply chain, what advice would you give? Is there a part of Supply Chain they should focus on?