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Karen Caswelch: Quality In High Gear
When Karen Caswelch joined Allison Transmission as director of purchasing last year, she had no corporate purchasing experience. But her record in operations and quality management made her supremely qualified to carry out her number-one mission. “The ultimate mandate,” Caswelch says, “is to keep the plants running. And you’ve got to keep them running with […]
Read MoreBob Wegmann: Blood Work
As Americans jammed Red Cross blood centers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bob Wegmann and his staff worked the phones. Their mission: to get vendors to rush enough blood bags, swabs, printed forms, and other supplies to accommodate the hordes of donors. “Obviously, no one predicted Sept. 11. But we were able to predict, […]
Read MoreMichael Trotter: Striking a Balance
Loading pallets with electrical supplies bound for factories and construction sites, “you learn quickly that you can’t set light bulbs on the bottom and put wire on the top,” laughs Michael Trotter, director of logistics at Van Meter Industrial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But for a distributor with 29,000 SKUs of all sizes and shapes—from […]
Read MoreAndrea Greco: Greco’s Game
The biggest logistics challenge I have right now is being able to go fishing on the weekends and still spend time with my kids,” laughs Andrea Greco, vice president, supply chain for Fila USA. Shuttling between a job near Baltimore and a young family in New York demands careful organization. So does coordinating the supply […]
Read MoreStacy Eakes: A Seasoned Professional
Stacy Eakes took up rock climbing this year for fun, but she finds that the sport has a lot to teach a logistics professional. “It’s all about problem solving,” she explains. “You learn to shift your weight and look at things from a new perspective, opening new possibilities.” Back on the ground, that mix of […]
Read MoreWayne Paul: Sticking to the Basics
Wayne Paul caught the logistics bug as a college student working in the receiving department at Sears. And much of what he knows about managing a demand chain he learned from his first post-college employer, Roadway Express. Paul joined the less-than-truckload carrier after earning his B.S. in Transportation from the University of Alabama in 1980. […]
Read MoreGeneral John M. McDuffie: Telling War Stories
When John M. “Mike” McDuffie talks about a crisis, he doesn’t mean a late shipment; he means catastrophes such as the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. As director of logistics for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General McDuffie coordinated the race to move people, equipment, and supplies to […]
Read MoreDennis Hilborn: Know Thyself
“Who are we?” is one of Dennis Hilborn’s favorite questions. In his two and a half years as director of distribution at sports apparel maker Cutter & Buck, asking employees over and over who they are has helped him transform the Seattle-based company’s distribution center (DC). When Hilborn arrived at Cutter & Buck, “distribution was […]
Read MorePhil Saracin: Whatever it Takes
Phil Saracin, global logistics manager at Kemet Corp., enjoys the challenges of finding new ways to reduce cost and cycle time, and developing new tools to improve information flow.
Read MoreMichael Beaver: Leave it to Beaver
Michael Beaver recently started learning Spanish, and he wishes he had mastered a few more languages earlier in his career. As a supply chain executive with a global corporation, Beaver knows communication is the key to forging profitable relationships. Speaking to colleagues and partners in their own languages helps to assure them that the company […]
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