The Azul Ocean

10/12/2024

Hi Everyone,

BOSS MAGAZINE interviewed me about my new book, The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain.

Here is a little something from the interview. The full article can be read by following the link below.

Back to Fundamentals

“If you don’t get the fundamentals or the foundation of scuba diving, you’re not going to have fun. You’re not going to enjoy it,” Koch told BOSS. “You’re going to stop, and worst case, it could kill you.”

The consequences might not be as dire for supply chain managers, but they’ll certainly have a miserable work experience if they don’t make fundamentals a foundational part of their approach. They won’t advance in their careers, and they could get themselves fired.

What do scuba and supply chains have in common? A lot more than you might think. For self-described workaholics like Art Koch, forcing themselves to get out of the office and clear their minds can be a revelatory exercise.

10/09/2024

Hi Everyone,

My book, The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain, just received a 5-star review from Saby Samar's GoodReads.

"In this book Art Koch depicts his way of wisdom and experience of SCM (supply chain management) through the maze of supply chain demand, logistics, inventory and much more. He is of the opinion that if people and leaders behind SCM are not developed and properly trained and educated with the rudimentary aspects, it’s unlikely for them to succeed at operational and financial levels."

hashtag

09/21/2024

Hi Everyone,

I'm honored to have my article Modeling Piece Price Comparisons for Local and Regional Suppliers Versus Low-cost Country Initiatives published in SCMDOJO.

Below is an excerpt from the article.

As a procurement officer, you’ve possibly been in the crosshairs of debate between sourcing locally and regionally versus from low-cost countries endorsed by many executive staff and boards of directors.

Every time I was requested to have a target percentage of our purchases from low-cost countries I felt a pit in my stomach. I worried whether I could successfully convey the message that even with the great prices, the total cost for the parts would be more than what it would cost to source locally or regionally. This led me to create the model described below.

Blog exposes the limitations of focusing solely on piece price and introduces a cost modeling approach to make informed sourcing decisions

09/17/2024

Hi Everyone,

I recently had an article published in YFS Magazine. YFS Magazine

Supply Chain Entropy Busters: 3 Phases to Accelerate Processes

Have you ever considered the impact of entropy on your business — let alone your supply chain? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. It was only during my undergraduate studies, while talking with a physics professor about my career, that I began to consider it.

Telltale Signs That Add Up

Entropy is a way to describe how much disorder or randomness there is in energy or a system, but what does that really mean? Consider the First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can’t be created or destroyed. It can only change forms. Now consider the Second Law of Thermodynamics in simple terms: entropy always increases. This principle explains, for example, why you can’t unscramble an egg.

Here’s another example of entropy: As you cruise through the countryside, you spot an old barn that’s seen better days—some boards are missing, the paint is peeling, and the surrounding field is overrun with brambles and weeds. The barn and the field are transitioning into a more chaotic, lower energy state, resulting in greater disorder.

Art Koch, a globally acknowledged expert and consultant in supply chain transformation, shares insights on preventing entropy creep.

09/04/2024

Hi Everyone,

Last week, I joined Scott "Shalom" Klein on his weekly radio show, Get Down To Business. Check it out.

Art Koch joined Scott "Shalom" Klein on his weekly radio show, Get Down To Business. https://www.syklein.com / shalomklein

08/25/2024

Hi Everyone,

I've had the honor of getting my article "Finding Genius and Castaways: 10 Rules For Building Super Teams" published in Chief Executive.

Here is a small excerpt from the article, and the link for the full article is below:

"Given that 17 percent of new hires quit within 12 weeks and 33 percent quit within 6 months, it’s not easy to get hiring right. As we all know, hiring a new team member isn’t clear-cut, is costly, and too often is a roll of the dice.

The good news is, you don’t necessarily have to hire anyone new; you have an untapped and hidden free resource within your organization waiting and ready to be called upon. You just need to become intentional about finding it.

The best leaders get to know the people around them—not their name and job title, but details. For example, Elby, who works in a production cell, is a regional stock car champion but could never get enough financial backing to make a successful run in NASCAR’s Cup series. Or Jim, who works in the machine shop, is putting four children through university. They’re studying to become MDs, an attorney, and a schoolteacher."

It's expensive and risky to make new hires—especially at the senior-most level. What if you didn't have to?

08/15/2024

The Glamorous Life of a Consultant and Road Warrior.

So….here is how my day is going….

Last night sleep like crap.

Roll out out bed at 4:15AM to go swimming. (I’ve was already awake about an hour)

Say to myself, Tired, do I really want to go swimming… Yes, must go!

Head out of the hotel it’s pouring down rain. No rain coat or umbrella. Drive 20 mins to the YMCA. (BTW, I can’t see at night let alone in the rain)

Go inside the Y, all excited to swim. Yea! Check in and start walking to the locker room, as I pass the pool door there is a sign… Pool Closed.

I go back to reception and ask whats up. Why is the pool closed? Because the outdoor pool is open. And I say, no it’s not, there is rain and lightning… And I ask again, is the indoor pool open? They say no because the outdoor pool is open….

Love the logic!

So another 20 minute drive to the hotel to get a shower and go into the new client happy…!

😃 happy 😃

08/14/2024

Hi Everyone,

I am excited to share my recent interview with David Leichner in Authority Magazine. In it, we discussed how to ensure product security in collaboration with external suppliers and partners.

Check it out and share your thoughts!

An Interview With David Leichner

08/08/2024

Hi Everyone,

Last month I received another great book review by Garth Thomas of The Hollywood Digest.

“THE SUPPLY CHAIN REVOLUTION” BY ART KOCH

GARTH THOMAS JULY 14, 2024

BOOKS & MAGAZINE REVIEWS

Like any good left-brainer, Koch uses a straightforward and concise analogy for the heavy, specific text present in The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain. Simply put, diving. Complete with chapters structured with a ‘buddy check system.’ “Being a good dive buddy is essential to enjoying the underwater ecosystem. These best practices translate well to businesses; it’s an excellent methodology to ensure peers learn key concepts and improve their skills.

What if process integrity, team engagement and development, and organizational commitment by the CEO are not all synchronized? In that case, without sponsorship from the CEO new technology will too often become nothing more than a footnote in the history of supply chain management, much like block chain, capacity requirements planning, and manufacturing resource planning II have become.

He succeeds with this. I enjoyed the book, and I actually grasped a lot of the concepts despite being about as right-brain and humanities department as you get. It’s not something he’s willing to dumb down to appeal to audiences not interested in the book’s theme. But it is something he’s generous of spirit about to add some humor and levity to.

Once again, back to the scuba diving analogy. And a surprisingly sharp one at that, when you actually think about the breakdown process. “Learning to scuba dive and mastering the complexities of supply chain management (SCM) share a non-negotiable requirement: an unwavering commitment to foundational principles. Fail to grasp the basics of scuba diving, and you risk severe injury or even loss of life. In the world of SCM, the stakes are no less severe: A neglect of fundamentals could result in crippling operational setbacks and financial devastation—potentially sinking your business,” Koch writes. “It’s common for people to get their open water certifications and never to proceed from there because they don’t have the confidence to dive on their own without the tether and comfort of an instructor at arm’s length.

"Therefore, they never have the opportunity to explore the entire underwater ecosystem and all its natural beauty. As a diver, I worked on my core skills by logging more and more dives, combining what I had learned with taking additional specialty classes and then progressing to certification as a rescue diver. As a supply chain professional, I’m always learning and absorbing new ideas, information, and insights to strengthen my core skills so I may help my clients and teach others.”

Garth Thomas

Like any good left-brainer, Koch uses a straightforward and concise analogy for the heavy, specific text present in The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain. Simply put, diving. Complete with chapters structured with a ‘buddy check system.’ A little on the nose, but ge...

06/26/2024

I'm very proud and honored that CEOWORLD Magazine just published an article on how I used scuba diving to help solve some legacy supply chain problems.

What do scuba diving and supply chain management have in common? A lot, as I realized while on a scuba diving break from the hectic business world. It was while underwater, surrounded by calm, that I realized just how similar they are. Learning to scuba dive and mastering the complexities of supply....

06/17/2024

My new book, The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking The Sustainable Profit Chain, is now available on Amazon.

Discover innovative strategies for:

Process Optimization: Maximize Inventory Velocity.

Team Engagement: Become the organization others aspire to emulate.

Increase Customer Loyalty, Profit Sustainability, and Corporate Valuation With industry-proven, best-of-class supply chain methodologies.

The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain

05/05/2024

Hi Everyone,

My new book, The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain, is now available for preorder on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. The pub date is July 16, 2024.

It's time to unlock the true potential of your supply chain.

The Supply Chain Revolution: Unlocking the Sustainable Profit Chain