398: Welcome to Supply Chain Unfiltered

Karin Bursa joins Christine Barnhart to launch Supply Chain Unfiltered & talk about industry challenges, bad ERPs & the importance of interoperability.

[09.25] An introduction to Karin Bursa, her long-time friendship with Christine, and her passion for supply chain tech.

“I had a practitioner background, and I saw the opportunity for technology to make every day a little bit better… I wanted to be part of helping many companies, not just one, do that – and fell in love with supply chain technology!”

[13.15] From innovation and challenges to geopolitical disruption, Karin and Christine discuss the current landscape of supply chain.

“It’s a great time to be in supply chain! If you want to make an impact, you’re in the right domain.”

“There’s some really cool stuff happening, but we have to get out of our own way. The biggest barrier to automation, innovation, visibility – is something called spreadsheets!”

[20.36] An audience poll: “who’s company is currently doing an ERP upgrade?”, and Christine’s reflections on what she sees in the industry when it comes to ERP’s.

“ERP’s were built to show the state of the system today – they weren’t intended to plan the business for the future.”

[22.34] What interoperability means to Karin; how it brings trading partners together; why it needs to facilitate the interpretation of data, as well as just data exchange; and the growing importance of supply chain planning.

“We’ve been talking about ecosystem collaboration since the early 2000’s, it’s not a new idea. But the technology to do it is so much better today.”

If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from Christine, check out 380: Women in Supply Chain, Christine Barnhart or 328: Blended – Breaking the Class Ceiling.

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