Manufacturing Leaders

Building Resilient Supply Chains in a Volatile World

• Mark Bracknall • Season 11 • Episode 7

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Peter Cottle, Head of Supply Chain at Walker Filtration, shares insights on leadership and innovation in modern supply chains:

  • Leadership built on accountability, emotional intelligence, and trust
  • Resilience through data visibility, early warning systems, and smart tech investment
  • Sustainability and mentorship as tools to attract talent and drive long-term value

Summary:
Peter highlights how strong leadership, technological foresight, and purpose-driven strategies are reshaping the supply chain landscape—making it more resilient, future-ready, and people-focused.

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Please subscribe to the channel for more content! Theo James are a Manufacturing & Engineering Recruiter based in the North East, helping Manufacturing and Engineering firms grow across the UK. Please call us on 0191 5111 298

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to an episode of the Manufacturing Leads podcast with me Mark Bracknell, marketing Director of Theo James Recruitment. Today, we welcome on Peter Cottle, the Head of Supply Chain at Walker Filtration. What an episode this was. Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I've learned so much from Peter.

Speaker 1:

It was a fascinating conversation, not only on leadership and we discussed the art of accountability or the need for accountability, along with building friendships and emotional intelligence but also specifically supply chain and how supply chain, how crucial supply chain is within the manufacturing industry. We talked about building resilient supply chains. Peter went into detail about how exactly you do that, what data you need to be analyzing. We talked about that ever-changing AI and automation piece and how that will change the face of supply chain and manufacturing forever. Before, obviously, we talked about crucial elements like sustainability and ESG and how companies should be harnessing sustainability to really build a long-term future, and also relationships with their supply chain, along with loads of other stuff.

Speaker 1:

It's one of those episodes where you're going to enjoy. It's going to get you thinking, but you're also going to come away with some real, tangible tips and advice within leadership, but also specifically supply chain and operations. So thank you so much, peter. Really enjoyed this. Please, please, please, just click that like and subscribe button. Really appreciate it. It helps grow the show. Please sit back, enjoy. Thank you very much. Excellent. A massive warm welcome today to Peter Gottel, the head of supply chain at Walker Filtration. How are we doing, peter? I'm great. Mark, how are you? I'm very good, thanks Very good, I'm very good, thanks very good. And look really looking forward to this and I can't wait to go through your journey and all things supply chain before we do that. It's the first question. It's a question I see everyone that comes on. What does it mean to you, peter?

Speaker 2:

to be a leader. So I was thinking about this because obviously I've seen your podcasts and you know I don't really want to go down the typical route of looking at sort of strategy. So I've got a couple of points really I think is important from a leader perspective. And I think the first one really is around accountability. I think it's so important from a leader perspective that when you say you're going to do something or you hit a times scale that's really important to you know, commit yourself to that time scale. And I think accountability always comes across as quite a negative aspect. You know, and I sort of look at it from a positive perspective, because if you build in that sort of accountability, you also build better relationships. You, because if you build in that sort of accountability, you also build better relationships. You know you build up trust and credibility, you know. So I think it's really important from an accountability perspective and you know leaders should embrace that and commit to what you're doing. And the second one really is, um, emotional intelligence. You know, I think it's really important to have that sort of, you know, empathy towards not just your team but obviously other people across the business. You know, again, I think you get a lot better reaction from people buying and again it just supports you as a leader going forward in those you, you know challenging times, if you understand your team, which then leads us quite nicely into sort of building strong relationships. You know, I think you know personally, you know I've got a team that I really build up friendships and you know I've been at water filtration for six years and during that time, you know, I've got a really good team and I think and we've become stronger because I have those sort of friendships built into that. And I think a lot of people might then maybe disagree with that because sometimes they might have a challenging aspect between you know what. What happens if you then, you know, have to do certain difficult conversations. You know, and I think that's really then clear in terms of the boundaries of you know what's friendship and then really what is? You know you're there to do a job, you're there to hit goals and objectives and so, yeah, I think that's really important to build those sort of key relationships within that sort of leadership aspect.

Speaker 2:

And then the other one for me is you know and I think this probably comes up quite a lot is obviously effective communication and it's. You know, to be honest, mark, it's one that I really struggle with. You know, not struggle with it's one way I think a lot of people struggle to get right um. I'll give an example.

Speaker 2:

You know I do a um, you know a quarterly review with the team and we do a you know sort of what's going well within the business um and um. I did a feedback session because initially I was wanting to do it every month and across the whole team and supply chain a lot of people want to do it monthly, some people want to do it quarterly, some people even said six months, and then even the content in that was all varied. So I think when we get into communication, it's really challenging to to really get it right and because you're dealing with so many different aspects and different inputs from people, um, you know. So I think that feedback loop is always important to re-engage um. Are we doing it the right way? Um. You know, is there anything that we're missing out in that sort of communication? Um, and also the style of communication. You know you think a lot of people like that sort of stand-up presentation but in fact, you know you've got one-to-ones, you've got um email communication.

Speaker 1:

So you know it's really trying to fit what's best for the organization and you as a leader excellent, superb answer, and thank you for obviously putting some real thought in that, peter, as well, because, um, it really resonated with me and I like the fact that people will be driving in or walking or whatever, listen to this, thinking and just thinking about their communication skills, about how, about their relationships with their staff, about how accountable they are or they hold people to.

Speaker 1:

And I was, when I was listening to you, because I think actually they interlink really nicely for me because I completely agree, I probably battle with that relationship piece in terms of that friendship piece with my employees, because naturally I'm someone who likes to get on with people and sometimes the advice is, as a manager, you're a manager and they're your staff, so you shouldn't get too close, and I probably battle with that a little bit. And your staff so you shouldn't, you shouldn't get too close, and I probably battle with that a little bit. And you read bug stone, you think I need to manage in this way and so forth. But I think ultimately you've got to do what you feel comfortable with, because that links in with the emotional intelligence piece. Yeah, yeah, it took me a long time to realize that you've got to do what you're comfortable with and if that for you is, you get the best out of people from bringing them close and, and you know, being close to them. That's the best way to manage.

Speaker 2:

But I agree with you, there has to be a boundary, and that boundary for me is that accountability piece because, I still think people need that to be able to to achieve, so I think they link really nicely yeah, I think like sort of accountability then drives if you know if you're doing what you're seeing you're going to do, it also drives that accountability down into you know the wider business and you know especially the team. You know and if, if we've got a deadline, you know I expect the team to hit that deadline. You know and or you know an early communication, understand why that accountability is going to be missed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 100%. I think something I've struggled with until I've changed the sort of way we do things is my own accountability, because I think as a leader and you don't have to own the business to not have accountability sort of structurally, you can be someone very senior in the business and the person above you just gives you that autonomy to be able to work, and some people that works perfectly because they need that. Other people and I'll add myself in that need some accountability. So for me that I had to put things in place, so I had targets and and it might be my staff and my leadership team holding my car. But what are your thoughts on that? The accountability for leaders, would you say?

Speaker 2:

So you know, I think when we look at, let's say, when we go back to the strategy, you know the strategy is around looking at. You know where we go and you know what's the vision and mission of the business. You know, and I think you know, the accountability piece for me comes in to put the roadblock in place to get to where we need to be, you know, and then that then hopefully gets supported by the wider business. So we all become accountable, you know. So it's not just around you know the leaders saying this is the direction we're going to go in. You know, yes, we need to communicate that direction, but then it's everyone's let's say, responsibility, accountability to ensure we're on the right path. Um, you know, or you know, and we'll probably get on the list going forward, you know the dynamics of the, the you saw, you know the global market then sometimes obviously can change those sort of um strategies going forward.

Speaker 1:

Yeah I agree. What? What do you think is the best way to become a better leader? Or learn to be leader, because this isn't manufacturing in isolation. I think every sector falls on this. But people tend to just presume someone's good at a job, so they must be good as a leader. I fell into that trap, I would say in terms of the early days of the business just going. They must be good as a leader and we didn't train them how to be a leader, we just presumed, and I think in some instances some people sank and some swam and unfortunately, I think in some situations there was then some fear behind those ones that did sink that they could be a manager again, and that was a mistake I took and we don't make that mistake again. But I still see a lot of companies fall into that trap. Or do you think actually, in some situations it is better to just learn from mistakes and crack on it's? It splits people.

Speaker 2:

This yeah, I think there's a fine balance mark. I think, you know, for me, um, I probably wasn't a natural leader, um, you know, I think you know I have learned a lot from mistakes, but I've also pushed myself, um you, to do the necessary courses to get the awareness you know, the differentiation between what a manager and leader is is really important. You know, and I think that itself, you know, a leader recognising that where they've got areas of improvement themselves is also a good quality, they've got areas of improvement themselves is also a good quality. You know, like, um, it's, you know, that continuous sort of drive to improve yourself but also others.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, I think, if we look at leadership as a service, you know, I feel like, for me, um, there's a couple of aspects we can go down in terms of, um, yes, i'm'm here as a leader of the business within the business, but also, you know, I'm here to serve the people around me. You know, I really buy into the fact that I want my team and others around us to just be, as you know, to reach their full potential. You know, and, as a leader, it's my job. That I say is, how do we get those people on those sort of right paths. Um, so, yeah, it's, it's such a, I think, a leadership. Really, there's so many different qualities around it and you know, and I think so many people have so many different viewpoints to it, um, it's really hard to really distinguish what is right yeah, 100.

Speaker 1:

But I think that the beauty of it is it people will lead differently and manage differently because they've got different values and goals, and I think that in a, in a senior management scene, that's a, that's a positive. You know, I think if everyone, if to some extent, if everyone did everything exactly the same, you have the same ideas, you know the same problems, that solution so no, I think a mix is is good. If, if you look at supply chain in particular, that supply chain is is your passion, it's what you've always done um, I still think, like any profession in engineering, there's probably a lack of of awareness behind what that is to some extent, for if you can build, why did you? It's something you fell into, it's something you want to get into. What? What was your route into it?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So probably the same as 99% of the people in supply chain profession. We fall into it, you know, I think um. So, and again, that sort of grassroots learnings around what supply chain really is is still, I think, missing um, you know, if we look at sort of schools um, you know they, they look at business, you know, but really to look at the sort of functionality around the business areas. So yeah, I think a lot of the people just fall into supply chain.

Speaker 2:

Myself, you know, I left school 16. Academic wasn't my route initially. So the first job really I got was working for the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle and, you know, really looking after their stores department and, you know, having that responsibility to ensure you've got the right stocks around you for what if a machine goes down. The press, you know, is really important um, and that was really my sort of instigation into um, supply chain um from a from that perspective, um, but I quickly realized there was so much more diversity in supply chain but I wasn't really getting exposure to um, you know.

Speaker 2:

And then you know the career then moves on from that into sort of different companies um, through material planning and strategic buy-in and commodity management. So again, you know, I think it's really important that, as a supply chain and sort of professional it's to get an overview of what really is supply chain um, is that misconceptions, you know? Supply chains maybe just logistics, um, and it's not really, you know, I think it's. You know it's end-to-end value chain um, you know, and there's so many different functions within that end-to-end um where you can either have an overall London or specialist in certain areas, um, so yeah, it's like everyone fell in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I find it fascinating because when we do inductions here, typically the awareness of manufacturing initially isn't great, and I quite like that because we can get to teach them. And then they can walk around factories and speak to people and start to learn over the years. But when you ask them, how do you think that was look at a laptop? How do you think that was look at laptop? How do you think that was made? They'll talk about the parts they'll talk about. They might talk about robots in a factory. But when you start to explain to them the, the design elements of it, then you know the logistics or the supply chain, that the, the buyer piece, the negotiating, all that you know. They start to start to be really interested because people don't see what the work that goes behind manufacturing anything, everything do they? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I think you know people just think, yeah, sometimes have a magic wand and a product made. You know and um, and I put we probably will get onto sort of how we manage sort of resilience, and you know those complexities within supply chain. You know, and that's not an easy task to do. You know and um, yeah, and I think, um, it would be really interesting, you know, to really understand from, let's say, you know, a pupil in school what they really think of supply chain. Um, because I still don't think there's that an awareness that there is a full career like, and you know, quite an attractive career. You know that is available for people.

Speaker 2:

You know young kids, you know I've got an apprentice, for example, in my team. You know, and you know it's not really a natural career choice for people and I think that's really sad to hear. But I think again, as we move forward, there's so much opportunity. You know, and supply chain people are so valuable in my eyes, obviously from a buyer's perspective. They are so valuable to not just manufacturing but across every organisation 100%.

Speaker 1:

I think we need to start bringing awareness to how you reverse engineer what people think they want to become and if that isn't a marketing director, a director, an ops director, you look at the career history of a lot of these people. They've come from supply chain, because they understand the business, the strategy and what it takes to be able to build, like you say, a resilient supply chain which the end-to-end product is a manufacturing part. So many have come from that route, haven't they?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and I think you've hit a good point. In terms of supply chain people, they have to engage quite a lot with the external environment, um, you know, and that just strengthens people's qualities from my perspective of you know how, to you know manage different aspects within the business, and so it also gives people the opportunity to, you know, as you say, move into different functions from supply chain, and the skills are quite transferable. And so supply chain going into operations and or supply chain, and the skills are quite transferable. And so supply chain going in operations and or supply chain even going into sales. You know someone who's done, let's say, um, a negotiation course. You know if they go into that sales platform, you know they're in a much stronger position to then understand, because they've really already been in that situation already of how to negotiate with a, with a customer, you know, and getting the value from, from the business and you know if you look at ai and what will or what won't replace certain roles, etc.

Speaker 1:

It will not take away the emotional intelligence relationship piece, the negotiating you know it will be. It will change the face of everything but ultimately those skills will always be there and they'll be more important because certain roles will be. How do you see AI and data? How do you see it changing supply chain from where we are today?

Speaker 2:

AI. I think there's so many things going on. I think it was an important PC to really start off with. For me is there's a clear disparity between smes and sort of multi um big organizations. You know um. Sometimes you know, when I go along these events, even water filtration being quite a large organization we're still massively and behind in terms of that digitalization um and it's quite daunting because sometimes it's really unclear how to start. There's so many different um technologies or ai, machine learning and digital twins. You know everyone. It's such a massive buzzword at the minute and that it's hard to really understand where to start um and also that investment piece, you know. I'll give you an example Last year I was working with a company called Value Chain which was looking at, you know, a collaboration platform for really like an end-to-end visibility and they're doing some fantastic work.

Speaker 2:

But then all of a sudden it's like, okay, is it still right for water filtration? And you know, are we getting the sort of return on investment? And you know, what skills do we need to manage the the sort of technology as well? But I think people you know have to embrace technology. It's changing and we get into. What does that look like? Which areas do we focus on? You've got machine learning that does predictive analysis on inventory. You've got what I've just mentioned around collaboration spaces, visibility and transportation. And all this comes at a cost to the organisation, and I think this is where it becomes really challenging to really engage with that sort of technology. But for me I'm a digital person, I love data I feel it brings a lot of value and streamlines operations. It builds in efficiencies, you know so, and it's here to stay, you know so.

Speaker 2:

I think at some point we've got to embrace it and businesses not just like water filtration, but other SMEs have really got to focus time and effort on what is right for their business, for that sort of um digital roadmap. Um, because, yeah, it's a tea at the state yeah, I completely agree.

Speaker 1:

I think what, what I like? Just a pinpoint what you said there about it's right for your business, do you mean? Because it isn't a one-size-fits-all? And actually to some extent the argument could be that you know, big corporate businesses have got the cash to invest it, but actually they've also got to roll it out to a huge organization. Multi-site change the culture, where actually an sme is probably an advantage. They can make those small tweaks and they can understand quite quickly if it's right for their business or not, because some of these things are so small but can make a huge difference to the business, can't they?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And you know, I think maybe the roles of supply chain are also changing within that digital landscape. You know, if we think, you know, we start hearing different sort of job titles through, you know, supply chain transformation, you know, and that is gearing businesses up for integrating and implementing digitalisation, but it extends outside of just sort of the sort of digital space but around sort of automation in general. If I look at some of the work we're looking in from a warehouse perspective, you know you've got fully automated.

Speaker 2:

Um, warehouses, you know that do picking places, um, you know whether it's using, you know, different scanning technologies and there's just so much to go at. And you know, I think it's really, um, you know, really sort of interesting in terms of how that landscape is going to change over time. Um, but technology also changes at a rapid rate. Um, you know we were, we were looking at something called demand driven mrp, which is, you, you know, again, a tool that looks at sort of predicting inventory. But again, that's quite quickly potentially becoming obsolete by other digital means, you know, so you may have then spent time and effort in that sort of area to develop, which is now then getting, you know, replaced by again more sophisticated streamlining ways.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 100%. Ultimately because there are, like you said, there are so many tools now again more sophisticated streamlining ways. Yeah, 100%. Because, ultimately, because there are, like you say, there are so many tools now and I'm a you know, I'm a little bit like a magpie in the sense that this looks great. You know, let's get this in. We've just before this where we're changing I've just sat on a demo there because we're changing our phone system, so we're complete AI, so they listen to our, our calls and create notes and all the all this great stuff. But I still come back to every time it's got to mean we make more profit. You know, because, like, like anything you know it can, it can look great and it can make people's life easier, but as a business, if it doesn't make more money for the business, then it's, it's not a good investment no, no, and.

Speaker 2:

But I think sometimes it's like okay, well, do we look at profitability or do we look at value? You know what I mean. So, again, when you bring in certain digitalisation, that might then free up resources, that really needs to focus on different areas, sort of like sustainability, risk management, opportunities, you know, building a more resilient supply chain where the minutes you know. Resilient supply chain uh, where the minutes you know, um, I think a lot of businesses may struggle with balancing all the challenges that we see in supply chain. So the digitalization aspect for me is an enabler to allow us to really, um, protect the business going forward. Um, yeah, it's, it's a means to an end, I think, but also it's never ending. You know if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it does 100%. It's fascinating, scary, exciting, all those things, isn't it? Apologies for interrupting this episode with a very quick announcement about my business. Theo James are a specialist talent provider specifically to the manufacturing and engineering sector. I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved since our inception in 2015. We specialize in roles from semi-skilled trades right the way up to our TJ Exec search arm of the business. Both in the contract and permit side, we offer both bespoke one-off campaigns for hard-to-fill roles or a full partnership service where we become an extension of your business. For any information, please get in touch with me or the team. I hope you enjoy the rest of the episode. Thank you. You mentioned data and I think data is different links in with AI and automation, but it is still different. What would you say is the most important data that you're looking at or companies should be looking at within supply chain to drive those efficiencies? Now, what do you say um?

Speaker 2:

so I think if when we look at um so I'm going to flip into more of the operations here in terms of, I think when we look at um automation and operations, it can quickly tell you um certain aspects around you know, a certain situation that might be happening on the shop floor, for example. So it's a quick red flag in terms of we're not hitting the daily performance. So it flags things up to say, listen, we've got a concern here. I think, also, data looking at, looking at from a supply chain perspective, you know that heat map of sort of risks that you can see coming through and we don't have this water filtration. But again, in terms of the vision, I can see, you know how much it can benefit businesses.

Speaker 2:

In terms of, you know, getting that early warning systems in the supply chain. You know if something happens in the Far East, you know that early warning systems. And in the supply chain, you know if something happens in the far east, you know what does that actually mean? Um, you know, and my, the way I visualize it is, you know we we've done a lot of work over the years in sort of understanding country of origin of products. Um, so, for example, as soon as we see an issue in, let's say, china, in the Red Sea for example, we can quickly establish not just the direct materials that we buy through China but the indirect materials that's within the pipeline, and really create a source of information that we can act upon quite quickly, that we can act upon quite quickly. Now again we get into, then, well, global sourcing, dual sourcing. Now we've got the tools and sort of ability to move product around, but the data allows us to really have that sort of access and visualization to make sort of a decision-making much quicker.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly that You've got to be to be able to make decisions, you need facts and you need the data. So it arms you with the relevant data to do so. That's fascinating, actually, because, yeah, I imagine, like you say, there will be probably is already there bots that they can build in supply chain, let's say, to whether you're trawling news articles, the trawling stocks and shares, whatever it is those early indicators of an issue which I guess is well-timed with all the stuff that's gone on over the last couple of months with the US and China and the trade war. Do you think if companies were armed with that, they could have made decisions quicker? Potentially? Is that coming?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so well. I think, if we look at sort of the challenges that all supply chain, all businesses gone through really over the last, not just 18 months, but the last couple of years, you know, if we look at Brexit, COVID, Ukraine, war you know these all throw up challenges around you know continuity, and I think that challenge has made every business and especially from a supply chain professional more resilient. We've got to think outside the box and I think again what you know you can never predict, Mark, Honestly, if someone was to say to me, um, how do you predict sustainability, um, or stability, sorry, in your supply chain for the next 12 months? You know the honest answer is you know it's very difficult to say that I could um, guarantee that, um, and I think it's also very difficult to ensure that you've got all the right what-if scenarios covered, because you just don't know what's around the corner. But to maybe answer your question, I think these geopolitical situations has really enforced businesses to have at least some plans in place. To have at least some plans in place.

Speaker 2:

Whether we look at sort of you know, our global sourcing strategies, does that change to sort of near-shoring now instead of the global sourcing you know we look at. You know what we're doing in terms of Atlas Copco, looking at sort of local for local manufacturing. So again, that sort of brings you much more closer to your geographical market, you know. So I think what it allows us to do is to create the right strategy, you know, to put the right sort of roadblocks in place to become more resilient as a business. Supply chains are getting longer, Customers wanting products a lot smaller, there's so much complexity to manage and again, I think digitalisation and sort of risk management really come together to really to build that sort of overall resilience within businesses.

Speaker 1:

Everyone can take something from it, because you're absolutely right, and that's not manufacturing or supply chain isolation, that's just, like you say, operationally good business model to have alternative plans to what's happening right now, and I think that was probably the lesson I learned in COVID I would never have thought for one second how the business would change overnight and change week to week to some extent and suddenly, uh, you know, business which might need three to four months cash in a bank, probably came out of covent, thought right, we need six to seven, because you just, you just never know when, suddenly, oh, your revenue stream's completely cut off. There it's, it's changes yeah, and.

Speaker 2:

But I think you know the other thing that's really important as well is like the digital landscape as well also creates other risks. You know, we see that now, you know, the biggest risk now the business is cyber security. Yeah, you know, and, um, you know, so, again, you've got to put all that sort of investment, um you know, and risk prevention measures in place. So it's just another way of now protecting your business digitally. So, yeah, it's just swinging the pendulum, isn't it? In terms of balancing that, in terms of the sort of product flow and the information flow, to maximise your continuity as a business.

Speaker 1:

I can't believe it. Funny enough, I had Kelly Madison on the podcast last week. It's about to go out who's the membership director of Make UK Defence? And the reason I got her on is because a lot of companies are trying to get into that space and there's probably lack of awareness of you know. We debunked some myths and she gave some really good detail in terms of how people get started and she said you know, step one is an ISO, certain ISO standards you need to be able to get in the room. The second one is cybersecurity, which people neglect, but actually it is as important, if not more important than anything, particularly in defense, which obviously is the compliance is so high, for obvious reasons, but it is. That's another challenge that company needs to tackle, but it is so crucial, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

That box is more than ticked, it's concentrated, yeah and I think, like you know, if we just look at compliance in general, mark, honestly it's really difficult and a lot of it, you know, falls on to certain supply chain professionals to maintain, alongside all the other um value that they create to their business. Um, you know so. Um, if I look at compliance in general, you know we have um the requirements which I think most organizations are now used to, which is is ISO standards 9,001, 14,001, 45,001. You know so, when we look at that sort of triple badge, you know there's now an expectation from customers that you know business have all these compliance measures in place. And again, that cascades down to a lot of work that we have to do within the supply base to ensure that we've got the right sort of um due diligence measures in place. But and it continues to evolve and outside of that um, you then got obviously the product compliance. So you know we talk about um reach, rush, conflict, minerals, pfas, and you know the list is literally never ending.

Speaker 2:

Um, and and again, the supply chain teams.

Speaker 2:

Now, and this is where, again, if we look at the sort of value creation of supply chain, and you know they, they have to balance, you know the, the, the expectations around. You know, maximizing profitability, demonstrating value for money. But also on that, I would call the compliance side to ensure that you've got all your right due diligence in places and you know you, you really understand the products that you're buying and you have strategies around um, you know if you have any sort of items in the products that have, let's say, a class as high risk, you know you've got measures in place to work with suppliers and engineering teams to then de-risk it, you know. And then so again, it's a balancing act to ensure that you know the teams are providing the necessary value to the business. And I think that's where sometimes a lot of people don't see that value that we do create. Um, you know, and yeah, it's, it's just an area, I think, that is um it doesn't really get sort of the acknowledgement it deserves within the supply chain forum yeah, completely agree.

Speaker 1:

I, um, I facilitate a supply chain for them. Yeah, completely agree, I facilitate a supply chain roundtable during university the other week and quite a few points on the agenda, but one of those which links into what you're saying there was that sustainability and ESG piece and actually, well, it's a bit concerning to some extent, because on one side, people were saying that when they're now tendering for work, let's say that they're asking for more now, now, much more on that sustainability piece. It's not, it doesn't feel like just a tick box exercise. On the flip side to that, companies were saying it's become very challenging now to balance it out because of the cost problem they have as a business. Because it's all about balance. What are your thoughts on on where we are, where we're at now as a market within that sustainability piece, and is that something that you're at, you're been asking for or been asked more for on that, um, supply chain?

Speaker 2:

so I mean to be honest, mark, we could have a whole session on sustainability. You know, I think that is in itself as a topic. Um, you know, I think when we look at um the requirements coming back from customers, you know um, but not just customers. You know our business. You know we've all got our scope, free targets around. You know, um co2 reduction. Um, you know supply chain is probably, for me, you know, at the forefront of that change management in terms of waste reduction and looking at um, different technologies, different green and materials, and you know so.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know circular economy. You know it's not just about returnable packaging. You know it's it's it's the life management of a product. You know and you know how do do we look at it from a concept and an engineering perspective to really how we dispose of it at the end of its life, and that's really challenging because sometimes it's not as easy with some of the materials that people are dealing with. You know ESG. You mentioned before. It's such a massive requirement now, even just from a filtration perspective. And you know we are working towards EcoVardis, because we ask all our suppliers to just try and look at EcoVardis, which is an ESG platform, and so we want to do that ourselves, to say, listen, we don't just expect you guys, as our supply chain, to do it, we're going to do it ourselves. Myself and my team are working at the start of looking at ISO 2400, which is sustainable procurement, because, again, you know, sustainability is not going to go away and I think business can look at this from a competitive advantage.

Speaker 2:

And you know I was on a fantastic course last year and you know, and it looked at sustainability on more of a selling perspective and you know I went on this course around looking at you know I'm an ego warrior.

Speaker 2:

I want to try and not sell, I want to try and do my bit for the environment and it quite quickly came around that sustainability has got to be an add-on to how you sell your product. You can't expect customers to want to buy a product because it's because it's it's better for the environment. It's still got to come back and make a a profitable return on their business and so it becomes a requirement. And and I think you know we look at and what people are doing around that is looking at X as a service or anything as a service, you know. So people really are partnership with customers to onboard their sort of sustainability initiatives. That then also becomes a revenue generator. So, yeah, you know there's so much to go out with sustainability and I think supply chain is really um at the forefront, yeah, of making those changes happen yeah, that is great advice.

Speaker 1:

That, because it links with everything you're saying there. You know right from the start about that relationship building, isn't it? If you can work with your supply chain and there's that continuity and consistency between you know it's, it just creates long-lasting relationships, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

essentially, yeah, definitely yeah, you know, and I think, um, you know, we all, we all have these sort of goals and objectives within every business. Um, and I think you mentioned it before, it shouldn't be a tick box exercise. Uh, you know, um, yes, you can then say you have certain compliance, but really, I think the the true um drive is okay, and if you've identified something that is of a concern or you've you've identified improvements, it's really acting on those to to drive the success of sustainability. Um, so, yeah, it's. It's another one, like digitalization. You know there's so many arms and legs to it that it's um, it could be that, you know, and most businesses do have this. It's a function in its own right. Um, you know, but, again, a lot of businesses don't really have that luxury of of having that sort of dedicated resource.

Speaker 1:

Um, you know, but it's still the right thing to do in my eyes, you know, it's, it's um, yeah, it's protecting the planet going forward yeah, 100, and it, like you say, it is a balance to have that dedicated resource, but I would argue that businesses are prioritizing it or businesses that aren't prioritizing it and missing a trick and leaving so much on the table. Because what I've seen, companies that have really sort of ran with it. They've created a culture, an internal culture in the business and the change people's habits in and out of work and people are proud to work there. People are proud to work for a business which doesn't just tick a box and doesn't do something for because they'll get more work out of it. They do it because they care and and the new generation, which is great they really, really care about the planet and they care what people are doing in the business and they don't want to work for unsustainable business which just doesn't care about it, something like that yeah, totally agreeing that.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think um, we see that um, you know the younger generation coming through. They've got an expectation and you know, and if you want to become an employer of choice and you know you you've got to demonstrate that you are not just um and ticking boxes. Um, you know, and you know that. You know that's not just around um. You know sustainability as well. It's around the work-life balance and you know it's around um. You know how, how the new generation see their um work and ethic to businesses and you know nine to five isn't what people want to do anymore, you know, so it's um. And when we talk about um, you know supply chain earlier in the in the podcast about being a career choice uh, you know we've really got to engage with these um newer generations because, you know, do they even want to work in a manufacturing um facility at all? You know, and that's where you know we've got to really tap into the potential opportunities and making supply chain a career of choice. You know, because it is such a good career to have.

Speaker 1:

I agree. Well, you've said maybe nice, nice things there. That final question. But what? What advice would you give, you know, to a young professional starting out or considering starting out in a supply chain logistics world? What advice would you give them, knowing all the years of experience to help here?

Speaker 2:

um. So I think one of the things I really missed out in and I'm reflecting here in terms of of my process through my career is, um get a mentor. Um, seriously, I think it's um, it's an underrated um process. Um, you know, a mentor can really steer someone's career um, but also fast track it. You know, to have someone to sort of bounce ideas off and and really sort of um guide that sort of young person coming into the career is is profound for me. Um, the other thing for me is, um you know, supply chain so vast, you know, take the opportunity to really get an awareness of the different aspects of supply chain.

Speaker 2:

I think, again, a lot of times people get into one role and they stay in that one role and then they find it then difficult to branch out. And again, you know, sort of branching now just brings you or enables you to have a much more um better understanding of how businesses work. Um, I think um, yeah, really um, take, take learning as a, not just a one-stop opportunity. Um, I've got this mindset of um learning for life. Um, you know, I find it really interesting when you you know you pick something up and you're going oh my god, that is so interesting, I'm going to learn it myself. Um, you know, because you've been in korea for 30 years. It doesn't mean to say you know everything. So, again, there's a lot of things I think in terms of continue to do CPD, you know, keep abreast of what's going on sort of globally, but also within your technical expertise, and it just always keeps you at the forefront of the skill set needed to do a good job.

Speaker 1:

Excellent, fantastic answer. And just finally, peter, what's happening next sort of 18 months, two years, for Walker at the Scopco? What's on the agenda?

Speaker 2:

So, again, you know we've got a like always, we've got quite an aggressive growth strategy. So it's again, you know how do we maximise those opportunities, and that's whether looking at sort of acquisitions but also geographical expansions. But you never know what's on the corner. So, again, it's really just keeping abreast of what's going on geopolitically. You know what impacts can have or what those sort of things can have an impact to your organisation. Talent you know how do we really get talent into the business. You know, in the future of management, you know we drive that through different um, let's say, coaching or training courses within the teams, and so succession planning really is quite key for us as well. Um, so, yeah, there's, there's a lot going on.

Speaker 1:

It's always interesting um, there's never a dull moment well, look, peter, thank you so so much for this Because, look, I've thoroughly enjoyed this. It's been. I've learned loads. It's just sometimes I listen, sometimes obviously I'm on it, but I'm listening and I'll pick out maybe one sort of two.

Speaker 1:

But there's so much from this table here because I love the fact that we've talked about that leadership piece and people were listening, thinking, right, okay, I can, there's tips that will get they got me thinking. It'll get them thinking and I really love the how specific you've gone into supply chain and the resilience piece and the data piece and ai piece, because there's so much and I think what I love about it is it just shows how exciting this space is and it just shows how ever-changing it will be and how it will look completely different in five to ten years' time. And I do think we've got some work to do to create some awareness behind supply chain as a profession and I think this will go a long way to start doing that and hopefully people listening who are perhaps supply chain managers and perhaps want to give some awareness to their kids or whatever, can get them to listen to it because it's so important, it's such an integral part of a manufacturing business and strategy. So thank you so much, peter. It's been great. I've totally enjoyed it.

Speaker 2:

It's been a pleasure to be involved. Mark, you know it's a grown podcast, so you know I feel privileged to be invited on to discuss the supply chain.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, mate. Thank you so much for listening or watching this episode of the Manufacturing Leaders Podcast. Please just like or subscribe. It really helps grow the show and obviously improve the industry. If you want any more information about Theo James, as I mentioned midway through the episode, please get in touch with me or the team. I would love to talk about how it can help you directly or your business. We are more than just a recruiter and I know people say that, but it's something I'm incredibly passionate about. We are in business for much more than just a bums on seats approach. We want to help people grow, we want to help improve their lives and, ultimately, I want to work with businesses and people who share the same values as we do, and that's something I'm incredibly passionate about. So please, if that is you and you are passionate about that dream role or passionate about your people, please get in touch with me or the team. I would absolutely love to talk a bit more detail. Thank you very much. Speak soon.