On March 31st, ISM-Charlotte had its annual Spring Conference at the beautiful Ingersoll Rand campus in Davidson, NC.  The theme this year was “Sustainability in Supply Chain” and we were honored to have several influential speakers who are making key changes within their organizations and the supply chain community. 

Tim Regan, Director Global L&D Strategic Programs from Teleflex Medical kicked off the event by discussing what Supply Chain Sustainability really means. Just because it may be “green” doesn’t mean it is sustainable, an example Tim brought to our attention was bamboo floors and that they have to be exported from Asia which can lead to them being non sustainable.

Amy Keister, VP Consumer Engagement at Compass Group went in depth with her work to provide sustainably sourced food for her company’s clients.  This is no small endeavor, since Compass Group is the largest contract foodservice company in the world.  She and her team worked hard to partner with clients and even competitors to create positive change, such as minimize food waste by donating excess to those in need coupled with informing the public on appropriate expiration dates. 

After lunch was provided, afternoon breakout sessions gave attendees the option to choose between three excellent presentations.  Holly Emerson, Senior Sustainability Analyst at Ingersoll Rand discussed the evolution of sustainability in corporations, Max Fulginiti, Executive Recruiter from Ajilon, spoke on supply chain staffing in 2017, and Deborah Williams, Senior Director-Supplier Diversity at Premier, Inc., shared the importance and benefits of supplier diversity in the marketplace. 

Rick Kaglic, Senior Regional Economist at The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond wrapped up the event with an overview of the latest economic trends for the Carolinas in comparison to the rest of the country.  His humor and clever anecdotes made the timely economic information interesting and relatable. 

Overall the conference was a success with over 70 attendees, great speakers and plenty of time for networking with colleagues in supply chain management. The Spring Conference for 2018 will be in March as well.

Congratulations to David Thomason, recipient of the 2017-18 ISM-Charlotte Supply Chain Professional of the Year Award!

David is an ISM member in good standing and served as an affiliate Membership Chair, Vice-President from 1998 to 2000, and President for the 2001-2002 term. He participates in ISM-Charlotte activities and holds C.P.M. and CPSM certifications.

David joined Novolex in December 2016 and is responsible for managing the MRO sourcing program for 47 North American manufacturing plants; implementing common purchasing standards and vendors across all locations. In addition, he works with MRO buyers at the plants to promote ethical purchasing practices.

Quote by a former co-worker. “In my role as Senior Buyer, I had the fortunate experience to get to know David personally (and as a professional mentor), respect his work ethic, honesty and integrity.   He consistently applied ISM best purchasing practices in his role as Purchasing Manager with (former employer) SGL Carbon.” 

It’s not every day you get to capture and store megawatts of power, but for the employees at the Parker Hannifin Energy Grid Tie Division that is all in a day’s work. On Friday, November 4^th, twenty people got to experience the future of the energy industry and take a tour of the plant.  General Manager Jim Hoelscher started out by sharing how Parker Hannifin started out nearly 100 years ago in 1918 as the Parker Appliance Company and grew into the global industry leader it is today, making over $12.7 billion in sales.  He pointed out how his company’s greatest strengths, its innovation that made it an early player in the industry and its passion for quality customer service, has set it apart from the competitors. 

His division makes equipment that houses and monitors grid tie batteries utilizing a battery management system (BMS). This grouping of lithium ion batteries has the dual purpose of being able to keep a power grid at a safe frequency of 60 hertz throughout the day’s flux of energy needs and stores that energy in case of emergencies.  One of the challenges their supply chain team faces is finding multiple manufacturers for the many specialized parts that help create some of the 875,000 products Parker Hannifin makes.

At the end of the plant tour, Falcon Fastening Solutions gave a demonstration of their Actylus Smart Bin System inventory control solution. The weighted bins have a sensor at the bottom that sends a signal to the cloud when the items in the bin get too low.  The sensors are customizable to optimize when the notification is sent out, the data from Falcon can also generate customized reports, and it can interconnect to an ERP system.  The impressive demo showed how time and money can be saved through its efficiency.