Mike Coers Podcast
Summary
The guest, Mike, is a senior VP at kinexions and has 25+ years of experience in supply chain. Their company offers a tech-driven solution for companies looking to expand and optimize their distribution and supply chains. They aim to unify and simplify the process by bringing together various systems and platforms, offering a one-stop-shop for managing inventory and making strategic decisions. They work with a range of industries, including CPG, retail, and manufacturing. Mike notes that while many companies suffer from Kinetic is able to provide a platform that will help companies optimize their supply chain processes and reduce costs. The platform is customizable and can be tailored to different roles within a company. Additionally, Kinetic offers a network optimization tool that can help companies find the best distribution model for their needs. This can help them reduce shipping times and save money on final mile deliveries, which can be a significant cost for many businesses. By leveraging AI and data analytics, Kinetic aims to help businesses achieve greater efficiency Kinematic is an advanced supply chain technology company that specializes in helping brands optimize their fulfillment strategies. Their platform offers advanced tools such as real-time inventory management, predictive analytics, and intelligent routing to help brands make smarter decisions and improve their shipping experience. The company also has a vast network of 220 partner warehouses across North America with a total of 150,000,000 square feet of space. This allows them to provide flexible and scalable solutions for their clients. Kinematic's team is very Starting with the basics, what is Kinematic? Kinematic is a supply chain visibility platform that enables companies to efficiently manage their supply chain operations. It utilizes AI and machine learning to optimize processes and improve efficiency in the supply chain industry. The platform offers a one-stop solution for supply chain management, including real-time tracking, data analysis, and communication with operators. It aims to help companies become more agile and respond to changes in the market quickly. Kinematic offers a team of experts who assist in The narrator thanks listeners for tuning in and announces upcoming live events. He also mentions the Tiger Team Show, his other podcast focused on warehousing and distribution. He thanks listeners and signs off.
Transcription
Speaker 1
[00.00.00]
Hey, it's
Speaker 2
[00.00.01]
Ben from the Warehouse Underground podcast. Running out of space in your facility. It
Speaker 1
[00.00.05]
is one of the worst things that can happen. Completely slows down your OP, but the customer doesn't care. That's your problem, right? But it doesn't have to
Speaker 2
[00.00.14]
be. There is a solution out there that can be a shelter in the storm until it blows over, and that can come from warehouse on wheels. They deliver on demand
Speaker 1
[00.00.23]
storage trailers when you need them, that flex with your operation and with locations all across North America, there's a very good chance that they can help you to
Speaker 2
[00.00.32]
know. Long term leases for a new facility. No delays, no over Pam for space you don't need no CapEx, just simple
Speaker 1
[00.00.40]
smart storage
Speaker 2
[00.00.41]
delivered right to your door. So don't let your dog and your aisles become jam packed with pallets wrecking your operation.
Speaker 1
[00.00.48]
No, let Wow be your side
Speaker 2
[00.00.51]
storage solution while you go back to focusing on main line
Speaker 1
[00.00.55]
operation.
Speaker 2
[00.01.05]
Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome to episode number 26 at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm Ben, the host of the show. Very cool guest on the show today. His name's Mike cause he's a senior VP of Managed logistics at kinematic. Now in the supply chain world. In the warehousing world, at some point, companies usually expand and grow, and with that
Speaker 1
[00.01.35]
comes a bigger footprint.
Speaker 2
[00.01.37]
But how do you know where you should go? Where should you put your second? Your third? Your fourth facility? How do you manage it? How much inventory goes there? What are the savings on the logistics side? All these questions start to happen when companies begin to grow and expand. And there's a lot of consulting firms out there that companies will go to
Speaker 1
[00.01.58]
to advise them and how to do this. But that's right exactly where kinematic is. And so I'm very excited to talk with Mike because they're a relatively newcomer to the industry, but they're offering a fantastic solution to help companies just do that. So they're using the tech driven approach, combining advanced software, expansive integrations and experience service team, and a nationwide logistics network to deliver dynamic omnichannel
Speaker 2
[00.02.25]
visibility control and scalable growth. And that's exactly what companies are looking to have help with when they come into this arena. So happy to have Mike on the show. I'll bring him on the stage right now.
Speaker 1
[00.02.39]
Mike,
Speaker 2
[00.02.39]
welcome to the Warehouse Underground podcast. Thank you very much for coming on. How are you
Speaker 1
[00.02.43]
today, sir? Great man. Thanks so much for having me. And I appreciate it. I need to I need to get you to be my intro guy everywhere I go, man. That's fantastic. Great.
Speaker 2
[00.02.53]
Yeah I appreciate I appreciate that I appreciate that for for a fee I'll teach them how to do it. I will come in there and see it, teach them and teach them how to do it right. Just read the read the teleprompter. No, I'm just I'm just kidding. So, um, so I, I, I talked a little bit in the intro about kinematic and zip. But before we get into that, can you just talk about you yourself? What's your background in the distribution and supply chain world?
Speaker 1
[00.03.18]
Yeah, dating myself a little bit, but certainly, uh, I spent 25 plus years in supply chain. I mean, I literally started from the bottom. I was loading trailers at, uh, at UPS when I got out of the Marine Corps. Obviously, the Marine Corps shapes a lot of your leadership style and work ethic and so learned a ton while I was there. And, and, uh, I met some great friends along the way, some that I'm still very close with today. But, uh, I'll skip a few decades. But ultimately, um, you know, between UPS and Fedex, my my last role was running one of the worldwide Ecom sales teams, so very ingratiated into operations there, the fortune 500 world sales commercial and then really working on that, that final mile approach of what they were solving over there. Uh, was fortunate enough to pivot to a another company called flex, which was very much in a startup mode, and, uh, was leading a lot of their channel partnership division, e-commerce fulfillment, and, uh, helping build out transportation with them. Uh, very much one of those those companies that, uh, uh, kind of pioneered that Airbnb of warehousing spaces. They would describe it. Right. Yeah. Um, and after several years, there was fortunate enough to, uh, get a call from the Callaway family about, uh, a company that they were trying to grow and scale called kinematic, which, uh, uh, again, will, we'll go into. And I think you did a great intro, kind of what we saw, but my background is, is really kind of all things from end to end. Right? I have played in the final mile space, middle mile space, uh, warehousing all things within the four walls, inventory management, network optimization. I mean, I like to almost coin myself as a supply chain nerd. Uh, my, my, uh, my joy is really in kind of uncovering new ways that I can help companies unlock new new efficiencies, new optimizations, or make suggestions. Just given my background and how long I've been doing this of, uh, uh, you know, how we can make the supply chain better for these brands and these organizations we're working with? Yeah, there's definitely two distinct realms when it comes to distribution that I've seen in my experience, and one is sort of what's happening inside the four walls, how you run your operation in there. But then there's the outside, the four walls and the bigger type footprint thing. And sometimes distribution leaders as they as they go up the chain in their career, they'll end up being involved in both. And I personally have been involved in both. And there there's some similarities, but there's a lot of differences there too. And so I think this is going to be a great, uh, a great podcast for people that may move up into into projects like that as they go. So we mentioned the kinematic right. So you're at kinematic now just what's
Speaker 2
[00.06.11]
kinematic all about I mean in your own in your own words. What's it all about. How
Speaker 1
[00.06.15]
is it used. You know, how how are how are users using your,
Speaker 2
[00.06.19]
your your product and your services and your company and and who are they? I mean, who's kind of your bread and butter type customer?
Speaker 1
[00.06.26]
Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify a little bit. I think, you know, again, um, you know. Essentially what we're trying to do is, is change the moniker of of what you think about when you think about a 4PL. Right. And so we really like to look at ourselves is what we call a next gen 4PL. By layering in AI into a control tower that we built that really provides logistics as a service in a platform. Right. So taking all these disparate systems, being able to plug into existing infrastructure layer and fractional warehousing, which, you know, you articulated earlier, we have 150,000,000 square foot of space across US and Canada of all different disciplines, and then bolting on middle mile and final mile capabilities. The goal of this is to not just provide visibility, not just give you graphs on a screen that then you have to go log in to other systems and and deploy, you know, actionable insights into, uh, the desire of this is to really bring everything into one, connect it into marketplaces for e-com customers, leverage the OMS and the TMS of the different brands that are in more manufacturing and B2B, and really try to create one unified control tower, one centralized nervous system that allows you to really manage and manipulate your inventory across all mediums, from port to porch. And so, yeah, typical users that we see are CPG, retail, uh, manufacturing, you know, brands that are looking for flexibility and scale. Uh, our platform allows you to connect into that. And instead of adding one more thing to the layer of tack, uh, or adding one more thing that you have to monitor or manage and then go to another thing to go and execute it on. Our goal was to try to bring that all into one.
Speaker 2
[00.08.24]
Yeah. And so and I hear that a lot. I mean now. People sometimes will have software fatigue. Right? You know like oh my gosh, another. Another bolt on or another thing that we have to monitor. And a lot of organizations just have tons. It's just daisy chain right. It seems they have all these different things. And so I think there's fatigue on that. But I mean how did you arrive at that as a solution and how have your customers taken that. Because it it seems like what you're describing is a little bit like a one stop shop. Now, it's not a it's not an ERP. Right? So there's the ERP and there's the WMS. But outside of that though, it seems like a one stop shop to me. Is that is that a fair statement and how is that been received in the world of of additional program fatigue if
Speaker 1
[00.09.13]
you will? Yeah. No, I mean, duly noted. Right. I think that was the the premise that was why we built what we built was because again, uh, as you describe these tech stacks over the last especially five years, I think have gotten really, really bloated. You've got folks that are literally using maybe 60% of the capacity or capabilities of what their tech that they deployed. Um, it's a funny stat to that, that, you know, 64% of the enterprise brands that exist today are still managing their inventory in Excel. So the irony of that statement, giving all the the tech stack kind of development and the software as a service has become something that I think a lot of people tend to get numb to. Right. What I think we have done differently is that we're not adding to that tech stack. We're actually unifying and taking all of those different systems and then bringing them into one unified, uh, control. So it it does add to it. It complements it in a way that, um, you know, most bulletins are siloed. We, we take all those silos and knock those walls down and then create a synergy amongst all those different platforms to, again, provide kind of one unified visual that allows you to then really look at your supply chain holistically, taking all these different data. Uh. Systems in place and then allowing you to make smarter decisions and strategy of how you're going to complement that and make moves in your supply chain going forward. Yeah, I like the point that you brought up about the the software, the system or the technology not being fully utilized by the by the companies. I remember one time I went through a software update with a company that was bringing lots of new functionality, right? Like lots of new power, new things that we really could take advantage of. But because people weren't familiar with it, they just sort of reverted back to what they had before. And they just said, well, we want this new system to just do what our old system did, but look nicer
Speaker 2
[00.11.21]
typing. And so there's a lot of that. So I appreciate the approach that you have of kind of bringing it all into one and simplifying it and unifying that. And I think I suspect that you will get much more adoption when it comes to those, when it comes to those type of things. Now, let me ask you this question. I mean, and I alluded to this in the in the intro, but when you're talking about the type of growth and expansion at this level.
Speaker 1
[00.11.51]
There's many moving parts to this, and usually for companies, there's a lot on the line. I mean, there's a lot at stake when they do these type of things. These are these are big investments in big moves. And so that's why I know of a lot of companies that will use and go out and seek consulting firms who are experts in this, or they have experience in this just to come in and and guide them through the experience, because maybe the company doesn't have the the bandwidth, or maybe they don't have the people on staff that have this knowledge or ability. So they, they, they rely on consulting firms. But it seems like kinematic is not really you're not you're not a consulting firm. Right. So what's the
Speaker 2
[00.12.34]
what differentiates you from these types of consulting firms that a lot of times companies will go with because the knock on consulting firms is always they're there until they're not right there in and then they're gone. And you you live with whatever's left. So what's
Speaker 1
[00.12.51]
the difference? So I do like to think of us as consultants like I do. I do consider, you know, you leverage the decades of experience I have in supply chain. Several of my team have decades of experience, and we brought in some of the best and brightest here at kinematic, at all different levels of different departments that support all the functionality of what we drive with the brands that we serve. And so I think one of the big differences is that, for one, the platform itself is something that is deployed and not not just the PowerPoint that we drop on you. We don't just use some research. You then say, here you go. Thanks so much. We're off to the next person that I have to go consult. I like to think of us as as same side of the table with the brands that we work with, right? And we're very much ingratiated in a way where we want what they want. Right. Which is success driving costs down, finding more efficiencies. The platform does a lot of that consulting for you real time through the AI capabilities that we have baked into it. So I like to call it, you know, like a fractional chief supply chain officer at your fingertips, the ability to take all these different data sources that you and I come from an era where you used to have teams that would go figure all that data out, bring that back to you, and then you would go make strategic decisions based off of that. These days, the ability for you to get that information quicker, that ability to analyze it quicker, and how it's evolving, the supply chain departments that we work with from those those data analysts to now being more strategic advisors of which paths we should go. This is not something that stops once you deploy our system. We're very much in tune with the brand and working together and applying, uh, you know, different. Ideologies and strategies as we go. So one of the really cool things about the platform is that as it learns more about what's going on in your supply chain, think about how complementary that is to a quarterly business review. With one of my account managers. Right now, we're sitting down talking real time. And what we know can can be impacted versus what somebody thinks they could impact. And what they're assuming with your business now, they're looking at everything under the hood. That's a much different conversation. So I look at us like a consulting firm on steroids. Right. The ability now for us to leverage this platform, leverage these solutions, be able to deploy the answers that are needed to go and solve these pain points through our platform, through the different partners that we have, whether that's in middle mile, warehousing or final mile. That to me really does kind of set us apart from what a traditional consulting firm would do. And, you know, look, I think we're just in a new day and age now through what AI's capabilities are and through what, uh, you know, tech, uh, connectivity can, can allow us to do this is something that you can deploy. And then again, through traditional means, you used to have to go stand up a new integration. If you wanted a new partner, you used to have to form a new relationship to go and pivot away from an existing relationship that isn't working anymore with us. The dashboard in the car stays the same. We just make the car different of whatever it is that you need to go and solve, whatever it is that the the supply chain gods are throwing at you this this month, next month or the following.
Speaker 2
[00.16.19]
Yeah. And I'll say to you and I hope like you, the when we did our exploratory call, you showed me some simulations of the, of the dashboard that you use and the software that's there. And, uh, it was very impressive. Uh, and so, uh, I've never seen a consulting firm that comes in and has that, uh, type of type of product for their customer. Like usually it's a PowerPoint presentation, a big PDF file. You read through all this, but that thing is very impressive. And I hope if people are considering you and considering utilizing you, that, that they'll get a first hand up close look at that thing. Because that, that was, uh, awesome. I was I really love that. I wish we could show it on the show, but, uh, fantastic. I hope people explore that.
Speaker 1
[00.17.05]
So that look and it's customizable. Right. So it is, instead of you just being locked in to only seeing certain metrics that we want to show you, having that ability to kind of adapt and evolve with whomever it is, needing to have access to that platform. So we also look at it, we built it for the user. We built it for different roles within the supply chain department of a company. And so, uh, a director of fulfillment is going to want a completely different look than what VP of procurement needs to see or what uh, the chief hygiene officer wants to look at at a 5000 foot view. So having those capabilities to kind of, again, tailor this thing, customize it. But once you're in and once we've integrated with all those different things, then the ability to really become agile and adaptable, uh, it just becomes exponential at that point. It's just that, that to me, I've been doing this a long time. That's what gets me up in the morning and gets really excited about what we're bringing to the market and what we're solving.
Speaker 2
[00.18.01]
Yeah, definitely. I mean, having it customizable like that, you're right. It's like, reminds me of growing up with brothers and sisters. And you would go on a road trip and you try to stop to
Speaker 1
[00.18.10]
go eat. You know what I mean? Like, and and every person was wanted to go to a different restaurant. They wanted a different thing. I think you sometimes see that with companies. The warehouse guy wants something different than the chief operating officer wants something different than the buyer and the CEO. Like, everybody has their different, different things. So, uh, if you can get them all kind of pulling the same boat there, I think you're in very good shape. So that's a great, great functionality, I think. Well, let me ask this question about about shipping times, because one of the big reasons why companies move or expand say they go out to the West Coast if they're a East Coast company or vice versa, is because they want to get closer to their customers. So they they want to shrink their, their shipping time. And. More
Speaker 2
[00.18.59]
importantly, they want to save money on doing that. That's that's the whole reason. But it might not always be that that simple. Right. And so can you talk to us a little
Speaker 1
[00.19.10]
bit about the requirement for the system intelligence, the visibility, the tracking, the measuring, the predictability to know, hey, are you really maximizing your savings on shipping like you thought? Or
Speaker 2
[00.19.25]
are you not? Because that can sometimes be a little bit counterintuitive and I think people might miss it.
Speaker 1
[00.19.31]
Yeah. So my experience with with companies that are kind of at that, that inflection point, I like to call it, where they're, they're kind of hitting that, that hockey stick point, right where they're like, and we're getting to this point, we're bursting at the seams in maybe a one DC model or heck, even a two DC model in optimizing the wrong locations. I mean, either of those scenarios lends itself to costing the organization a ton of money on their PNL. And the reason why I did, and this is just, again, stats that I've accrued over the years of doing this for so long. But 40% of the overall supply chain, supply chain, line item cost comes from the final mile alone. So if the final mile isn't optimized, if you're going the longest points of distance. If you're crossing streams across the country to send packages to the end consumer, then that is where again, it's going to hurt the most on your financials. And so what we like to do is again, take a look at I mean, we have the ability we have this baked into our platform. We have a network optimization tool that again takes your shipping data, your your, you know, distribution list takes your shipping costs whatever services you're using and analyzes the existing warehouse footprint and then starts to analyze what that would look like in a best one, two, three DC model. If, let's say, for instance, I'm working with an enterprise account that has their own fixed warehouse. They bought their own facilities, they're running them. They don't need that in that way. Those aren't moving. Then I take those, and then I add a complement to what would be best served in that scenario. Once you start to go north of about 6 or 7 DCS, it doesn't make any more sense. You're now talking fractional numbers of impact on both speed and cost. But if I can take a company in year one, what would have traditionally taken them year 3 or 5 to get to to go buy coastal or to go into a three DC setup? Uh, I mean. For one, it takes them to prime like experience. Immediately. It changes their shopping cart abandonment because now they're giving off a different perception of a premier shipping experience of two days or less damages or less. The final mile is reduced. It just starts to waterfall. From there. All the different impacts that you can have. And so it's it's nice to have that baked into the platform so that brands can take a look at these things and kind of sandbox them in a lot of way, and then see what would that financial impact look like by being able to take this to a second, third distribution node. Or maybe my current setup is not ideal based off my footprint, where should I be based off of that? And so our goal is to disarm people with the the best intelligence, the best information possible. Granted, that comes from good data in and good data out, but as long as we have that data coming in and it's solid, we can make some really great suggestions from there. And that, again, instead of you having to go and establish a new partnership, do a new integration with another WMS, have to go and explore how you would do that. All this is baked into working with kinematic and our ability to help utilize the relationships we built, and then the platform that we have them using.
Speaker 2
[00.22.54]
Yeah that's awesome. I mean, it's it's it's always exciting when you're at a company, when you are growing and expanding like that. You mentioned the hockey
Speaker 1
[00.23.03]
stick. But
Speaker 2
[00.23.05]
there. But there's always a certain level of of trepidation and anxiety. I think that the ops leaders have the sales team. They they love it. But the ops team that is trying to make all this happen, they're happy and they're excited, but they think, oh my gosh, we're still using Excel.
Speaker 1
[00.23.22]
So
Speaker 2
[00.23.23]
it's just really stressing us out. So things like this can make that much, much smoother. Now, we talked a little bit about this earlier in the show and speaking about your your expansion, everything you've got. And I saw this on your website. You've got 150,000,000ft of warehouse space across 220 sites in North America. I mean, that's that's big. That's a big footprint. Are you are you owning and operating these directly, which I don't really think you are, or are they part of your sort of your retail partner network that you've got integrated throughout the, throughout the country? The
Speaker 1
[00.24.01]
latter. So yeah they're all we're a non asset company right. So we're we're we don't own any of these facilities I think that's what makes what we've built so attractive is again having kind of an agnostic approach to what is the right solution for the problem. And so our ability to really again, back to you standing same side of the table with the brand that we're working with to go out and find the right solutions. What is it that's going to make the most sense for their business and their customers that they're trying to serve? That's our ultimate goal. So we're very fortunate and very lucky to have the partners that we have that have, you know, made our network up. But I think it kind of ties back into some of the trepidations you were just talking about on the the last question, where, you know, a lot of these ops leaders, you know, they have to go to go outsource this to a three PL, you've got to sign a three, five, etc., your commitment to go stand this up yourself, you got to go raise CapEx or, you know, borrow money at an extremely high interest rate. And it's just a lot of more long term play when you go that path versus, again, what I think the macroeconomic climate of supply chain has really started to dictate, which is I need to be able to make moves and I need to make moves fast. I need to in six months, I may need to pivot because whether in Southeast or Port strike in northeast, whatever that may be, I need to be able to maneuver and manage my inventory in a much more dynamic way. And so, yeah, I think I think you're spot on. I think the the exciting thing about our three PL network is that. All the disciplines are on the table, I. You know, there's others that are in this space that again, deploy maybe their own warehouse management system or their functionality of what they integrate into. Only goes so far. Sometimes you can only do this much of what? What is offered in the tool belt of what a three PL can truly offer. And so with our integrated system and with our ability to tap into or plug into the existing kind of four walls of what they do best. All of my operator partners within the kinematic network, their strengths become my strengths and so on. The strengths to the brand. So now I can go and attack any discipline that exists out there, whether that's high flow, ecom fulfillment, uh, big bulky solar, you know, moving things around, trans loading and drainage, cold chain bondage, the list goes on and on of what we can now start to deploy. And now that becomes a Swiss Army knife for the brands that we work with, because now I can offer them whatever it is that they need. Whatever curveball gets thrown at them, we can go help attack it together.
Speaker 2
[00.26.51]
Yeah. And you mentioned a point there, which I think is happening throughout the entire supply chain now. And that is I mean, people always felt the need to be dynamic and flexible and modular and those type of things. But now it's even more. And you see that inside the four walls of facilities, two static racking is is coming out of form. And all these modular, moldable forms of, of storage and racking are happening because people are realizing everything's so fluid and dynamic now. It's much less predictable than it used to be inside the four walls and really throughout the entire supply chain. So people are looking for the tools and the technology to to kind of help meet and provide them the resource they need to act, how they need to act in the supply chain in 2025. So I love that. I think that's a fantastic, uh, piece of value. Now, let me shift gears a little bit, uh, with this. So a lot of companies, organizations out there will use more than one method of fulfillment. So they may use another provider to fulfill their orders for them. I and Amazon FBA, a lot of organizations will will use that. But sometimes integrating with them can be a little bit
Speaker 1
[00.28.08]
cumbersome.
Speaker 2
[00.28.10]
Uh, but what's it like with kinematic? I mean, how is kinematic able to integrate or not integrate with, with these other other parties?
Speaker 1
[00.28.19]
So most of them. We have 400 pre-built integrations today. So we're extremely fortunate that we've already got a lot of these connections made, whether that's to leading ERP systems, leading OEMs, systems, all the major WMS that exist today. We've even started integrating into some custom DMs, right where these guys have done their own homegrown home built thing. But those homes need an API connection. I mean, ultimately, uh, you know, we can connect relatively quickly now, the ones that are part of that pre-built integration. We're talking a matter of weeks, uh, to get this thing launched and loaded. So, uh, that's really what this is, is right? The ability for us to have that speed to, to help them deploy fast, do what they need to do. And then, you know, as this continues to evolve and the relationship the goal is, is to start bringing in the other systems that they need to bring on board and then start bringing all these different data sources into one. But, um, yeah, from an integration standpoint, I think, um, we're one of the leaders, I think, in the marketplace today with a functionality that is really unprecedented and the ability to to connect not only on the warehouse side, the brands, you know, order taking side, but also being able to connect into financials and then also connect into omnichannel marketplaces. That to me is is also the really exciting thing for e-commerce shippers. There's a lot of we've heard omnichannel forever, right? Yeah. A new term I've come up with here. But you know, omnichannel it a lot of times when I meet with these brands, they're really only. Selling on 1 or 2 marketplaces, Amazon usually being one of them. But man, there is a lot out there and I think there's a lot out there that either a they don't know about or B, as we talked about before, there's fear of change or trying to add something new to the mix or what is this going to entail. So that ability for us to help them plug into these new channels of revenue, these new ways to sell their inventory. Uh, that's the part that, again, I think really kind of changes how we're approaching the marketplace versus how others are doing it, because the goal is to kind of high tide rise all ships. Right? We want them to sell on our marketplaces. We want inventory to flow faster, because if that's going to happen for them, that's going to be good for their brand. They're going to continue to scale. Likewise with kinematic, we're going to be expanding to new facilities and trying to create a better experience for their customers. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.30.49]
And I think it just further speaks to what we talked about earlier. Hey, this this is not a barrier to you. This is not a problem. We more business you get the more fluid and the more dynamic we become, right. The easier it is for you to scale. Not cumbersome, not hard, easier. So complex. No problem. Right. We want to hear and simplify that for you. And everybody's looking to to do that. So but inside of kinematic though uh for, for a second just to going inside your company and not with your customers. Like what's, how is it set up. Right. Like what's the what's the org structure like, how do you operate and what happens when a customer decides to work with you? What is their experience like from inside your team?
Speaker 1
[00.31.33]
It's very hands on. It's, it's I mean, we're again when I say same side of the table, we want to be in the same room. We want to be talking the same language. I think, you know, initially what we try to do is, is really do a deep dive discovery call and really understand what is current look like, what is maybe past, present and future look like for the client. Right. What would it look like if you could have a solution like this at your fingertips? Um, so much of what we're doing right now then is, is educating, right? We're just showing people that this even exists, that this is possible, that you have the capabilities to use something like this. And so, so much of that initially is just getting them on board with understanding that there is this new unlock that can happen for them on, on a supply chain solution side. Um, I think from an org structure standpoint, right. We really like to kind of break this down into the different mediums that are going to manage a project like this. And so commercially, you'll have that one kind of point of contact that you'll be going through, that it does a lot of the interaction with the brands. We've got a tech team that is just world class at what they do, uh, and jumps in with the tech team over with the brand that we work with, works on the integration kind of framework, gets all of that set up, and then helps train them on utilizing the platform, how to leverage the AI. Uh, and again, not something that we just drop the bomb and leave. It's one of those things that continue is like as we add in there to this, we're going to be giving them kind of that, that quarterly update, like, hey, these three things just came on board. Let us show you how to use it. We have a a great operator team that we built here of again, guys that are are just. Amazing in the industry. They've been doing this a long time. So, uh, between, uh, our VP of network that manages those, uh, operator relationships for us and really kind of make sure that we're staying close with the, the strengths and the evolution of the different operator partners that we work with. We've got several that are bringing robotics and automation into their four walls. Our ability to leverage that and start to now take that to market and help the brands that we serve in different mediums. It's just only going to get better. And so that coupled with our operator team behind the scenes, that just makes sure that launch day goes well, that continuous, you know, checking in on KPIs, SLAs are being met, making sure that the operators are doing what they say they're going to do. Uh, eventually we're going to have this thing baked out to start having kind of an operator grading network right where we start to go, oh, great, at this, who's not operating this just so that we can make better suggestions to the brands that we serve. But, uh, you know, again, it's an entire team here comprised of, uh, supply chain veterans. We've all been doing this a long time, all spearheaded by Chris Calloway, who comes from four generations of supply chain, you know, family and, uh, responsible for building some massive supply chain organizations, uh, that have done amazing things. Um, we're really excited about kind of the precipice of where we're at right now and what we're bringing to the market. And, and the more that we can start to serve, uh, I think this is going to be one of those things that we all look back at as kind of a tipping point for what the whole idea around a for people kind of comes around.
Speaker 2
[00.35.01]
Yeah. And it to really to kind of put a bow on it. I, I follow you on LinkedIn and because there's cool stuff about you and kinematic on there and I love this quote that you had. I'll bring it up on the stage. Your network shouldn't react. It should adapt. Think less like a supply chain and more like a commerce engine with dynamic reflexes. I mean, to me, Mike, that just sums up 2025 supply chain and operations right there. So to me, when I look at that and I read that, I think if this is the guiding principle of kind of the the guts in kinematic and what is trying to accomplish, I think you're right on target with what people are looking for. I mean, do you see it that way, or are you staying true to that, to that statement that you made?
Speaker 1
[00.35.47]
I think we have to, man. I mean, look, at the end of the day last year, 37 global events impacted supply chain. That's 17 the year before. Tell me that this is going in a different direction. It's not only going this way. So it feels like every month these these supply chain executives and the folks that are tasked with some of the largest line item spends on a PNL statement for their companies are all being asked to play chess on what feels like a board that's made of sand. I mean, it's just the ever evolving, whether it's tariffs, whether it's whether whether it's, uh, you know. You know, porn strikes, whatever it may be, just the amount of curveballs that supply chain leaders are being faced with now. I think it's the perfect timing for a system like what we built, and the ability to connect all these things from X, Y, and Z and give the functionality and the capabilities layered with AI to make smarter decisions. I think we're going to really evolve what we look at from a supply chain leaders kind of job description, right? Because now you're going to be able to do a lot more with less. And the capability for to leverage a company like us to help manage a lot of this behind the scenes stuff for you. While you can go focus on the bigger picture items that are going to drive revenue, drive a better experience, and drive costs down for your organization.
Speaker 2
[00.37.15]
Yeah, and that's the that's the new age, right? I tell this the managers all the time and say dealing with contingencies and dealing with curveballs and dealing with the flexibility is the job, right? Like that is part of it. That's what's expected. So you can't just say, well, it's not my fault, right. Like something unforeseen happens. So it's not my fault. No, but that's how you need to operate and you need to adjust and be dynamic with that. And so tools and resources and and visibility and technology that helps with that is going to win the day, I think in 2025 and beyond because I don't see it going away. Mike. Right. Like I don't see the current situation changing uh, anytime soon. In fact, it may get even more dynamic and more flexible. Uh, as as as we go. So. Last question. So you're on LinkedIn. I've been to the kinematic website. It's very cool by the way. Very good, very professional, very, uh, very in-depth with what you offer. But where can people find out more about you and kinematic. And what do you have exciting on the horizon or maybe the rest of this year, but 2026 and
Speaker 1
[00.38.22]
beyond? Yeah. So we're I'm going to be at Inland Sea next week. So I've got a long travel week. I'm doing, uh, Chicago and then meeting with one of our operator partners out in Connecticut at the end of the week. Uh, we'll be at uh, Inc. 5000 uh, Awards gala. We won the, uh, one of the 2025 fastest growing private companies. And so very, very awesome to receive that award. A lot of hard work from our kinematic team that went into that. So very excited to kind of celebrate that, uh, you know, feather in the cap for sure. Uh, definitely one more that I'm going to go to the beauty Expo at the end of the year, but really 2026 and I kind of look at that like the year for kinematic. I'm really excited to kind of take this platform to the next level. Um, I think through mediums like this and, and opportunities like what you're giving us here today and just the ability to continue to get the word out and explain to people what what we do and what we're trying to solve. The common theme I kind of get back is like, why wouldn't I have this? Or this feels like a no brainer to me, which, you know, I love that. That's exactly why what we built and why we built it was to make this a very easy decision on why you would want to incorporate something like this into your supply chain solutions. And so, um, just scaling, brother, just getting bigger and to try to take this thing into another gear, uh, excited about, you know, what 26 will kind of hold for, um, an industry perspective, a market perspective, I think all of us would love to get out of 25 and move on, right? It's kind of a reboot of 2023. So, uh, just a new year and and hopefully just continuing to, uh, scale this thing and, and make it, uh, you know, a common brand that people know and and know what we saw.
Speaker 2
[00.40.10]
Cool. Awesome. Mike. Well, thank you very much for coming on the podcast, my friend. It was great. I really hope people do search you out. Uh, because I really do believe that you've got a great solution that can be awesome for people out there. Like you said, I think people really go, how did I live without this? All right. Why? Like, why would I not have this? This is a no brainer for what I need to do in order to scale and run my operation. So I appreciate you coming on the show and and best of luck to to you and kinematic and beyond. And sure, I'll see you around on the LinkedIn streets as they say.
Speaker 1
[00.40.46]
I appreciate that man. Please. You know anybody that wants to get Ahold of me, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm very accessible. Uh, or please go to sales at kinematic comm. And, uh, we'll jump in and, and would love to show a demo of what we built and, uh, yeah, yeah, man. Just appreciate the forum and love the podcast. Love what you're growing over there. And I can't wait to continue to keep supporting you brother. Thank you man. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2
[00.41.08]
Awesome I appreciate it. And check out that demo. Like he said it's a very cool demo. You will not be disappointed when you see that. Thanks, Mike. Take care my friend.
Speaker 1
[00.41.16]
Thank you sir. Bye bye. All right,
Speaker 2
[00.41.19]
that concludes today's show. Thanks again for Mike Kors Kinematic for coming on. Really cool stuff that they're doing. I mean, what I say, check out the demo of the software that they can provide. They can really help you scale your operation when you get to that point and doing that. So you will want to have them in your hip pocket when you go through that. Trust me on that. So as the the warehouse underground goes, like I always say, please sign up for the community. I have 212 members that have signed up. We just did a very cool live event last night, and we got more live events that are planned in the future. To be a part of the live event, you have to sign up for the community, which is free by the way, so the live events are very cool. Chance to network and and learn and pick up some knowledge for some people. Check out the Tiger Team Show, which is the other podcast that I do with my co-host Jordan. It's all about things that go on in warehousing and distribution, but with a wit, humor and sarcasm slant. I think you guys will get some funny comic relief out of that show if you listen to that. And as this podcast goes, thank you again for tuning in. I will see you next week for podcast number 27. Thank you. God bless.
