by Janice Marquardt | Oct 6, 2026 | Processes, Supply Chain Career
Supply chains are complicated. Those of us who do procurement or logistics are constantly arguing that our job is not just “shopping” or “booking trucks,” just as warehousing is not just “stacking pallets.” Every step of what we do has a process, written or unwritten,...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 1, 2026 | Processes, Supply Chain Career
I’ve worked in and with quite a few supply chain teams. I’ve worked with small teams, large ones, from old companies and new ones; yet none of those factors actually affect a team’s “busyness.” More importantly, an extremely busy team is not always a very productive...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 11, 2026 | Definitions, Supply Chain Career
The roles we all play matter, and so do our names for them. I’m not talking about the roles of mother, sister, wife, buyer, etc. I’m talking about the professional roles of Consultant, Executive, and Coach. While there’s a lot of overlap between these three roles,...
by Janice Marquardt | Jun 2, 2026 | Conferences, Creative Solutions
Welcome to part two of my notes from the Utility Supply Management Alliance (USMA) conference in Florida. If you missed the notes on a team’s success and on creativity, check them out here! Note they are NOT utility-specific or even supply chain-specific, and neither...
by Janice Marquardt | May 26, 2026 | Conferences, Creative Solutions
For a utility conference, the keynotes were shockingly (refreshingly?) non-utility. I just got back from the Utility Supply Management Alliance (USMA) conference in Florida, and what an interesting conference! I got done typing my notes from the four (!) keynotes at...
