Justin Wilcox
Title: Sr. Solution Architect
Years with OSG: 1
Years in Supply Chain: 23
Ask the Expert
What does your day-to-day look like?
My day-to-day can range from heads-down architecture work to high-priority TMS issue resolution, with a healthy dose of guiding technical and operational strategies for logistics organizations. I regularly encounter issues that I don’t have an immediate answer to and sometimes have to lean on other experts at OSG.
How did you get started in supply chain?
A quarter of a century ago, I graduated from college with an MIS degree and landed at a freight payment company in need of modernization. During my tenure there, I gained deep experience in the transportation and freight pay space when we built our own brokerage TMS platform. That experience was later honed after spending over a decade developing transportation solutions on the Blue Yonder TMS platform. Throughout my career, I’ve worked across technical and functional architecture, and that’s one of the most valuable skills I developed: the ability to take upstream and downstream considerations into account when developing solutions.
How does supply chain impact a company’s broader strategy?
When an organization views its supply chain capabilities as a tool to be wielded in the marketplace, it’s very effective at making that organization more competitive and nimble, and allows it to pivot on strategy with minimal friction. I’ve run across many organizations that would like to improve their supply chain—transportation specifically—but avoided doing so due to perceived pitfalls. Oftentimes, once we took a look under the hood of the operation, changes were made that enhanced their effectiveness.
What do you view as the biggest challenge in the current supply chain environment, and how can it be solved?
One of the biggest challenges I face is, unsurprisingly, system integration among disparate vendors, carriers, customers, and 3PLs. Since I entered the supply chain space over two decades ago, several technologies have actually improved the landscape, but challenges certainly remain. I’d put all of those into two buckets: operational and technical.
- Operational—Developing efficient transportation strategies is hard enough on its own, but doing so in the face of demand and capacity volatility, rising costs, trade-route disruption, and conflicting incentives in the supply chain space make it that much more challenging. Solving for all of these variables is certainly within reach; much of it just requires copious due diligence and building for resiliency.
- Technical—These challenges are somewhat easier to quantify and largely revolve around data quality, aging infrastructure, and developing repeatable optimization solutions that play nice in the transportation, warehouse, supplier, and customer sandboxes. Mitigating these challenges, just like the operational challenges, rely on thorough solution review, expert input, and proper execution.
What philosophy do you follow while working with customers?
It’s hard to distill this into a single statement, but I think I can say that my main philosophy when working with a customer is to under-promise and over-deliver. I picked this up from a former mentor of mine, and it has served me well. I think that too often people fall into the trap of “whatever they need to say”, only to disappoint during an engagement when expectations are not met. While this philosophy is sure to have its detractors, it has benefited me greatly.
Please share your favorite success story.
My favorite success story is one that led to other success stories. Years ago, I was tapped to lead the solution architecture for a niche use case in the Blue Yonder TMS space: integration and optimization of an airline’s cargo business. This was one fo the more challenging projects and one that required a substantial amount of airline industry knowledge, none of which I possessed at the time. After coming out on the other side with an efficient and effective solution, it was quite satisfying. Years later, I ended up in discussions with two other airlines with similar needs. Both airlines had concerns about engaging with a company that had no airline industry experience; then I was called in as a potential resource. Being able to walk into those conversations already knowing the types of challenges that they faced, the international transportation networks that were utilized, the specialized equipment that they used, and the jargon that they spoke was exceptionally useful for closing those deals and developing their respective solutions.
What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the supply chain industry?
“Have a plan.” This sounds like common sense, but many people, myself included, were too reactive when starting out. Be purposeful about which best practices you adopt, which trends you follow, which technologies and tools you employ, which industry events you attend, and which personal networks you build. It sounds easier said than done when starting out since you’re not well acquainted with the entire supply chain landscape. Just be proactive about gaining a solid understanding of the supply chain industry, the challenges that need to be solved for organizations, and, most importantly, what interests you in those areas.
What is a fun fact about yourself that your clients may not know?
I build. A lot. Not just solutions, but everywhere in my life. If I can figure out how to build my own, I’ll do it, sometimes to my own detriment. But then I have the satisfaction of having built one more thing. My latest ridiculous endeavors are a completely scratch-built steam-punk-inspired instant drink chiller and an enormous treehouse that required a structural engineer and a few building permits.
