Logistics and Supply Chain Quotes.

An assortment of logistics and supply chain Quotes. Includes quotes from the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, General Motors, Tesla. And Walmart.

“In God we trust, all others must bring data.” ~W Edwards Deming

“Many supply chains are perfectly suited to the needs that the business had 20 years ago.” ~Jonathan Byrnes, MIT Professor

“Those in supply chain know the impossible is possible.” ~Dave Waters

“There is only one boss – the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” ~Sam Walton, Walmart Founder.

“Products can be easily copied. But a supply chain can provide a true competitive advantage.” ~Yossi Sheffi

“Where there is no standard there can be no Kaizen.” ~Taiichi Ohno, Father of the Toyota Production System.

“Automation is cost cutting by tightening the corners and not cutting them.” ~Haresh Sippy

“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.” ~Warren Bennis

“The supply chain stuff is really tricky.” ~Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX

“The message of the Kaizen strategy is that not a day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company.” ~Masaaki Imai

“Self-driving vehicles automatically choosing the most efficient route… Artificial intelligence will dramatically improve logistics.” ~Dave Waters

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” ~W. Edwards Deming

“Freight mobility and movement, while not a sexy policy issue, is a highly important one. Capacity constraints and congestion on our nation’s freight rail system create many problems.” ~Bill Lipinski

“You will not find it difficult to prove battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Labor accounts for 75% of the cost of transporting shipments by truck, so adopters can begin to realize those savings. Beyond that, while truckers are prohibited from driving more than 11 hours per day without taking an eight-hour break, a driverless truck can drive for the entire day.” ~Ryan Petersen

“We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain… what we will not do – and never have done – is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word.” ~Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

“The most vulnerable companies are small and leveraged suppliers upstream in the supply chain that are in danger of going under.” ~Yossi Sheffi

“If you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry — it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries — it’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe.” ~Ed Rensi

“The key with autonomous is the whole ecosystem. One of the keys to having truly fully autonomous is vehicles talking to each other.” ~Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors

“Anger can be an effective negotiating tool, but only as a calculated act, never as a reaction.” ~Mark McCormack

“All we are doing is looking at the timeline from the moment a customer gives us an order to the point we collect the cash. And we are reducing that timeline in the value stream by removing non value-added wastes.” ~Taiichi Ohno

Integration of the following technologies will revolutionize supply chain: IoT, big data, blockchain, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality.” ~EverythingSupplyChain.com

“Those in supply chain know the impossible is possible.” ~Dave Waters

“Something is wrong if workers do not look around each day, find things that are tedious or boring, and then rewrite the procedures. Even last month’s manual should be out of date.” ~Taiichi Ohno

“First, we will be a customer-driven company. We’ve always said the customer is our boss and we’ll make decisions based on how we can serve them better.” ~Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart.

“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” ~Shigeo Shingo

“Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.” ~Peter Drucker, Father of Modern Management.

“Today’s leading real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, uses software to power its logistics and distribution capabilities, which it has used to crush its competition.” ~Mark Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape and entrepreneur.

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” ~Peter Drucker

“We’re changing. We’re adapting. We continue to transform.” ~Doug McMillon

“If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.” ~Jack Ma, CEO Alibaba.

“You don’t want to negotiate the price of simple things you buy everyday.” ~Jeff Bezos, Supply Chain Innovator.
“If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere.” ~Henry Ford, founder Ford Motor Company
“Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Past Supply Chain automation efforts will pale in comparison to the automation coming with artificial intelligence.” ~Dave Waters
“Unless you continually work, evolve, and innovate, you’ll learn a quick and painful lesson from someone how has.” ~Cael Sanderson, Olympic Gold Medalist
“One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.” ~Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.
“Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat? The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’” ~Taiichi Ohno