Talent and capacity at Zebra Technologies

A few months ago, I had an opportunity to interview Tom Bianculli, Zebra Technologies chief technology officer about how recent acquisitions like Fetch Robotics fit in with the product portfolio of a company best-known as a provider of automatic data capture technologies, like barcode scanners and printers.

Last month, I had a chance to follow up with Steve Williams, who oversees Zebra’s global operations and services. Think chief supply chain officer, although the company does not use that term.

Williams has spent 30 years in supply chain management, including nearly 17 years at Cisco before joining Zebra a little over three years ago. His portfolio is expansive, and “starts with new production introduction, including engineering and the launch of new products into the market and includes procurement and then everything up to delivery to a customer,” he says. It’s the SCOR  model of plan, source, make and deliver. As an add on, Williams is also responsible for corporate quality, including hardware and software, the IT organization, which includes architecture, security and trust, and the service supply chain.

From an operational standpoint, Zebra’s supply chain includes about 3,000 associates, including the repair facilities, with contract and company-operated manufacturing and distribution locations in China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Mexico. Distribution takes place in the U.S., Mexico and Europe, especially in the Netherlands. During our conversation, we talked about his role as a senior leader, and the challenges of operating a supply chain during a period of severe disruption.

SCMR: How do you define your role as a supply chain leader?

Williams: I don’t view myself as a CSCO, since we don’t use that title. I run operations, and that includes the beast, the supply chain. But underneath that, I spend a lot of my time on talent, leadership development and organizational development. I have my hands on the wheel, but you can’t be in every meeting, so I see my role as creating an environment for 3,000 associates to be successful. That means recruiting the best talent and allowing people to be heard, developed and coached. Before you know it, you have a group of leaders who are energized and engaged.

SCMR: What is keeping you up at night?

Williams: It is a stressful time for operations and operational leaders. The situation we’re in today with the pandemic is going to pass. It might be six months or a year, but it will pass. So, I’m more concerned about talent than anything else. We have to be thoughtful about how we treat our teammates, our suppliers and our partners. Those relationships have to last for years, and in some cases decades, and not just a few weeks.

SCMR: Everyone talks about the next thing: What do you think will be the next thing supply chains have to deal with?

Williams: The next bottleneck is going to be capacity. Right now, most manufacturers have the greatest backlogs they’ve ever had. They’re all trying to reduce lead times to service their customers and clear out the backlogs. If everyone does that at the same time, we’re going to go from a supply shortage to a capacity shortage. How are we going to get all those orders on planes and into ports? That’s the next bottleneck I think supply chain leaders should be focused on. At Zebra, we’re looking at geographic and supplier diversity – if our Malaysian factory goes down, we move production into China. We have a second supplier. We have redundancies that give us confidence that we can manage this.

SCMR: How is your strategy evolving?

Williams: We have three pillars we call DMI: Digitization, Modularization and Innovation. We have to eliminate, automate and digitize processes throughout the value chain. Our team members can all provide an idea to innovate their work, from an operator in Bentonville to a VP or our CPO. If you have to hit 46 buttons to run a report, you can submit an idea to reduce that. Now, you do have to get it approved and commit your personal time to get it done, but we have hundreds of those projects going on.

As to technologies we’re focused on, first, transformation is a mindset focused on change; it’s not technology specific. We are challenging cliches every day. That said, the technologies we’re focused on fall under the umbrella of a digital twin. We want to be able to model and scenario plan on the manufacturing lines and in our DCs. We spend a lot of time focused on elimination. When someone tells me they saved seven seconds or they saved an hour, I want to know how we can get rid of it. Visibility is the other thing that is important to us. We’re working on visibility into data, demand, supply and capacity and collaboration with our partners.

SCMR: Earlier you mentioned that talent is one of your top concerns, as it is at almost every organization. Can you talk about some of the talent-related initiatives you’ve launched? 

Williams: There’s not a single lever we’re not pulling to find and retain talent! We have a robust internship program. We’re hiring our heroes – reaching out to individuals moving from the military into a professional career. We’re working with HBCUs and organizations like the Society of Women Engineers to enhance our diverse talents. At the line level, we’re working with organizations that can help us bring in people with different abilities into our repair centers. We’ve also changed the way we incentivize leaders, so that they spend some of their time networking. It’s not HR’s role to get us talent.

At the corporate level, we’re doing rotations within the company, providing opportunities for global immersion, gig assignments to develop new skills, relocations and short-term assignments around the world. I could go on. We’re launching 1,000 ships from the shore on talent.

SCMR: The last 2 years has been challenging, but what excites you about the future of supply chain management at Zebra?

Williams: We are now at the center of the discussion on how the company delivers on its promise of value and innovation. We now have an opportunity to create a unique experience for the customer. I can’t think of a better place to get into now than supply chain.