ChainSequence's Bill Mrzlak Details Why Humans Need AI and Vice Versa: Pros to Know Award

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Hello, my name is Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and I am here with Bill Mrzlak, President of ChainSequence. Bill is a recipient of this year's Pros to Know Award in the Leaders in Excellence category. Bill, you also are a repeat offender for the Pros to Know Award, so thank you so much for joining me today.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, your journey, and how you got to this current stage in your career.

Bill Mrzlak: My journey, goes way back. I didn't actually start in supply chain, I actually started in software engineering. So, I went from technology to just general management consulting.

And after a few years into that, I was presented with two opportunities that were completely polar opposites. They were both in consulting, but one was local, very little travel, kind of the same thing that I was doing, and I knew everybody in the new group.

My other opportunity was something completely different, heavy international travel, focused exclusively on supply chain, and all in semiconductor, and I only knew one person over there who had introduced it.

So after a great consternation, I chose the more challenging opportunity, which was in the supply chain space, and what really helped in that journey was I had an incredible mentor on the side who really helped me cut my teeth on supply chain. I spent 15 years with that group, and at the time, they had this proprietary model, not unlike the score model was, that was really beneficial to the semiconductor industry. And over the 15 years, as I gained more experience, I rewrote that thing 3 times based on all the changes that were occurring within the industry.

When I look back at that opportunity, and it was a tough decision, but I'm glad I chose that, and my only regret was I didn't get into supply chain sooner.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: One of the things outlined in your submission is your people first, then process, then technology, philosophy. Kind of explain this philosophy and why it's so important.

Bill Mrzlak: Kind of ironic since I started in technology, right?

I've made the transition, right? So, at the end of the day, it's people who run an organization, it's people who run the processes, and even the best systems will fail if the people in the organization don't understand it, or they don't adopt it. It's the systems that benefit the people, not the other way around.

Once we identify the right people and they're prepared, then we can think about the process. And a good process, it's predictable, it's repeatable, and it's scalable, and it provides a shared foundation of what's really happening within the organization.

Everybody talks about AI, it's a great technology aid, but it's the humans that really are defining that process.

So then that last piece, the technology, that's what brings automation and acceleration to a process, and it's the enabler of the process, not the driver of the process. And a lot of organizations think, well, if I put in technology and I put in the right software, it's going to fix all my problems, and it clearly doesn't work that way. I mean, how many organizations have we seen where they're running SAP or any other large ERP, and yet everything is done outside in Excel?

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Your nomination form also emphasizes how the need for sales and operations planning has never been higher. Why is that?

Bill Mrzlak: Anybody in supply chain knows there's always some form of chaos. Markets up, markets down, geopolitical issues, weather events. Tariffs up, tariffs down. There's always something going on, and when you're in the thick of that and seeing it, it's sometimes difficult to get out of the muck and mire and look beyond that.

And what's happened is, many organizations just accept that as the norm. So, when we think about S&OPs, it allows an organization to think a little bit more strategically, think longer term in the horizon, where you're thinking about a timeframe where I have time to take action, I can think of it more proactively rather than reactively, and that allows me to potentially mitigate a risk down the road, or close an opportunity that I may have missed.

Those changes that are occurring, there's always going to be something going on, but S&OP allows us to think a little bit farther out in time. It's like the old joke, a patient goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, doctor, doctor, every time I have a cup of coffee, I get this stabbing pain in my right eye. And the doctor says, well, take the spoon out of your cup.

We're so used to doing everything in the same way that we've just come to accept the pain. And S&OP would be an enabler to help us think a little bit differently, to think a little bit more strategically, so that we can take action.

I had one client that they joked about anything strategic was beyond the end of next week. And, you know, living like that in chaos, it's just really not sustainable.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Your focus for the coming year is to continue validating why human expertise still matters in a generative AI ChatGPT world. From where you sit, what should companies be doing better to balance the human vs. AI world?

Bill Mrzlak: Well, to be clear, it's not a choice of human or AI, right? The two need to work together, and AI is absolutely beneficial. It's great for technology, it's good for configuring new systems, predictive analytics, improving forecast. From a technology perspective, it's absolutely beneficial. But what it can't do is develop human relationships. It can't conduct change management, it can't help an organization to engage with stakeholders and adopt a new process. So, we need to balance the benefit of the technology that it brings with the humans and all the relationships that they develop. Now, are we ever going to get to a point where AI is going to rule the humans? God, I hope not, and we'll just leave all of that to the world of movies.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: The Leaders in Excellence category honors company leaders who've made outstanding contributions in the supply chain space. What advice do you have for other professionals in supply chain?

Bill Mrzlak: I've been in supply chain now almost over 30 years now, so I've been doing it a long time, and the one thing that I've learned is, I'm never going to stop learning. There's a lot of things that are going on, things are changing, AI introduces a lot of new changes. And having been in consulting, I've had the benefit of being able to work in so many different industries, see so many different things, work all over the world, the cultures, and everything else.

The one thing that I would encourage anybody who's been in supply chain for some time is to, one, continue to learn, but also to share the knowledge that we've gained with all the individuals that are coming up through the ranks in supply chain. We're kind of stewards of the industry to help share the knowledge that we've gained, we've got the battle scars, and we can share that, and maybe their scars will be a little less deep.

And then the other thing I think about is all of the projects that I've been on, and all over the world, some of them have been pretty grueling, but you gotta take some time to enjoy where you're at, and take some time for yourself. As we were talking at the beginning of the call, sometimes it gets a little grueling, and you're like, I just need a break. So, you need to take the time for yourself.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: What is something we haven't addressed yet that is important to share with the audience?

Bill Mrzlak: My wife jokes that I'm built for the perfect consultant because I rarely get sick, I function very well on little sleep, and I can hold my liquor.

But, logically, it makes sense. You know, with all the projects that I've been on all over the world, there's been some pretty grueling hours, but those are attributes that have really helped me.

But, seriously, the one thing that I find is that I can get on with anyone. You know, any function within the organization, any level in the organization, and really anywhere in the world. And the other thing that I have found and have seen over the years is organizations select consultants because they have the cred. They know what they're talking about. But more importantly, it's because they want to work with you. And it comes back to the relationships that you build as humans. I've been really proud of that type of relationship that I've had with all of my client partners. It's amazing that I haven't spoken to somebody in a couple years, and then they'll reach out because they've either moved on to a new organization, or they're still in that organization. A new problem came up, and they bring me back. And it's those are relationships that I've built over the years that I've been quite proud of.