Making Connections

If only the supply chain nightmares spawned by the COVID pandemic were a one-time dilemma. Instead, the bottlenecks and disruptions of 2020 now seem more like the starting gun for the last half-decade’s race against event-driven disruptions.

But where there’s a problem, there’s also opportunity. As American manufacturers face one disruption after another – from wildfires to cyber threats to blocked shipping canals – more want to develop supplier networks closer to home.

Enter Amanda Baumgart, our supply chain expert. She’s part matchmaker for OEMs seeking suppliers and part investigator into supply-chain struggles. Understanding supply chains from the perspective of both OEMs and suppliers is the focus of her work.

Recruiting Baumgart to our team was a natural response to the troubles that have plagued manufacturers since the pandemic. She joined Enterprise Minnesota a year ago and is helping implement Minnesota’s role in a federal initiative called the Supply Chain Optimization and Intelligence Network (SCOIN).

Baumgart is using digital tools to make it easier for OEMs to find new suppliers. She’s developing a comprehensive database of Minnesota companies that includes critical details such as certifications and shipping methods, so OEMs can quickly find appropriate matches.

In the past few months, about a dozen Minnesota manufacturers have been referred for jobs through Baumgart and the national scouting network, providing everything from 50-foot-long steel tanks to coconut coir mats for environmental remediation to injection-molded parts. Requests come from OEMs all over the United States, Baumgart says, many of which are developing a new product or considering switching suppliers. Requests may be for a part, a product, resources, or simply information.

“There’s usually something a little bit quirky about them,” Baumgart says of the requests. Part of her job is digging out the details of the requests, making it easier to identify appropriate suppliers among Enterprise Minnesota clients. Since 70% of Enterprise Minnesota’s clients are suppliers to OEMs, it’s a natural fit.

She’s also interviewing about 100 Minnesota companies — both suppliers and OEMs — to strengthen Enterprise Minnesota’s understanding of each and build better relationships between suppliers and OEMs. “This is a building block toward the services we’re going to offer in the future,” she says. “Part of my job is to highlight the resources we have with Minnesota manufacturers. Even if there’s not a sale made today, there’s still that opportunity that something may come of it later.”

The timing for this initiative couldn’t be better. John Melbye, president of the Twin Cities chapter of the Association for Supply Chain Management, says there has been a shift in thinking about supply chains. The idea of reducing inventory as much as possible is being questioned, he says. “Inventory is a leverage point,” Melbye says. “If you have inventory, you can do whatever you want to do. If you don’t have inventory, you can’t.”

Successful companies now see their supply chain not as a cost but as a strategic advantage. “It’s not just about near-shoring. These are competitive advantages if we set up the framework to find suppliers or for OEMs to find us,” Melbye says. “That’s going to be a benefit that long outweighs the post-pandemic reaction.”

To read more about supply chain optimization, check out Mary Lahr Schier’s outstanding article in the upcoming issue of Enterprise Minnesota magazine®, scheduled for publication later this month.

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