One Million Miles of Flying. I have mixed emotions about this achievement. It represents numerous miles away from home and personal sacrifices, including time with family. A conscious decision to reduce travel and spend more time with family resulted in the last 200K miles taking 8 years.
But the real story is about supply chains here. It is about getting out there. It highlights the necessity of working with factories, partners, 3PLs, distribution networks, and customers across various sectors such as retail, apparel & footwear, automotive, hi-tech, and home furnishings over the past two decades. Observing, working, improving, and managing supply chains require firsthand experience.
A mentor once shared valuable advice: “No one becomes a successful Supply Chain Professional by sitting behind a computer or reviewing power points. Supply Chain professionals must walk the floor to understand the physical world that drives the industry. Without sufficient time spent on the factory floor, DC floor, retail floor, back dock, or truck, one cannot fully grasp the complexities of running a supply chain or advise others on improving efficiency.”
Travel has been essential for understanding the operational infrastructure of each network node by engaging with workers, supervisors, and managers to learn about their challenges and processes. This is an ode to every organization that facilitated this travel, including customers from consulting days, and partners from the industry days – allowing for visits to small towns like Paducah (KY), Austin (MN), Sidney (NE), or far flung locations like Jodhpur (India), Shenzhen (CN), Horana (SL) or Cebu (PH). It required making London my second home for 18 straight months flying in and out every 3 weeks.
Many individuals have logged 2M/3M/5M miles on the road, making this milestone relatively modest. But it is more than the certificate and the bag tags for me. It speaks of my life in Supply Chain and lately Merchandising.
On average, it takes a Delta customer 22 years to become a million miler, with 68 customers reaching this milestone daily. This week was my time in the limelight. Delta has been good more often than not – although some horrible experiences and stories with drama will catch up on the law of averages when you fly so much. Thanks Delta Air Lines for making Atlanta the hub, so I have never had to hop, skip and jump terminals flying around the world.
Supply Chain Boy 
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