Lutgert Blogs

Supply Chain Forum of SWFL - Fall 2023

November 15, 2023 / Lutgert News / Tags: 2023, Center for Supply Chain Excellence, Information Systems / Analytics / and Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management

The Supply Chain Forum of SWFL was held at CHICO’s FAS Inc. headquarters in Fort Myers, FL. The forum was well attended by over 75 SWFL industry executives, professors and students. We had four guest speakers who spoke on “The Future of Supply Chains, AI and the Never Normal Environment”. We look forward to our next Supply Chain Forum of SWFL which will be held in Spring 2024 at FGCU!

Optimizing Supply Chains: Using Industry Characteristics for Decision Making

November 08, 2023 / Wednesday Webinar / Tag: Center for Supply Chain Excellence

Paul Blom has had an exciting four decades-long career, focused on engineering, procurement, manufacturing operations and supply chain management. Paul began his career as an engineer with IBM's manufacturing division in Toronto, Canada, where he later advanced through a number of technical and business leadership roles. It was at IBM where Paul began to appreciate the diverse world supply chain, and how excellence in this area would be crucial to global industrial competitiveness. Paul was a member of the leadership team which founded Celestica, a divestiture of IBM's manufacturing operations in Toronto Canada. From the mid-90's to 2004, Celestica acquired over 30 manufacturing and distribution companies from around the world, creating what is today a top-tier Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Company. It is during this time that Paul Blom focused his technical talents and leadership skills in the areas of Supply Chain and Procurement, with responsibility expanding to leadership of several thousand staff worldwide. He has extensive experience working with information technology platforms and solutions used in the running and optimization of supply chain business processes-all with a focus on driving ever-improving performance and business results. Over the past two decades, Paul Blom continued his work in a variety of industries. This included manufacturing and distribution of gas fireplaces, woodstoves and other home heating products, as an executive of CFM Corporation, a company acquired by the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan. Paul's later work included a return to electronics manufacturing with a focus on enterprise cloud technologies, aerospace electronics, semiconductor equipment, and numerous industrial and green energy applications. For the past three years, Paul Blom has worked in the Toy industry, as the EVP Operations and Supply Chain, for Spin Master, a company with such iconic brands as Paw Patrol, Rubik's Cube, Gund, and Hatchimals. Paul retired from Spin Master in 2023, and now enjoys spending time cycling, swimming and on other outdoor activities. Paul Blom is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an MBA graduate from the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business.

Issue Brief: Southwest Florida Prime Age Employment

November 07, 2023 / RERI Research Team

The prime age population represents the core a region’s workforce. This population is typically defined as the population between the ages of 25 and 54 years old, excluding younger age groups that are more likely to be in school (under 25 years old) as well as the older age groups that begin to prepare for retirement (over 54 years old). They represented approximately 49.0 percent of the total US population in 2021, but 63.7 percent of the total labor force. Among this subset of the population, the national prime age employment rate, defined as the share of adults between 25 and 54 years old that are employed, was 78.1 percent in 2021.

Regional Economic Indicators: November 2023 Report

November 01, 2023 / RERI Research Team

The RERI has published Regional Economic Indicators for November 2023. The monthly publication represents a collection and analysis of economic indicators including airport passenger activity, taxable sales, tourist tax revenues, labor force, employment, real estate, and consumer sentiment for the Southwest Florida workforce region.

Lee EBCS: Fourth Quarter 2023 Report

October 31, 2023 / RERI Research Team

Neither the US nor Southwest Florida experienced any semblance of a recession that experts have predicted for a while in the third quarter of 2023, but uncertainty moving forward still looms. A Federal government shutdown was averted in late September as lawmakers came to an eleventh hour agreement that would fund the government through mid-November. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintained the federal funds rate at 5.25 to 5.50 percent in their latest meeting on September 20, stating that “tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation. The extent of these effects remains uncertain.” FOMC Chair Jerome Powell, at an October 19 luncheon, further noted that “additional evidence of persistently above-trend growth, or that tightness in the labor market is no longer easing, could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy.”