Scaling Your Supply Chain for Hypergrowth with JD Davis

Will Davis (00:07):

Hi everyone. We are back with another episode of Safety Stock. I’m Will Davis. Staring right ahead of me is Dan Magida. Dan, how are you doing?

Dan Magida (00:15):

Doing great.

Will Davis (00:16):

Once again, we are not alone. We have a guest.

Dan Magida (00:20):

We’re never alone Will.

Will Davis (00:21):

We’re never alone. But here we have a guest and we are excited about this guest, JD Davis from Brooklinen. Welcome to the show. How you doing JD?

JD Davis (00:30):

I’m doing well. Thanks for having me.

Will Davis (00:32):

We are excited to have you. And now JD, you know, from a background perspective, can you share a bit, a little bit about yourself, a little bit about Brooklinen and some of the great things that y’all are doing there?

JD Davis (00:45):

Yeah, absolutely. At Brooklinen I’m the Director of Procurement and Production, overseeing the team, managing our suppliers, manufacturing, quality control supplier and product compliance. And I’ve been with the company for three years now. So you do the math. I started in January of 2020, which was, as we know, a very interesting time to join supply chain. And that’s, that’s all I’ll say on that. You know, at Brooklinen, you know, we are known as the home of the Internet’s favorite sheets. But we actually have expanded quite rapidly when it comes to, you know, both, you know, the customers that we’re reaching, but also the products that we’re able to put in front of our customers. That being, you know, in the bath categories as well as some consumables like laundry and home fragrance. We actually had our organic collection launched yesterday, which I was personally very excited about. The team put in a lot of effort across bedding and bath. So really excited about that. I’ve been working in you know, manufacturing for, for a long time now and have a history in, you know, both apparel and accessories. I was really excited to, you know, really dive into home textiles with Brooklinen when I joined the team.

Dan Magida (01:53):

And just for listeners, the launch was on April 18th. Since we do pre-record these, it’s not live. So April 18th, organics went live on Brooklinen’s website and also your retail outlets as well.

JD Davis (02:05):

Yep. Also in all of our retail stores. So you know, if you’re in the New York area, you got two options. We got one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. So you can go see it touch and feel and we’re interested to see how you like a product.

Will Davis (02:17):

We’re always breaking news here, you know, in terms of the new launch from that perspective now it’s not lost on me that, you know, you, you mentioned organics from that side and given the time that you started has that been something that’s been in the works for a while or is it something that you’ve seen from a demand side, from a customer perspective?

JD Davis (02:40):

Yeah, you know, our merchandise team does a lot of research in regards to what the customers are asking for and you know, what’s in the market and what people are really responding to. Organic’s something that we’ve thought about for a really long time and exactly as you mentioned, you know, supply of organic fibers, especially in cotton, you know has been a little tricky over the past few years. You know, both in availability but also in price. Being sure that we’re able to provide a high quality product to our customers at a price point that they see the value in. And that makes sense to, to us as a business as well. You know, that’s been the challenge and you know, we actually ended up pushing out our launch in order to make sure that this was the quality product that, that our customer needs from a durability standpoint. And I feel really good about the product that we were able to partner with our suppliers on. So we got the sheets coming out of Portugal and towels coming out of Turkey and we’re really, really excited about it.

Dan Magida (03:33):

That’s awesome. And, and just on that, just cause you mentioned early on, you know, Brooklinen was known for sheets. Now you’re in all these different sectors. What are the biggest challenges you’re facing you think for the rest of this year, just with all those different verticals that Brooklinen has now entered in?

JD Davis (03:50):

Yeah, it’s been really interesting road. You know, our laundry collection that we launched at the beginning of April, we actually worked on for three years in a couple different iterations and I can wholeheartedly say most of the team had little to none in, in regards to experience in, you know, liquids or bottled product or consumables in general. And that’s been a really big learning curve for us. But it was a really great opportunity for us to really foster some of the team values that we have, which is, you know, curiosity and really partnering with our suppliers and our internal team members to be able to learn as much as we can about the product, but also learn how our processes that work really well for the products that we make today and how we can adapt those to other categories.

(04:36):

For example, with our laundry launch, you know, we have, we have to test the product, of course we wanna make sure that it’s safe for our customers, but this is something that is much more robust than perhaps testing a textile product. And so that’s something that we did extensive research on, both with our third party testing labs, with our suppliers, really cracking the nut wide open, really trying to make sure that no stone is unturned and testing both in the development phase and in the production phase and you know, just really making sure that we’re bringing the, the best product to our customers. Actually with our laundry launch we continued to really partner with our logistics and operations team to really make sure that the product stays, you know, as great as it is consistently throughout the process. And that’s one thing that I think makes our team really strong is that that internal collaboration, that if something goes awry, if something is potentially a risk for us, that we’re able to essentially put all the options on the board. I always like to say like, only wrong answers let’s see what we can do and, and find the best solution cause one of them is gonna be the best option for the business and for our customers.

Dan Magida (05:40):

Well JD first off, that’s, that’s amazing with all the new launches that you guys are doing and just learning the new sectors with that. But as you continue to scale and manage that, did you guys have to bring on any new like team members or people with experience in that or was it more reliant on, we’ve done this before, we’re kind of taking the same approach that we’ve done on previous launches. Launches is applying this methodology to this new sector and seeing if this works cause obviously the blueprint before with everything in the bedroom.

JD Davis (06:15):

For the most part, we have been expanding our team very rapidly depending on the, the role that was opened, some relevant experience has been really beneficial to us and provided us with some really strong team members on our team across the production manufacturing side, but also the product development and design side. and also having merchandising and planning partners that, that know the product, that really understand how the product behaves in market as well has been incredibly successful for us. We’ve done a lot of expanding of our team over the past few years. So I will wholeheartedly say yes to your question. Yes, we’ve done a lot of investing in personnel in order to bring these products to market. I will also say that really cultivating our supplier relationships has been a key to bringing the new categories into our assortment. I’ll use a different example, which is with the expansion of our Marlow program.

(07:06):

So Marlow is a brand that Brooklinen has that essentially the core product is a pillow that is both cut foam as well as a down alternative fiber. Essentially it’s an adjustable pillow and we also have a companion product, which is a cooling pillow protector. These are both highly technical products and essentially building upon the expertise that both from the product development side and the design side as well as the manufacturing side, like what we had internally and partnering with our suppliers who know more about the proprietary technology, really understand how, you know, things can change like batch over batch from the raw materials. Really being, being able to partner together to become stronger as like one product development unit, one production unit and really being able to capitalize on the experience on both sides has been really critical for us. Ultimately, I see both the external expertise and the internal expertise that we are able to grow as the core, I guess, solution to, to bringing these products to market and something that we’re gonna continue to invest in as a business over the course of the next few years in order to continue to bring breadth but also depth to our product assortment.

Will Davis (08:24):

I think it’s pretty interesting that you get batcher variation from raw materials related to like a pillow, you know, in terms with the foam to a down material the same way that you would from, you know, a liquid or from a, you know, a personal care perspective. To me, like mentally I always would think that it would be similar or that they should be the same, but it doesn’t necessarily be the case. And so you can make the argument that, you know, one pillow is in theory more fluffy than the other.

Dan Magida (09:01):

It’s like fruit and vegetables too, you know?

Will Davis (09:03):

Yeah, yeah. It’s like where do you grow your jalapenos?

JD Davis (09:08):

It’s been really interesting over the past few years how we’ve invested more in understanding our raw material inputs. I’d say for the past two years really investing in our quality control and assurance department which is a team that I manage and we’ve, you know, hired experts here and it’s been really productive for us to be able to expand the testing and the controls that we have for raw materials. And we’ve seen extreme successes for this. This just like you said, is across textiles, is across foam, is across down product, you know, there’s variation in every single batch of anything that, that we touch in, in our lives, especially as consumers. And so how best can we control that? and that’s something that’s been a really interesting challenge for us over the past few years is that how can we continue to assure a more consistent product for our customers by adding on those layers.

(09:59):

I think a lot of brands take some time to start looking into, you know, tier two, tier three suppliers when we talk about the, the suppliers of the suppliers or the suppliers of those suppliers. And that’s a really important piece for us and where I find a lot of interest is making sure we’re able to make those connections, to build that, build the product more successfully together is ultimately a more high, like a higher quality product means more reorders means, you know, better business and thusly, like we continue the cycle of a stronger relationship that benefits everybody in the, in the value chain. Essentially it’s a supply chain but it’s also a value chain.

Will Davis (10:38):

You know, it’s interesting that you talk about the past few years of what you’ve been focusing on cause that was actually the next question related to, you know, given the past two or three years what have been some of those disruptions or even delays that have had a big impact on your supply chain and then not only what has, but then what have you done or what are you doing to mitigate those risks as you continue to move forward?

JD Davis (11:07):

The primary risks that we’ve been seeing or the opportunities that we have in our supply chain have been coming, as you said, like from the raw material inputs. We’ve done a lot to be able to increase the, the face time and increase our relationships with the raw material suppliers in order to make sure that they understand the goals of the product that we have and understand the controls that we wanna put into place. During the height of COVID, that’s where we saw a lot of potential delays coming from in addition to just basic staffing personnel obviously being a constraint when things came to safety, safety is first, safety has always been first for us and manufacturing it has to be first. I mean people make the product right. But second to that was raw material inputs, whether that was, you know, a really basic packaging piece that used like a non-woven fabric for a comforter bag is now something that we couldn’t get cause non-woven was being used for mask production at a exponential rate.

(12:07):

So that was an interesting thing to see of something that we never really considered as a large constraint because, you know, these are just available available packaging products. You know, that was a really interesting thing to see. Conversely, the, the demand for pot obviously had been an interesting element over the past few years as well. As we know, the economy is in a very unique place right now when it comes to some of the instability there and the raw material input. Obviously the supply and demand of cotton changes pretty considerably over time. But that did fluctuate on a quite rapid basis that with most of our products being primarily cotton is something that we needed to navigate. So both from a pricing perspective, but a lot of that driven from availability of crop. So that was something really interesting to see over the past few years as well.

Will Davis (12:59):

Do you think that as things, you know, maybe have normalized some within the supplier space, you know, have you seen things whether you’ve needed to diversify your supply chain from where it was either previously or has it been where certain suppliers or even yourself have gotten an advantage by bringing technology into the fray or integrating certain aspects of your business from a technology perspective where, you know, others where if it’s more manual you continue to see issues or challenges there?

JD Davis (13:33):

Supplier diversification and essentially risk mitigation from the buyer and brand side is something that’s been top of mind for us for the past three years. And something that I think looking holistically at our supplier matrix and, and thinking about what our goals are as a business, I think ultimately, you know, security of supply super critical. You know, supply continuity is something that we’re all thinking about. We can’t stop thinking about, you know, my grandmother now knows what supply chain is because of the supply chain constraints that we saw during Covid. So it’s definitely something that everybody is thinking about regardless of how close they are to the product. But from a supplier diversity standpoint for innovation, for capabilities is something that we’ve been focusing a lot of our efforts on as well. To your point, regarding technology and, and adoption of FED technology, that being a really core opportunity for us right now.

(14:26):

We’ve introduced some new partners that do invest more in innovation and, and technology, which we’ve seen some great successes in thus far. That being said, you know, our core supplier base has been with us for several, several years, if not more, has I think, invested in technology, you know, based on the country of origin and the technology that’s available to them. I would say it ranges, but it’s really for me positive to see is the adoption of technology increasing in the manufacturing and supply chain space. As I see this is an area that’s typically been underserved, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the adoption of Anvyl with our supplier base was vastly like it was a lot more smooth than I anticipated. And something that was really great to see, and I think it was some foreshadowing for later technology adoption that suppliers either did on their own accord or we did together in order to track our product more easily throughout our supply chain or secure the quality of the product in which we’re purchasing.

Dan Magida (15:31):

So, so from that, where would you say, since, I mean you we’re now three years post, you’re, well, you’ve also been at Brooklinen now for three plus years and interesting time when you joined and it kind of like resets and makes you aware of things that you probably nobody really was anticipating before. Some of these disruptions that we’ve seen, but also sheds light on areas that you can improve on too and get more efficient in certain areas. What’s the next step you want to take in your supply chain over the next course of the year that you really wanna drill down, improve your efficiencies in?

JD Davis (16:06):

Hmm. Yeah, that’s a great question. As we’re kind of looking at the rest of the year, you know, we’re, we’re in Q2 now and thinking about what goals we wanna have with, with our suppliers specifically, but also, you know, with our, with our sourcing strategy and what we wanna see, I’m gonna actually answer this in two parts, so I’m not gonna pick one. One is more involvement in the raw material. So light, I said that that’s something that we’ve been focusing on. We wanna continue that and we’re actually looking to work more with the mills more directly in order to expand that relationship in order to, you know, continue to meet the standards which we wanna purchase. Because if they’re making sure that they have more checks in place that they can share that information, we can just do more information sharing of what’s the controls that they have in place already that essentially kind of closes the loop in regards to the, the trust that we build with our mills.

(16:59):

 but also that we see that in the product. I mean, I think all relationship building, you can always see it in the product and that’s something that I think drives the team at large and, and myself included, of really what we’re doing in supply chain and how we can really holistically move Brooklinen supply chain forward together with our suppliers. I’d say the second one is really looking for greater efficiencies in how we work with our suppliers. So how can we use the tools, how they’re intended, how can we use the tools to their greatest potential? But also where are we doing any double work or how might we be writing purchase orders in a way that’s actually counterproductive to the way that they plant their production? How can we become more integrated and essentially really feel like we are working on the same process together that aids the business on both sides. Again, like the theme here really is supplier relationships. So I think ultimately my answer to your question is really focusing more on deepening our supplier relationships as our team continues to grow and make sure that’s something that, you know, the relationship as a whole is something that’s gonna continue to drive the business forward.

Dan Magida (18:09):

Yeah. Will, and I always talk about trust. It’s always like the, the biggest thing when it comes to supplier, supplier relations is trusting is trusting them because ultimately they’re an extension of the brand itself. So if your customer’s having a good experience, most of it’s driven because your supplier is performing and exceeding expectations and well, I shouldn’t say exceeding expectations, they should be hitting expectations and their performance is everything to a product.

Will Davis (18:35):

Yeah, 100%. Dan and I routinely like incorporate trust falls with each other to get to the point to where, you know, we’re at a good place. I’m not advocating that you ask all your suppliers.

Dan Magida (18:46):

I have a lot of concussions. A lot of concussions for this, right.

Will Davis (18:49):

<laugh> You know, it’s, it’s not saying that a hundred percent all your suppliers should do it with you, but you know, it’s something that, you know, spring up. Just see where they feel.

JD Davis (18:56):

I’ll bringing it to our next QBR and see what they think.

Will Davis (18:58):

Yeah, there you go. I like it. All right. On that note, we have a new segment. This has been asked by people, for the people we are delivering it to you. You are our first, so we’re gonna see how it goes. Speed round. The goal is to answer quickly when it comes to the first of your head. You know, if it has to be a little bit elaborate, that’s okay, but we’re looking to go fast. There’s a prize

Dan Magida (19:25):

There’s a prize at the end.

Will Davis (19:27):

There is a prize.

Dan Magida (19:28):

If you perform great and answer everything. Brooklinen gets a sponsor speed round for free for the next couple episodes.

Will Davis (19:36):

There you go. Yeah, just thought so Dan, so Dan, you are gonna ask the first question and then we’ll get into it. Are you ready?

Dan Magida (19:45):

I don’t know. JD, are you ready? You got a cat on your lap now? Are you ready to go?

Will Davis (19:49):

Oh my god. What? I’m ready.

JD Davis (19:50):

I’m ready. Scorpion the cat is ready.

Will Davis (19:52):

Oh my gosh. And for everybody, it’s a nice fuzzy black cat, but he also has like white patches on his nose and his chin, like running down to his chest. He’s like one of those really cute cats you would see on TikTok or Instagram. So we’ll have to maybe…

JD Davis (20:06):

Not, not famous yet, but…

Will Davis (20:07):

Not famous yet, but he’ll get there. Yeah. All right, Dan, you’re up.

Dan Magida (20:11):

All right, JD, what’s the best supply chain advice anyone has ever given you?

JD Davis (20:15):

Ask more questions.

Will Davis (20:17):

What does success look like for you at Brooklinen over the next six to 12 months?

JD Davis (20:22):

The right product in the right warehouse at the right time.

Will Davis (20:25):

Nice. All right. Which supply chain topic do you wish people would stop talking about?

Dan Magida (20:30):

Freight Please say freight. <laugh> <laugh>,

JD Davis (20:36):

Honestly, container pricing.

Will Davis (20:38):

Oh, there we go.

JD Davis (20:38):

They gimme a headache. Yeah, container prices. I just wish they would be stable for like one month.

Will Davis (20:43):

Yeah, we know comparing our prices are going down, guys. All right. What supply chain topic doesn’t get talked about enough?

JD Davis (20:50):

Testing.

Will Davis (20:52):

Ooh.

JD Davis (20:52):

Like product testing like that. Okay. 100%.

Dan Magida (20:55):

All right. AI, are you bullish or is a bunch of hype?

JD Davis (20:59):

I’m ready. I’m ready for AI. ChatGBPT on my desktop always. I’m ready.

Will Davis (21:06):

Oh, wow. what makes Brooklinen’s supply chain remarkable?

JD Davis (21:10):

Our global diversity for sure. All the countries that we source for. Super inspiring for me. We work with great partners globally.

Will Davis (21:18):

 What Brooklinen products should people buy more of?

JD Davis (21:21):

Super plush towels, specifically the moral, I’m partial to the moral, but definitely those.

Dan Magida (21:26):

Unrelated. How often shall you wash your towels?

JD Davis (21:29):

Weekly.

Will Davis (21:30):

<laugh>. All right. This was also directly from a listener. What’s more important thread count or the material of what the sheet is made of?

JD Davis (21:42):

The material. Always. you can also check the fabrication and then you can in like, understand a little bit more of, you know, how strong the fabric might be. So something like astine versus something like a percale, astine is just inherently a bit stronger due to the construction of the, the fabric.

Dan Magida (22:00):

We’ll get you out here with a couple more here. What is the most fulfilling or gratifying project you implemented at Brooklinen?

JD Davis (22:06):

This is a hard one. Bringing on another major supplier in our cheating category was really exciting to see. And to see the business grow over time has been incredibly rewarding. And seeing, you know, the production managers on our team have a really strong, if not strong relationship with the supplier than I do. That’s incredibly, like, rewarding.

Dan Magida (22:27):

If you are not working in supply chain, what would you be doing?

JD Davis (22:31):

Probably a project manager for something, because essentially similar skills but always got a lot of calendars open. A lot of, you know, the classic like Charlie Day with the red yarn. So something, something along that, that line. Yeah.

Will Davis (22:48):

What do you think’s needed for more textile production to come back to the US.

JD Davis (22:53):

Machinery. I think it’s a, I think it’s a technological hurdle for, for us to see more textile production come back. I mean, we’re seeing the mills close in the South, so I think the machinery would probably be a big one. As well as the expertise I think is, is far and few between.

Will Davis (23:13):

You know, I I’m gonna say that was a big success, just number one. You obviously give great answers. Number two, I think that was fun. So I think we found a winner there. Hey, fun. Yeah, that’s, that’s the best. Dan, I know we have a report that we’re promoting. What’s going on there?

Dan Magida (23:32):

That’s right, Will. We’ve got a report for you. Anvyl recently released our annual report, that being the 2023 Supply Chain Outlook in which we commissioned a study to 400 plus business owners in C-suite level executives with less than a thousand employees. That’s a lot of employees, so definitely got underneath that in retail, e-commerce, and technology. 60% of businesses! Will, can you believe this, 60% of businesses reported losing 7% or greater revenue due to delays in 2022 with half of that over 15% or greater. That’s ridiculous. What a huge impact that has on your supply chain, your cost of good solar, just everything there. Now to access this report and to learn more, you can see this at linkedin.com/company/anvyl. We’ll continue to share some interesting stats, facts that come up in future episodes, but in the meantime, head to our LinkedIn page to learn more.

Will Davis (24:36):

There you go. And you know who didn’t have those issues? Brooklinen, because they have JD. JD, we wanna say thank you so much for being a part of the show. Thank you for being an awesome guest and having all your great information and additionally for bringing the cat on. He is awesome.

JD Davis (24:55):

Of course. Well, thank you so much for having me

Will Davis (24:58):

And Scorpion

JD Davis (24:59):

And Scorpion. it’s great to be here. Really appreciated the conversation and all you guys do over at Anvyl.

Will Davis (25:04):

Awesome. All right, well, we will be back soon for another episode of Safety Stock. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on Spotify or Apple or wherever you listen to those podcasts. Anvyl. It helps consumer brands improve their supply chain process from PO issuance through their warehouse delivery. To learn more about Anvyl, visit our website at anvyl.com. That’s A N V Y L.com. We will talk to you all soon.