Deborah Dull

Your supply chain team is about to get a lot bigger.
Remember the last time you asked for more headcount and got that sympathetic head-tilt followed by “we’ll have to make do”? What if you could hire team members who work 24/7, never complain about the coffee, process thousands of transactions while you sleep, and actually remember everything they’ve learned?
Welcome to the age of the agentic workforce.
This isn’t another book about AI that leaves you nodding along but wondering what… Show more

Your supply chain team is about to get a lot bigger.
Remember the last time you asked for more headcount and got that sympathetic head-tilt followed by “we’ll have to make do”? What if you could hire team members who work 24/7, never complain about the coffee, process thousands of transactions while you sleep, and actually remember everything they’ve learned?
Welcome to the age of the agentic workforce.
This isn’t another book about AI that leaves you nodding along but wondering what to actually do on Monday morning. Self-Driving Supply Chain is your practical guide to hiring, onboarding, and managing digital colleagues who will transform how your supply chain operates.
Whether you’re a supply chain leader tired of the annual “do more with less” speech, a practitioner curious about what AI actually means for your day-to-day work, or an executive trying to separate the hype from the reality - this book meets you where you are.
No PhD required. No coding necessary. Just practical guidance from someone who’s spent years in the trenches of supply chain transformation. Show less

As supply chain operations continue to be recognized as critical to the transition to a circular economy, this practical resource provides an actionable outline for supply chain professionals wanting to implement a circular supply chain.

The circular economy remains a common topic among supply chain professionals, especially in light of material disruptions, climate change pressures and the need to innovate on revenue models. Circular Supply Chains provides a bold vision of… Show more

As supply chain operations continue to be recognized as critical to the transition to a circular economy, this practical resource provides an actionable outline for supply chain professionals wanting to implement a circular supply chain.

The circular economy remains a common topic among supply chain professionals, especially in light of material disruptions, climate change pressures and the need to innovate on revenue models. Circular Supply Chains provides a bold vision of sustainability for supply chain designers, decision makers and operators to rally around. It will also, critically, provide a practical path on how to get from today's operations to the future of sustainable supply chains.

Exploring topics like new digital technologies and the future of local supply chains, the book takes a practical approach including how-to checklists and circular supply chain examples. The book itself paints a vision and breaks theories down into reasonable, practical steps with concepts like repair demand sensing, supply planning, radical transparency and regenerative operations. This is an essential book for supply chain professionals keen to learn about how to transition to circular operations. Show less

When a global supply chain crisis paralyzes Maya Patel's manufacturing company, she proposes a radical solution: what if they could repair and manufacture critical components locally, rather than depending on distant suppliers?

What begins as an emergency response quickly evolves into something more profound. Maya builds a network of repair hubs across London, connecting community repair with industrial resilience. As her team develops the technology to recover and recirculate materials… Show more

When a global supply chain crisis paralyzes Maya Patel's manufacturing company, she proposes a radical solution: what if they could repair and manufacture critical components locally, rather than depending on distant suppliers?

What begins as an emergency response quickly evolves into something more profound. Maya builds a network of repair hubs across London, connecting community repair with industrial resilience. As her team develops the technology to recover and recirculate materials locally, they create something revolutionary: a new model of circular supply chains that challenges the linear, extractive economy.

But powerful interests are threatened by this vision of local repair sovereignty. When manufacturers begin to push back against a model that extends product lifecycles instead of promoting replacement, Maya must navigate complex alliances to protect what they've built.

Full Circle: Supply Chains Reimagined is a story of transformation - personal and systemic - that reimagines our relationship with the products we use and the resources that make them. It explores how crisis can spark innovation, how repair wisdom can combine with cutting-edge technology, and how sovereignty over our supply chains might be the key to a more resilient future.

A COMPANION NOVEL TO THE GROUNDBREAKING BOOK
Full Circle: Supply Chains Reimagined brings to life the principles and practices explored in Circular Supply Chains: How to Build the Future of Sustainable Operations from Kogan Page. While the nonfiction book provides frameworks and case studies for business leaders and practitioners, this companion novel illustrates these concepts through an immersive narrative that shows what circular supply chains could mean for our communities, our economy, and our planet.

Experience the circular economy as a business model, and as a revolution in how we design, make, use, and recover the products that shape our world. Show less

Digitisation and automation are driving a paradigm shift towards autonomous supply chains, where
intelligent systems orchestrate end-to-end processes with minimal human intervention. This paper
explores the concept of the autonomous supply chain, its potential benefits and the challenges
associated with its realisation. By examining the roles of cognitive planning, strategic sourcing,
procurement, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, the paper envisions a future where… Show more

Digitisation and automation are driving a paradigm shift towards autonomous supply chains, where
intelligent systems orchestrate end-to-end processes with minimal human intervention. This paper
explores the concept of the autonomous supply chain, its potential benefits and the challenges
associated with its realisation. By examining the roles of cognitive planning, strategic sourcing,
procurement, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, the paper envisions a future where machines
manage machines, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and advanced
analytics. This transition, however, raises critical considerations around governance, performance
measurement, human capital and environmental sustainability. Through industry examples, the paper
focuses on the partnerships, standards and technological infrastructure required to navigate the path
towards autonomous supply chain operations. Ultimately, the paper contributes to the discourse on
the transformative potential and responsible development of self-driving supply chains. Show less

Delve into the UNLEARN method, a comprehensive approach to refurbishing your supply chain into a robust engine of sustainability. Structured around this innovative method, this book provides not just the "why" but the "how" of embracing modern, green, and profitable strategies for a future that supports both the planet and your pockets.

Principles of the circular economy can be applied to supply chain operations to mitigate the impacts of operating in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. Mitigated volatility leads to visibility through increased material security and shorter value chains. Mitigated uncertainty leads to understanding through use of Industry 4.0 technologies and shorter value chains. Mitigated complexity leads to clarity through regional operations and shorter value chains. Mitigated… Show more

Principles of the circular economy can be applied to supply chain operations to mitigate the impacts of operating in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. Mitigated volatility leads to visibility through increased material security and shorter value chains. Mitigated uncertainty leads to understanding through use of Industry 4.0 technologies and shorter value chains. Mitigated complexity leads to clarity through regional operations and shorter value chains. Mitigated ambiguity leads to agility by applying agile principles and using shorter value chains. The circular economy will shift supply chain strategies, operations, and partnerships. Supply chains can shift operations from linear to circular by going through seven phases: (1) Identify measures material and resource flow. (2) Intensify increases use. (3) Narrow reduces use. (4) Predict forecasts flows. (5) Slow extends use. (6) Close loops materials back into value chains. (7) Capture prepares materials for re-use. Supply chains that follow these phases will be prepared to mitigate the impacts of operating in VUCA environments. Show less

Look around you. Everything you see was put there by one of us. By a supply chain professional. Every material that is in our economy today is there because we planned, sourced, made, moved, and managed it to where it is now.

Today, the relationship we have with materials needs to change.

The Circular Economy is an idea that materials deserve another shot at adding value in our economies. If we can use the principles of circularity, we can save the planet. In supply chain, we are… Show more

Look around you. Everything you see was put there by one of us. By a supply chain professional. Every material that is in our economy today is there because we planned, sourced, made, moved, and managed it to where it is now.

Today, the relationship we have with materials needs to change.

The Circular Economy is an idea that materials deserve another shot at adding value in our economies. If we can use the principles of circularity, we can save the planet. In supply chain, we are the guardian angels of materials and inventory, and we have the power to change how to we operate today.

Across industries and around the world, supply chain professionals ask the same questions about what circularity means for our profession. The answers to these questions lay the foundation for us to have the conversations we need to have to keep our supply chains running - even as materials inside the earth dwindle and carbon emissions are on the rise.

Questions about Circular Supply Chains are answered in this book, such as:
* Why should we use Circular Supply Chains?
* Where can I get Circular Materials?
* Can we make our supply chains shorter?
* What about technology?
* How do I take the next step?
And 12 more… Show less

The circular economy will shift supply chain strategies, operations and partnerships. Circularity refers to identifying, tracking and transforming materials and resources for repeated use. This approach forms the basis of a global economy that decouples economic growth from required virgin resources. The three principles of the circular economy are: 1) design waste out; 2) keep resources and materials in use; and 3) regenerate natural systems. Analyst firms predict in as little as five years… Show more

The circular economy will shift supply chain strategies, operations and partnerships. Circularity refers to identifying, tracking and transforming materials and resources for repeated use. This approach forms the basis of a global economy that decouples economic growth from required virgin resources. The three principles of the circular economy are: 1) design waste out; 2) keep resources and materials in use; and 3) regenerate natural systems. Analyst firms predict in as little as five years global supply chains will be required to embrace circular operations, due to depleting natural resources. Partners across supply networks will come together to solve for circularity and introduce new practices and new measures of success. Seven concepts for partnership in circular supply chains are explored: identify circles, intensify circles, narrow circles, predict circles, slow circles, close circles and capture circles. The role of partnership and measures of success are proposed for each. This paper focuses on circularity in partnerships that stretch across these three scenarios. It explores seven concepts for circular supply chains and the role partnerships will play. Show less

This article is part of our Paradigm Shift series, produced by nonprofit PYXERA Global, on the diverse solutions driving the transition to a circular economy.