Prior to the COVID pandemic, many people probably didn’t think too much about how goods travel the world. We just expect what we want to be on shelves when we want them. The pandemic highlighted the reliance on the supply chain via trucks, trains, planes, and ships that transport everything from soup spoons to aircraft parts across the globe. Sarah Richards Hedges ’88 has been a part of managing that supply chain for almost three decades.

      Hedges works as a manager in information services at Expeditors International in Seattle, Washington, which is a multinational company that provides transportation of goods while navigating delicate geopolitical customs. The logistics of the supply chain industry have changed enormously over the past 30 years.

      “When I started, the internet was in its infancy,” she says. “The industry relied on a lot of paper, and visibility to supply chains relied on Excel reports.”

      Think about the process: A garment is made in a factory in Bangladesh, and it’s destined for a shop in New York City. To get that dress to the shop floor, there are hundreds of steps that must be taken in the correct order, at the correct time, relying on myriad computer systems operated by people who use a wide variety of languages.

      “With all the changes to technology, the need for visibility to one’s supply chain has dramatically changed from when the ‘visibility’ tools were faxed or emailed Excel spreadsheets. Now customers expect data [to be] sent to them electronically, and it needs to feed their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Customers require real-time information, and this must be sent electronically based on shipment milestones. If it’s not sent electronically, then customers require the ability to track and trace their shipments online or via Android or ios applications.”

      In addition to those challenges, Hedges says the sector has had more compliance and security regulations come into play in a post-9/11 environment, which adds complexities to the supply chain.

      “In IT, it’s challenging,” she says. “I’ve never been an analyst or a developer. I was hired to be a people manager. I’m trying to help my team grow their careers and prioritize the work, and I insulate them from some of the stressors” that come with the business.

      Typical days include many Zoom calls between Expeditors’ 175 offices across the globe. “Most days are filled with touching base with my leadership team, some of whom work in Chennai, India, whether that be my peers and senior management or meeting with the management team who reports to me,” she says. “We meet in order to understand the work being requested and how to balance and juggle resources in order to meet deadlines. It takes a great deal of coordination, communication, planning and follow-through among all parties in the supply chain, from the buyers ordering the merchandise, to the parties manufacturing the goods, all the way through to delivery to the final destination point.”

      Hedges says the satisfaction of hitting aggressive delivery deadlines outweighs the challenges of weather delays, accidents, or other hiccups that might affect deliveries.

      The logistics industry has also gained greater visibility since the advent of online shopping giants such as Amazon. “The need for real-time updates that we as consumers expect from our home deliveries has extended to the demand for real-time information in the world of international air and ocean freight, as well as domestic truck and rail cargo,” she notes.

      Looking back on her 30-year career, Hedges says she’s stayed with her company because she continues to be challenged.

      “Expeditors was my second job after college and as a 23-year-old, I certainly wouldn’t have predicted I would be at a company this long, longer than I had then been alive,” she says. “Going through the dot-com-boom years of the early 2000s when many jumped from company to company, I was surrounded by many capable and caring people who didn’t leave and haven’t left,” Hedges says. “The relationships and friendships I have formed not just in the Seattle area, but around the world, would be hard to find elsewhere. The opportunities I have had to travel to a number of countries with the company have been exciting, as well as the opportunities to make career shifts along the way.”