Eric Klumb

I was born and raised in the San Antonio area, in a family that ran an Ace Hardware store, a construction company, and an equipment rental business.

I watched my parents earn trust the hard way. Long hours. Decisions made with the community's best interest in mind. No shortcuts.

That's how I still work. I treat a client's business like it's my own, because that's the only way to build something that holds.

Twenty-six years later, I'm an Operations and Supply Chain Advisor. I work with owners and leaders of product businesses that source materials, hold inventory, and ship to customers.

Here's what it looks like when someone calls me:

You're "borrowing" material from a job scheduled for next month to cover the one that ships tomorrow. You're the only one who knows where everything is, and it's all in your head. Another vendor issue, and you found out too late, so now you're in reaction mode.

None of that shows up on the P&L or balance sheet. It shows up as your time. Consumed fighting the same fires. Every day. Every week.

My job is to give that time back. I come in at the leadership level: executive support without a full-time hire on the books. Sometimes that means building an operation from the ground up. More often it means fixing one that grew faster than its processes did.

Those years were built in the trenches: Sourcing, Purchasing, Inventory Management, Warehousing, and Logistics. Not theory. The actual work, on the actual shop floor.

A client put it this way: "Eric identifies inventory and process issues … and builds systems that actually work in day-to-day operations. We worked with him on specific inventory challenges, and they've had a measurable impact on our bottom line." — Matt Burkhart, GM, Sullivan Supply Inc.

If that sounds like your normal Tuesday, come find me at the next SAMA meeting. I want to hear what you're dealing with.

Find me on LinkedIn, or email me: Eric@SherpaSupplyChainAdvisors.com