560: How Dairy Farmers of America Protect Every Product, Every Time, with Samsara
Tom Murray is the Chief Logistics Officer for Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). With roots in his family's creamery and trucking business, he has a lifelong, hands-on understanding of the entire supply chain from farm to consumer. Murray champions DFA's co-operative model, which focuses on creating sustainable, generational value for its 9,000 farmer-owners. He discusses how technology is critical for managing the complexities of fresh produce logistics and highlights how the partnership with Samsara has been instrumental in enhancing safety and efficiency. As a member of Samsara's Customer Advisory Board, he values the collaborative environment for solving industry-wide challenges.
Today I’m joined by Samsara, a company that is on a mission to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of the operations that power the global economy.
Samsara is the pioneer of the Connected Operations® Platform, which enables organizations that depend on physical operations to harness IoT data to develop actionable insights and improve their operations.
Today Tom Murray, Chief Logistics Officer at Dairy Farmers of America, joins me to talk all about making an impact through collaboration. We’ll be exploring the unique complexities of DFA’s supply chain, building a culture of excellence, and why safety and efficiency are key. We’ll be sharing Tom’s perspective on emerging industry trends, and the value of being on Samsara’s Customer Advisory Board. And we’ll be shining a light on how Samsara and DFA’s partnership drives success every single day.
Guest bio:
As Chief Logistics Officer, Tom Murray leads logistics for DFA’s commercial network, leveraging the entire supply chain to provide the lowest cost route to market, superior service and sustained operating performance. Tom began his career with his family’s creamery in Oregon, and moved to Orem, Utah, in 1993 as plant manager of the Borden® Dairy ice cream plant there. He then worked for Dean Foods, progressing through general management of fluid milk, ice cream and cultured business units to regional, group and national leadership roles in various functions based in the Intermountain West, Southern California, Chicago and Dallas areas, touching all 50 states and portions of Mexico.
An introduction to Tom, and the Dairy Farmers of America.
Tom’s roots on his family’s creamery, and how it informs his current role at DFA.
The DFA members, and what it really means to them to be part of a co-operative.
The DFA supply chain, and its unique position in terms of speed, flexibility and supply and demand.
The challenges involved in moving fresh produce, and how DFA adapts.
Why technology and innovation are critical to DFA’s ongoing success.
What safety and efficiency mean to DFA, and why they’re foundational elements for success.
How DFA determined that Samsara were the right partner.
Which Samsara solutions DFA use, and how they work to solve their unique challenges and complexities.
How one small success metric drove big results for DFA.
Tom’s role on Samsara’s Customer Advisory Board, the value for DFA, and the importance of collaboration and open feedback loops.
DFA’s culture of excellence, how it helps drive success, and how Samsara feeds into that internal culture as an external partner.
The future of technology and innovation at DFA, and why unification will be key.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Head over to Samsara’s website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Samsara and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X (Twitter), or you can connect with Tom on LinkedIn. You can also follow Dairy Farmers of America on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.
- If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from Samsara, check out:
- 557: Maintenance Reimagined, with Samsara
- 555: How To Build A Technology Partnership That Drives Results, with Samsara Customer XPO
- 552: Expand Your Visibility and Achieve Asset Tracking at Scale, with Samsara
- 529: Empower The People Who Power The World, with Samsara
- 524: Increase the Safety, Efficiency and Sustainability of Your operations, with Samsara
- Check out our other podcasts HERE.
