Gary Cassell

What does your role entail? 

As the Global Manufacturing & Automotive Industry Lead at Appian, I guide the go-to-market planning and execution for its manufacturing practice and supply chain practice worldwide. This means working with Appian team members, system integrators, software partners and customers to ensure Appian's value proposition and technology are understood, applied, and continuously evolving.

Career highlights?

Prior to joining Appian I spent 23 years in the manufacturing industry, leading and managing operations and supply chain functions. I had great experiences in leading plant operations, EMEA and North America logistics and distribution businesses, as well as leading global supply chain transformation initiatives.

I learned so much about the manufacturing and distribution business, working with so many highly talented people. 

Biggest challenge of the role?

When it comes to challenges, I think more of the manufacturing industry, especially in the supply chain space. When I was leading businesses and supply chain transformation efforts, siloed data and siloed functional processes were a huge challenge. 

In past years this approach resulted in complex processes, with much of the work happening outside of the source systems. This meant it was difficult to access data, and there was poor visibility of issues. Because of this it was also inevitable that we were going to face the same issues again in the future.  

How do you meet these challenges?

As a lean manufacturing practitioner, I believe the best way to solve problems is to make them visible, and also to make data-driven decisions. The approach I drove when leading supply chain transformation efforts was to move to a platform, with a view to connecting siloed data spread across enterprise systems. Doing so makes it visible, so the organisation can become more proactive in its decision-making. 

What we found was all the platforms we looked at required the migration of source system data into the platform. This part of the transformation work actually took the longest, and although it did produce value, the data-loads were large and delayed load-times limited the value that could be achieved. 

Unfortunately, we did not know about Appian and the power of the data fabric technology, which is just one capability of the Appian Platform. The ability to leave the data in the source systems and connect it in the platform would have given us exactly what we needed to have a connected supply chain across the enterprise.

Most rewarding aspect of role? 

I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of solving complex and ambiguous problems. Engaging with our customers to help them solve their business problems is what I find most rewarding in my role at Appian. 

There is not only the aspect of helping to solve a challenging problem but also personal and professional development for myself and the customer.

Best advice ever received?

Tim Solso, who was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Cummins Inc. at the time, once said to me during a professional-development discussion that I should ‘Find that job that scares you and go do it.’ He stated in doing this I’d learn more about myself and the business than I ever imagined. I took that advice and pursued an expat assignment with Cummins, and certainly found it to be true. I still rate that assignment as the best job I ever had.

Read the full story HERE. 

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