The disruption isn't coming. It arrived with dates attached. July 1 brought the USMCA review, and Canada got left in the cold. July 20 marks the end of the Section 301 investigations. July 24 is when the Section 122 tariffs, currently capped at 10% and set to expire, have no automatic renewal. Q2 wasn't a quarter to review. It was a quarter to survive.
In this host-only Q2 review, Jan Griffiths and Tom Roberts trade the guest chair for a hard look at a quarter that refused to sit still. Trade policy moved. Commodity prices moved. The talent question moved. And underneath all of it sits the problem QAD has named for years: manufacturers don't have a data problem, they have an execution problem.
The trade math keeps splitting into smaller pieces. Companies may soon have to separate US and Canadian content, then carry that split through every tier of the chain, where country-of-origin data was already hard to trust. Commodities pull the same thread. With the Strait of Hormuz closed at the time of recording, oil spiked, and aluminum, resin, and plastics moved with it. Tom describes tier ones already using AI to catch index swings against exploded BOMs and recover costs that were once hidden in one analyst's spreadsheet. The data was always there. The speed wasn't.
Then there's resiliency, the word every leader defines differently. Jan and Tom settle on a working one: know where your risk sits, and be ready when something breaks. The Novelis fire, a single Nylon 12 plant, an earthquake that takes out paint for the F-150, none of these are hypothetical, and AI now lets a team model that exposure across a region before it lands. The quarter closed on the people who inherit it all. Universities call AI cheating. The employers hiring those same graduates expect it on day one. That gap is real, and it starts to close on a plant floor, not behind a screen.
Q2 proved the old playbook can't keep pace. The leaders who win the back half won't wait for stability that isn't coming. They'll have built the data, the scenarios, and the bench before the next headline makes the decision for them.
Themes Discussed in This Episode
- USMCA and the cost of a 10-year breakup
- Section 301 and Section 122: the tariff deadlines that matter
- Splitting US and Canadian content across every tier
- Why do what-if scenarios decide who holds the margin
- Commodity volatility and index-based cost recovery
- Using AI to model geopolitical risk in real time
- Resiliency: knowing where the risk actually sits
- Preparing the next generation for an AI-first plant floor
This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone.
About Your Hosts
Jan Griffiths
Jan is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan is recognized as a Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. She brings direct, grounded conversations to leaders navigating execution, disruption, and transformation across the global automotive ecosystem.
Tom Roberts (Co-host)
Tom is Co-host of the Auto Supply Chain Champions Podcast and Vice President of Strategic Industry Development at QAD. He works closely with automotive and industrial manufacturers to close the gap between insight and execution, helping leaders move from visibility to systems of action that drive real operational outcomes.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode Highlights
[02:15] The USMCA Cold Shoulder: The July 1 review signaled the US has little interest in keeping Canada and Mexico together, and this breakup will be bumpy.
[03:33] The Dates That Decide Q3: July 20 and July 24 bring Section 301 and Section 122 to a head, with 12.5% duties on 46 countries in play.
[05:23] Splitting Content Across the Tiers: Separating US and Canadian content means multiplying already-hard country-of-origin data through every supplier tier.
[06:52] What ETL Actually Means: Tom breaks down extract, transform, load in plain terms, and why clean data decides your tariff exposure.
[11:00] The Spreadsheet Nobody Can Read: AI can flag index movements for cost recovery instead of trusting the one analyst who understands the file.
[12:10] Resiliency Starts With Risk: Know where your exposure sits and have a plan ready before the next plant fire, earthquake, or closed strait.
[14:51] From Failed Pilots to Real Wins: AI pilots succeed when they start with a known problem and a defined outcome, not "let's apply AI and see."
[17:45] Build the Bench on the Plant Floor: Students need real plants and real AI tools, closing the gap between how they learn and how they'll be expected to work.
Top Quotes
[06:33] Tom Roberts: " Clean data is going to be incredibly important with those product codes, product classifications to understand what is actually exposed to tariffs, what's not, and I think AI is gonna play a big part in helping to automate some of the cleanup and transformation. "
[12:10] Jan Griffiths: "Resiliency is really, step one is understanding where your risk is and being ready when something breaks."
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