在我们最后一次妇女历史月采访中，我们采访了可口可乐公司的运输分析师 Akilah F.。Akilah 是女性在非传统岗位上辛勤工作的典范，无论晴天雨天。她的聪明才智和对工作和公司的热爱显而易见。Akilah 正在打破壁垒，尽自己的一份力量带领其他女性与她一起前行。

问：你能描述一下你所做的事情吗？

Akilah： 我的职位是运输分析师。或者说运输专家。我在佐治亚州亚特兰大的工厂工作。我负责控制工厂生产（产品）所需的进厂原料。我们必须从世界各地的供应商处采购原料。我们有国际和国内供应商，所以我负责控制进厂原料。一旦它们被制成成品浓缩液，我就会控制从沃斯堡和亚特兰大的 CDC 出站的部分，并管理运输，以确保它们准时到达装瓶厂进行生产，这样（产品）才能及时到达商店。

问：您担任这个职位多久了？

Akilah： 我担任这个职位大约有一年半了。快两年了。

问：那么您之前是做什么的？

Akilah： 我也从事物流和运输行业。我曾是另一家公司的客户经理——一家 3PL 物流公司。我管理货运、海运、铁路和公路货运的客户账户。我根据客户的需求构建了供应链解决方案。我在那里工作了四年。

问：您是怎么进入物流行业的？

Akilah： 这是一个有趣的故事。我并没有刻意选择物流。我的学位实际上是市场营销，这也是我大学毕业后想从事的方向。然而，我大学毕业后的第一份工作是营销/物流。虽然是在物流行业，但仍然涉及销售和营销，以吸引客户。从那时起我就再也没有离开过。我想你可以说我找到了自己的定位。

Question: In your opinion, what is the biggest supply chain issue today?

Akilah: The biggest supply chain issue is definitely due to tight capacity due to COVID. We’ve been struggling for the last year. A lot of the drivers were not working because they had COVID or were afraid to get COVID and bring it home to their families. There were a lot of (people) who were not working, because they were being paid more by unemployment. A lot of companies are doing lay-offs. It’s just very tight capacity. Not enough trucks. And that (drastically) affects our supply chain. Especially when everything first happened in China. We get a lot of our ingredients for both plants from China. When (COVID) first happened, everyone was trying to rush and get their freight out. They had priority. Now that the vaccines are going out, they have priority, as far as getting shipped overseas. So there are a lot of capacity constraints which have impacted our supply chain. We try to realign everything as much as possible but there’s a lot of ambiguity due to COVID. Hopefully next year we can get back to normal. It’s impacting our sales as well because of lack of volume. We supply amusement parks that weren’t open, (as well as) a lot of restaurants and movie theaters. All of these companies that we supply coke products to just weren’t open, or not selling as much when they did open. Production (has been impacted) as far as getting ingredients in time and shipping (products) out in time. It’s been a (tough) year.

Question: What is the biggest challenge facing your industry and what do you think are some solutions to overcome the challenges? You already talked about your supply chain issue. Are there any others?

Akilah: There were always capacity constraints in general. Fluctuating rates; finding drivers in certain seasons. Weather definitely dramatically impacts us. We had a winter storm in Fort Worth a few weeks ago and it shut down the whole operation out of our Fort Worth CDC. We had to re-direct everything out of Atlanta. When we’re shipping from our CDC’s going to those colder states like Washington and Chicago – any of those states that get heavy (weather), where the highways are shut down, that impacts our supply chain. We can’t get (product) there. That’s just one of the things we have to learn to get around and plan accordingly. (We) make accommodations. If we have to ship from a different CDC, we do that. (Weather) is big problem, but unfortunately we cannot control it.

Question: How have DeltaTrak products helped you to manage the cold chain?

Akilah: I think DeltaTrak has done a great job as far as providing the resources to make sure that, in this difficult time, our products do get to the destinations in time and at the quality they are supposed to arrive in. I use DeltaTrak products for all of the outbound CDC shipments. All outbound Atlanta and Fort Worth shipments. All across the US to the bottlers locations. We need to make sure the finished concentrate is there, in spec, the quality is not interrupted and it does arrive at the desired temperature. Like I said, we ship Just in Time. Our bottlers are not sitting on product for weeks and months. They get it and they are producing the same day, so it needs to be in spec, the proper quality, and the proper temperature. So you guys do a great job assisting us there.

Question: The International Women’s Day theme for 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge, which highlights the importance of challenging biases and misconceptions in the interest of creating a more inclusive and gender-equal world. In what ways do you think you challenge biases and misconceptions?

Akilah: As you know, the manufacturing industry is very male-dominated at the plant. Also, the logistics industry in general. There are a lot of gender biases, of course, as far as women handling things and knowing things in the logistics industry because it is so male-dominated. However, I think my (company) does a very good job of making it more inclusive. When my manager hired me, he also hired a slew of other women because he wanted to get more women in (the company), and make it more inclusive. He wanted to disprove the (perception) that this is a male-dominated industry and something only males can be great at. I’ve been in the industry a little over five years now and I’m just as great as the next. We’ve done a few things to celebrate the women at Coca-Cola. We just spoke about this on a women’s panel that we had a few weeks ago to also celebrate Women’s History Month. I and two other women were on a panel. We spoke to what we can do to make it more inclusive for women, to celebrate any small achievement that happens. To make sure we’re celebrating our women out loud and recognizing them for their achievements and accomplishments to make (the workplace) a more inclusive environment. We’re (participating in) women’s (organizations) that are specifically for networking within our culture and company to help us grow. I’ve been involved in mentoring programs, as both a mentor and a mentee to learn and grow from people who have been in the company longer than I have. (We have) mentoring and networking events to love and celebrate our women. I think Coca-Cola does a very good job of that. It’s important to be in a company that is inclusive and celebrates women.

Question: What do you think is the biggest issue facing women professionals today?

Akilah： 我觉得，由于人们认为女性结婚后必须休一段时间假来组建家庭，然后（养育）孩子，她们的工资等级可能与男性不同。女性可以从事同样的工作，但公司会给男性更高的工资。这是最困难的事情之一。为自己的价值而战，了解自己的价值，不接受任何比男性低的东西。

这是一个伟大的妇女历史月！我们非常享受与我们出色的客户进行的精彩对话。虽然这个月即将结束，但我们希望庆祝妇女的活动能够继续进行，并且分享的见解将继续引起您的共鸣。下面的视频向我们展示了为什么争取性别平等（以及所有平等）如此重要。（由 DeltaTrak 客户 Ruby Wang 分享。）