ORLANDO, Fla. — Understanding who you serve is a critical component of managing any supply chain, particularly in the complex word of home improvement retail, according to Margi Vagell, EVP of supply chain at Lowe’s.
This was just one of the insights Vagell, a more than 15-year veteran at the home improvement retailer, shared during a one-on-one conversation with Melissa Campanelli, co-founder of the Women in Retail Leadership Circle, at the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s LINK 2025.
Here’s a look at five insights Vagell shared with conference attendees.
1. Understand who you serve
Supply chain leaders must maintain focus on customers, but they ultimately serve two types, according to Vagell. She said Lowe’s utilizes an operator-driven culture that requires her and her team to focus on those who serve the company’s customers just as much as the customers themselves.
“I want to make sure that we set up those red vest associates so that they're never embarrassed,” Vagell said. “So if they’re standing in front of a customer, and they know the answer. They know exactly where their product is, they know when they're going to get it and/or they know how they can get it if it's not sitting right in front of them.”
2. Always evaluate network for optimization
As an importer of many of the products it sells, Lowe’s has a variety of import centers on the East and West Coasts. In recent years, it has merged import and transload facilities to cut down on transit times, Vagell said.
“When we talk about end to end at Lowe's, we always talk about the moment the order is placed all the way to it ends up in a selling position,” Vagell said. “And so we need to be able to cut out weeks, days, minutes, where it matters most. And so kind of the merging of those two facilities was born out of our team, kind of stepping back and saying, ‘How well can we really utilize these facilities in a better way?’”
3. Balance your customer segments
Lowe’s has also taken steps to optimize its network to support its growing professional contractor and do-it-yourself customer bases by converting some buildings into flatbed facilities, which deliver building materials to stores and directly to customers, according to Vagell.
“What you’ve learned is that delivering to a store versus delivering to a customer job site is different,” Vagell said. “And maybe you’re dealing with a customer who has a whole team of people waiting for that product to be able to get there at that particular window, and you can’t miss that window, because those minutes, hours lost are dollars lost for that contractor.”
4. Standards are critical for automation
As more retailers adopt automation technology within their supply chains, Vagell said ensuring exacting specifications and expectations is the key to success.
“You can’t just throw in some new robotic arm into a building without first making sure that all the standards within the building are aligned,” Vagell said. “The standards are, frankly, up to date, and that everyone is really clear from a process perspective, and that you've got the right technology in that building to be able to harness all of the inputs coming in.”
5. Relationships get things done
Vagell gives every person she mentors at Lowe’s this piece of advice: build a strategic relationship with at least one person in every department at the company. Although she admitted such a task can seem overwhelming, without those connections, it can be even more difficult to solve problems when they arise.
“I think the biggest impact is the idea that culturally, you got to make sure that you build relationships throughout the building in order to be able to get things done, and they need to be real relationships,” Vagell said.
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