Nancy Lourdes Alonso Islas serves as North America Offshore Materials Manager at SLB, where she leads materials management, inventory governance, warehouse optimisation, and supply-chain transformation initiatives supporting offshore operations across North America.
With nearly 20 years of experience across offshore logistics, operational planning, inventory control, and digital traceability programs in the energy sector, Nancy has worked extensively on improving visibility, standardisation, and operational reliability across geographically dispersed supply-chain environments.
In this interview, Nancy discusses the operational realities of managing offshore materials networks, the challenges organisations continue facing with inventory visibility and process alignment, and how digital traceability, warehouse-network optimisation, and operational governance are reshaping supply-chain execution inside complex energy environments.
Ellen Warren (EW): Nancy, you have spent nearly two decades working across offshore logistics, materials management, warehouse operations, and supply-chain transformation initiatives in the energy sector. What originally drew you into this area of operations, and what aspects of the work have kept you engaged throughout your career?
Nancy Lourdes Alonso Islas (NLAI): I was originally attracted to supply chain and materials management by the fact that the work is never static. Every day involves a different challenge, whether it is planning inventory, coordinating logistics, improving warehouse operations, supporting offshore activity, or solving a problem that could affect service delivery. From the moment a demand is identified until the material or service reaches the end user, there are many interconnected activities that must work together successfully.
What has kept me engaged throughout my career is the combination of operational complexity and continuous improvement. Supply chains constantly evolve because customer requirements, business priorities, technologies, and operating conditions continue to change. That creates opportunities to improve processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and deliver better results for both the business and the customer.
Over the years, I have worked across procurement, sourcing, logistics, materials management, inventory governance, and warehouse operations, and one thing has remained consistent: every improvement ultimately supports operational reliability. Whether the goal is reducing inventory discrepancies, improving material availability, increasing warehouse efficiency, or strengthening visibility across the supply chain, the objective is always to ensure that operations have what they need when they need it. Knowing that the work directly supports operational success is what has kept me motivated throughout my career.
EW: Your career has involved managing operational environments that combine offshore logistics, inventory governance, digital systems, and cross-functional coordination across multiple regions. The energy industry has historically been heavily male-dominated, particularly in offshore-facing operational roles. How did those experiences shape your leadership style, communication approach, and operational decision-making philosophy over the course of your career?
NLAI: Early in my career, I learned that earning trust requires consistency, preparation, and delivering on commitments. In operational environments, particularly those that have historically been male-dominated, people place a great deal of value on reliability and follow-through. Over time, I found that collaboration was far more effective than confrontation.
Having great mentors along the way has also been very important. Throughout my career, I have learned a great deal from people who were willing to share their experience and help me grow professionally. Those experiences reinforced the importance of collaboration and respect within a team. Teams that communicate openly, support one another, and remain focused on a common objective consistently achieve stronger results than any individual working alone.
EW: Offshore supply chains operate under very different conditions than conventional industrial logistics environments. Are there specific operational realities that make offshore materials management uniquely challenging from a reliability and planning perspective?
NLAI: Offshore operations present a unique set of supply chain challenges because there is very little room for error. Unlike a land-based facility, where additional material can often be sourced or transferred relatively quickly, offshore locations depend on careful planning, transportation schedules, weather conditions, and the availability of vessels or other logistics resources. A delay involving a critical component can affect an entire operation and create significant costs.
For that reason, visibility and planning become extremely important. Materials managers need to understand current inventory levels, future demand requirements, transportation constraints, and the operational priorities of multiple stakeholders. At the same time, inventory cannot simply be increased indefinitely because excess stock creates additional costs and inefficiencies. The challenge is finding the right balance between material availability and inventory optimisation.
In my experience, successful offshore supply chains are built on strong planning processes, accurate inventory data, and close collaboration between operations, logistics, procurement, and warehouse teams. Success depends on having the right information available early enough to make good decisions about inventory, transportation, and operational support before small issues become larger disruptions.
EW: Many organisations still measure supply-chain performance primarily through inventory levels and cost reduction metrics. In practice, what operational indicators do you believe provide a more accurate picture of supply-chain health inside offshore energy operations?
NLAI: Inventory levels are important, but they only tell part of the story. A warehouse can have significant inventory on hand and still struggle to support operations if the materials are inaccurate, unavailable when needed, or located in the wrong place. I believe organizations should evaluate a broader set of indicators, including inventory accuracy, material availability, forecast reliability, service levels, warehouse productivity, and the efficiency of material movement across the supply chain. These metrics provide a more complete picture of how effectively the supply chain is supporting operations.
I have learned over the years that inventory should not be viewed as an isolated number. The objective should go beyond simply reducing inventory to ensuring that the right material is available at the right location and at the right time while maintaining financial discipline and operational reliability.
EW: You have worked extensively with digital traceability and inventory-governance initiatives. In your experience, what operational problems become apparent only after organisations achieve real-time visibility across warehouses, offshore assets, and field operations?
NLAI: Greater visibility often changes the conversation because it allows organisations to identify the actual source of a problem. In many cases, what appears to be an inventory issue is really a planning, communication, or execution issue. For example, materials may exist within the network but be located in the wrong warehouse, reserved for another activity, or unavailable because of delays in transportation or internal processes. Without visibility, organisations often respond by purchasing additional material, which increases inventory costs without addressing the root cause.
When supply chain teams have access to accurate and timely information, they can make better decisions regarding transfers, replenishment, demand planning, and inventory positioning. Visibility improves decision-making because teams can respond to facts instead of assumptions.
EW: Warehouse consolidation often appears straightforward on paper but becomes much more complex operationally once offshore logistics dependencies are considered. Which operational risks or dependencies tend to be overlooked most often when organisations redesign warehouse networks supporting offshore operations?
NLAI: One of the most common misconceptions about warehouse consolidation is that success should be measured only by cost reduction. Financial savings are important, but they should never come at the expense of operational performance. Before consolidating facilities, organizations need to understand how the change will affect material availability, transportation lead times, service levels, and the ability to respond to urgent operational requirements. A consolidation that looks efficient on paper can create new challenges if materials become more difficult to access when needed.
The most successful consolidation initiatives balance efficiency with operational support. They simplify processes, improve inventory control, and reduce unnecessary costs while maintaining the responsiveness required by the business. In my experience, that balance is what ultimately determines whether a consolidation project delivers lasting value.
EW: Offshore operations often depend on maintaining continuity across geographically dispersed warehouses, suppliers, transportation networks, and field locations simultaneously. Where have you seen organisations lose operational visibility most frequently across that chain, and how can those blind spots be reduced?
NLAI: Materials rarely disappear because of a single major failure. More often, problems occur during transition points where responsibility moves from one team, location, or system to another. These transitions can include warehouse-to-warehouse transfers, transportation activities, third-party logistics providers, offshore shipments, or even the movement of materials between different operational groups. Each handoff creates an opportunity for delays, inaccurate records, communication gaps, or loss of visibility.
Reducing those risks requires standardised processes, clear accountability, accurate system transactions, and strong communication between all parties involved. Organisations that focus on strengthening these transition points often achieve significant improvements in inventory accuracy, material traceability, and overall supply chain performance.
EW: Large operational environments often involve coordination between engineering teams, logistics personnel, procurement groups, warehouse operations, offshore crews, and executive leadership simultaneously. What management or communication challenges become most important in keeping those groups aligned operationally?
NLAI: Supply chain performance depends on collaboration because no single function operates independently. Procurement, warehouse operations, logistics, finance, planning, and field operations all contribute to the final outcome. In siloed organisations, teams often focus on their own objectives without fully understanding how their decisions affect the broader operation. That can create inefficiencies, conflicting priorities, and unnecessary delays. Strong communication and shared goals help ensure that decisions support the needs of the business as a whole.
Organisations that establish common objectives, encourage cross-functional collaboration, and create visibility across the entire process are generally better positioned to support operational priorities. Teams that understand how their work affects other parts of the operation are more likely to align decisions and respond effectively when priorities change.
EW: Many operational transformation initiatives succeed technically during implementation but struggle to sustain consistency afterward. What guidance would you give organisations trying to sustain adoption of new systems and processes over the long term and avoid reverting to older operational habits?
NLAI: Technology can create tremendous value, but implementing a new system is only the beginning. Long-term adoption depends on understanding why the change is being made, how it will improve the process, and what role each person plays in making it work. Without that understanding, even well-designed systems can struggle to gain long-term adoption. One of the most important factors is user adoption. Even the best technology will fail to deliver results if people continue using old processes or do not trust the information being generated. Training, communication, accountability, and leadership support are all critical components of a successful implementation.
I have also learned that organisations should focus on solving specific operational problems rather than implementing technology simply because it is available. User adoption improves significantly when employees understand the operational problem a new tool is solving and can see its value in everyday activities.
EW: As supply chains become more interconnected and operational environments increasingly depend on digital visibility, what capabilities do you believe future operational leaders will need in order to manage complex energy supply networks effectively?
NLAI: Future supply chain leaders will need a combination of operational knowledge, business understanding, and technological awareness. Supply chains are becoming increasingly connected, and leaders must be able to understand how decisions in one area affect performance across the entire organisation. Technical skills remain important, but adaptability, communication, and systems thinking will become even more valuable. Leaders will need to work effectively across multiple functions, manage change, and help organisations adopt new technologies while maintaining operational discipline.
The most successful leaders will be those who can connect people, processes, and technology to support business objectives. Technology will continue to evolve, but the ability to align teams, solve operational problems, and drive continuous improvement will remain fundamental to effective supply chain leadership.