Decision intelligence supports the ‘simultaneous chess games’ in supply chain management

Constant change and disruptions have become the new normal. As a result, the traditional way of managing the supply chain is no longer effective. If you want more insight into the effects of disruptions and want to become more responsive, decision intelligence is essential. But what is it exactly, and how can it help companies to manage their supply chains more effectively?

By Mirjam Hulsebos

Decision intelligence was the theme of a recent Webinar Wednesday. Nobody can predict how the world will look in three months’ time, let alone what will happen a year from now. Slowly but surely, more and more companies are realizing that the traditional planning methods no longer work. Nevertheless, you constantly have to make decisions that require you to look far into the future. This means that you have to model scenarios and continuously reconsider and adjust your previous decisions. This involves so much information that mere mortals cannot oversee it all.

In a nutshell, this was the message of Declan Supple, Client Manager at Aera Technology, a vendor of decision support software for supply chain management. “You can’t plan the same way you used to in the past. Every company has to react to events much faster. How is the war in Ukraine affecting global grain supplies? What will it do to the price of diesel? No one knows, but this leads to all sorts of follow-up questions,” said Supple.

Moreover, companies need fast answers to those questions. “Because what does a skyrocketing diesel price mean for transport costs? Will the company have to redesign its supply chain network? Which raw materials will rise in price if we really start to feel the effects of the global food shortage? Or if we stop… … …

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