Key Supply Chain Strategies to Implement

Procurement and supply planning are NOT enemies. This document shows 7 ways procurement & supply planning work together: 1️⃣ Shared Supply Plans ↳ Supply planners provide supply plans early, enabling procurement to anticipate volume requirements for materials ↳ Win: better pricing negotiations, reduced stockouts, and fewer rushed orders 2️⃣ Joint Supplier Evaluation ↳ Both teams assess supplier performance (lead times, quality, flexibility) ↳ Win: a unified view of supplier capabilities helps avoid capacity bottlenecks or late deliveries 3️⃣ Collaborative Lead-Time Optimization ↳ Procurement negotiates shorter or more reliable lead times; supply planners adjust inventory policies to capitalize on them ↳ Win: Less buffer stock needed, freeing up working capital and warehouse space 4️⃣ Data-Driven Reorder Policies ↳ Supply planners set reorder points and safety stock; procurement factors in supplier constraints and MOQs (Minimum Order Quantities) ↳ Win: Balanced inventory that prevents both overstock and stockouts 5️⃣ Building Scenarios ↳ Procurement and supply planners run “what-if” analyses together to evaluate alternative sourcing or shipping options ↳ Win: agility considering sudden demand spikes or supplier setbacks 6️⃣ Brainstorming Cost-Benefit Trade-Offs ↳ Procurement highlights price breaks for bulk purchases; supply planning weighs the carrying cost of extra inventory ↳ Win: decisions reflect both cost efficiency and operational realities, avoiding unintended supply chain issues 7️⃣ Driving Improvement Cycles ↳ Both teams regularly review supplier scorecards, forecast accuracy, and inventory health to refine strategies ↳ Win: continuous improvement culture, including better supplier relationships, leaner inventory, and higher service levels Any others to add?

Your supply chain is more fragile than you think. And it’s not just because of: • Labor shortages • Transportation issues • Geopolitical tensions It’s because the ecosystems that power your business are collapsing. • 75% of food crops rely on pollinators • 23% decline in global agricultural yields • $540B in yearly pest control losses • Species extinction 1000x faster than the natural rate In other words? Your costs are about to skyrocket. Big brands are already feeling the heat: • Unilever: Supply disruptions from pollinator loss • Coca-Cola: Plant closures due to water scarcity • Coffee Industry: Shrinking growing regions • Pharma: Losing new drug sources But there’s an opportunity here… Smart businesses are turning this crisis into an advantage: 1. Supply Chain Revolution • Map biodiversity dependencies • Embrace regenerative sourcing • Diversify ecosystem suppliers 2. Risk Management • Run impact assessments • Launch restoration programs • Partner with conservation experts 3. Innovation • Develop nature-based solutions • Create eco-positive products • Leverage biomimicry Leading companies making it work: • Nestlé: 40% less crop failure • Patagonia: 2x supplier resilience • L’Oréal: Secured rare ingredients • Interface: 20% material cost reduction Your Next Steps: 1. Map ecosystem dependencies 2. Set biodiversity goals 3. Measure impact 4. Engage suppliers 5. Join industry initiatives The companies that understand this will dominate. The rest? They’ll be left behind. With purpose and impact, Mario

Colombia just turned away two U.S. deportation flights—triggering an immediate 25% tariff. This highlights a critical reality: today's trade landscape is unpredictable. Businesses must rethink their supply chain strategies to balance risk, cost, and resilience. Strategic diversification is key to mitigating vulnerabilities and enhancing flexibility—whether sourcing from Colombia, Mexico, China, or beyond. How to drive strategic diversification effectively: 1. Dual-Sourcing & Multi-Region Models - Diversify critical supply nodes across multiple regions. - Balance cost efficiency with risk management by leveraging free trade agreements (e.g., USMCA, ASEAN). 2. Supplier Collaboration & Development - Build long-term partnerships and develop suppliers in emerging markets. - Ensure quality and compliance while maintaining cost competitiveness. 3. Regional Hubs & Nearshoring - Reduce lead times and logistics costs by producing closer to end markets. - Take advantage of reshoring incentives like the CHIPS Act and IRA. 4. Risk-Based Supplier Segmentation - Prioritize diversification efforts based on strategic importance and risk exposure. - Use frameworks like the Kraljic Matrix to identify critical suppliers. Diversification isn’t about abandoning China or any other region—it’s about creating a more resilient and agile supply chain. How is your organization approaching supply chain diversification in response to shifting trade dynamics?

Your supply chain isn’t a list of vendors. It’s a network, so start treating it like one. Disconnected systems create blind spots.  Delays, shortages, and unexpected failures can ripple through operations. Graphs and graph databases provide a smarter way forward. Here’s how: 📍 Supply Chain Visibility ↳ Graphs connect suppliers, transport routes, and logistics hubs into a single, real-time view. ↳ This helps leaders detect bottlenecks early and take action before small issues escalate. 🚦 Optimized Route Planning ↳ Graphs analyze real-time conditions including traffic, weather, and transport availability to instantly compute the best alternative routes when disruptions occur. ↳ This minimizes delays and reduces costs. 🔍 Fraud & Anomaly Detection ↳ Graphs connect financial transactions, supplier activity, and shipment patterns to detect hidden irregularities. ↳ By seeing the entire network, businesses can identify risks before they become costly problems. 🤝 Supplier Network Intelligence ↳ Graphs uncover deep interdependencies in the supply chain. ↳ This helps businesses anticipate risks, reduce vulnerabilities, and negotiate from a position of strength. 🔧 Predictive Maintenance ↳ Graphs combine sensor data, maintenance logs, and historical trends to predict breakdowns before they happen. ↳ This prevents costly downtime and ensures a more reliable supply chain. 📦 Adaptive Supply Planning ↳ Graphs enable real-time “what-if” simulations that adjust sourcing strategies based on demand fluctuations, supplier availability, and external shocks. ↳ This allows businesses to stay agile and resilient. These reasons are why at data² we built the reView platform on the foundation of a graph database. Connected data is driving the future of logistics and supply chain planning. 💬 What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced managing your supply chain? Share your thoughts below. ♻️ Know someone dealing with complex logistics? Share this post to help them out. 🔔 Follow me Daniel Bukowski for daily insights about delivering value from connected data.

Are You Running a Neo-Stalinist Supply Chain? In a world of rolling shocks—wars, pandemics, canal blockages, chip shortages, labor disruptions—you’d think every supply chain leader would be rethinking their systems from the ground up. But many aren’t. Instead, they’re doubling down on deterministic, centrally planned logic. Safety stock targets. Supplier risk scoring. Regional allocations. Procurement KPIs. Locked-in forecasts. Pre-approved playbooks. This looks less like a modern supply network—and more like a command economy with better branding. And it’s quietly killing your performance leverage and compounding your vulnerability. ⸻ The mistake isn’t planning itself. Planning is necessary. The mistake is believing that complexity can be solved by more “efficiency.” But supply chains are not factories. They’re living systems. And in a nonlinear, interdependent world, every new variable (demand, weather, policy, port, strike) warps the network in unpredictable ways. That means supply chains based on control and correlation will fail more often, recover more slowly, and cost more to run. ⸻ Let’s borrow a concept from economics: • The blue curve shows the legacy model: beyond a certain point, adding more suppliers, inventory, or redundancy gives diminishing returns. • The red curve is what happens when you unlock granular decisioning and reuse logic: more resilience for the same cost, or the same resilience at a lower cost. You’re not just optimizing spend. You’re reshaping the curve entirely. ⸻ The same three economic levers apply: 1. Think at the SKU-supplier-lane-region level. Use micro-analytics to identify where small changes create big leverage—and where redundancies are useless. 2. Build profiles not just of vendors, but of how they behave under stress: • Do they communicate early or late? • Do they hoard or share capacity? • What’s their recovery velocity? Move beyond compliance scores and into causal prediction. 3. Operational insights are assets. Reuse them like capital. ⸻ Performance doesn’t require control. It requires alignment and responsiveness. • Don’t demand conformance. Design for emergence. • Don’t just forecast. Build for probabilities. • Don’t just dual-source. Cultivate adaptive capacity. This is the difference between a supply chain that breaks when reality hits… and one that bends to your advantage. ⸻ This is how you turn supply chain from a cost center into a resilience engine: • Finance uses these models to optimize working capital allocation in real-time. • Legal and Compliance begin modeling supplier risk causally—not just legally. • ESG moves from policy to risk-calibrated implementation. ⸻ The Stakes Have Changed If your system is still trying to “control” its way through uncertainty, then yes—you’re running a neo-Stalinist supply chain. It’s time to decentralize intelligence. Rethink incentives. And bend the curve—before it breaks you. (graphic courtesy of Bill Schmarzo)

The Global Supply Chain Puzzle: Solving for Tariffs, Resilience, and Sustainability are front and center at the Manifest conference happening now… The proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, plus additional Chinese tariffs, are reshaping North American supply chains. But here's what's fascinating: leading companies aren't just reacting – they're using this moment to build something better. Three key trends I'm seeing: 1. Smart companies are moving beyond simple cost optimization. They're using advanced network modeling to simulate multiple scenarios, considering not just tariffs but also sustainability metrics. This isn't just risk management – it's opportunity creation. 2. Local manufacturing is getting a fresh look, but with a twist. Companies reshoring production are investing in state-of-the-art facilities that significantly reduce emissions and energy use. The EV battery sector is leading the way, turning supply chain diversification into an opportunity for circular economy innovation. 3. The rise of "green corridors" in global trade is making sustainability a key factor in network design. Even as some regions see environmental regulatory pullback, forward-thinking companies recognize that sustainable supply chains are about long-term competitive advantage. The numbers tell the story: We're looking at trade relationships worth over $900 billion with Mexico and Canada alone, supporting 17 million North American jobs. Half of this trade involves crucial sectors like vehicles, medical devices, energy, and food. The winners in this new landscape will be those who: • Build truly diversified sourcing strategies considering cost, risk, and environmental impact • Invest in local manufacturing while maintaining global flexibility • Use data analytics to optimize across financial and environmental metrics • Create supply chains agile enough to adapt to both policy and climate changes Despite regulatory uncertainty, the momentum toward sustainable supply chains continues to build. Companies viewing current disruptions as an opportunity to rebuild stronger, cleaner, and more resilient networks will lead the next decade. What strategies is your organization using to balance these competing demands? Let's discuss. ___________ 👍🏽 Like this? ♻️ Repost to help someone ✅ Follow me Sheri R. Hinish 🔔 Click my name → Hit the bell → See my posts. --- These insights are informed by recent research and analysis from EY on supply chain optimization strategies in response to changing trade policies and sustainability imperatives. #SupplyChain #Sustainability #Manufacturing