Geopolitical tensions and a ceaseless stream of disruptions are forcing the supply chain industry to transform its systems and seek better ways to forecast and stay agile in strategy execution. We sat down with ketteQ VP of Engineering Andrey Kornienko for his take on supply chain software trends and the vital need for connectivity across all systems.

Q: What are you seeing as the latest trends and innovations in supply chain software? 

A: I see a push to develop control towers that go beyond just visibility. Different companies treat control towers differently. Most of them offer good visibility across a supply chain, alerting you when an order is delayed, for example, but they don’t tell you what action to take. The next generation of control tower and supply chain software offers not only root cause analysis for supply chain issues, but combinations of actions that can be taken to resolve the issue and execute more accurately around supply chain disruptions. Software now creates forecasting and planning scenarios, but the company is in charge of what to do next. Software should be able to analyze scenarios and provide several options for users so they can evaluate and choose the best option. Software should be able to analyze, for example, which orders are more critical or which customers have been waiting longer or are higher priority customers and should be able to organize that information into the right execution plan.

Another trend is a hyperconnected supply chain, where you instantly connect with other systems, including vendor systems, to bridge the gap between planning and execution. What we have noticed in developing our software at ketteQ is a number of issues companies face when they go from planning to execution. Often what you think is achievable during planning does not turn out to be achievable in execution. Some software is good at planning and some at execution, but the future lies in achieving both on one connected platform.

The increasing adoption of AI and ML technology will also continue, but with improved use scenarios. Both work quite well for demand forecasting, but they are used for other key needs as well. For example, with products that contain a lot of materials that must be sourced from different locations and vendors, the materials are supposed be identical for consistency, but that is not always the case. ML can help with that by investigating the material source and ensuring that consistency. AI can also help with master data improvement and lead time management. If you don’t get lead times right, planning is off, and execution fails. AI can detect patterns that can help with lead time management.

Q: How can software help with the growing need for a global supply chain overhaul?

A: Geopolitical tensions with China, the war in Ukraine, a chip shortage, unpredictability at ports all point to the need for a redesign of the global supply chain and software needs to support that. During the pandemic, agile supply chains that could react quickly came out on top. Software can aid in predictive planning by performing simulations and what-if analysis. What if there is another lockdown in China? What if a particular material becomes unavailable? Software can help supply chain operators run scenarios before issues arise.  

Supply chain shortages created during the pandemic sometimes led to hasty solutions, including micro fulfillment centers. These centers have been great at putting product closer to customers, but they have also created a host of new supply chain connectivity issues and left operators scrambling to keep up with all the data coming out of each center and staying ahead of what the data says so that reaction times match demand.  

Today’s software is being designed at scale to be able to successfully connect all systems to keep data up to date and accurate. Companies also have figured out that traditional supply chain software platforms and systems are not able to keep up with today’s chronic global disruptions. System overhauls and a supply chain transformation must take place.

Q: What are some of the ways that supply chain software can help companies, but that companies may not be aware of or are under-leveraging?

A: The most common miss is companies not investing in software platforms that offer full visibility across a supply chain and supply chain network. I have worked with so many companies who are still largely in Excel spreadsheet-based systems that may be taking three to five weeks to generate an inventory report, for example. As you might imagine, by the time the inventory report is in, the data is old, and planning and execution are thrown off. Systems across supply chain operators are still very disconnected.

Software has the ability to give that true visibility in seconds and the same holds true for accurate scenario planning and what-if analysis. Operators are surprised by the speed at which software can deliver results.

Q: How can ketteQ solutions help companies navigate supply chain disruptions and uncertainty?

A: The formation of ketteQ really started with a brainstorm of ideas around how to help solve issues companies were having with customer experience. The issues companies faced were complex, but we knew that software could revolutionize supply chain planning. We knew software could significantly cut down on the time it took to deliver planning scenarios and manage the enormous amount of data companies must access.

The only digital platform for supply chain planning and automation solutions that are built in and deployed on Salesforce and AWS clouds, for scale and security, ketteQ’s platform offers full visibility and analysis capabilities. The platform also allows for collaboration and the integration of data from difference servers and systems.

ketteQ’s solutions are built to detect data abnormalities and offer alerts, along with simulations that improve both planning and execution. We also provide the speed and accuracy needed by today’s supply chain operators.

We have a huge roadmap ahead of us and have plans to take our platform into new areas and will be continuously improving our utilization capabilities.

Q: What do you think 2023 will bring to the supply chain software industry?

A: More disruption, especially with China, tensions with Taiwan and, of course, the war in Ukraine. We don’t know what will happen in the next few months as we close out the year, but we are nearly guaranteed to see more issues that will impact the supply chain.

All of this disruption is sending an increasing number of companies towards software solutions.

If you are looking for better supply chain visibility, connectivity and faster forecasting, ketteQ is here to help. Please reach out today for a conversation about how ketteQ can help you level-up your supply chain planning. Reach out HERE.

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