On Optimizing Supply Chain Performance. Q&A with Chris Cunnane and Mark Holmes
Q1. InterSystems surveyed 450 senior supply chain practitioners to examine key supply chain technology challenges, trends, and decision-making strategies. What are the Key Findings of this survey? Did you learn something unexpected from the survey?
Chris Cunnane: These survey findings confirm that most organizations lack the necessary capabilities to optimize highly complex supply chains with interwoven dependencies. To be truly agile and competitive, organizations must be capable of extracting critical insights in near real-time. But as things stand, this remains a significant challenge when so many businesses lack end-to-end visibility, or rely on manual data analysis and ad hoc assemblages of different solutions.
In the face of constant change, disruption, and opportunity, organizations need a streamlined source of standardized, clean, meaningful, and reliable data that is available to business users. InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator™ intelligent data platform eliminates the significant data challenges that supply chain organizations encounter on their path to insight-driven performance.
Q2. Supply chain organizations must be able to respond to a wide range of variables including geopolitical factors, supply shortages, transportation bottlenecks, extreme weather, and public health events. Most of these variables are not under control, and they do not have to do with the technology being used. Do you agree with this?
Chris Cunnane: Supply chains face a myriad of challenges and disruptions, including geopolitical factors, supply shortages, transportation bottlenecks, extreme weather, and public health events, to name a few. While these disruptions are often out of the control of companies, how they deal with these disruptions is not. And while these disruptions generally are not technologically-driven, technology can help to mitigate these risks and find alternative solutions to handle disruptions when they occur.
InterSystems provides an AI-enabled supply chain decision intelligence platform that predicts disruptions before they occur, and optimally handles them when they do, so you will be ready to manage the unexpected with confidence.
Q3. How severe are cybersecurity threats?
Chris Cunnane: Cybersecurity threats are a very real danger to global supply chains. Common threats include ransomware, third-party vulnerabilities, phishing scams, software vulnerabilities, and data breaches. A cybersecurity breach can bring global supply chains to a grinding halt; an example is Maersk back in 2017. The attack, originating from a compromised Ukrainian accounting software, spread rapidly through Maersk’s global network, affecting numerous systems and causing widespread delays in shipping and logistics.
Q4. Talking about technology, many large organizations have multiple systems for order, warehouse, or transportation management that are barely integrated – frequently not at all. Why this?
Chris Cunnane: There are a number of reasons why organizations have multiple supply chain management systems that are barely integrated, or not at all. The reasons can be broken down into technology challenges, cost issues, and organizational shortcomings,
From a technology standpoint, different systems use different technologies with different data formats, which makes integration challenging. Add in the fact that many companies rely on legacy systems, which are not able to evolve with the times, and the technology component is quite the challenge.
From a cost standpoint, companies are challenged with high integration costs, slow integration cycles, and a lack of qualified talent to complete integration tasks. From an organizational standpoint, many organizations operate in a siloed nature, which makes their technology deployments operate in siloes as well.
InterSystems technology includes a real-time data gateway that unifies disparate data sources, and a set of next-generation supply chain solutions that complement your existing technology infrastructure to accelerate decision making and time to value, driving efficiencies throughout your entire supply chain.
Q5. Let´s talk about the need for rapid access to trustworthy data and insights from as many sources as possible. Why this is important? How do you define what trustworthy data is?
Mark Holmes: Not one source will provide an answer. Data is ultimately used to drive a decision within an application or human interface. As the supply chain ecosystem has 1000’s of touch points inside and outside the organization, each source or touch point plays a role in building the most real-time optimized accurate decision taking into consideration a multitude of variables across the E2E supply chain ecosystem.
Trustworthy data is defined as real-time data that has been normalized and harmonized. Data latency has to be removed. We at InterSystems bring the processing to the data which is a key differentiator in making sure data is fresh with continuous harmonization and normalization.
Q6. Is AI transforming this industry? How?
Mark Holmes: Disruptions from geo/political events to persistent demand changes to weather disruptions never seen before along the E2E supply chain have all exceeded expectations that the human mind cannot absorb into an optimized real-time decision making. AI can take millions of permutations instantly with what-if analysis to provide accurate decision-making options that can only happen with AI capabilities, whether ML or co-pilot or agentic AI. They all play a role.
Q7. What are the key factors businesses need to rethink in their current data management strategies to take advantage of AI?
Mark Holmes: This question is coming up time and time again with many of our engagements with the CDO. Digital transformation with the ultimate goal of a predictive, autonomous and adaptive supply chain can only happen if current data management strategies are revised. Meaning, you must start with a strategy to harmonize and normalize data along the entire E2E supply chain with strategic alignment internally and externally to the enterprise with customer needs validated. Next phase, move to business architecture to achieve this along with data governance and integration, systems rationalization, cloud and IoT platform infrastructure strategy. AI should be the last thought you have in mind until data is AI ready.
Q8. What about Generative AI? Mark Holmes mentioned last year (*) that “one area we are finding results is the use of using GenAI for Co-Pilot. ” Can you please elaborate on that?
Mark Holmes: We are finding great value for the line of business (LOB) users to gain trust and confidence in GenAI decisions through co-pilot. When we provide several options using prescriptive insights and we digitally provide the best option, the LOB can challenge that decision point via a chat box (co-pilot) on how the decision was formed or calculate and did the decision consider other factors the LOB deem important for decision consideration. We have found that once the LOB user feels comfortable all his/her input has been considered, the LOB has confidence in accepting the decision to then approve to move to the execution application.
Q9. How is InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator helping here?
Chris Cunnane: As an intelligent data platform, InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator provides a complete view of an organization’s supply chain, harmonizing and normalizing disparate data from applications, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. Without replacing current systems, it acts as connective tissue, harmonizing and analyzing all types of data using AI and ML to uncover what is currently happening and to predict what is likely to happen next. Its prescriptive insights outline the best options, so teams can respond quickly with maximum effectiveness and minimum delay. The result is one reality, powered by unified data.
As supply chains become increasingly dynamic, decisions around capacity and constraints are made with greater frequency and involve more variables. An ultimate control tower, built with InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator will create a resilient, highly agile supply chain, enhancing orchestration from first mile to the last.
Q10. Does it complement current systems? Or do you need to replace them?
Chris Cunnane: With Supply Chain Orchestrator, you do not need to replace existing systems. In fact, it is just the opposite. InterSystems technology is here to complement existing supply chain applications. The solution acts as a connective tissue that brings data ingestion, data integration, embedded analytics, and embedded interoperability into one unified platform using a smart data fabric. The intelligent decisions are then pushed back into the existing application that the company uses.
Q11. Could you share with us how PALTAC- Japan’s largest wholesaler of over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and daily necessities- has used InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator? What was the challenge? and what results did they obtain?
Chris Cunnane: PALTAC is Japan’s largest wholesaler of over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and daily necessities. It has used the power of InterSystems technology to achieve landmark 99.999% OTIF, delivering 3.5 billion products annually. A reliable logistics network is crucial in achieving such high OTIF rates, ensuring efficient shipping and order processing. PALTAC’s ability to efficiently manage the fulfillment of new products has been a key factor in maintaining their high OTIF rates.
Using InterSystems technology as a platform for digital transformation, PALTAC has improved its workforce efficiency as it routinely optimizes fulfillment of orders for 50,000 items from 1,000 manufacturers in response to demand from 400 retailers operating 50,000 stores.
The platform supports an application which uses AI to automate allocation of personnel for in-store activities, increasing productivity, and on-shelf availability. Real-time data flows and advanced interoperability have driven more advanced use of robotics. The company is more agile and benefits from streamlined processes, higher revenue, and higher CSAT, all of which are underpinned by the trust customers place in their reliable fulfillment services.
Resources
(*) On Supply Chain Management. Q&A with Mark Holmes, ODBMS.org NOVEMBER 9, 2024
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Chris Cunnane, Supply Chain Product Marketing Manager at InterSystems.
In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing marketing strategy and content for the InterSystems supply chain technology suite. Chris has 20+ years of supply chain expertise, leading the supply chain practice at ARC Advisory Group, as well as holding various sales, marketing, and operations roles in the wholesale, retail, and automotive parts markets. He holds a BA in Communications from Stonehill College and an MA in Global Marketing Communications from Emerson College.
Mark Holmes, Head of Global Supply Chain Market Strategy at InterSystems
He brings more than 25 years of experience in consulting, manufacturing operations, and software development from such organizations as Dow Chemical, GS1 (Brussels), Aspen Technology, and CGI. He specializes in working with manufacturers and retailers/CPG to solve their most difficult supply chain issues through digital transformation with a modern data fabric architecture. Breaking down data silos and leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive actionable insights throughout an organization’s global supply chain, Mark has delivered value to companies like Tyson Foods, Ferrero Roche, TJX Companies, Hard Rock Café, and Albertsons.
Mark joined InterSystems in 2021 to broaden InterSystems global market in supply chain. Holmes has been a board member for the Association for Supply Chain Management and is APICS certificated in Transportation, Logistics and Distribution (CTLD) from the same organization. He earned a BS degree in business administration from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and an MBA from Bentley University in Waltham, MA
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