THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY INTRODUCTION FROM OUR CEO

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 A TRANSFORMATION IS TAKING PLACE

A transformation
At Kinaxis, we devote our time to the innovative technologies,
processes and methods to help our customers and partners
navigate the changing landscape of supply chain planning.

is taking place
Forecasting specific disruptions has become increasingly
futile, but if you set your business up to deal with the process
of disruption, you'll be set up for success.

The transformative concept at the heart of what we do is

concurrency: a model that takes into view the whole planning
Political landscapes shift overnight, global
network and aligns data so that a change in one part of your
trade is constantly changing, consumers chain triggers corresponding changes and communications
demand increasingly personalized in the rest of the chain, in real time. You can create what-if
scenarios, understand their impact on your whole network
service and smaller day-to-day
and assess your options before anything actually happens.
challenges hit without warning. If your This concept of concurrency when applied to supply chain
job is supply chain management, how on planning is called concurrent planning. Market-leading
companies, such as Ford, Unilever and Schneider Electric,
earth do you plan for the unplannable?
across industries – including automotive, consumer goods, and
high-tech and electronics – are already harnessing the power
of concurrent planning to realize significant business results.

How do you implement it? What technology do you need?

And what is the impact on your most important asset: people?

We've sought perspectives on concurrency from supply chain

operators, consultants, partners and analysts around the world
and across numerous industries and we're sharing it in this
inaugural guide to concurrency.

On behalf of the whole team at Kinaxis, we hope you find this

guide helpful.

My best,

JOHN SICARD
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Kinaxis

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Thinking Differently About

Supply Chain Planning:
The Case for Concurrency

This publication is accurate as of the date published and may be updated by Kinaxis from time to time at its
discretion. Copyright © 2019 Kinaxis Inc. All rights reserved. This publication includes trademarks, such as
Kinaxis, the Kinaxis logo and RapidResponse, which are protected under applicable intellectual property laws and
are the property of Kinaxis Inc. and its affiliates. Solely for convenience, our trademarks and trade names referred
to in this publication may appear without the ® or ™ symbol, but such references are not intended to indicate,
in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks and
trade names. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
holders, and use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

3
 Why

5 The need for concurrent planning: Why business as

usual doesn’t work anymore

11 Supply chain planning in a new era of trade

What

13 Concurrent planning: What is it and how is it

revolutionizing supply chain management?

17 Lippert Components: Gaining greater control and

transparency across the supply chain

21 Tackling the hidden reasons for not acting now: Doing

nothing is the biggest risk to your company and career

25 Necessity is the mother of invention: The technology

that powers concurrent planning

How

27 Four steps to enabling concurrent planning

31 Network planners: Transcend the traditional to

experience far-reaching results

35 Change management: How it streamlines the

introduction and adoption of concurrent planning

39 How supply chain planning is coming of age: A new

look, autonomous meritocracy is the key to success

Looking ahead

43 Applying artificial intelligence and machine learning

to supply chains

45 Conclusion: Making the case to rethink your supply

chain planning

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

The need for

Rising supply chain expectations
Known more commonly as “the Amazon
effect”, the online retailing behemoth has

concurrent planning disrupted supply chain operations and

consumer expectations dramatically by
enabling same-day (and in some cases

Why business as usual doesn't within two hours) delivery of goods to a

customer's front door.

work anymore With the addition of ongoing trade wars

and tariff issues, political uncertainty,
unexpected weather events, and the
day-to-day small changes that impact
the supply chain, volatility almost feels
The nature of managing a business on a global
like a quaint way of describing what
scale is undergoing fundamental change and businesses are dealing with today.
it's up to the world's supply chains to keep up.
With concurrent planning, they can. Yesterday's tools create
inefficiency
The ongoing use of tools that use a
cascaded approach to supply chain
planning, such as SAP which has limited
capability in managing these complicated
and often simultaneous realities, adds
even more strain. Static techniques
built on outdated velocity expectations
hamstring growth, curtail delivery abilities
and put businesses at major risk.

Yesterday's operational silos default

to sequential processes and create
planning lethargy which fosters a
lack of trust between a company's
departments and its varying functions.
In turn, this misaligns the organization,
creating inefficiencies and loss of
JOHN SICARD accuracy. These side effects spread
President and Chief Executive Officer, across the organization like wildfire –
Kinaxis there's just no absorbing them.

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 THE NEED FOR CONCURRENT PLANNING: WHY BUSINESS AS USUAL DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE

Functional excellence does despite the fact that functional silos are
not translate into supply chain at fault for hindering a complete view
of the supply chain. As a result, people
excellence
spend their days repeatedly managing
Current supply chain planning techniques the side effects and not tackling the
focus on functional excellence: isolating central problem.
one piece of the supply chain at a time,
Consider for a moment driving your car.
fine-tuning it and then excelling at it. On
the surface, this approach should result There's a reason why humans can drive –
in an excellent system, one that operates we have control over sight and sound and
at peak efficiency from end to end. But it the dexterity required to match speed
does not. with direction simultaneously. Humans
are designed for concurrent thinking:
That's because, between each function,
planning, sensing and responding to the
misalignment compounds to create
events around them as they change.
operational blindness. Expertise in
capacity planning without understanding But how difficult would driving be if
the impact on inventory is an example of four people were trying to perform the
this lack of transparency, as is a singular function together? Driver one is steering,
focus on inventory management without driver two is providing directions, driver
a connection to the forecast. three has their foot on the brake, and
driver four has their foot on the gas. Now
In many cases, the supply chain is still
imagine if none of the four are friends,
not thought of as an end-to-end system

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

but complete strangers. Strangers who Eliminating the

don't speak the same language. “I didn't know” excuse
This is essentially what many supply Concurrent planning drives end-to-end
chains are like. You still may be able to supply chain alignment and eliminates
drive but the lack of concurrent thinking the age-old “I didn't know” excuse
won't get you very far in one piece. as organizations have more time to
Concurrency, be it in your car or respond to the unexpected.
in your supply chain, builds on the Decisions made in an agile, concurrent
notion of “always on” alignment as it planning environment come from
perpetually systematizes and codifies understanding the impact those
the synchronization required to do the decisions have before implementation,
right thing, in the right order, in the right which creates confidence in the
timeframe, allowing you or your goods to planning decision-making process and
arrive safely at the intended destination. results in a more reliable and cost-
effective supply chain.

Perfection doesn't exist

The desire to control the universe to End-to-end connectivity
the extent that planners can manage is the key
their supply chains by the power of
We've talked a lot about the speed of
will is unrealistic at best. Despite this,
business and why supply chains must
organizations have spent tens of millions
adapt to keep up. A supply chain's
of dollars trying to get close, focusing
ability to adapt to ongoing volatility
on metrics like “forecast accuracy”
relies on end-to-end connectivity
and celebrating improvements of five
and the use of both prescriptive and
percentage points. The problem is there's
predictive analytics.
no breakthrough to be had because the
perfect plan simply doesn't exist. For example, even the most effective
algorithm won't solve your supply
Supply chains operate in constant
chain problems if it's only applied to
flux and seeking perfection is futile.
a specific function. But, if it's applied
Organizations must become more agile
to every function across your supply
and be able to predict, absorb and react
chain simultaneously, “concurrency” or
to the imperfections.
“concurrent planning” occurs.
This doesn't mean accuracy isn't
Inevitably, something unexpected will
important. Organizations absolutely
happen somewhere in the supply chain.
need to have an idea of where they're
A connected, concurrent supply chain
going. Those that are infinitely agile
instantly handles the effects of these
rely less on accuracy and are able to
unforeseen events and the impact of the
absorb the unexpected effects that
necessary adjustments.
manifest in business.

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 THE NEED FOR CONCURRENT PLANNING: WHY BUSINESS AS USUAL DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE

Concurrent planning in action are produced and delivered where and

when they need to be.
Real-world applications of concurrent
planning are creating positive results Regardless of industry, a natural disaster
for the supply chains of some of the isn't the true measure of the benefit
world's biggest brands across a variety of concurrency. Instead, concurrent
of industries, including life sciences, planning absorbs hundreds and even
consumer products, and automotive thousands of small, inefficient decisions,
(to name just three). The technique the sum of which creates a dramatic
has helped companies successfully shift in their business.
mitigate supply chain volatility, from the
smaller daily disruptions to the more
Changing mindsets
impactful – such as the scarcity of a
raw material – to the extreme, like a Every single day, thousands of
tornado or earthquake. unexpected events occur, each
seemingly immaterial when viewed on
A natural disaster can have a profound
their own but epic in their impact when
and immediate impact on a supply
viewed as a whole.
chain. With little time to respond to the
emergency, the ability to course correct But most organizations don't think of their
on the fly, which is a core strength of supply chains that way because they don't
concurrent planning, becomes crucial. measure the inefficiency of their supply
Keysight Technologies, one of our chain holistically. And that's because they
customers, was able to dynamically were built in and still operate in silos.
adapt and keep its supply chain flowing
Concurrent planning absorbs vibrations
when a devastating wildfire stopped
to eliminate the friction that impedes
operations at its California headquarters.
informed decision-making.
Similarly, managing raw material
shortages is vital to the manufacturing of
a product. The ability for a supply chain Conclusion
planner to have the “speed to detect and The speed of business is accelerating,
the speed to correct” when raw material and supply chains need to keep pace,
runs low is critical to meeting customer whether it's the “Amazon Effect,” tariff
expectations. Another customer – negotiations, an unplanned equipment
SMTC – is achieving higher levels of shutdown, or a hurricane.
supply chain agility, enabling immediate
response to changes in demand, supply, The world moves faster than it did a
product and daily operations. decade ago, so why are companies
continuing to merely hope that decades-
In life sciences, concurrent planning saves old practices will be the solution? Our
lives. Supply chain planning decisions go environment won't get easier to manage,
beyond revenue concerns, as decisions so make the case for concurrent
are made to ensure life-saving medicines planning strong and clear.

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Benefits of Happier customers

Cut manufacturing lead times by
Better efficiency
Trim finished goods inventory by

concurrency*
20 33 %
Improve on-time delivery by Shrink expedites by
%

43 83
% %
Faster decision-making Improved operations
Speed up build plan change Supply chain planning efficiency
analyzation by increased by

98 15 %
Shorten planning cycles by
%
Adherence to inventory targets above

57 95
% %

*Kinaxis customer survey

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 THE NEED FOR CONCURRENT PLANNING: WHY BUSINESS AS USUAL DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE

Advocates of
A global community of supply chain leaders across industries such as automotive,
industrial, life sciences, aerospace and defense, consumer products, and
high-tech and electronics.

concurrency

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 Sponsored by:

THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Viewpoint

Robert Kugel
SVP &
Research Director

Kinaxis Enhances
planning and so may need to identify
ways to improve. For instance, half (51%)
of participants rated their company’s

Supply Chain Planning

S&OP performance only as adequate
while fewer than half that amount (22%)
said they do it well or very well and

in a New Era of Trade

another 22% think their performance
is poor. The results suggest that senior
executives in companies with only
moderately complex supply chains
A period of increasingly free and open should pay closer attention to S&OP
world trade that has characterized the because of the challenges that they are
past decades appears to be ending, facing today. It’s likely that achieving
replaced by a new and more challenging more effective supply chain planning and
era of international commerce. This will management will grow in importance as
pose a significant challenge to most the journey to a new trade equilibrium is
product companies with international bound to be bumpy.
operations. Even as they have honed
Concurrent planning is a relatively
their ability to balance supply and
new, technology-enabled approach to
demand, companies are more vulnerable
producing plans and scenarios much
to supply chain issues when events
faster than cascaded planning. It exploits
disrupt the smooth flow of goods and
today’s lower-cost computational power
services. Organizations can address this
and advanced algorithms to produce
vulnerability by enhancing their ability to
plans and scenarios much faster than
adapt quickly to environmental changes.
the cascaded methods that were
I recently summarized some of the key necessary because of technology and
findings of our S&OP research1. Our cost constraints. Concurrent planning
ROBERT KUGEL analysis suggests that many companies enables organizations with highly
SVP and Research Director, that deal in physical products are doing complex planning models to run and
Ventana Research a mediocre job of sales and operations rerun scenarios in minutes rather than

© COPYRIGHT VENTANA RESEARCH, 2021 DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE WITHOUT PERMISSION

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 KINAXIS ENHANCES SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING IN A NEW ERA OF TRADE
Ventana Research: Creating Accountability in Work and Resource Management

hours. Planners can develop plans or Our research also finds that one and a proliferation of commerce
sets of alternatives fast enough for of the main sets of challenges that channels is making supply chain
the projections to be actionable. This organizations grapple with involves management more difficult. Adding to
capability is critical in the new era of trade. data: 38% said that the necessary the challenges are a more uncertain
data isn’t available; another 30% said trade environment, unprecedented
that their data isn’t accurate. One market volatility and the impacts and
consequence of bad or unavailable costs of ongoing legal, regulatory
data is that the resulting plans aren’t and taxation changes. Each of these
completely accurate. Only one-third factors makes it that much harder for
(32%) characterized their S&OP as very organizations to make good sourcing,
accurate or accurate, while half (50%) purchasing and production decisions at
described theirs as somewhat accurate. a pace that maintains market share and
Somewhat accurate planning is like profitability and achieves performance
somewhat accurate juggling: There are targets—in other words, to be agile in
a lot of dropped balls. Likely because it supply chain management.
is complex, S&OP challenges a majority
In this environment, senior managers
of companies.
and executives should evaluate
how their organization is positioned
competitively, taking an especially close
look at their ability to do dynamic supply
When companies have immediate and demand chain contingency planning.
visibility into the condition of their All managers and executives with
supply chain they can quickly create planning responsibilities, and particularly
and evaluate scenarios for planning those in organizations that are
purposes or evaluate different exposed to significant market volatility,
courses of action in response to should be alerting senior leadership
market changes. One finding of our teams regularly to opportunities and
Next-Generation Business Planning vulnerabilities. They also must ensure
benchmark research illustrates the that they have the planning tools they
value of quickly assessing multiple need not only to anticipate change but
scenarios: Three-fourths (73%) of to benefit from it. I recommend that
those companies that are able to larger companies with even moderately
assess every relevant scenario say complex supply chains assess the tools
their plans are accurate or very Organizations with even moderately they’re using.
accurate, while that’s true of just 36% complex multinational supply chains
of those that explore only a limited are facing and will continue to face
number of scenarios or none at all. significant challenges in managing
Software that allows planners to them. Dealing with competitive
quickly assess scenario outcomes changes, new technologies, a market-
enables organizations to evaluate more driven proliferation of SKUs, the
scenarios in the time available. growing use of contract manufacturers

1
https://robertkugel.ventanaresearch.com/sales-and-operations-planning-just-mediocre 12
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Concurrent planning
Supply chains have changed a lot too.
Expanding ecosystems. Omni-channel
experiences. Supersized customer
demands. Decision-makers are dealing
What is it and how is it with more volatility and complexity than
ever before. You aren't managing your

revolutionizing supply chain grandfather's supply chain. So why are

you still using his processes? Silos and
spreadsheets are crippling you. And
management? your ability to do business.

You aren't managing

The world has changed a lot over the last
century. We put a man on the moon, developed your grandfather's
vaccines and revolutionized how we connect with supply chain. So why
computers, the internet and mobile phones.
are you still using his
processes?
Yesterday's techniques are no
match for today's reality
The slow, sequential planning
techniques of the past are no match
for today's fast-paced reality. Managing
your supply chain that way can leave
you feeling like you're making critical
decisions about your business with
only half the information available.
That's because the information you
need to make decisions has to filter
through others, one at a time, before
finally getting to you. And when you
HARISH IYER
finally do get the information you need,
VP, Industry and Solutions,
it's more than likely that it isn't even
Kinaxis
accurate anymore.

ALEXA CHEATER That's because in the hours, days

Manager, Industry and Solutions, and weeks it took for you to get the
Kinaxis information, reality has changed.

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 CONCURRENT PLANNING: WHAT IS IT AND HOW IS IT REVOLUTIONIZING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT?

con·cur·rent plan·ning Sequential planning is a vicious cycle.

1. Wait for the person ahead of you to

/kən'kər'nt/'planiNG/ generate a plan.

noun 2. Create your plan using their results.

3. Realize once you're done you've
The process of making and affected someone else.
managing synchronized 4. Argue over whose version of the
data is right.
plans across time horizons,
5. Start all over again since everyone's
business processes and misaligned.
organizational boundaries
at the same time. And that's just standard process. Throw
in an unexpected change and the delays
and frustration only grow. Supply and
A customer altered their order. A
demand are never balanced because
supplier was late with their delivery.
you're always out of sync.
A typhoon is brewing near one of your
factories. Life doesn't wait. Neither
should your supply chain.

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Eliminating volatility is impact on themselves, their team and

impossible. Managing it doesn't the organization as a whole.

have to be. Time horizons: Companies plan across

a variety of connected time horizons.
You're never going to be able to get rid
Long-term (years), medium-term (months),
of volatility in your life, your business or
short-term (days) and the here and
your supply chain. But you can limit its
now (hours, minutes and seconds).
impact. All it takes is the ability to make
Concurrent planning unifies plans across
confident decisions quickly.
all time horizons and granularities so you
Concurrent planning is the process can understand past, present and future
of making and managing unified impacts across the entire planning
plans across multiple time horizons, horizon at once.
business processes and organizational
Vertical business processes: Business
boundaries at the same time. It
processes and related decision-
synchronizes data, processes and
making range from strategic through
people to collapse decision-making time,
execution. Strategic decisions happen
break down organizational boundaries
less frequently but have a high impact
and dynamically balance the end-to-end
across the organization. Execution-level
network. If one person makes a change,
decisions are frequent, but typically have
everyone else instantly understands the
a lower impact. Each business process

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 CONCURRENT PLANNING: WHAT IS IT AND HOW IS IT REVOLUTIONIZING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT?

has its own set of inputs and outcomes Faster, confident decision-
for decisions, with varying levels of detail. making made easy
However, they all need to connect and
work harmoniously together. Concurrent Concurrent planning bridges the gap
planning synchronizes vertical business between planning and execution by
processes so you can understand interweaving every aspect of your
impacts across all processes at once, business – from strategic to tactical.
in as much detail as you need to make Inputs from finance, sales and marketing
confident decisions. help drive long-term plans. Data from
customers, suppliers and partners
Horizontal organization boundaries: feed into short-term plans and detailed
Most companies are organized execution. You're able to make real-time
functionally – sales, marketing, decisions and align teams around a
distribution, manufacturing, etc. These common goal.
functions are often responsible for
their own business processes across That results in a business that's free of
various time horizons. That can lead risk, waste and latency.
to functional silos with formal, time- No risk: Know sooner when risks or
consuming handoffs across the opportunities arise with end-to-end
business processes within that group, visibility.
internally across functional boundaries
and externally with customers and No waste: Act faster to adjust plans
suppliers. Concurrent planning unites and streamline efficiencies with a
the organization, connecting data, connected network.
processes and people to help break No latency: Decide more confidently
down those silos and connect your with an instant understanding of the
extended network. impact on your business.

You can eliminate risk, The future of planning is

concurrent
waste and latency Concurrent planning is revolutionizing
from your business. the way companies plan because it
delivers trusted results when it matters
most. It removes reliance on outdated
Planning becomes faster and more technologies like Excel. It provides a
collaborative. It's like being on a great connected, synchronized supply chain.
conference call. Everyone shares And it lets you understand current
information, works through issues on performance and instantly see and
the spot and walks away confident interpret a change across your end-to-end
they're seeing the big picture. network. The result is happier customers,
lower costs and higher productivity.

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Lippert Components
RapidResponse provides a global,
scalable business platform that not
only supports our demand, supply and
inventory planning activities, but all of
Gaining greater control our other business functions as well.
Over the past year, RapidResponse has

and transparency across quickly expanded to our engineering,

finance and sales teams.

the supply chain Connecting our people, processes and

systems through a single environment
has been a high priority for us at LCI.
While our teams are organized by
function, it was more important for us
To streamline operations, Lippert Components Inc. (LCI) to provide access to different inputs
needed more control and transparency, which could from multiple application systems. And
only come by connecting all of its business functions. it wouldn't have been possible to break
down our business silos without a
With plants and warehouses located around the world, it platform capable of connecting all our
was imperative for LCI to standardize processes in line important data points and enabling us
with best industry standards. The company was looking to plan concurrently.

for a solution that would enable them to manage a

unified plan across multiple teams and site boundaries. RapidResponse eliminates
cascaded business processes
The search led to Kinaxis RapidResponse.
In the past, our teams have used a
myriad of techniques to analyze and
understand how business changes
impacted our bottom line. Teams would
spend weeks running reports and
combining multiple spreadsheets to
understand the impact of a business
change. While this process started
out as a manual one, RapidResponse
enabled our teams to run multiple
scenarios to analyze different outcomes.

For instance, last year we dealt with

a number of tariffs that were applied
to all of our import products. Within
KRISTEN LEBARON minutes, RapidResponse identified
Director of Supply Chain, alternative sources of supply while
Lippert Components, Inc. calculating the total impact on our

17
We never understood
the power of concurrent
planning until we
realized the value of how
data flowed through our
supply chain network.
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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

bottom line. Teams were able to us to think about how production,

collaborate in real time, which allowed customer demands, technologies
us to mitigate the total cost impact and and key stakeholders all impact the
save the company millions. financial interest of the organization.
RapidResponse has served as the
planning platform to help build this
Our goal is to push connectivity across all of our systems.
While all of our teams have enjoyed
and pull business reduced workloads, the results of

data in real time, implementing RapidResponse have

cascaded throughout our supply chain

which will cut down network. Even our suppliers have seen
benefits; they are able to plan more
decision latency accurately, resulting in less waste and
greater efficiency and flexibility.
when business
changes occur. Integrated, harmonized
business plans
We never understood the power of For Lippert to create a harmonized
concurrent planning until we realized business plan, our business functions
the value of how data flowed through had to be fully integrated with each other
our supply chain network. It required to include our ecosystem of suppliers,
customers, inventory, production and

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 LIPPERT COMPONENTS: GAINING GREATER CONTROL AND TRANSPARENCY ACROSS THE SUPPLY CHAIN

logistics to drive the strategic initiatives for instance if a hurricane comes ashore
of our organization. Simply put, in South Florida, RapidResponse will flag
concurrent planning with RapidResponse any shipment that is affected, which will
has provided us the ability to integrate inform our planning teams if that event
our customer relationship management will prevent us from fulfilling any demand.
(CRM) and transportation management As we streamline our connectivity
(TMS) platforms. between these tools, RapidResponse
puts our company's head on a swivel,
Integrating our CRM tool has given us
providing us a peripheral view at every
the ability to recognize new business
level in the organization
opportunities, changes, or threats. Our
goal is to push and pull business data in Concurrent planning is about connecting
real time, which will cut down decision all levels in an organization. Even
latency when business changes occur. though our sales and logistics teams
Our teams will gain deeper and broader utilize different software applications,
insights, which will dramatically improve RapidResponse gives us the opportunity
decision-making processes while to integrate that data to influence our
making our leaders more agile in their demand and supply plans.
decision-making and actions.
Unexpected changes and delays
We also plan to integrate our have caused chaos in the past. Today,
transportation management platform, RapidResponse puts an end to the
which will allow us to get real-time vicious planning cycles, enabling our
updates on inbound and outbound teams to know sooner and act faster.
shipments. If a natural disaster occurs,

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Tackling the hidden

The business case to move beyond
Excel as your primary supply chain
planning tool is strong, and you’ve done

reasons for not

more than your fair share of the legwork
to strengthen it within your organization.

You’ve attended conferences, met

acting now with peers and had many in-depth

conversations with senior leadership
about the transformative benefits of

Doing nothing is the biggest adopting a more modern approach, like

concurrent planning, to continuously
synchronize your end-to-end supply chain.
risk to your company These conversations typically include
the need for increased speed and
and career agility, so you’re prepared to take
advantage of new opportunities as
they arise. You probably also talk about
the need for robust what-if scenario
The business landscape is changing rapidly and yet your planning, allowing for smart, continuous
rebalancing of the supply chain, not to
company is still relying on outdated siloed supply chain
mention the need to attract and retain
planning tools and processes. The longer you wait to top talent with innovative and intuitive
make a change, the more you put your business at risk software that gives them everything they
need to succeed in their roles.
and miss a career opportunity.
So why is your organization unable to
move forward?

Here are five emotional concerns

that may be unconsciously hindering
your ability to move forward with an
investment in a concurrent supply chain
planning solution, along with some
actions you can take to address them:

1. Your team is overextended

Issue: A key barrier that often stands
in the way of a purchase decision is an
JAY MUELHOEFER overextended team. At all levels, people
Chief Marketing Officer, are already maxed out just trying to stay
Kinaxis on top of their day-to-day activities and

21
 TACKLING THE HIDDEN REASONS FOR NOT ACTING NOW DOING NOTHING IS THE BIGGEST RISK TO YOUR COMPANY AND CAREER

Today’s software 2. It will take too long to realize

value
doesn’t require a Issue: Another reason for hesitation is

large, multi-year the concern among decision makers that

it will take too long to realize value after
digital transformation making an investment. There’s a fear of
long drawn-out implementations requiring
effort that causes a months of assessment, redesign, testing
and deployment. Some even worry that
massive upheaval. their company may not be around in its
current form if it takes more than a year
to go live with a new solution.
fight the fires that inevitably come up.
They simply don’t have time to devote to Action: Today’s software doesn’t require
researching solutions, conducting due a large, multi-year digital transformation
diligence, testing, and everything else effort that causes massive upheaval.
that’s required to select a new solution. You can ensure it will have an immediate
So the status quo remains in place. impact on your business in weeks with
a seamlessly expandable roadmap as
Action: You need your team to work
needs evolve. Start with concurrent
smarter, not harder. The real shift
visibility to deliver insights for executives
happens when people in more traditional,
about risk, cash flow and opportunities,
siloed roles become network planners
or synchronizing supply and demand. By
with concurrent planning. In this role,
solidifying your technique on concurrent
planners have access to the right data
planning, the value equation is multiplied.
and can collaborate with others in
You significantly reduce risk with ready-
the extended supply network to solve
to-deploy applications on an extensible
problems in real-time, multiplying their
platform you can grow over time.
effectiveness at work fivefold. This
unlocks planners to think and act more
broadly, improving job satisfaction. 3. The initial cost or the impact
The transition to concurrent planning on cash flow is too high
can be dramatically simplified with
Issue: With unprecedented levels of
industry best practices that are built
disruption hurting the business, new
into configurable, ready-to-deploy
investments are being scrutinized like
applications, rather than building custom
never before, and those above a certain
software, which requires months of your
threshold are not being approved as
team defining processes for IT. With a
CFOs prioritize across multiple initiatives.
baseline deployment in place, you can
start realizing value immediately, while Action: Today, investment funds are
staying on top of current work. limited and need to support multiple
projects. Longer- term visions are

22
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

important, but only if they’re achievable via

a series of smaller, proven projects that
If you champion the
enable you to unlock subsequent phases.
vision for concurrency,
A modern supply chain management
solution can help you address your most you’ll be viewed
significant pain points right away with
ready-to-deploy cloud-based industry
as a strategic
solutions that can be easily upgraded.
And, as your needs or investment
business leader for
capacity grows, you can extend the
solution seamlessly over time in a
transformation, which
defined manner, so you’re ready to take will help propel you
advantage of new opportunities as they
emerge. The alternative option involves forward in your career.
custom code, which may allow you
to have your own unique processes. your business seize new opportunities,
However, in reality this option requires support transformation initiatives and
a long-term and expensive commitment better meet customer needs.
to support because you have to
If you champion the vision for
constantly revisit custom code each
concurrency, you’ll be viewed as a
time your supply chain design changes
strategic business leader for digital
to make sure everything is accurate. It’s
transformation, which will help propel
unnecessary because modern solutions
you forward in your career journey.
have the intelligence to adapt to your
Leading analysts like Gartner highlight
supply chain needs without custom code.
the need for senior leaders to nurture
talent, a process that can be accelerated
4. It will put your career at risk by bringing forward next-generation
solutions that planners want to use
Issue: The challenges aren’t all at the
to transform the supply chain and by
organizational level. At the individual
choosing a proven solution provider.
level, some supply chain professionals
are reluctant to make a decision
because they’re afraid that a failed 5. Your organization lacks the
transformation project will have a ability to transform and adopt
negative impact on their career.
Issue: Process and change management
Action: Supply chain has never been are just as important as technology
more relevant and is getting more and when it comes to the success of any
more visibility among senior business transformation initiative. There could be
leaders. As a result, career growth a concern that your organization may not
depends on being able to illustrate how fully prepared.
supply chains can play a role in helping

23
 TACKLING THE HIDDEN REASONS FOR NOT ACTING NOW DOING NOTHING IS THE BIGGEST RISK TO YOUR COMPANY AND CAREER

Action: Successful transformation Reap the business and career

requires painting a compelling vision benefits of supply chain
for the future. It makes the journey
transformation
worthwhile. At its heart, concurrent
planning empowers people to make When it comes to supply chain
more confident decisions faster that transformation, trying to get more out
have a bigger impact. People enjoy their of siloed Excel-driven processes will
roles more. not enable step-change improvements.

Leveraging proven offerings with Build your formal business case, but
organizational transformation best also address the potentially hidden fears
practices built into the processes – and reasons for inaction. Your company
including change management and – and you – will be better off for it.
training – is a well-defined blueprint for
successful adoption. Finally, ensuring
ease of use with the latest user interface
technologies is critical so end users will
want to embrace new processes and
tools that are easier to learn and manage.

24
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Necessity is the
Conceptually, the benefits of taking a
concurrent approach to supply chain
planning were clear. But to turn concept

mother of invention
into reality, supply chain planning
technology had to evolve. No existing
database in the world could fit the bill.
How could planning solvers and complex
The technology that powers algorithms operate concurrently? How
would scenarios be handled efficiently?

concurrent planning This game-changing concept needed

something new – a database, purpose-
built, lighting fast, massively scalable
and yet still user friendly. It was time for
Within the walls of the world's patent offices fresh ideas.

live some of mankind's greatest inventions and Kinaxis set to the task, looking at bits
highest achievements. Whether it was magnetic and pieces of all types of databases,
including relational, columnar, graphical
levitation, the quadcopter drone, 3D printing, GPS, and hierarchical. None could do the job,
or the self-driving car, inventors saw a need and so we invented our own.
brought ideas to life that changed the world.
A fundamentally
different approach
Rather than storing rows or columns
in memory, we store records as
objects. Then we link related objects
together using in-memory pointers.
Recognizing that scenarios and their
inter-relationships are crucial, we version
every record to maintain its source and
connection to the parent. Finally, we
embed the algorithms into the database
code so that latency between the math
and the data is minimized. The end
result is a brand new type of database
purpose-built for concurrency in supply
chain that yields speed and capability
the world has never seen.
JUSTIN KING
Technical Business Consultant, This patented database, granted
Kinaxis as an “extended database engine

25
providing versioning and embedded
analytics,” sets the foundation as our
company's fundamentally different
approach to technology for supply
chain planning. This technology
not only addresses speed but also
enables massive scalability to support
millions of SKUs on top of our multi-
terabyte data models. Our “always-on”
planning algorithms are then built
into the database to eliminate latency
and the dreaded “batch cycle” and
long runtimes. All of this is offered to
customers in SaaS mode, deployed in
the Kinaxis private cloud, providing a
single-tenant, SOC 2 Type 2 certified
environment proven by industry-leading
annual security penetration tests.

While Kinaxis technology lives among

other great inventions, we are certainly
not finished. We surround our planning
database with a powerful platform
that enables our customers and
partners to extend and adapt Kinaxis
RapidResponse to their unique needs,
and make it their own. The platform
includes machine learning capabilities
that drive the Self-Healing Supply
Chain™ and provides insights into
planning data that we never had before.
We frequently release new features
and enhancements that allow our
customers to constantly stay on the
cutting-edge of planning technology.

At Kinaxis, we realize that legacy

technology just doesn't cut it – not for
today's complex global supply chains.
We recognized that concurrency
required a different approach, so we
invented it.

26
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Four steps to enabling

As the pace of technology change
accelerates and markets become
more unpredictable, companies are

concurrent planning
looking for new, more agile planning
techniques to prepare for the future.
Concurrent planning provides that
foundation. Advanced and predictive
analytics, machine learning (ML), artificial
intelligence (AI) and the internet of things
(IoT) open up new perspectives for the
next industrial revolution, where the
incredible horsepower of the machines
introduced during the first industrial
revolution will be enhanced by new
types of intelligence from robots.

For industry, this creates new possibilities,

ALEXIS ROTENBERG namely, to put the customer back at
VP, Strategic Services, the center of their supply chains and
Kinaxis provide them a totally new experience
that will deliver unique value and allow
MATTHEW MONTGOMERY organizations to become more agile,
Managing Partner, Professional Services, enabling timely responses to the demands
Kinaxis of a dramatically changing world.

27
The journey towards a more customer- supply chain inventory and constraints,
centric supply chain powered by real-time flagging of important events
concurrent planning can be defined in and changes, and collaboration between
four steps: different functions with aligned goals to
resolve any issue.
1. Implement Kinaxis RapidResponse.
2. Embed continuous learning and
automated decision-making with ML/
AI and other emerging technologies.
He who lives by the
3. Extend the implementation crystal ball will eat
from supply chain problems to
comprehensive business decisions. shattered glass.
4. Put the customer back at the center.
RAY DALIO

Step 1. Implement Kinaxis

RapidResponse Integrated planning and execution
across the end-to-end supply chain,
Normally, it takes time to make an with KPI dashboards covering the
informed decision. But imagine not planning process from demand
needing that time while simultaneously to “available-to-promise” is the
improving the quality of your ultimate assurance a RapidResponse
company's decisions. implementation can provide.

Making the best possible decisions will RapidResponse puts the experts
always require a complete view of your across the organization in full control of

28
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

business goals. This allows them to plan

and leverage the power of the network
Planning is bringing
rather than silo their objectives, providing
them with options and scenarios to
the future into the
address each event across the supply
chain in near real-time.
present, so you can
do something
Step 2. Embed continuous about it now.
learning and automated
decision-making with ML/AI ALAN LAKEIN

In a concurrent planning environment,

advanced analytics and machine learning Step 3. Extend the
give the team the capability to predict implementation from supply
and react to short-term and long-term chain to comprehensive
events, long before a traditional planning business decisions
organization could make a decision.
What happens in your supply chain
Cross-functional scenario preparation, network impacts sales, marketing,
data collection and omnipresent engineering and finance. As a company
meetings typically delay important matures using concurrent planning,
decisions in large corporations. Often, the plans related to the supply chain
events that matter are not even brought become the heart of the operation and
to the attention of the decision-maker in can be directly translated into sales,
time for the solution to be effective. marketing and financial scenarios.
With more predictive and embedded What started as Sales & Operations
self-healing capabilities, advanced Planning (S&OP) will have evolved into
analytics can show decision-makers Integrated Business Planning (IBP).
what is in play, along with the Financial implications, including
consequences and root causes, impact on revenue, cost, market and
long before an event materializes. product priorities affect more than the
In this environment, humans and metrics of the supply chain executives.
machines work hand in hand to Visibility into winning scenarios for
anticipate any event, constantly better service prioritization, inventory
learning from their efforts to hedging, or risks for increased costs
continuously improve and automate and higher inventory build-up to secure
future decision-making. supply must also be brought to the
attention of the entire corporation.

29
Step 4. Put the customer back at
the center We need a
In an era, where customer experience
(CX) dominates all business discussions, new approach
it is of utmost importance to connect the
customer, your customers' customers,
your company, its suppliers and the
to planning, to
suppliers' suppliers across the extended
supply chain network in a collaborative know sooner
model to allow them to read and respond
in near-real time to what is happening in
the market and in your supply chain.
and act faster.
Without this capability, it is hard to
anticipate market changes and supply
chain disruptions early enough to be
ahead of the competition. Without
concurrent planning, companies cannot
be in sync with modern day customer
expectations. This is the promise of
concurrent planning.

Conclusion
RapidResponse allows companies to
evolve towards concurrent planning,
a modern planning technique that
empowers humans to collaborate
across the traditional silos of a
company, bringing the suppliers and
their customers together to make better
decisions by learning from scenarios.

This innovative collaboration model

is enriched by more predictive and
advanced analytics, ML, AI and the
IoT to put the customer at the center
of a company's operations, restoring
the agility needed to cope with a world
faced with continuous new market
realities and technology disruptions.

30
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Network planners
Network planners transcend the
traditional supply chain planning
functions such as demand, supply,
inventory, production and deployment
Transcend the traditional to by allowing a single individual to address
a disruption as quickly as it occurs.

experience far-reaching results In a traditional supply chain model,

latency is inherent to the process, simply
by the fact that planning functions
are siloed by planning area. When a
In today's complex supply chain planning environments, supply chain disruption occurs, it often
requires handling the problem in a serial
speed of execution and incisive decision-making are
or sequential process. With the latest
becoming increasingly important as consumers demand advancements in enabling technologies,
higher service levels and adaptive supply chains. As i.e. advanced planning systems (APS)
and artificial intelligence (AI), companies
such, companies are beginning to rethink the traditional
can leverage the power of advanced
planning paradigm to meet these challenges. In recent analytics and what-if scenario planning
years, the notion of a “network planner” has come to to quickly identify several alternatives;
this is a benefit of concurrent planning.
the forefront as companies adapt to address constantly
shifting priorities and find ways to resolve them profitably. To gain maximum benefit from
concurrent planning, organizations
need to move toward implementing the
network planning model. Similarly, the
network planner cannot be successful
without concurrent planning.

Network planners require a broad

knowledge of several planning
functions, such as consensus demand
planning, aggregate supply planning,
supply demand balancing, distribution
requirements planning and more.
Additionally, a network planner must
have a good grasp of the planning
parameters used to set up the APS and
leverage strong collaborative skills to
resolve issues as they arise. Given this
QUENTIN DOMSCH breadth of planning responsibility, the
Senior Director, scope of parts or products planned will
Barkawi Management Consultants, become very narrow. A demand planner
a Genpact Company may be responsible for generating and

31
Network planners
transcend the traditional
supply chain planning
functions by allowing
a single individual to
address disruption as
quickly as it occurs.
32
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

managing forecasts for hundreds of When an unexpected event occurs,

parts whereas a network planner may such as demand that far exceeds
be responsible for less than a hundred. supply or a raw material quality issue
that impacts production, or a port
In other words, rather than being aligned
strike that constrains inbound delivery,
vertically by planning function, network
having the ability to quickly define,
planners are aligned horizontally by
model, and decide on alternatives is
product line or category. However,
key to success.
achieving the goal of horizontal integration
takes time, and most companies take As these events occur outside
incremental steps to get there. the normal planning process, the
network planner can jump into action
Companies may initially group the
by leveraging the APS to create a
planning functions that make the most
private “sandbox” and begin modeling
logical sense, (e.g. demand and supply
alternatives and utilizing what-if
planning or deployment, warehousing,
scenarios to solve any problem in the
and logistics) but integrating all functions
supply chain.
into one overall planning role requires
intentionality. The goal is not to reduce From customer priority, to finding
overall planning headcount per se as alternate sources of supply, to making
much as it is to build an organization that production line trade-offs, to varying
is agile and responsive. transportation modes and service levels,

33
the network planner will generate several execution period versus the long-term
recommendations to share with the planning horizon. Equal weight must be
broader leadership team before deciding. applied to both so as not to sacrifice
one for the other.
Network planners must not only be
cognizant of how these changes may While the concept of network planning
impact their own products, they must may be newer to the scene, attempting to
also take into consideration and quantify quickly resolve supply disruptions is not.
the impact to other service lines as well, Having a toolset to enable these new,
for example production line scheduling, concurrent planning capabilities is critical
impact to the transportation budget, etc. in achieving the goal of minimizing any
Once these scenarios are created, they negative impact to both customers and
are reviewed by the leadership teams the company. What would typically take
to make the final decision – balancing weeks to quantify and solve for can now
operational metrics, customer needs take days or even hours. Transitioning a
and priority, and minimizing any negative typical supply chain planning organization
financial impact to the bottom line. Once into network planning roles, supported
consensus is achieved, the network by enabling technologies, will help any
planner again jumps into action to company reduce their response time and
execute the agreed plan of resolution. increase their flexibility to meet demand
Often the network planner must balance with supply.
the immediate needs in the near-term

34
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Change management
A successful transformation delivering
excellent business results requires our
complete attention to ensure the new
technique is fully embraced by all involved.
How it streamlines the Concurrent planning impacts your entire
organization, its processes and its ways

introduction and adoption of of working. The task of transforming

old habits is a challenging exercise that
requires specific focus.
concurrent planning
We are what we
At Kinaxis, customers subscribe to our cloud-based repeatedly do.
planning service with the aim of introducing a new
Excellence is then
planning technique into their supply chain operations,
one that enables agility, visibility and flexibility in their not an act but a habit.
supply chain networks. The challenge, as it is when ARISTOTLE
introducing any solution to an enterprise environment,
comes from the amount of change management To successfully deliver RapidResponse
required when adopting a new technique. to our customers and enable concurrent
planning, we adhere to a proven formula,
which we have found very effective. The
process includes:

1. Educating the project team about the

main change management concepts
2. Building a Center of Excellence (COE)
3. Providing the COE with an
education plan
4. Equipping the implementation team
with an integrated change plan
5. Coaching the planning teams and
their executives to success

When combined, these five change

management activities ensure a
ALEXIS ROTENBERG successful implementation. An integrated
VP, Strategic Services, change plan prevents the project team
Kinaxis from considering training, education

35
 CHANGE MANAGEMENT: HOW IT STREAMLINES THE INTRODUCTION AND ADOPTION OF CONCURRENT PLANNING

and change support activities as an create resistance to change. Negative

afterthought. Coaching customers aligns attitudes, perceptions and beliefs are
the vendor with your vision and helps the uncovered and addressed. Political
vendor demonstrate the benefits and the balances, longstanding behaviors and
day-to-day reality of the solution. the nuances of organizational power
must often be considered.

1. Educate your project team The tasks of resourcing, budget, quality

about the main change assurance and project management
typically fall to a project team. But
management concepts
project teams are often not familiar
The introduction of a new concept like enough with the essentials of change
concurrent planning requires winning management and the activities they will
the hearts and minds of everyone, from need to carry out.
top executives to planners. The right
With this in mind, Kinaxis offers
vendor will help you show everyone
training and certification designed to
the benefits and motivate them to
address our technology and present
go the extra mile so they can better
new ways of working, using sound
understand and familiarize themselves
change management practices.
with the new future.
A basic understanding of change
At Kinaxis, we nurture internal management is prerequisite to setting
champions and work with opponents to up a COE and driving effective change
understand the deep motivations that across your organization.

36
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

2. Carefully design a 3. Provide the COE with an

Center of Excellence education plan
The first step in building a COE is to With the COE established, it is vital to
identify a model that will align with your provide each role a customized learning
corporate culture, project's objectives, path in line with learning objectives
available resources and solution and the project timelines. At Kinaxis,
deployment strategy. experts known as Learning Architects
can help and advise our customers on
Clarifying team roles and responsibilities
the best way to familiarize themselves
is critical to the COE's success.
with the new solution and the
Therefore, it's important to consider
associated processes.
different approaches and concepts
to set up and organize a COE. Learning Architects leverage the
Typically organized atop the Program Kinaxis Knowledge Network, Kinaxis
Management Office (PMO), the COE's Learning Center and Certification
IT roles must identify the first line of program to personalize the education
support. These are the individuals who of each stakeholder and to streamline
are tasked to provide user access and the setup and configuration of user
perform upgrades. learning paths and track compliance
with the agreed tracks.
On the business side, three roles are
absolutely essential:

• Ambassadors who are influential 4. Equip the project team with an

leaders and process owners integrated change plan
facilitating the adoption of your new Change management goes beyond
solution and ways of working. education. In addition to online and
• Change Agents who drive classroom training, Kinaxis recommends
business transformation through structured change support,
communication, collect concerns and communication and applied learning
feedback, and manage the change tailored to the needs and budgets of
plan activities. each customer.
• Super Users who are the future Change management support can
solution experts who possess include roadshows to educate the
significant knowledge of wider corporation about the ongoing
RapidResponse and its processes project. Other assets such as videos
and can help others use and adopt and project marketing campaigns can
the technology. be leveraged to inform the company
about the coming change. A mix of
structured feedback surveys and

37
 CHANGE MANAGEMENT: HOW IT STREAMLINES THE INTRODUCTION AND ADOPTION OF CONCURRENT PLANNING

impact assessments can help gauge design of the change management plan
the responsiveness of the user that will mitigate resistance to change
community and allow for adjustments and help overcome any barriers to
in the implementation process to solution acceptance that arise during
satisfy concerns. the course of the project.

Meanwhile, business simulations and

ongoing customer care helps supply Conclusion
chain planners become familiar with
Taking a systematic approach to
their future working environment.
ensure acceptance of an enterprise
Running activities such as “day-in-the-
solution such as concurrent planning
life” workflows with the support of a
from Kinaxis is one thing. Ensuring the
specialized coach in parallel with the
project team embraces the change
old supply chain planning system eases
management concepts to drive
transition, giving planners a solid footing
organizational change is quite another.
before the new system is introduced.
Only when the two work together will
Finally, custom training lab success be realized.
environments give vendors the
Kinaxis training and certification helps
opportunity to provide planners with
activate new ways of working, detailing
deep dives into specific areas such as
how roles within the customer's COE
analytics and custom workflows.
support new product and process
introduction. Supported by the Kinaxis
learning platform, the COE works
If it doesn't to ensure user adoption through

challenge you, accountability and continues to expand

planners' capabilities and improve the

it won't change you. way they work over time, long after initial
implementation is complete.

FRED DEVITO

5. Coach the planning team and

its executives to success
Once an integrated change management
plan becomes available, educational
experts and executive advisors can be
engaged to support the organization
through the transition.

Coaching under these circumstances

takes many forms, but it is mindful

38
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

How supply
It is time to forget everything you
know about supply chain planning. The
hierarchical roles, the linear processes,

chain planning
the ageing frameworks. We have been
living in a 1980's APS software paradigm
time warp, and it's time to let it go.

is coming of age It's true that digitization has brought

some (much needed) disruption to the
supply chain recently, and it's also fair

A new look, to say that value chain collaboration,

combined with a greater need for
real-time decision-making, has woken
autonomous meritocracy is leaders up to the prospects of what
lies ahead. A new era of supply chain

the key to success planning is waiting in the wings – one

driven by concurrent planning. This
modern approach, enabled by the latest
emerging technologies, requires a
whole new path from the supply chain
workforce and gives us concurrency,
transparency and agility.

Skilled people working

independently but also aligned
Concurrent planning enables your
talent to focus on their tasks but with
one single view of the supply chain
in mind. Coordination, collaboration
and synchronization become easy.
Simultaneous and seamless planning
of multiple scenarios across various
time horizons delivers what's needed
at precisely the right moment. The
technology is here to enable this – but
the other essential ingredient its success
lives or dies by is the people.

As organizations move toward this new

DAVE ALBERTS way of planning, supply chain analysts,
Partner, planners and forecasters will see their
Crimson & Co job titles and functions change. Planners

39
 HOW SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING IS COMING OF AGE: A NEW LOOK, AUTONOMOUS MERITOCRACY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

will be selected by skill and merit rather Functional organizational structures,

than function. The overall goal is to which bring with them conflicting KPIs,
build a team of highly skilled network contradictory views on the supply chain
planners who operate with new degrees trade-offs, and behaviors reinforced by
of freedom and speed supported by individually-based reward mechanisms
concurrent planning and the latest and objectives, are also ingrained and
emerging technology and information. embedded, and reflect the old school
Exciting times. So, what are the barriers thinking. It's time we started with a blank
preventing firms from starting? sheet of paper on this. The way in which
we interact, share and solve problems
has changed radically across that time
New processes and setup period. Our measures need to reflect this.
We are back to the time warp again.
Traditionally, supply chains have tracked
Blank sheet of paper for job titles
performance against measures that are
functionally aligned, look backwards not It is also crucial that we re-examine
forwards, and don't take into account how we look at people's job titles and
important strategic (but non-financial) descriptions in the new regime. It's not
success factors, such as customer that our supply chains are made up of
service and loyalty. They don't link end- people who are not doing their jobs
to-end thinking or measure speed or well and as defined. The problem is the
agility in decision-making. In other words, definition of what these roles should do.
they are 50 years out of date. Also, for
It's not necessarily about changing
the new generation of network planners,
where people sit functionally in the
these measures just aren't fit for purpose.

40
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

new era – although maybe that needs A new revolution

to change too – it's more about how in supply chain planning
people behave regardless. It's about the
understanding, desire and willingness of Where do you start? Well, this needs to
what needs to change and building that be driven from the top down because big
desire into your skillset, and then doing changes are needed. But the reasons
your job as part of the new meritocracy. are sound. A common mistake when
driving big change this way is to get
The new network planners that make hung up on business cases and return
up this meritocracy are going to be on investment (ROI) when justifying
masters of the what-if scenarios. something new. That is missing the point.
They respond quickly to unexpected It's in the speed of response, productivity
problems and thrive on increasing levels and quality of decision-making where
of ambiguity. They'll drive non-linear most of the benefits of concurrent
processes, break out of the traditional planning lie, and these things cannot be
forecast demand, determine required measured via a simple ROI calculation
inventories, optimize capacities, and because their benefits and the effect
plan step-by-step demand and supply they have on the transformation of the
approaches. These network planners supply chain and how things are planned
will be financially numerate and actively are not just financial. Nor do they come
monitor current and projected business to bear fruit over a specific period of
results. They'll need a blank sheet of time. So, it's complex to measure this
paper organizationally, but there are way. But a new regime calls for some
many compelling reasons for doing so. new rules. The future state of your
supply chain planning is your ROI!

41
 HOW SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING IS COMING OF AGE: A NEW LOOK, AUTONOMOUS MERITOCRACY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Concurrent planning in action

9:00am Bob (Commercial SVP), embarking on a flight, reviews live key metrics
and spots a gap between a future annual plan and planned demand for a
product category.

9:01am Using the Collaboration Center, Bob asks Yvonne (supply chain
orchestrator) to try and fix the gap issue.

9:04am Yvonne spots a message on her digital dashboard.

9:06am Yvonne identifies a new product being launched with no forecast, so she
creates one using history from a similar product.

9:10am In closing the gap by adding volume for new product, demand at risk is created.

9:11am Yvonne identifies where the demand at risk is coming from and who is
responsible for it. She identifies a capacity issue and creates an additional
scenario to test a fix.

9:15am Yvonne runs an evaluation scorecard to understand the financial

implications of the activity created at a company metric level.

9:16am Mo (manufacturing line leader) approves the revised capacity scenario.

9:20am Yvonne feeds back the latest activities to the Collaboration Center using
the dashboard.

9:22am New, late supply issues are identified.

9:26am Camille (Procurement), using dashboard alerts, quickly identifies that there
was a missing purchase order (PO).

9:29am Camille immediately understands the impact of the missing PO (across the
BOM) and runs a test scenario to bring the component in by air freight.

9:31am This has associated cost implications, so Camille alerts Yvonne and an
evaluation scorecard is run to understand the financial impact of that decision.

9:34am The decision is made to execute the above plan approved by Bob before
the flight departs.

9:35am All issues resolved – the gap is closed!

9:36am Yvonne, Mo, Bob and Camille then pause for a virtual high five!

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Applying artificial
Let's start with a simple definition from
the Institute for Operations Research
and Management Sciences: analytics is

intelligence and
the scientific process of transforming
data into insights for the purpose of
making better decisions. Big, buzzy

machine learning
words can sound impressive, but better
decisions are a clear goal that add
business value.

to supply chains According to a Deloitte survey, only 37

percent of companies rate themselves
as analytically mature. Most have
started only with descriptive analytics,
such as a report that states “27
First analytics, then big data, data science, and
percent of your orders are late”. But as
now artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning longtime analytics leader and former
(ML). How can you separate the signal from the UPS executive Jack Levis likes to say,
“Insight that doesn't lead to a better
noise in the hunt for competitive advantage, when
decision is trivia.” The analytically-
the landscape constantly shifts? What do all these mature organizations in the Deloitte
terms mean, and why should you care? survey were twice as likely as the 63
percent without a strong analytics
culture to significantly exceed their
business goals, a great proof of the
power of better decisions.

For any company, customer service

POLLY MITCHELL-GUTHRIE is at the core of better business
VP, Industry Outreach performance. Serving the customer
and Thought Leadership, better means making reliable promises
Kinaxis on customer orders, and keeping
those promises. And, for analytics to
ANNE G. ROBINSON make a non-trivial impact, we need to
Chief Strategy Officer, know why orders are late and what
Kinaxis to do about it. These kinds of insights

43
happen by moving up the analytics decisions with machine learning. The
maturity curve to deploy predictive planner can focus on those decisions
and prescriptive analytics. As Wake that matter the most and let the math
Forest University professor Jeff automatically handle those that are
Camm writes, predictive analytics can more trivial, thus saving her time and
help us understand what is likely to shortening the gap between planning
happen (through a statistical forecast and execution. The math doesn't replace
or predictive model from regression a human – it works alongside her.
or machine learning techniques).
Deloitte has proclaimed this to be the
Prescriptive analytics go a step further
era of “cognitive planning,” one that is
and advise a course of action, typically
enabled by computing advances, the
using mathematical optimization,
maturation of ML and data available
heuristics, or other rule-based systems.
in connecting systems. They envision
The demand for the skills needed to “synchronized planning” – a world
increase analytical maturity is at an in which data can constantly flow
all-time high, so given the challenge throughout the interconnected digital
attracting this kind of talent, at Kinaxis supply network, allowing organizations
we have embedded predictive and to far more accurately match production
prescriptive models into our software, so of supply to demand than ever before. At
that “pure” data scientists with PhD-level Kinaxis, we call this concurrent planning,
credentials are not required. to illustrate the importance of being able
to plan, monitor, and respond to changes
In our Self-Healing Supply Chain, we
in real-time across the supply chain in a
use an approach called AutoML, a
single, harmonious environment.
form of modeling automation that
doesn't require a planner to understand I can provide a laundry list of boosting
the math under the covers, because meta-algorithms, dimensionality
the machine learning that drives this reduction and vector quantization
automated modeling is invisible to her. techniques we use, or we can just call
She just needs to know her business it advanced analytics. Either way, with
and understand factors like what advanced analytics built on a foundation
variations in lead times she can tolerate. of concurrent planning, your business
Based on tolerance factors she sets, will have better decisions, faster, a signal
we configure processing rules for what that stands out above the noise.
actions to take, so we can improve her

44
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Conclusion
Case in point
For today's global supply chains, even
small changes – not just big events – have

Making the case to rethink big reverberations. A shift in one part

of the supply chain ripples across the

your supply chain planning

other functions in an instant, upending
schedules, transforming plans, challenging
planners and risking bottom lines. And
that's just normal daily operations. When
larger unexpected events occur, the
If you've read all or even some of the articles potential damage to supply chains is
in this book, the need for a new approach to tremendous. It's a style of working that
seems to mock the adage, “business as
planning is clear: concurrent planning. usual.” But a disruption in the supply chain
doesn't have to result in total chaos.

For many companies, the concept of

concurrency is replacing the “usual”
routine. Concurrent planning enables
a faster pace of planning to meet
daily disruptions while being flexible
enough to encounter the unanticipated
challenges of tomorrow.

It's expanding global operations

while adding greater-than-ever
visibility
Building global supply chains used to
come at the expense of transparency and
control. Not anymore. With concurrent
planning, companies are connecting
their people, processes and data to
improve visibility and enhance decision-
making. Concurrent planning eliminates
functional silos to increase collaboration
and eliminate the “I didn't know” excuse.
Planners are able to see across teams
and planning timelines, uniting daily
execution with long-term strategic plans
to reduce waste and risk. All of these
factors combined creates a faster, more

45
 CONCLUSION

responsive system despite crossing In a volatile world, concurrent

continents and time zones. planning is the new norm
Yesterday's planning tools and techniques
It's improving accuracy are no match for today's complex global
without chasing perfection supply chains and the volatility they face
every day. With the pressure to meet
With greater visibility, companies are
customers' rising expectations amidst
able to make decisions in time to make a
day-to-day supply chain disruptions,
difference. This increases the robustness
changing market conditions, extreme
of planners' analysis and forecasts.
weather events and more, companies
It also frees them from the pressure
still using legacy planning systems
of creating the singular, flawless plan.
and sequential processes will be hard
Instead of predicting every possible risk
pressed to keep up with demand. For
months in advance, supply chain planners
these companies, it's time to rethink
can make near-instant adjustments as
planning and turn to the only possible
problems arise. This agility empowers
option – concurrent planning.
planners to make more accurate and
more confident decisions.
Meet the only vendor offering
It's reaching superhuman speeds concurrent planning: Kinaxis
while putting people first Trusted by top brands across multiple
industries, Kinaxis gives people the
With concurrent planning, planners'
confidence to know they are making
quick-thinking is re-prioritized – enabling
the best supply chain planning decisions
them to know sooner and act faster
to maximize business performance. We
when disruption hits. Artificial intelligence
solve complex business problems in
and machine learning built directly into a
easy-to-understand ways by combining
concurrent planning platform automate
human and machine intelligence to
repetitive, daily tasks so planners can
plan for any future, monitor risks and
respond to the issues of greatest
opportunities and respond at the pace
importance and urgency.
of change. With the support of our
Freed from mundane work, these community of supply chain experts and
planners are able to take on new using our unique concurrent planning
responsibilities. Some become more technique and single integrated planning
proactive within their functions, platform, customers can realize higher
identifying strategic opportunities to revenue, lower costs and fewer risks.
advance the business. Others take
on new roles, like that of the network
planner, working horizontally across
functions to coordinate the right
response to unexpected challenges.

46
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

Authors
JOHN SICARD
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Kinaxis

John Sicard assumed the role of President and Chief Executive

Officer of Kinaxis in January 2016. Since starting at Kinaxis
in 1994, John has held several senior management roles in
development, professional services, business consulting, sales,
marketing and customer support.

ROBERT KUGEL
SVP and Research Director,
Ventana Research

Robert Kugel is responsible for the Office of Finance and

business research, focusing on the intersection of information
technology with the finance organization and business. His
research agenda includes the application of IT to finance and
business process optimization.

HARISH IYER
VP, Industry and Solutions,
Kinaxis

As Vice President of Industry and Solutions at Kinaxis,

Harish Iyer is responsible for defining, launching and
evangelizing the company's solutions to target industries and
geographies worldwide.

ALEXA CHEATER
Manager, Industry and Solutions,
Kinaxis

As Manager of Industry and Solutions at Kinaxis, Alexa Cheater

is responsible for driving compelling corporate and product
messaging, and promoting the company's latest and greatest
features and functionality to audiences across the globe.

47
 AUTHORS

KRISTEN LEBARON
Director of Supply Chain,
Lippert Components, Inc.

Kristen LeBaron is a Supply Chain Director at Lippert

Components with more than 12 years of experience in supply
chain. Kristen is responsible for providing best-class supply
chain practices in areas of demand planning; statistical
forecasting; inventory optimization; replenishment planning;
and sales, inventory & operations planning.

JAY MUELHOEFER
Chief Marketing Officer,
Kinaxis

As Chief Marketing Officer at Kinaxis, Jay leads global

go‑to‑market strategies to elevate awareness of the
company’s breakthrough supply chain vision and drive
innovation across strategy, brand, product, demand generation,
and global execution.

JUSTIN KING
Technical Business Consultant,
Kinaxis

As a technology evangelist, Justin is an integral part of the

Kinaxis Sales Team working with prospective customers to
understand the Kinaxis industry-leading technical platform.
Justin has spent his entire career in supply chain technology,
including both retail and manufacturing verticals.

ALEXIS ROTENBERG
VP, Strategic Services,
Kinaxis

As Vice President of Strategic Services at Kinaxis, Alexis

Rotenberg leads a business consultant and change expert
team, supporting Kinaxis customers with their digital
transformations.

48
THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING: THE CASE FOR CONCURRENCY

MATTHEW MONTGOMERY
Managing Partner, Professional Services,
Kinaxis

Matthew Montgomery leads global agile business

transformation programs, software sales and professional
services to strengthen operations, optimize processes, lead
teams and deploy innovative solutions that move business.

QUENTIN DOMSCH
Senior Director,
Barkawi Management Consultants,
a Genpact Company

Since joining Barkawi in 2016, Quentin Domsch has utilized

his expert industry knowledge to fill roles as both business
architect and delivery manager for complex, multimillion-dollar
supply chain projects.

DAVE ALBERTS
Partner,
Crimson & Co

Dave Alberts has spent years in supply chain, specifically

focusing on designing, managing and delivering supply chain
planning systems and S&OP implementations in aerospace,
construction, FMCG, food and drink, and life sciences.

49
POLLY MITCHELL-GUTHRIE
VP, Industry Outreach
and Thought Leadership,
Kinaxis

Polly Mitchell-Guthrie is growing Kinaxis' ecosystem of

influence through thought leadership, industry outreach and
university relations. Polly's past roles in advanced analytics and
interest in innovation led her to Kinaxis, because of its vision for
how analytics and machine learning can transform supply chain.

ANNE G. ROBINSON
Chief Strategy Officer,
Kinaxis

As Chief Strategy Officer, Anne Robinson is responsible for

accelerating Kinaxis strategy development to add further
value to customers. Prior to joining Kinaxis, Anne was
Executive Director, Global Supply Chain Strategy, Analytics
and Systems at Verizon.

50
 Kinaxis World Headquarters tel: +1 613.592.5780
700 Silver Seven Road toll free: +1 877.546.2947
Ottawa, Ontario K2V 1C3 support: +1 866.463.7877
www.kinaxis.com Canada email: [email protected]