I’ ve been working with Supply Chain solutions since the early 2000s. It was a time that we did not many tool options but in general, the ones available, were very good.
The challenge at that time was more around user interface, integration with legacy systems, customization options, etc. (by the way, some of these problems are still present today in some cases) One of the most difficult topics to deal with at that time was related to how setup your supply chain model, network, business rules and whether to use optimization or not in order to achieve best results.
At that time, I was mostly working as a consultant and had several clients in many different industries dealing with the same questions and trying to come up with a solution that was simple enough to maintain and still generating relevant data to support their decision-making process.
When looking to optimization methods, comparing many different parameters and variables to support business scenarios, it is never easy to find the right balance of complexity vs. expected results. Usually in order to get more relevant results, the number of parameters will grow and that impacts directly in the execution time.
Time has passed and many new solutions are now available, especially with this new generation of Cloud Supply Chain tools. Hardware is no longer a bottle neck since most clients are leveraging service providers to handle any demands in this space and scaling up your platform is a much easier and less costly process.
‘The ability to compare scenarios and/or use more data points (as financial figures as an example), have opened a new level of interaction where the users can directly influence on how to react to a new event”