Thobekile Nxumalo

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton met with John Lash, who leads strategy and vision at e2open, a WiseTech Global Group company. E2open is a global platform powering the entire lifecycle of making, moving, and selling goods, with capabilities spanning planning, logistics, global trade, supply management, and procurement. The platform is designed not just for enterprise visibility but for true end-to-end coordination across extended supply chain ecosystems. Lash emphasized that disruptions rarely originate within a company’s four walls. “Your sub-tiers are where most of the risk lives,” he explained. “That’s where your day-to-day operations—and your long-term strategy—are truly shaped.” It’s a lesson sharply reinforced during the pandemic, which reminded leaders worldwide that no one does supply chain alone.   Old Challenges Intensified by New Realities When Luton asked about the biggest challenges facing planning teams today, Lash pointed immediately to constraints—supply constraints, manufacturing constraints, and now, the added layer of global trade volatility. Trade policies that once shifted every few years now change weekly, daily, or even hourly. Lash offered a striking example: Brazilian coffee duties jumped from 10% to 50% this summer—before returning to 0%. “How do you plan through that?” he asked.…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! We started this week off with a very special episode of Supply Chain Now. Host Scott Luton and special co-host Allison Giddens get to converse with a pair of very powerful women in the manufacturing business. Scott and Allison talk with Stacey Schroeder the President and Founder of EVelop; and the Value Improvement Project Engineer at Polaris Industries, Coral Huffmaster. Together they discuss the Key Takeaways from the 2021 Women in Manufacturing Summit. For Monday’s This Week In Business History episode, Kelly Barner explores a car invention that was created over 120 years ago. On Tuesday, we released a new episode of Supply Chain Now with Scott Luton and Greg White. This episode features two of Manhattan Associates’ reputable representatives. Rob Schaefer the Vice President of Transportation Management Sales and Gregg Lanyard the Director of Product Management for Manhattan Associates. During this episode, they all offer their perspectives on the supply chain outlook for 2022. On Wednesday we released an episode of Logistics With Purpose with host Enrique Alvarez and Kristi Porter. This episode features Michael Broidy the Senior…