Caleb Nelson

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with two leaders from Manhattan Associates—Brett Lindner, Director of Product for Supply Chain Planning, and Ryan Gifford—Senior Director of Strategic Business Development. Together, the conversations painted a clear picture of one of the most persistent challenges in supply chain—and one of the biggest opportunities ahead: unifying planning and execution to drive agility, visibility, and better outcomes.   A Unified View of the Supply Chain Manhattan Associates is widely known for its strength in supply chain execution, spanning warehouse management, transportation management, labor management, and order management. As both Lindner and Gifford emphasized, what differentiates Manhattan today is its unified platform that brings execution and planning together—not as loosely connected systems, but as a single, cohesive foundation. Lindner explained that Manhattan helps companies model and design their future supply chains, enabling better planning decisions that directly inform execution. Gifford echoed that point, describing Manhattan’s approach as “two formerly siloed applications now dancing in unison”—all driven by a shared inventory and decision framework.   The Old Problem That Won’t Go Away: Silos When asked about old and new challenges in supply chain planning, both leaders pointed to the same…

Supply chains are more volatile and interconnected than ever, but many planning processes still rely on disconnected systems, manual analysis, and spreadsheet-based interventions. This white paper explores how network optimization, supported by advances in optimization technology, workflow design, cloud computing, and AI, can help planning teams evaluate cross-functional trade-offs, respond faster to change, and move from static plans to continuous, decision-driven supply chain planning. Inside the White Paper: – Why traditional planning systems and network optimization evolved separately, and why that separation limits decision quality in today’s supply chains. – How network optimization helps evaluate cross-functional trade-offs across sourcing, production, inventory, transportation, fulfillment, service, cost, and capacity. – Why continuous network optimization is different from one-time strategic modeling, and how it can support recurring tactical and operational planning decisions. – How AI and configurable workflows can make optimization more usable for planners without requiring them to become modeling experts. – How planning systems and network optimization can work together in a feedback loop that improves decisions over time. Click here to download