Doug Lambert

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Fred Baumann, Senior Industry Principal at Kinaxis, one of the world’s most recognized leaders in supply chain planning and orchestration. Kinaxis has spent over four decades shaping the planning landscape and has been named to the Gartner Leaders Quadrant an extraordinary 11 consecutive times—a testament to its execution strength and long-term vision. Baumann’s role at Kinaxis centers on helping chief supply chain officers and senior leaders shape their strategic transformation roadmaps, quantify value, and build the business cases necessary to achieve breakthrough outcomes.   From Episodic Disruptions to Continuous Turbulence When asked about old and new challenges facing supply chain planning teams, Baumann observed a major shift: disruption is no longer episodic—it’s continuous. Historically, companies faced major disruptions every few years. Today, volatility and constraint-related challenges—whether driven by tariffs, sourcing changes, geopolitical shifts, or supply shortages—are unfolding weekly or even daily. This environment demands a new way of working. The speed of global business is accelerating, and uncertainty is at historic highs. As Baumann noted, organizations must now adjust their supply chains “much faster than they had to even last year.” The shift isn’t only…

It’s an exciting, transformative period for the global supply chain. After several years of disruptions from the pandemic, high-stakes labor challenges, and unstable global trade, supply chain innovators are looking to future-focused solutions that can help logistics professionals not just survive, but thrive in this complex environment. In this article, we explore nine FreightTech solutions (in no particular order) that are making a significant impact in 2024. 1. Axle: Streamlining Back-Office Operations with AI Axle Technologies is modernizing the logistics industry by leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline time-consuming back-office operations. Their universal data platform simplifies access to logistics data, enabling companies to optimize deliveries, reduce fuel costs, and enhance the sustainability and profitability of trucking. Axle embraces diversity, collaboration, and the 80-20 rule, understanding that customer feedback is essential for innovation. By wrangling diverse data sources into a universal schema, Axle is building the transportation infrastructure of tomorrow, making the industry more efficient and resilient. 2. EAIGLE: Enhancing Visibility with AI EAIGLE uses AI to provide unprecedented visibility into operations at gates and yards. Their end-to-end AI platform works with existing or third-party hardware, including optical and infrared cameras and radar sensors. This hardware-agnostic approach ensures superior accuracy, eliminating false…