Gail Rutkowski

It’s been an exciting week here at Supply Chain Now! Get ready to hear all the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from this week right here. On Monday, we released 3 new episodes! In this episode of Supply Chain Now, we introduced the relaunch of our Supply Chain Real Estate series, in partnership with Prologis. Special host Ward Richmond of Colliers International joined our Supply Chain Now host Scott Luton to welcome Melinda McLaughlin and Megan Creecy-Herman of Prologis to the show. On This Week in Business History, Scott Luton shares 9 Things you Didn’t Know About Tina Fey. On Supply Chain Now en Espanol, host Enrique Alvarez welcomed José Luis Silva Vázquez with Dux Capital to hear stories from his childhood and how self-motivation and taking risks have gotten him where he is today. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of TEKTOK, Kelly Barner and Enrique Alvarez joined Karin Bursa and Scott Luton to discuss how the industry has bounced back since the pandemic began and how far we’ve come on a few important themes around digital supply chain and procurement. On TECHquila Sunrise, host Greg White continued his conversation with stealthy startup co-founder…

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton caught up with Rob Haddock, a seasoned supply chain practitioner and advisor with Demand Chain AI, to discuss the persistent planning challenges organizations face—and why maturity, discipline, and optimization still matter more than buzzwords. Demand Chain AI blends consulting services with advanced supply chain technologies, focusing on optimization across trade promotion management, demand sensing, supply planning, and detailed production scheduling. Haddock’s role centers on helping organizations strengthen business processes—particularly sales and operations planning (S&OP), performance reporting, and the practical application of technology to improve execution on both the demand and supply sides.   A Practitioner’s Perspective on Planning Gaps Haddock’s perspective is shaped by decades spent inside large, sophisticated supply chain organizations. Early in his career, he worked within an iconic, global beverage company where advanced planning environments were already in place—though, in hindsight, he admits those tools were sometimes underutilized. Today, Haddock spends much of his time working with small and mid-sized organizations that haven’t been as fortunate. In many of these environments, planning maturity is still low, foundational practices are missing, and—unsurprisingly—Excel remains the primary planning tool. “Basic business practices that have been around since the 1990s…