Kevin Coy

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Caglar Ozdag, a supply chain leader at ZS. Known for its deep analytics and technology expertise across industries such as life sciences, airlines, consumer goods, and agriculture, ZS has become a trusted partner for organizations looking to elevate their planning and manufacturing performance. Ozdag leads the firm’s supply chain practice with a focus on planning from detailed forecasting through detailed scheduling. As a former practitioner himself—having led planning operations at large global enterprises—he brings a grounded, real-world perspective to the challenges facing today’s supply chain leaders.   Old Problems Persist—and New Ones Are Emerging When asked about classic and emerging challenges in planning, Ozdag didn’t hesitate: firefighting isn’t going away. From supply planning disruptions to last-minute schedule changes, firefighting remains a daily reality. “Life happens,” Ozdag noted. Plans rarely match reality, and organizations must constantly adjust. But today, a new layer has been added: AI uncertainty. Everywhere he goes, leaders are asking the same questions: “Is AI the right investment?” “Will the ROI materialize?” “Are we adopting the right tools, or just chasing hype?” This blend of enduring complexity and emerging skepticism has become a defining…

Another great week here at Supply Chain Now! Have you listened to all the episodes? If not, no worries! Check them all out here: We added a special Saturday episode on May 9th and featured another speaker from the 2020 AIAG CR Summit, Eric Kane with Bloomberg, and his insights from the conference.   On Monday, we continued our Supply Chain Super Trends series with Sarah Barnes-Humphrey with Let’s Talk Supply Chain. Supply Chain Super Trend #3 focused on a holistic approach to supply chain TALENT.     Mike Griswold with Gartner joined us for another excellent livestream last week, and we published it as a podcast episode on Tuesday. He shared his latest observations on how COVID-19 is impacting global supply chains. A MUST-listen!     We continued our interviews with the speakers from the AIAG CR Summit on Wednesday, with great insights from Dr. Assheton Carter with TDI Sustainability.     Thursday we published our popular Supply Chain Buzz, with Scott and Greg sharing and discussing the latest news and events in Supply Chain and beyond.     And on Friday, we wrapped up the interviews with the extrordinary speakers from the AIAG CR Summit, with Brian Rich…