Leah Knight

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…

Most organizations talk about visibility—but few truly achieve it. Are you one of them? In today’s fast-paced, disruption-prone environment, having real-time visibility across your supply chain isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Yet, fewer than 10% of companies surveyed can say they have end-to-end insight into their supply chain operations. So what’s standing in the way? And more importantly—how do you overcome it? “Understanding the Foundation of Visibility” is the first whitepaper in a powerful new series by NCS Partners, designed to help supply chain leaders break down silos, align teams, and turn fragmented data into actionable insight. Download this white paper to learn how to: Identify the five most impactful focus areas for building end-to-end visibility Align leadership and secure cross-functional buy-in to drive transformation Build a clear vision and roadmap to avoid common visibility pitfalls Integrate distributed data sources to enable real-time, actionable insight Promote continuous improvement and communication across teams   Whether you’re just beginning your visbility journey or ready to refine your approach, this foundational guide offers expert-backed strategies used by top-performing organizations.   Download the “Understanding the Foundation of Visbility” white paper here to learn more