Megan Preston Meyer

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…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Karin Bursa, Supply Chain Industry Advisor and Supply Chain Now Host   Here is a diagnostic question I use with supply chain leaders: when disruption hits, do your teams spend most of their time debating the data, debating the scenarios, debating the plan, or debating the decision? Or all of the above? Seriously though, in 2026, that distinction matters. Network shifts driven by tariffs, geopolitics, cost pressure, and sustainability are accelerating. Gartner’s 2025 U.S. Trade and Immigration Policy Survey indicate 77% of respondents selected network changes among their top actions in response to tariff impacts. [2] If the physical network is moving, the digital planning platform must move even faster. The environment is forcing decisions to be made faster, more frequently, and with more variables than ever before. Gartner says supply chain decisions are becoming 71% more complex, happening 52% more frequently, and need to be made 57% faster. That triple constraint cannot be accomplished with cadence-based batch planning cycles as a default operating model. This is why I am focused on a single, practical outcome for supply chain teams: accelerating decision velocity. The ability to move from data to insights to actions faster…