Melinda McLaughlin

Special Guest Blog Post written by Philip Vervloesem   If your supply chain planning still runs on a monthly cycle, 2026 will be uncomfortable. We are operating in a polycrisis where change is constant, and responses need to be fast enough to keep up. From customer conversations, industry research, and leadership discussions at the Gartner supply chain conferences, a clear pattern has emerged: the organizations pulling ahead are not planning more often. They are embedding agility, intelligence, and speed into the way they make decisions. Here are five predictions shaping supply chain excellence in 2026 – our “bingo card” for what’s now table stakes.   1. Continuous, always-on planning is a must Monthly or quarterly cycles are no longer enough. The organizations that outperform treat planning as a continuous capability embedded in daily operations, and make it part of their governance and operational excellence. Imagine this: a sudden surge in demand hits or a supplier flags a delay. Instead of waiting for the next planning cycle, teams immediately evaluate options, share insights across functions, and adjust course. Planning stops being a calendar exercise and starts shaping real-time decisions.   “By shifting from process-centric to decision-centric planning, we now run hundreds…

written by Chris Cunnane with InterSystems   Supply chain leaders are under constant pressure to move faster, reduce costs, improve resilience, and respond to disruptions in real time. Yet despite billions invested in technology, many organizations still struggle with stockouts, delayed shipments, excess inventory, and unreliable forecasts. The problem may not be the supply chain itself. It may be the data behind it. Most organizations today operate with more supply chain data than ever before. ERP systems, warehouse management platforms, transportation tools, supplier portals, IoT devices, and analytics dashboards generate a nonstop flow of information. On paper, this should create unprecedented visibility. But visibility is not the same as confidence. When inventory data is delayed, supplier updates are inconsistent, and demand signals are fragmented across systems, organizations are forced to make critical decisions using incomplete or unreliable information. The result is a distorted picture of reality, and costly mistakes follow. Companies expedite shipments they didn’t need. They over-order inventory “just in case.” They miss shortages that were hiding in plain sight. And they spend valuable time reconciling conflicting reports instead of solving problems.   The Real Problem: Fragmented Data The challenge isn’t a lack of data. It’s that the data…