Neeraj Shah

It might have been a short week for some, but at Supply Chain Now, it was chock-full of great interviews, conversations, livestreams, and episodes!   For a bonus episode on Saturday, Scott and Greg welcomed Tyson Steffens with Pallet Alliance and Jom Fechner with USG to the podcast to talk about building a national procurement program and optimizing your spend.   Supply Chain Now · “How and Why to Build a National Procurement Program to Optimize Your Spend”   On Monday, Scott dug back into the archives for This Week in Business History, and gave us all the story behind Labor Day.   Supply Chain Now · “This Week in Biz History for September 7th: The Story Behind Labor Day”   On Tuesday, Jamin Alvidrez joined Scott as co-host, and welcomed a couple of amazing people in logistics and transportation, Trey Griggs with Lean Sales and Nicole Glenn with Candor Expedite.   Supply Chain Now · “The Amazing People of Logistics & Transportation: Featuring Nicole Glenn & Trey Griggs”   Tim Judge with Agillitics and Nate Endicott with RateLinx joined Scott and Greg on Wednesday for a great conversation on agile decision making in supply chain.   Supply Chain Now…

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…