Norman Bodek

In today’s increasingly complex global supply chain landscape, Tom Moore keeps his message refreshingly straightforward: ProvisionAI helps large companies discover hidden costs and eliminate them. Organizations such as Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, and Unilever have leveraged the company’s technology to uncover and eliminate inefficiencies—particularly in transportation and warehousing—that traditional systems fail to detect. The outcome is significant and often delivers immediate savings. But Moore believes many of these problems stem from misunderstandings about the very technologies companies rely on.   Misnamed Systems & Misaligned Expectations Before the interview officially began, Moore reflected on the surprisingly inaccurate names assigned to modern supply chain technologies. ERP systems rarely plan resources across the enterprise, despite what their name suggests. Warehouse Management Systems, while certainly used in warehouses, don’t actually “manage” much at all. People behind keyboards still make most of the critical decisions. This disconnect in terminology shapes faulty expectations. Many organizations believe their planning systems will truly plan the supply chain, yet most tools merely react to demand signals. If ABC Company orders ten cases, the system automatically replenishes—without considering warehouse capacity, transportation availability, downstream implications, or cost-to-serve. Moore characterizes this as both an old problem and a new one, and it…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Bernadine Henderson Ms. Henderson, senior director of procurement at Protolabs, lifts the lid on buying in manufacturing and why relationships are central to it.   Simply put, the job of a buyer is really about buying the right thing at the right time for the right price. It sounds simple, but it really is very complicated because everything that’s going on in the world impacts the timing, the availability, and the price of the product. This means that buying has recently got a lot more complicated. World events have very real consequences on global supply chains. Just one example is the way in which buyers have responded to tariffs in the U.S. by re-routing sourcing locations. It takes a certain amount of agility to be a buyer in 2025, and this quick responsiveness is helped along by one key ingredient, and that is strong relationships with suppliers. Relationships Built on Trust A widely held misconception is that buyers are only interested in getting to the lowest price possible. In fact, the most important thing to a buyer is for suppliers to bring solutions that deliver overall value. In my experience, a really strong supplier…