Steve Stirling

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…

It’s been an exciting week here at Supply Chain Now! Get ready to hear all the latest episodes, interviews, conversations, and livestreams from this week right here. On Monday, we released 3 new episodes! In this episode of Supply Chain Now, we introduced the relaunch of our Supply Chain Real Estate series, in partnership with Prologis. Special host Ward Richmond of Colliers International joined our Supply Chain Now host Scott Luton to welcome Melinda McLaughlin and Megan Creecy-Herman of Prologis to the show. On This Week in Business History, Scott Luton shares 9 Things you Didn’t Know About Tina Fey. On Supply Chain Now en Espanol, host Enrique Alvarez welcomed José Luis Silva Vázquez with Dux Capital to hear stories from his childhood and how self-motivation and taking risks have gotten him where he is today. On Tuesday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of TEKTOK, Kelly Barner and Enrique Alvarez joined Karin Bursa and Scott Luton to discuss how the industry has bounced back since the pandemic began and how far we’ve come on a few important themes around digital supply chain and procurement. On TECHquila Sunrise, host Greg White continued his conversation with stealthy startup co-founder…