Topic: Opinions



Latest in Opinions

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Align AI adoption with climate goals

Monday, March 2, 2026 · SCMR Staff
APQC research shows that while organizations pursue aggressive AI adoption and Net Zero emissions goals, most fail to account for AI’s energy use and GHG impact—creating a growing disconnect between digital transformation and climate commitments
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Sustainability and AI: A complicated and often overlooked relationship

Monday, March 2, 2026 · Marisa Brown
Supply chains are expanding the use of AI across functions, and that expansion means more data storage and more computation, which all require more electricity use and potentially more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during electricity production.
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How procurement teams are managing Tier 2 suppliers to lower costs and improve resilience

Monday, March 2, 2026 · Venky Arun & Karthik Rai
As tariffs, volatility, and compressed launch cycles expose the limits of Tier 1 oversight, procurement leaders are leveraging AI-driven Tier 2 visibility to cut upstream costs, reduce hidden risk, and strengthen resilience.
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Decision velocity:  The new operating advantage for supply chain leaders

Monday, March 2, 2026 · Karin Bursa
In a world of constant disruption and exponential data growth, supply chain performance increasingly depends on how quickly leaders can detect change, decide with confidence, and convert decisions into coordinated action at scale.
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Futurists: Dubious long-term planning help

Monday, March 2, 2026 · Larry Lapide
Futurism often overpromises insight into distant futures while offering limited practical value for the real planning decisions supply chain leaders must make today.

Where 2025’s AI predictions hit, missed, and what supply chain leaders must recalibrate in 2026

Monday, March 2, 2026 · Dean Alms, chief product officer, Aravo
A review of 2025’s AI predictions shows that while agentic AI and automation advanced in supply chains, data readiness, governance gaps, and third-party risk oversight will determine whether organizations realize real AI ROI in 2026.

Advancing the enterprise in volatile times: Supply chain as a source of reason

Friday, February 27, 2026 · Marko Kovacevic
In an era of tariffs, geopolitical fragmentation, and macroeconomic volatility, supply chain leaders can create competitive advantage by distinguishing quantitative from qualitative shocks, controlling operational levers, and building resilient, partnership-driven networks…

What It Really Means: Bringing the outside in

Thursday, February 26, 2026 · Andrew Byer and Mike Dobslaw
“Bringing the outside in” means shifting supply chain planning and execution from internally driven metrics to real-time, market-based data such as POS, competitive activity, and external events to improve service, stability, and financial performance.

Demography is the missing variable in supply chain strategy

Wednesday, February 25, 2026 · Joseph Coughlin
Demographic change, including aging populations, declining fertility, smaller households, and regional workforce fragmentation, is reshaping demand patterns, labor availability, and last-mile expectations, making demography a critical but overlooked strategic variable in…

What’s happening In China?

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 · Rosemary Coates
Despite escalating U.S.–China tariffs and trade sanctions, China’s economy is expanding, global market diversification is accelerating, and rare earth dominance remains a strategic pressure point for American supply chains.

How CPOs can protect their supply chains against tariff risk—without overreacting

Friday, February 20, 2026 · Mita Gupta, EVP and business unit head, WNS Procurement
CPOs can manage escalating tariff risk in 2026 by using category-level exposure mapping, total cost of ownership analysis, supplier segmentation, and AI-powered modeling to respond proportionally rather than reactively.

Execution, not chat: How Agentic AI changes supply chain operations

Thursday, February 19, 2026 · Prabhat Rao Pinnaka & Ramakrishna Garine
Agentic AI is transforming supply chain operations by moving beyond chatbot-style assistance to governed, ontology-backed execution systems that autonomously detect, decide, and act within defined guardrails.

AI is automating procurement; it’s also creating jobs leaders aren’t ready for

Wednesday, February 18, 2026 · Meghan O’Doherty, Senior Director Procurement Advisory, Gartner Supply Chain Practice
AI is transforming procurement by automating transactional sourcing work while creating entirely new AI-driven roles that require CPOs to rethink talent strategy, upskill teams, and redesign how procurement creates value.

After AI agent pilots underperformed: Resetting supply chain automation for operational impact

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 · Arturo Torres Arpi Acero
After early AI agent pilots failed to deliver measurable operational or P&L impact, supply chain leaders are resetting automation strategies by focusing on decision ownership, governance, data integrity, and constrained autonomy instead of full end-to-end automation.

Aftershock ready: Fueling New Madrid

Monday, February 16, 2026 · Tim Russell, Abdullah Alsukairi and Olivia Morton
MIT Capstone study models fuel distribution capacity in the New Madrid Seismic Zone to identify infrastructure, labor, and policy interventions that can strengthen emergency fuel resilience before a major earthquake disrupts critical supply chains.
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