Most businesses have a supply chain strategy, but not all have one which reflects current operations, where their customers are heading or what the competitive landscape looks like today. Strategies which worked a few years ago can quietly become liabilities, creating misalignment between operational capability and commercial goals. Here are some of the signs it might be time to breathe new life into your supply chain.
Your strategy was built for a different world
Supply chain planning horizons have shortened considerably. Where organizations once built business cases around 15-year timeframes, many are now working in much tighter cycles, revisiting assumptions annually or even quarterly. Customer expectations shift, trade policies change, and new service models reshape demand patterns. If your strategy hasn't been revisited since it was first developed, there's a good chance it's solving for a set of conditions that no longer exist. The strongest supply chains treat strategy as a living process – one that's revisited and stress-tested as conditions evolve.
You're relying on gut feel over data
There's still a significant number of organizations making major supply chain decisions based on qualitative signals rather than data. In some cases, businesses are assessing whether they've hit capacity by looking at what's happening on the warehouse floor rather than running the numbers. Others are still planning in spreadsheets, without a comprehensive digital view of their end-to-end network. The gap between those investing in supply chain solutions that connect data across their operations and those that aren't is growing. Without that connected picture, it's difficult to identify where the real opportunities for optimization sit – or where the risks are increasing.
Your business case process can't keep up
When there’s increased debate internally about how to spend capital, decision-makers often want to see results or tangible evidence before committing to spend. A traditional business case with three options and basic sensitivity analysis doesn’t offer this anymore. Organizations with access to simulation and modelling tools can now run dozens of scenarios in a matter of minutes – testing variables like demand fluctuations, service changes, and network configurations that previously would have taken weeks to model manually. This changes the types of conversations happening at board level, where stakeholders can hear why one path outperforms the others, backed by a robust fact base.
Cost cutting has become your only strategy
A focus on cost is understandable, particularly in the current global climate. But if your optimization efforts have stalled, there's likely value you’re missing out on. Innovative approaches to DC design and optimization can help draw further efficiency from existing assets – rethinking layouts, changing operational methods, and extending the life of current facilities to bridge the gap while longer-term transformation plans take shape. The goal isn't to choose between controlling costs and investing for the future. It's finding ways to do both, by using short-term gains to fund the next phase of your network design and transformation journey.
Time to reassess?
The organizations getting the most from their supply chains are the ones that continuously reassess, test, and adapt – building internal capability alongside expert partners to keep their networks aligned with where the business is heading. If any of these signs feel familiar, it may be time to take a fresh look at whether your strategy is still working as hard as it should be. Working with the right experts can help establish what your starting point is – whether it's revisiting your network design, exploring what simulation could bring to your planning process, or understanding how to get more from your existing infrastructure.