Achieve a Competitive Advantage with Supply Chain Design – A Sedlak Virtual Lunch & Learn with Optilogic

Summary:

The session focused on enhancing competitive advantage through effective supply chain design, featuring insights from Sedlak Management Consultants and Optilogic. Lou Cerny, Vice President, welcomed participants to Sedlak’s fifth annual Lunch and Learn series. This is the first session of five throughout the year. It’s intended to provide insight into the services that Sedlak and our trusted partners provide to address supply chain challenges. Lou introduced Michael Davis, Director of Client Services, who outlined the comprehensive services offered by Sedlak, including supply chain strategy, facility and operations design, operations improvement, IT system solutions, change management, and third-party logistics services. Michael emphasized Sedlak’s collaborative consulting approach. Michael introduced the Optilogiic speaker, highlighting their partnership and the recent acquisition of Llamasoft, which enhances their capabilities in supply chain strategy.

Philip Higginbotham provided a detailed overview of supply chain design, noting that only 20-25% of companies have effectively adopted these capabilities. He discussed the importance of addressing macro trends and strategic questions to improve supply chain resilience. Higginbotham showcased Optilogic’s technology, which empowers a wider range of users to utilize advanced analytics, moving away from traditional expert-driven analysis. He stressed the significance of usability in design tools, particularly through integration with familiar platforms like Excel.

The discussion included practical applications of supply chain design, such as optimization techniques for manufacturing, sourcing, and logistics. Higginbotham introduced the Lumina tariff optimizer, which aids in decision-making by updating tariff rates and tracking material sourcing. He emphasized the need for network optimization and strategic warehouse placement, utilizing mathematical approaches to evaluate various scenarios. Additionally, he highlighted the integration of optimization and simulation within the Cosmic Frog solution, which allows for efficient scenario analysis and a more decentralized management process.

Higginbotham also addressed the limitations of conventional inventory management techniques and introduced AI-guided simulations to analyze safety stock levels and assess risk factors. He discussed the development of a large language model for Cosmic Frog, enabling users to interact through natural language for supply chain management tasks. The session concluded with insights on the importance of challenging colleagues for effective supply chain adaptation and an announcement of the upcoming OptiCon conference, which will focus on training and discussions relevant to supply chain practitioners.

Please reach out to Michael Davis at mdavis@jasedlak.com with any questions.

Register for our next event with FCL on May 20th here.