Author Archives: thedoctor

SmartCube: Putting a Nice Box Around Industrial MRO for Commissioning and SPIR Procurement for Projects

There are dozens (and dozens) of Procurement Solutions out there, especially for indirect procurement, as that’s where it all started. There are also a dozen or so good solutions for BoM (Bill of Material) direct procurement for manufacturers who need to source to build the products they are selling. However, when it comes to acquiring MRO assets, and spare parts to maintain them, there are very few solutions — and even less for managing procurement and inventory from a (commissioning) project perspective.

Most Procurement Professionals assume that this is handled by the ERP/MRP or the asset management platform but the reality is that the ERP/MRP will only track product specifications for approved products and materials, the asset management will only track assets that are actually delivered, and most of the sourcing is done old school — email and Excel spreadsheets, which is not a great solution. First of all, it is very time consuming for both parties to fill out all the information manually and send documents back and forth. Secondly, it is very error prone as the technical specifications will require detailed part numbers, identifiers, standards, etc. where one miskey can totally invalidate an entire record that might have taken days to put together. Thirdly, as the sheet is not in a version control system, it’s hard to control who can access it when and ensure updates are properly maintained and not missed or overwritten. Fourth, given that an average asset will require 10 or 15 associated spare parts, and multiple assets will need to be acquired at a time, an average sourcing process will take a minimum of two weeks (if not much [much] longer).

SmartCube has developed two tools to handle 1) the pre-commissioning Procurement of components and systems for major projects (such as new plant creation or plant renovation, utility construction, ship construction, etc.), as well as the commissioning process and 2) the material/part master, and the procurement projects needed for the ongoing support (as plants will require production line maintenance and upgrades, utilities will constantly require new regulation and control systems, ships always need upgrades, etc.) along with the procurement and management of the spares required to keep the components and systems running when something breaks.

This is done through their two primary offerings of I-SPIR, which they bill as an interaction and collaboration platform to allow multiple project partners and collaborators to input, collect and share spare parts information (SPIR) between all stakeholders in real time for asset-intensive industries, and I-MAT, that they bill as autonomous warehouse management & material master cleansing & coding platform for any asset heavy industry.

SmartCube I-SPIR

First, some background. SPIR stands for Spare Parts Interchangeability Record, which is basically a list of equipment and spare parts that a manufacturer or supplier recommends that a project owner or asset manager should purchase in order to develop and maintain their industrial plant or process. Once the purchase suggestions, or modifications thereto, are accepted, the project owner then matches the purchases to the material master data in the ERP, if there are appropriate product records, or pushes the appropriate records to the material master.

SPIR is a lot more than just a slight modification to the direct procurement process, because it’s not purchasing materials and parts to build products for sale, but components and systems to keep a process running or a plant (utility, or vehicle) operating. It’s also a well-established systematic supply chain process used for tracking and recording information on various replacement parts used in industrial operations. The process involves:

  • Inventory Management: inventory must be established and properly maintained, and it must include what (parts), where (storage facility, room, and shelf), who (is responsible for), how many (quantity) and why (associated components or systems)
  • Identification: every component needs a unique identifier (and any manufacturing identifiers it’s associated with)
  • Documentation: specifications, function(al requirements), compatibility, and any standards met
  • Interchangeability Assessment: a thorough assessment that takes into account design, materials, operating requirements, and other relevant factors
  • Recording: that identifies parts that a given part can be substituted for, which includes a link to the assessment as well as information on the manufacturer, supplier(s), and lead times (for restock)
  • Maintenance: the record must continually be reviewed, updated as needed, and deactivated when the part is no longer needed or approved

When it comes to identifying components and associated spare parts, and executing SPIR projects, the process is similar to a traditional sourcing process:

  • Identify the need
  • Determine the specifications
  • Research potential substitutes
  • Evaluate compatibility
  • Select the replacement and make the award
  • Update records

It’s Procurement, but Procurement with needs not typically addressed. That’s why a specialized system is needed that takes into account all of the specialized aspects not addressed in traditional direct Procurement systems. That’s the system that SmartCube has created for Industrial MRO with its I-SPIR solution. The module has the following primary components.

Projects & Packages

In the I-SPIR platform, projects correspond to systems and packages to related sets of one or more modules (and each module will require one or more spares to maintain it).

SPIR Processes

Once a project has been defined, the system makes it super quick and easy to request spare parts for one or more components or systems. Setting up a SPIR project is simply a matter of:

  • selecting the master project
  • selecting the responsible individuals (for QA, Evaluation, Assessment, DCC, PRE, Coordination)
  • selecting the supplier
  • providing the basic SPIR info (Doc ReF, PO, Due Date, System & Area of intended use)
  • uploading any necessary documentation
  • sending it to the supplier

Once the supplier receives the SPIR, they can select the part they are willing to provide simply by specifying their ID, the original manufacturer name and OEM part number (if they are acting as a distributor) if they already have the SPIR in their system or it’s in EQHub, a third party SPIR database that contains pre-vetted products with validated information which, when imported, is tagged as already validated information (which can allow an organization to accept the part without having to go through a full evaluation). If the part does not already exist in the system or EQHub, a popup will allow the supplier to enter all of the required information, which will then have to go through a full evaluation process on the buyer’s end.

When the SPIR is returned, the system walks the individuals on the buying team through the process, which consists of:

  • Quality Assurance: is the data valid and are the specifications appropriate
  • Evaluation: classify the Spare against key asset tracking attributes of redundancy, repair/discard, consequence, and criticality and define/override the auto-suggested quantities
  • Assessment: asses the overall purchase against the inventory and finance requirements
  • DCC: verify the DCC data
  • Final Approval and Order: final approval and place the order

Tag Management

The platform makes it easy to manage asset tags and provides downloadable templates for quick upload. This simplifies integration with ERP/MRP/Asset Management systems and material masters.

Dashboard

The main entry point summarizes the projects the user has ongoing and their current states for easy project location, access, and management:

  • To Do: tracks the SPIR requests that need to be opened, re-submitted, evaluated for quality, concluded, etc.
  • New: new Projects & SPIRs recently opened and awaiting supplier submission
  • Open: Projects that are open where team members need to assess submitted SPIRs
  • Overdue: Projects that are overdue
  • Rejected: SPIRS that have been rejected (and need to be returned or recast to new suppliers)
  • Submitted: tracks the supplier submissions (that need to go through the SPIR process)
  • Concluded: SPIRS that have been concluded

SmartCube I-MAT

SmartCube‘s other major offering is their materials “master” management and inventory platform that was specifically designed for supporting material and inventory requirements during (new) plant/site/rig construction and commissioning, plant/site/rig retrofit/upgrade and commissioning, cross-platform / site based material and inventory management (where the organization doesn’t have an ERP/MRP integrations that support that), and other temporary or permanent material and inventory management scenarios not adequately handled by the ERP.

The platform is designed to serve as a part and material master as well as an inventory master for the locations and projects not managed by the ERP/MRP (which, for organizations running on the BIG ERPs like SAP or Oracle, or older ERPs, are any temporary/construction/retrofit/commissioning project where inventory needs to be managed separately and off-site in a yard, on a rig, etc. until the project is done). It’s very easy to load products and materials into the SmartCube I-MAT platform as it allows for easy CSV upload (in addition to direct ERP integration if you so desire, both for initial load and final push when you are done with the project).

In addition, as part of their latest release, they have automatic (potential) duplicate detection and simplify the process of merging duplicates and cleansing the material / product master. They also make it one click to deactivate products (and make it clear when a certain product should not be ordered).

Upon implementation, it’s really easy to define (and upload):

  • Vendors: that are providing the products and materials
  • Tag Numbers: standard (asset) tag numbers (for system integration)
  • Projects: the projects currently being managed through the system
  • Product States: Evaluating / Accepted / Offsite / InTransit / Not Found / Destroy / etc.
  • Locations: Onshore / Offshore / Yard / Europe Warehouse / USA Warehouse / etc.
  • Imports: upload a file and track the imports
  • Deactivated Products: for easy identification and management
  • Users: and their associated permissions

Once the data is loaded, it’s really easy to search for any product using a free-text search on all key fields, or an in-depth filter-driven search on each supported product field. In other words, filters aren’t just limited to material/part name, number, tag, project, vendor, etc. It’s also easy, once a search and drill down is performed, to select all or a subset for batch editing where all products are missing the same data or need the same field updated.

Once a product is selected, it’s easy to bring up, and if necessary, edit all of the associated data, which includes all of the standard part/material fields, as well as perform standard inventory operations. The system understands the standard actions of:

  • Add Stock: increase the stock at the selected location
  • Move/Transfer Stock: move the stock from its current location to the selected location
  • Withdraw Stock: mark the stock as withdrawn and used

In addition, you can (re-)set the status of any product at any time for any reason (which you can capture) if you have the appropriate authority. Plus, when you move or transfer stock, you can indicate the type of transfer and withdrawal (if you define multiple types of transfer and withdrawals, such as consumption, returned, trashed, queued for destruction, etc.).

Plus, coming soon, if you are doing a transfer from one location to another that requires shipping (such as from a rig to onshore or one country for another), the platform will automatically export data for manifest creation in third party shipping systems (either through an API integration or through a flat file CSV export for loading in the third party system).

The entire system has been designed to be incredibly easy to use and support the primary requirements of a temporary project not supported by a traditional ERP/MRP material master or inventory management system:

  • easy off-site management
  • collaboration
  • high quality data

… and eliminate the need for error-prone spreadsheets and shadow processes that were created to get around the limitations of systems that were setup for managing acquisitions and inventory for traditional production line utilization, which is not the case in facility/plant construction and/or upgrade.

Both solutions are delivered as SaaS and no integration with ERP’s are required. Last but not least, the amount training needed is very limited as the design focuses on ease of use. Once a decision is made to use one or the other solution (or both) you can be up and running in matter of days if integrations are not required. Integration with ERPs and other systems is typically only a matter of a few weeks.

As explained in detail, if you need to do a lot of sourcing for pre-commissioning, commissioning, and asset-maintenance, SmartCube is a system you should add to your (very) short list as traditional indirect (and even direct) Sourcing/Procurement systems just weren’t setup for the type of sourcing and (temporary) inventory management you need to do (while SmartCube checks all the necessary boxes and then some).

Sustainability ONLY Exists In the Supply Chain

Furthermore, simply switching suppliers does not make you more sustainable no matter what you may think or what those overpriced third party ESG / Scope 3 reports may (or may not) say. Switching suppliers to a supplier approximated to be more sustainable is not increasing sustainability, because if you take someone else’s supplier, then they are just going to end up with yours. It may be a temporary net win for your company, but it’s a net loss for another company, and that doesn’t really help anyone as sustainability was not actually increased overall.

Sustainability only comes from net improvement. The reason it only comes from the supply chain is because the products you buy come from the supply chain. The energy you use comes from the supply chain. The water you use (and drink) comes from the supply chain. The services come from your partners (in the supply chain). The transport to you (and/or to your customers) is the supply chain. Everything comes from the supply chain. The only way you can increase your sustainability is to reduce the energy, water, and products you use and the travel you undertake. For most companies, this is a negligible part of the supply chain … sometimes so negligible it rounds to zero.

So how do you increase sustainability in your supply chain? You start by helping your suppliers be more sustainable, which, believe it or not, starts with you being a better buyer and a better partner. Sustainability requires investment, and when they are operating at slimmer margins than you, significantly smaller bank accounts than you, and a lot more uncertainty than you, it can be hard for them to invest in new technology or processes when they don’t even know if they can invest in next week’s payroll.

And it requires more than a piece of paper from you saying you’re going to award them two years of business after a multi-round RFP when you’re a first time buyer. Because they know that while you may have the wherewithal to enforce a contract in another country half a world away, they often don’t. And they know how many times they’ve been screwed in the past when they were told they’d get 100,000 units, but COVID hit, the market crashed, or the transport lanes (ports, borders, etc.) closed down and the orders never came.

You need to develop a true partnership, work with them, build up shared trust and commitment, stick to your promises, help them with their processes so they become more efficient, identify efforts they can make to significantly increase sustainability, and then make the long term commitment they need from you (and other major customers) to invest in better technology, build their own renewable energy grids, etc.

Why are we bringing this up? Because a recent article in VOGUE Business that asked if fashion’s buying practices are really improving had a very good point. While fashion brands make strong claims they are investing in longer-term strategic partnerships, and big consultancies like McKinsey quote impressive statistics (such as an increase from 26% to 43% over the last 4 years) on how the percentage of CPOs reporting longer-term strategic partnerships (which just translates into longer term contracts, but not necessarily guaranteed awards over the long term, as there are usually so many out clauses the contracts mean nothing), the reality is that when you ask the suppliers how things are going, it’s a completely different story. As the Vogue Business article point out, this year’s Better Buying Partnership Index saw just a one point increase in the garment industry’s buyer-supplier partnerships score. Just one point! That could be a rounding error.

Despite all the lip service, there has been no improvement in the fashion supply chain because, at the end of the day, as Lindsay Wright was quoted, simply claiming you have good partnerships with your suppliers isn’t going to cut it. If you want an honest picture of what’s really happening on the ground, you need to be asking suppliers, because they’re the only real arbiters of whether purchasing practices are improving.

And this holds true across supply chains. Partner with your suppliers on long term contracts and work on development initiatives with them if you want to increase sustainability. Otherwise, the best thing you can do is to just shut the f*ck up because you’re only contributing to the hot air.

Supply Chain Certifications Lost Value Quite a While Ago …

… and they won’t ever reclaim any value until they start offering training on digitally friendly processes and the core of modern digital technology. That’s why it was no surprise to the doctor to see this recent article over on the Acceleration Economy that noted that Supply Chain Certifications Lose Value as Product Expertise Gains Traction.

He was surprised to hear that the research foundation found that a whopping 18% of certifications issued through career and tech education programs are sought by employers. As someone with a background in tech, he can honestly say that he’s never worked for, or with, any employer that actually valued a tech certification because they were outdated before they were issued — the leading tech employers valued good education and experience that provided a candidate with the ability to learn and adapt on the job. Which, by the way, is exactly what a Procurement professional has to do.

As the article notes, since the machine has taken over the task of doing the calculations — computing the inventory, creating demand plans, and analyzing lead times — we don’t need in depth courses on how to do this manually, we need certifications in whatever technologies our companies have chosen to use so we can take the utmost advantage of that technology, or at least a certification that covers the basics across all technologies of that type.

But even though it’s now the mid-2020s, we still don’t have any certifications that even cover the basics of the tech that hit the scene across Source-to-Pay in the mid 2000s. After all, the basics they convey haven’t change either. So, as some have noted, while they are a decent starting point for someone just getting into Procurement, it won’t get them very far. And they certainly don’t add any value to anyone with more than 3 years of experience.

Hopefully this will change, because it would be nice if Procurement professionals had a certification option that would allow them the opportunity for a lifetime of learning, vs. checking the box for a certification where they know more than the teacher.

Coupa: Comprehensive Optimization Underlies Procurement Assurance: Coupa Supply Chain Solutions

We’ve never covered Coupa Supply Chain Solutions (for Design and Planning), formerly known as Llamasoft, here on Sourcing Innovation, but the doctor did contribute to some of the coverage over on Spend Matters, including the acquisition coverage (Functional Overview, Overlap Between Direct Procurement and Supply Chain, and Procurement, Finance, and Supply Chain Use Cases [Content Hub Subscription Required]) in 2020. Llamasoft / Coupa Supply Chain Design and Planning has also been more recently covered by Spend Matters’ Pierre Mitchell as part of his analysis of Coupa for Supply Chain Management overall. For those interested with a ContentHub subscription, see his pieces on Can Coupa manage supply as well as spend?, Coupa’s journey from Business Spend Management to Supply Chain Management: Assessing progress on seven key dimensions, and From Spend to Supply — Coupa’s direct spend management progress.

Coupa Supply Chain Solutions consists of four main offerings:

  • Supply Chain Modeller: the core solution, that can be used offline on the desktop (Supply Chain Guru) as well as online in the cloud, where you build network, inventory, and transportation models for optimization and exploration through the dynamic reporting and dashboard creation module; note that the online version can process multiple “what-if” optimization models simultaneously
  • Supply Chain App Studio: the online solution which allows users to build custom interfaces to the underlying model that can be, if desired, custom designed for different user types (procurement, logistics, demand planners, etc.) and then shared with those users who can use the app for regular analysis and what-if optimization
  • Demand Modeller: for demand modelling and forecasting — not covered in this article
  • Supply Chain Prescriptions: uses machine learning and AI to identify savings opportunities from changes to transportation and inventory models, as well as to identify risk mitigation scenarios, based upon the current supply chain design

In this article we are going to primarily cover the capabilities of the Modeller / App Studio and the Prescriptions which is the core of their supply chain (design and planning) solution suite.

The Modeller has three primary components:

  • Model : where you build the models
  • Explore : where you build what-if scenarios, that are then optimized
  • Results : the outputs of the what-if scenarios

Model building is quite easy. It’s simply a matter of selecting, or uploading, a set of data tables for each relevant supply chain entity. They can be pulled in from a relational database or from a CSV file in standard row-based column format. As long as the column headers have standard field names, the SCP solution can auto detect what entity the table represents (warehouse, lane, transportation mode, etc.) and what data is provided on the entity. It understands all the common elements of supply chain modelling, common names and representations, and appropriate business rules that can do all of the auto mappings.

When you pull in a table, and it does the mappings to the standard internal models, it also automatically analyzes and validates the data. It makes sure all entries are unique, key values required for the types of analysis supported are there (such as coordinates for warehouses, costs per distance for transportation modes, stock levels and associated product requirements for inventory), etc. and flags any conflicting, missing, or likely erroneous data for user review and correction.

When you go to build a scenario, it understands what is required in the base underlying model and validates that all of the necessary data is present. If data is missing, it warns you and gives you a chance to provide the missing data. (Furthermore, as you add constraints to the scenario, the platform understands the data is required and ensures that data is present as well before it tries to run the scenario.)

The application was designed for ease of use and speed, tailored for automating most of the model building process for standard network/inventory/transportation scenarios (including setting parameters and defaults) so that standard models can be built for analysis quick and easy (and it is also quick and easy to change or override any default as needed).

Explore provides the capability where you build scenarios for what-if? exploration.

Building scenarios is simple. You simply select the scenario requirements, or constraints, from a set of existing, or newly created, scenario items that define the parameters of the scenario. For example, for a network optimization, you might want to explore limiting the number of existing distribution hubs or adding more proposed nodes to see if you can reduce cost, carbon, or distribution time. For transportation, you might want to explore adding in rail to a network that is currently all truck to see if you can decrease cost. For inventory, you might want to reduce the number of locations where safety stock for rarely used components is stored (so you can limit the number of locations with a low turn rate and minimize the warehouse size/footprint you need at those locations) and see what happens and so on. Each scenario is built from a set of specifications that specify the restrictions that you want to enforce, which could even be a reduction in the current number of restrictions. These restrictions can be on any entity, or relationship. One can also create scenarios to explore how the network will change under different circumstances, such as demand change, cost change, or disruption. Selecting is a simple point-and-click or drag and drop exercise.

Once you’ve created the scenario(s) of interest (remembering that you can optimize multiple simultaneously in the online version), you launch them by selecting the type of optimization (the “technology”), the sub-type of optimization (the “problem type”), the horizon (the timeframe you want to analyze), and, optionally, override default parameters (if you don’t want to do a cost optimization but instead want to optimize carbon, service level, fulfillment time, risk, etc.). Then you run the scenario, and once the optimization engine works its math, you can explore the results.

The Model supports:

  • Network Optimization
    • Standard Network Optimization
    • … with Network Decomposition
    • … with Infeasibility Diagnosis
    • Greenfield Analysis
    • Cost-to-Serve Analysis
  • Inventory Optimization
    • Safety Stock
    • Safety Stock & Service Level
    • Safety Stock & Rolling Horizon
    • Safety Stock Infeasibility
    • Service Level
    • Rolling Horizon
    • Rolling Horizon Validation
    • Demand
  • Transportation Optimization
    • Transportation – Standard
    • Transportation – Interleaved
    • Transportation – Hub
    • Transportation – Periodic
    • Transportation – Backhaul
    • Transportation – Backhaul Matching
    • Driver Scheduling

In short, it’s a very extensive network, inventory, and transportation optimization modelling solution out of the box that makes it really easy for supply chain and procurement analysts to build scenarios and solve them against all of the traditional models (and variants) they would want to run. (And if your particular variant isn’t out of the box, the SCP team can code and add the variant into your deployment as the underlying solution was built to allow for as many models as was needed as well as unlimited scenarios on those models.) Note that, by default, the platform will always run the baseline scenario so you have a basis for comparison.

Results, which are output in the form of results tables, can then be analyzed in table form (by selecting the output table), graph form (by accessing the graphs), map mode (by accessing the map), or as a built-in or custom report/dashboards that the analyst can create as needed. For every type of analysis in the system, SCP includes a default set of dashboards for exploring the data set, which adapt to not only the type and subtype of optimization that was run, but the goal (objective function) as well. So if you did a cost optimization scenario, they summarize the costs. If you did a carbon optimization scenario, they summarize the carbon. If you did a service level optimization, they summarize the service level. If you did a carbon optimization relative to a maximum cost increase, they summarize the carbon and cost (and the relationship). In their platform, if you optimize one element or KPI, you can see the impact on all of the other costs and KPIs as all of the associated data is also output for analysis.

There is an output table for all elements which can be analyzed in detail, but most users prefer graph or map view on the relevant data.

Views provide custom, tabular, reports on the relevant fields of one or more tables, which can be exported to csv or pushed to another application for planning purposes. For example, if the model was a network optimization model, you can create a view that outputs the new distribution centres and fulfilment lanes for the revised network and push that to the TMS (Transportation Management System). If it was a transportation optimization model, you can output a table that specifies the carrier and rate for each lane, or, if necessary, each lane product combination and push that into the TMS. If it was a safety stock optimization model, you can output the product, location, minimum stock levels, and reorder points and push that into the Inventory Management or ERP system. And so on. There are default views for cost, carbon, service level, demand, and inventory optimizations, along with drill ins for relevant types of cost (site, production, by transportation type, etc.), but it is quite easy for a user to create a view on any table, or set of tables, with derived fields, with the view editor.

Graphs summarize the data in tables or views graphically, allowing for easy visual comparison. Select the scenario, select the data, select the graph type, and there’s your graph. They are most useful as components in dashboard summaries.

Maps provide a visual representation of the supply chain network — warehouses/distribution centers, customer locations, transportation lanes — overlaid on a real-world map with the ability to filter into particular supply chain network elements. There is a default map for the full network overview, and it can be copied and edited to just display certain elements.

Dashboards group relevant elements, such as a map of the current distribution network, a map of the optimized distribution network, a graphic summary of current distribution costs, a graphic summary of new distribution costs, and tabular (view-based) cost, carbon, and service level comparisons as the result of a supply chain network optimization scenario. These are typically custom built by the analyst to what is relevant to them.

Prescriptions, only in the online version of Supply Chain Modeller, are based on the 22 years of experience the SCP team has in building and analyzing models and uses advanced ML, simulation, and AI to automatically identify potential cost savings, and risk reductions and presents rank-ordered opportunities for you in each category, which you can drill into and explore. This solution automatically generates dozens (upon dozens) of scenarios and performs hundreds (or thousands) of analyses to automatically bring you actionable insights that you can implement TODAY to improve your network.

These savings will be grouped by type for easy exploration. For example, when it comes to cost savings, these will often be obtained by node skipping, mode switching, or volume consolidation — and the prescriptions module will summarize the prescriptions in each category, as well as summarizing the relative total savings of each category. A user can accept or reject each (sub) set of prescriptions, and then export all of the accepted prescriptions into new route definition records that can be imported into the TMS.

Note that the analysis that underlies the prescription analysis is very detailed, and in addition to the prescriptions, the platform will also identify the top network factors that are impacting the transportation costs, such as fleet distance, unique modes, certain carriers, country, etc.

When a user drills in, she sees the complete details of the prescription, including the before and after. In the node skipping example, they will see the current distance, products, quantities, (total) weight and volume, and current rates and then will see these in comparison to the new distance, new rates, and new costs. The old and new routes will be mapped side by side. The old and new lanes will be detailed.

The out of the box network risk summary for revenue at risk is quite impressive. The platform is able to compute the overall network revenue AND network profit at risk based on single sourced site-products, % of flow quantity single sourced, avg. end-to-end service times, and impacted paths. It will then do analyses to identify potential risk mitigation improvements allowing for 5%, 10%, and 15% network change (based on how product flows through the network with the current design) and compute the corresponding change in revenue and profit at risk as a result of those changes as well as the change in network cost. Usually the cost will increase slightly, but not always. For example, it could be that you could reduce the revenue at risk by 5% just through a supplier reallocation and network redesign, and if you were really risk averse, it could be that a 1% increase in network cost could result in an 8% to 10% decrease in revenue, and profit, at risk. And that could be the cheapest supply chain insurance you can buy.

Of course, you can drill into each model, the prescriptions, and the risk reduction with each individual change. It’s an extremely powerful tool.

Another thing that is really powerful in Coupa Supply Chain Solutions is the specific applications they can enable in the online App Studio, including the Cost-to-Serve App (which is just one example of the custom interfaces that can be built) that is one of the most complete dynamic dashboards for network insights that the doctor has ever seen. A summary can’t do it justice, but to whet your appetite to be sure you ask to see it in a demo, it has a full set of meaningful baseline KPIs, a visual network and flow summary, deep details on product costs and profitability, deep details on lanes and transportation costs, and so on. You can also quick-select a scenario to run and compare against the baseline in the app. It’s extremely well thought out.

Furthermore, you can build scripts in the App Studio to rebuild and run models on a schedule when you have a network in flux (because of disruptions, supply base changes, network changes as a result of prescriptions, etc.). And, of course, you can share these models and apps and dashboards with other analysts and democratize supply chain planning, easily enabling planners to analyze their own scenarios and make decisions collaboratively in a user-friendly App.

In short, Coupa has fulfilled the supply chain use cases we identified back in 2020 in Procurement, Finance, and Supply Chain Use Cases. It’s a great solution that you should check out, especially if you would like to have procurement and supply chain under one umbrella.

Will AI Make Us Irrelevant?

Short Answer: No. But Improper Use Will Make Us “Redundant.

James Meads asks “Will AI in Procurement make us all irrelevant?”

So I will answer. No, it won’t! But it will make those companies who dive off the deep-end on Gen-AI irrelevant as their supply chains crumble with no real human intelligence there to save them when the next crisis hits. (See the myriad of rants here on Sourcing Innovation on just how over-hyped Open Gen-AI technology is and what you actually need to solve your problems.) Also, if we’re lucky, they will take a few providers with no actual platform capability (or Procurement value) down with them. (We need them to get out of the way for those platforms that have been offering real, deterministic, math-based, tried-and-true analytics, optimization, and machine learning solutions [for up to two decades] as there are many companies that need those solutions today.)

While custom-trained closed LLMs can seemingly do a lot of the work for us, they are NOT intelligent, they don’t know good from bad, they don’t know right from wrong, and they definitely don’t know critical from irrelevant. Thus, even though they can put together an NDA or RFP in seconds, it doesn’t mean it’s “fully functional”, that it protects you from all the risks, or that it captures all your requirements. Only an expert human can verify that. [And it doesn’t matter how good your “prompting” is. It can still fail, with a reasonably high probability to boot! (Which is what you can give it!) There’s a reason that Tonkean, an intake automation/enterprise orchestration solution provider, ALWAYS does pre-validation on inputs and-post validation on outputs before showing you anything when it incorporates your LLM technology, because they know just how often it fails and if the response doesn’t closely resemble something expected with very high probability, they won’t even show it to you.]

“AI”, or, more accurately, rules-based automation, will replace humans who are just doing tactical data processing, but it cannot replace humans who can do real strategic analysis, interpretation, and problem solving. Unfortunately for Procurement, given that 80%+ of the time is tactical data processing and fire-fighting, this will cause companies to think they can eliminate 80% of the Procurement team, even though the reality is that the Procurement team isn’t even addressing 20% of spend strategically in any given year, meaning that they should be augmenting the Procurement team with every useful technology they can find to try and get that spend coverage above 80%!

And if you want to know what companies are truly offering valuable “AI” (where the best you will get is Augmented Intelligence, level 2 on the 4 tier scale, as there is no such thing as Artificial Intelligence and many companies still don’t even offer Assisted Intelligence, level 1, and instead disguise their Artificial Idiocy in slick marketing), talk to an analyst who CAN do the math AND the programming.

First published on LinkedIn.