This morning, I read an article titled “Maersk to pause all container ship traffic through the Red Sea,” which made me think- no “AI-enabled” software could have predicted few months ago what transpired in Israel on Oct 7th. Then, right when Israel declared and started the war on Hamas, no “AI-enabled” solution could have predicted that it would, at some point, cause a supply chain snarl in ocean shipping in the Red Sea.

No supply chain solution can predict the ripples of events like this war. Unless you have built solutions designed for geopolitical and wargaming analysis, which is obviously way outside the borders of the supply chain realm.

So, if you bought a supply chain software that promised resiliency through planning and visibility, AND you have been impacted by this disruption, now may be a good time to ask the vendor how to leverage their software to become resilient.

The fact is, too much focus on being resilient through technology is futile. Focus on embedding agility in technology instead.

In Episode 15 of Think About It, I touched upon why most technology solutions today that promise resiliency are not designed for resiliency. The theme was similar in Episode 9 of Think About It, where I discussed why plain visibility is not a panacea. I used a similar example of ocean shipping disruption in one of these videos.

The fact is that technology plays a limited role in resiliency. It is a required component but must be augmented by well-designed resiliency-focused processes and trained people.

For technology to be resilient, it needs to be flexible. As highlighted in my five-part article series, Building Truly Flexible Supply Chains With Digital, if you really want your technology to aid you in addressing disruptive situations, it needs to help add to the flexibility of your supply chains. This flexibility must be built in all three people, processes, and technology components.

In this specific scenario, flexibility will be how quickly you can plan and execute an alternative shipment within your existing systems, aided by people and processes. Because no AI, Generative or not, can pinpoint events like these before they happen. Chasing that capability is a mirage.

A successful strategy is chasing a supply chain capability that can seamlessly plan and handle alternatives, minimizing the impact on your operations.