Build a decision-driven supply chain that can keep pace with change

Years of responding to disruption left many organizations with fragmented processes and decision bottlenecks. Now supply chain leaders are rethinking how planning, AI, supplier risk, scenario modeling, and network design come together to drive execution.

Insight

The new supply chain mandate: Orchestrating decisions in an era of volatility

Our report explores how leaders can close the gap between supply chain planning and execution, reduce the “urgency tax,” and build a decision system that links signals, constraints, decision rights, and workflows before disruption becomes margin leakage.

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Supply chain leaders have more visibility, more planning tools, and more AI-enabled insights than they had a few years ago. Yet many of the same problems keep resurfacing, including premium freight, emergency sourcing, excess buffers, schedule churn, and manual overrides. These costs may show up in different parts of the business, but they often trace back to the same issue: the organization can see disruption before it has the operating model to respond.

A supplier constraint, logistics disruption, or demand shift can move quickly through sourcing, production, inventory, transportation, customer commitments, and finance. When teams are working from different assumptions or waiting on different decision forums, the business may still respond too late—even when the signal was visible somewhere in the system.

Premium freight, inventory imbalances, supplier disruptions, and service challenges can reveal where an operating model is under strain. By understanding where decisions break down leaders can focus transformation efforts where they will have the greatest impact. Learn how KPMG helps organizations modernize planning, operations, and execution across the end-to-end supply chain.

Explore the KPMG approach to modern supply chain operations

What supply chain leaders are telling us

The KPMG 2026 Next-Gen Supply Chain Survey captures the perspectives of 462 senior supply chain and operations leaders from organizations with $1 billion or more in annual revenue. The findings point to a clear tension: leaders are moving toward transformation, but cost leakage and resilience pressure are still tied to how well the operating model can execute.

73%

are planning a comprehensive supply chain operating model transformation within three years

51%

rank risk management as their top transformation priority

38%

cite logistics and transportation costs as the biggest source of value leakage

The numbers point to the same challenge .explored in The new supply chain mandate: Orchestrating decisions in an era of volatility. Resilience and cost control can’t be treated as separate programs when both depend on faster, more trusted supply chain decisions.

Insight

The CSCO roadmap: Building a decision-ready supply chain

Learn how to redesign the operating model so decisions move faster, with more confidence and less cost leakage.

Download the CSCO roadmap

Use this roadmap to strengthen:

Planning assumptions tied to current supplier, capacity, labor, transportation, and inventory constraints
Signal-to-decision workflows that connect alerts to owners, escalation rules, and action
AI use cases that can move beyond pilots because the operating conditions are repeatable
Planner roles built around scenarios, escalations, and higher-value trade-offs
Performance management that keeps plans trusted as lead times, SKUs, suppliers, and market conditions change

Move from disruption response to decision-driven supply chain performance

KPMG helps supply chain leaders redesign operating models around the decisions that shape service, inventory, cost-to-serve, resilience, and growth. Our teams bring together supply chain strategy, analytics and AI, integrated planning, logistics and network optimization, procurement, managed services, tax, trade, cyber, and technology capabilities, so leaders can connect insight to execution across the end-to-end supply chain.

Whether the starting point is AI scale, supplier risk, scenario planning, network redesign, or planning performance, KPMG can help identify where value is leaking and build the operating model, workflows, and capabilities needed to move faster with more confidence.

Let’s talk about building a decision-ready supply chain >

Supply chain planning and collaboration

Design IBP, S&OP, and S&OE rhythms that connect planning and decisions to execution, with clearer decision rights, escalation paths, and shared KPIs.

AI-enabled supply chain

Prioritize AI use cases tied to operational outcomes, connect AI outputs to workflows, and scale decision intelligence beyond isolated pilots.

Logistics and network optimization

Evaluate network design, sourcing, inventory positioning, transportation, tax, trade, and service trade-offs as connected decisions.

Planning as a Service

Extend planning capacity and sustain performance through managed support for demand, supply, inventory planning, scenario modeling, and exception management.

Supply chain performance often accelerates—or stalls—at the moments where decisions move across functions: an AI recommendation, a supplier constraint, a scenario response, or a network redesign. The insights below examine those pressure points in more detail and offer practical ways to bring more structure, confidence, and speed to the decisions that shape service, inventory, margin, and resilience.

Scale supply chain AI beyond pilots

AI pilots can improve forecasts, inventory recommendations, routing, and scenario modeling. The challenge often appears later, when recommendations move through workflows, constraints, and decision ownership.

How CSCOs scale supply chain AI beyond pilots explains why supply chain AI strategy needs more than better AI models. AI needs a decision system: trusted signals, physical constraints, decision rights, workflows, governance, and adoption.

Read about scaling AI in the supply chain >

Run supply chain scenarios while options exist

Scenario planning has become essential, but many organizations still plan outside the operating rhythm. The CSCO’s guide to dynamic supply chain scenario planning at scale explores how digital twins, decision intelligence, and trigger-based workflows can help leaders move from “what-if” modeling to decisions that affect sourcing, allocation, logistics, and customer commitments.

Learn more about dynamic scenario planning >

Manage multi-tier supplier risk beyond Tier 1

Tier 1 supplier metrics can look stable while exposure sits several tiers upstream. A specialty component, constrained raw material, cyber vulnerability, tariff exposure, or compliance issue can move through the supplier ecosystem before leadership has time to respond.

Beyond Tier 1: A new playbook for managing multi-tier supplier risk helps supply chain leaders move from supplier visibility to supplier risk decisions by connecting upstream constraints to sourcing, inventory, production, and service decisions earlier.

Get up to speed on supplier risk >

Redesign the supply chain network before volatility forces the decision

Waiting for certainty can feel prudent, but in supply chain network design, delay can become its own risk. The case for action: Why supply chain leaders can’t wait for market clarity explores how modular footprint shifts, strategic dual sourcing, intelligent buffering, and digital twin simulations can reduce how much volatility the network absorbs.

Find out how to get ahead of volatility >

Questions supply chain leaders ask about decision-driven supply chains

Q: What is a decision-driven supply chain?

A decision-driven supply chain connects current signals, real-world constraints, decision rights, and execution workflows, so teams can act before cost or service is lost. It helps the business make feasible trade-offs faster and reduces reliance on manual overrides, emergency escalations, and disconnected workflows.

Q: How can CSCOs improve supply chain planning and execution?

CSCOs can improve supply chain planning and execution by identifying where plans lose trust, bringing real constraints into planning logic, connecting signals to decision owners, integrating S&OP and S&OE, and measuring whether changes reduce overrides, expedite costs, inventory imbalance, and service risk.

Q: How can AI scale across the supply chain?

AI can scale when use cases are tied to decision workflows rather than isolated AI models. Recommendations need trusted data, current constraints, clear ownership, workflow integration, and governance so outputs can move from insight to execution.

Q: Why does multi-tier supplier risk matter for supply chain resilience?

Multi-tier supplier risk matters because disruptions often originate beyond direct suppliers. Upstream capacity, raw material, compliance, cyber, or logistics constraints can affect production, inventory, service, and margin before the risk appears in Tier 1 metrics.

Q: How does scenario planning support supply chain resilience?

Supply chain scenario planning helps leaders evaluate trade-offs before committing resources. When connected to digital twins, trigger-based playbooks, and S&OE workflows, scenarios can guide faster decisions around sourcing, allocation, logistics, and customer commitments.

Q: What makes a supply chain network agile?

An agile supply chain network can absorb disruption without forcing the business into constant reactive trade-offs. It may include modular footprint shifts, dual sourcing, intelligent buffers, trigger-based playbooks, and digital twin simulations to support better network decisions under volatility.

In a recent survey of clients by Source, KPMG was ranked the #1 firm for overall quality of work in the US. The firm was also named one of America’s best management consulting firms by Forbes and a worldwide leader in enterprise governance, risk, and compliance services by IDC MarketScape.

1: Source Perceptions of Consulting in the US, 2025
2: Forbes Media LLC, 2025
3: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Consulting Services 2025-2026 Vendor Assessment

Find out why companies choose KPMG

Chris McCarney

Principal, Supply Chain & Procurement Leader, KPMG LLP

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Sean M Cassidy

Advisory Managing Director, Supply Chain, KPMG LLP

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Chris McCarney

Principal, Supply Chain & Procurement Leader, KPMG LLP

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Sean M Cassidy

Advisory Managing Director, Supply Chain, KPMG LLP

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Relevant Results

Build a decision-driven supply chain that can keep pace with change

Why supply chain decisions still break down under pressure

The KPMG approach

What supply chain leaders are telling us

Redesign the supply chain operating model so planning, AI, and execution work together

Modernizing the supply chain while the network keeps moving requires more than new technology. The roadmap outlines how leaders can make plans executable, connect signals to decision workflows, scale AI through governed supply chain use cases, and sustain planning performance as conditions change.

Build a supply chain operating model that turns insight into execution

Move from disruption response to decision-driven supply chain performance

KPMG supply chain insights

Scale supply chain AI beyond pilots

Run supply chain scenarios while options exist

Manage multi-tier supplier risk beyond Tier 1

Redesign the supply chain network before volatility forces the decision

Questions supply chain leaders ask about decision-driven supply chains

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