AIMMS, a leading vendor of prescriptive analytics software, is pleased to announce that it has been named in Gartner’s report, “Hype Cycle for Chief Supply Chain Officers, 2016.” The company is listed in the report as a sample vendor in the areas of prescriptive analytics and network design.

With events like the Brexit, supply chain leaders are facing a wave of volatility and rising complexity. Supply chain networks are under strain and facing ever more risks. At the same time, companies are experiencing data fatigue and cannot keep up with the pace of change using traditional tools. In order to thrive in this fast-paced business environment and, “to build a successful bimodal supply chain, chief supply chain officers must balance operational excellence with disruptive innovation,” according to Gartner. The report provides an overview of the critical technologies, business frameworks and competencies supply chain leaders need to achieve this. AIMMS can be leveraged to build several of these competencies, including prescriptive analytics capabilities and network design, as mentioned in the report. It also provides decision support for planning, manufacturing, S&OP/IBP, pricing and much more.

Gartner defines prescriptive analytics as “a set of analytical capabilities that finds a course of action to meet a predefined objective, such as maximizing revenue or minimizing costs.” The output of prescriptive analytics is a recommended action. Prescriptive analytics can improve decision-making in several areas of the supply chain, including logistics, planning and manufacturing. Most importantly, as Gartner states, “prescriptive analytics can be deployed to improve the end-to-end supply chain performance because it can recommend a course of action that best manages the trade-offs among conflicting functional goals.” It is a high benefit technology that AIMMS customers such as Nike, BP and Shell are already leveraging for fact-based, real time decision making in critical supply chain planning processes.

Gartner describes network design as “the optimization of the location, function and ownership of supply and distribution networks in support of overarching company strategy and customer requirements.” A successful network design can result in a lower cost to serve, the ability to respond quickly to fluctuations in demand and increased supply chain resilience. Although companies have traditionally considered network design a one-off project, industry leaders are creating detailed models using technologies like AIMMS to re-evaluate their network and improve production and distribution on an ongoing basis. AIMMS customers such as Thailand’s leading oil and gas company, PTT, are using the AIMMS Prescriptive Analytics platform for strategic network design.

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