GAINS Unveils Supply Chain Design Solution Engineered for Continuous Decision-Making in Volatile Times

CHICAGO — GAINSystems, a provider of innovative cloud-based supply chain planning solutions, today unveiled GAINS Continuous Network Flow Optimization (CNFO) at the 2022 Gartner® Supply Chain Symposium/XPO™ in Orlando. CNFO was developed in collaboration with our customers and GAINS Lab’s data scientists to align the speed of decision-making with continuous supply chain changes. The new offering uses real-time data to drive immediate actions that address critical supply chain questions, strategic to tactical, including:

  • How do we rebalance our inventory policies based on real-time changes in supply and demand?
  • How can we continually configure our supply chain to boost profitability?
  • Where should we source new products today?
  • How much inventory is needed; where should it be?
  • What are our options when things change? Can we take immediate action?
  • How do we continuously balance cost-to-serve with profitability?

“Our company has seen tremendous growth coupled with supply chain resiliency challenges across all of our customer segments,” states Tony Serati, Vice President of Procurement at Border States. “The speed at which we have been able to pivot our planning and strategies with GAINS in a volatile market has been remarkable. We are excited about the announcement of GAINS Continuous Network Flow Optimization as we work as partners to continue to become more resilient, better serve our customers, and optimize the supply chain.”

“Born out of GAINS Labs, CNFO is based on customer and market feedback,” shares Bill Benton, Co-Founder of GAINS. “Our primary research discovered that the batch, ad-hoc nature of traditional modeling tools and techniques, and the lack of a corresponding information architecture, created an environment that didn’t produce results within meaningful timeframes. This traditional process didn’t support the speed of continuous change, and this is why GAINS developed CNFO.”

In 2021, Gartner® published a report titled Top Reasons Why Supply Chain Design Initiatives Fail and What to Do About It, stating, “An analysis of over 1,000 Gartner inquiries on network design indicates that network optimization initiatives do not always meet expectations for cost optimization, did not improve decision-making under uncertainty and did not improve customer service.” This failure hinges on the length of time required by traditional decision-making approaches. They often take months, if not years, to gather and validate data from multiple systems and analyze it through siloed tools, all of which are disconnected from actual operations. When the insights are completed, business conditions have changed, and the answers are no longer relevant or actionable.

Harness variability with planning velocity

Speed is a business’ most significant competitive advantage. CNFO continuously discovers network opportunities so organizations can dramatically compress the time to plan horizon and implement incremental changes in real-time. This new process drives continuous results that take advantage of today’s ever-changing and uncertain economic environments. Change is no longer a detriment to a business; instead, it’s an opportunity to react faster than its competition to gain market share. Its approach differs by seeking continuous, relevant, and actionable results that can be immediately put into action.

Off-the-Shelf Digital Twin Technology Enables Rapid Deployment

CNFO’s digital twin technology uses a single canonical data model leveraging the operational data stores and detailed transaction information traditionally found within ERP and supply chain planning applications to dynamically change and configure designs and flows at the pace of change. This approach allows businesses to rapidly and continuously iterate key decisions on customers, channels, suppliers, inventory, and their associated flows to optimize supply chain performance.

CNFO is the latest innovation built on the GAINS Supply Chain Performance Optimization Platform. GAINS uses embedded AI and machine learning (ML) to help customers move forward faster by delivering measurable value to its customers in months, not years. The comprehensive solution uses digital twin technology to automate complex demand planning, inventory optimization, supply planning, and scenario analysis so companies can mitigate inflation and recession-proof their businesses. The cloud platform, now including CNFO, allows distribution, wholesale, manufacturing, and retail companies to move forward faster, delivering robust and easy-to-use capabilities built for the enterprise but accessible by all.

For information on CNFO, visit GAINS at booth #336 at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium or visit https://gainsystems.com/cnfo/.

Source: Gartner Top Reasons Why Supply Chain Design Initiatives Fail and What to Do About It, Vicky Forman, Kamala Raman, July 21, 2021. 

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