Analyst Insight: As supply chain complexity increases, together with an accelerating pace of business, supply chain visibility becomes critical. Some companies boast of immediate access to any information they need within their four walls; but this is simply no longer a competitive capability. In the quest for faster go-to-market and time-to-customer, real-time – or near real-time – continuous access and visibility is necessary not only within the four walls but across the extended supply chain. This remains an elusive goal for many companies. – Robert Eastman, Senior Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers
Discrete manufacturing companies operating with highly complex supply chains in today's volatile business world need collaborative planning and the ability to quickly respond to variances in those plans. They often want to model 'what-if' scenarios to better prepare them for those inevitable hiccups - or new business.
Kinaxis designed its RapidResponse solution to help companies with demand and supply balancing, optimized forecasting, and improved supply chain performance. Recently it debuted an enhanced version called RapidResponse Control Tower.
The past few years have brought radical changes to the world of supply chain management. The business climate today is not only more complex, due to shorter product life cycles, increasing service demands from channels, price erosion and global customers with specialized needs but much more uncertain due to supply risks.
