Today’s global businesses operate in an increasingly complex environment influenced by multiple forces. Labor challenges, geopolitical risks, shifting trade policies, evolving supplier and customer dynamics, changes in manufacturing footprints, and rapid advances in technology all pose potential threats to the stability and performance of supply chain networks. These shocks and their increasing frequency have made the traditional annual cycle for supply chain planning insufficient. To sustain operational efficiency and financial performance, organizations need an adaptive, insight‑driven supply network that provides both resilience and flexibility.
In our last article, “From Pandemics to Protectionism: Resilient Supply Chains Are the Answer,” we explored how global disruptions — from health crises to trade barriers — demand increased capacity for supply chain networks to absorb these disruptions and continue operations. This follow‑up article launches a new series on supply chain transformation, making the case for continuous network optimization as a cornerstone of any roadmap designed to build networks that adapt — rather than merely react.
The New Supply Chain Reality: 3-5-Year Network Plans Are Now A Liability, Not A Strategy
Supply chains are complex networks connecting suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers through upstream and downstream flows. Historically, these systems operated with fixed processes and relatively stable commercial relationships. Today, disruptions can strike anywhere — from material sourcing to final delivery — making static, long-cycle planning irrelevant and unresponsive. Yet many supply chain networks are still planned and refreshed as if that stability is still the norm, following an approach akin to a typical strategic plan with 3-5-year time horizon.
In today’s world of increasing digitalization, geo-political, trade, and climate risks, scaled enterprises must seriously consider how to transition their supply chain network management from periodic planning to an always-on process, continuously monitoring demand, cost, supply and logistics signals, and surfacing alerts when network changes are needed. This requires rethinking all aspects of your supply chain elements: contract terms, vendor ecosystem, communications, etc., and approaching them as organic and adaptable, not terms fixed over a set timeframe.
Leading/successful organizations are keeping a multi‑year strategic horizon while shifting to continuous network optimization as the operating model. Ankura frequently engages with clients in this work, sometimes in collaboration with Coupa Supply Chain. Dean Bain, senior vice president and general manager for Coupa Supply Chain, has this to say about moving to continuous optimization:
“In today’s environment, resilience isn’t built through periodic redesign — it’s built through continuous intelligence. Organizations that embed always-on digital twins into their operating model gain the ability to anticipate disruption, quantify trade-offs in real time, and align supply chain decisions directly to enterprise value. Continuous Network Design isn’t just a planning upgrade — it’s a fundamental transformation in how supply chains create competitive advantage.”
Responding to the New Supply Chain Reality: A Practical Path Forward
For organizations looking to move toward resilient, continuously-optimized networks, a practical roadmap that includes the following objectives is essential:
- Building a strong foundation
- Effective response to uncertainty
- Supply chain priorities aligned with business objectives
- Exposure of financial and operational trade‑offs
- Delivery of measurable, optimized outcomes
As leaders make this shift, decision velocity becomes essential to respond to changing conditions — but achieving it requires the right tools and technology, combined with human expertise and decision criteria, to accelerate decision‑making without limiting optimization alternatives or constraining enterprise value. This shift can be understood through three key dimensions:
1. Starting the Journey: Creating a Robust, Data‑Driven Baseline as the Foundation for Continuous Network Design
Described as “continuous network optimization” or “continuous network design,” this approach to network management borrows concepts from software development by replacing the traditional waterfall process of planning, implementation, and operation of these networks with an iterative, adaptive approach. In this more agile framework recommended adjustments, based on results data, are resubmitted to the operational planning models, making network design a recurring, near-real-time activity. This continuous design approach enables the supply chain to respond dynamically to changes in demand, cost, and service requirements, and thus transforms into a model that continuously absorbs and responds to a growing number of dynamic inputs.
To build a strong foundation for adaptive network decision‑making, organizations must first establish a clear and fact‑based representation of the current state of the business. This includes understanding core operational processes and critical constraints — the true drivers of total landed cost — as well as external factors, while also defining realistic future scenarios aligned with overall business strategy and evolving industry dynamics. The objective is to create a repeatable decision‑making playbook that explicitly aligns supply chain choices with enterprise strategy and financial objectives, creating clarity and discipline before pursuing optimization. Hidden costs might even be revealed during the current state understanding, before real optimization even begins.
2. Enabling Adaptive Network Planning: The Role of Data and Digital Tools to Inform Responsive Decision-Making
Modern design principles and advanced tools can now effectively help take risks out of this transformation. The use of advanced analytics, predictive analytics, and machine learning to continuously process large data sets and support frequent redesign makes this a scenario evaluation exercise, not trial-and-error. What was once an infrequent, high‑stakes redesign effort can now become a structured, repeatable decision process.
Digital modeling and “what‑if” analysis enable organizations to revisit and refine network configurations more frequently as conditions change — but technology alone is not the answer. In our experience, Coupa Supply Chain stands out as one of the industry leaders for developing this continuous network design capability, providing the necessary platform to turn complex data into actionable strategy.
The sheer volume, velocity, and interdependence of data make manual analysis unsustainable and incomplete. Human expertise remains essential, but only when combined with analytical tools that can reveal tradeoffs clearly, test alternatives comprehensively, and quantify impacts across cost, service, resilience, and risk. This is where Ankura serves as a strategic partner, ensuring that technology acts as a true enabler for agile and robust decision-making by bridging the gap between advanced tools and business leadership.
Maximizing Impact with Coupa: Best Practices
To truly capitalize on Coupa’s capabilities, organizations should adopt a few foundational practices:
- Establish a “living” digital twin: Move beyond project-based models by maintaining a data-ready representation of the network that is updated regularly, not just during crises.
- Institutionalize scenarios: Use the platform to run periodic “stress tests” on the network, evaluating how it would perform under sudden labor shortages or port closings or congestion before they happen.
- Cross-functional governance: Ensure that procurement, logistics, and finance are aligned on the same data set within the tool to eliminate silos and speed up the approval of network changes.
Accessibility and quality of data are crucial elements of effective network planning. As you review your historical data, examine every static network assumption and planning cycle for how well they adapt to continuously changing conditions. Shifts in demand, frequent stock-keeping unit (SKU) rotation, evolving customer requirements, and ongoing cost pressures all expose the limitations of one‑time optimization approaches. And do not assume that all the key elements of any supply chain network are equal in their potential to disrupt or require modification on the same cadence. Labor, weather, geopolitical impacts, procurement considerations, including supply input scarcity and the process to secure and take delivery, do not all bear the same risks and should be calibrated either probabilistically or financially to account for risk variances
Focusing on your historical data helps pinpoint elements that warrant ongoing monitoring and flexibility, from the most to least frequent change drivers. This establishes a baseline for building scenarios, redesigning supply chain operations, and supporting more adaptive, continuous decision-making. Digital tools and advanced analytics now make it feasible to revisit network assumptions quarterly or even monthly, without waiting for the next formal planning cycle. This, combined with clear business goals and execution alignment, yields true competitive advantage.
3. Connecting the Bottom-Line Impact: How Network Agility Drives Financial Performance
Network agility has become a direct driver of financial performance. Supply chains that can adapt quickly to demand and supply disruptions are better positioned to protect margins, reduce unnecessary costs, and unlock growth opportunities. Understanding the impact of supply chains on enterprise financial health is essential because supply‑chain‑related costs make up a substantial portion of almost any Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). APQC[1] shows that COGS for supply‑chain‑driven costs can reach 60% or more of revenue.
An agile network allows organizations to make smarter trade‑offs — balancing inventory, transportation, and service levels in real time — rather than relying on fixed assumptions that quickly become outdated. This flexibility yields tangible financial benefits, and when supply chain networks are designed to adjust as conditions change, they move from being a cost center to a strategic lever that strengthens both the top and bottom line.
Now What?
The challenge is to get started. Supply chains must evolve continuously to remain competitive.
In our next article (part two), we will examine how data, technology, and digital twins enable that evolution by improving readiness and decision quality — network optimization powered by data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI).
And in part three, we will link adaptive network design to responsive corporate decisioning, yielding positive financial performance and enterprise value.
Stay tuned as we guide you on the transformation journey from periodic optimization to continuous network design — the foundation of supply chain resilience and enterprise value creation in an age of constant disruption.
References
[1] APQC reference Cost of goods sold as a percentage of revenue | APQC
© Copyright 2026. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
