Supply chain professionals have a long history of creating simple terminology to define complex concepts, like “supply chain integration” to represent connecting different functions or “supply chain digitalization” to describe the adoption of new technologies. The latest terminology du jour? Supply chain orchestration. This concept summarizes the idea of harmonizing supply chains as a solution to many of our daily planning and execution woes, but its tidiness hides one complication: how does orchestration achieve this?
The answer to that question is creating more discord than harmony as interpretations of supply chain orchestration proliferate.
The challenge of defining supply chain orchestration
Many companies and consultants have tried to shape the meaning of supply chain orchestration to fit the needs and opportunities of the moment. These include:
- supply chain orchestration as using automation to expedite workflows, improve real-time risk monitoring, and increase resilience
- supply chain orchestration as adopting agentic AI to simplify decision making and improve planning
- supply chain orchestration as incorporating advanced analytics and scenario modeling to boost performance and agility
These options solve pressing challenges, all of which are important in their own right. Unfortunately, if you’re a supply chain leader trying to create a brighter future, sorting through countless approaches to orchestration is an obstacle to innovation. With global volatility on the rise and technologies like AI accelerating transformation, it’s critical to clarify a definition and capabilities to start seeing benefits.
[Read more: Why true supply chain orchestration demands more than just AI agents]
What does supply chain orchestration really mean?
To get to the heart of the matter, let’s work backwards from our desired outcome. The rosiest, glowing-est concept of orchestration means effortless operations across your entire, end-to-end supply chain network, from planning to execution. No matter the surprises or disruptions, your supply chain has a solution, so your business is thriving and your customers are happy.
If we start with this vision, then the key pillars driving orchestration are agility: the power to sense and respond to changes in the supply chain as quickly as they happen; transparency: the ability to act from a reliable, real-time, 360-degree view of the supply chain; and coordination: the capacity to collaborate across the entire supply chain to solve problems, identify opportunities, and accelerate innovation.
“Real orchestration means making better decisions across traditionally siloed functions–demand, supply, sourcing, logistics–in real time, all at once.””
If we combine these concepts, then supply chain orchestration is the synchronized management of processes, technology, people, and partners in real time. Supply chain orchestration approaches that use technology to benefit only portions of planning and execution processes have to be ruled out as too limited.
For supply chain orchestration to truly exist, you need:
- Real-time inputs, so everyone has access to up-to-date information, enabling them to confidently make key decisions when they matter most
- Synchronization of all functions and processes, from multi-year strategic planning through last-mile delivery. This synchronization combined with real-time inputs gives your business the speed, precision, and elegance to unlock every opportunity across your supply chain
- Processes, technology, people, and partners to be truly connected through one end-to-end solution that provides visibility and seamless collaboration
- Automation to free people from performing mundane tasks, so they can deliver strategic value
[Read more: What is supply chain orchestration?]
Powering orchestration with innovation: AI, agentic, and scenario planning
With a foundation in real-time, concurrent planning, companies can then bring in innovations to unlock further value. These include unlimited scenario planning to prepare your supply chain for any future; AI to empower people to make fast, informed decisions in even the most complex situations; agents to reduce the manual, time-consuming processes that impede decision making and action; optimization that delivers at the speed of business; and more.
Adopting these solutions without the fundamentals of supply chain orchestration is putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. But when orchestration and the latest supply chain innovations come together, they streamline operations, unlock new opportunities, and drive value.
“The future isn’t about faster alerts or slicker dashboards. It’s about embedding action, accountability, and optimization into the flow of decisions.”
Orchestration in the real world
Consider DSV, a transport and logistics company operating in over 80 countries. When the company opened a new warehouse in South Africa, they turned to Kinaxis (a solution they already use in Europe) to help them gain visibility and functional direction over planning, execution, control, and analytics for complex order flows, including end-to-end visibility at every transaction point, individual order tracking, real-time delivery notification and shipment updates, and comprehensive dashboarding.
“Information had been sitting in isolated sectors of the supply chain; Kinaxis allowed us to aggregate that data in a meaningful way on a single-view platform. We were able to interpret instructions and give feedback across several service providers and have that be visible on what we call an ‘order lifecycle view’—at a transactional level as well as at a group level,” says Brett Sauerman, General Manager of Freight Management Solutions at DSV. The results included major improvements in efficiency, productivity, and problem resolution, like a 17% increase in service provider productivity and a 76% decrease in resolution response times.
[Read more: DSV implements a single-instance control tower with a global footprint]
Supply chain orchestration: The big picture
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, supply chain orchestration stands as a transformative force that can unlock unprecedented value for organizations across every industry. While any business implementing orchestration strategies will see meaningful improvements in efficiency, the companies that truly excel are those that build their operations on concurrency, real-time data, and end-to-end collaboration. When these three elements converge, they don't just improve supply chain performance—they create a dynamic, responsive business engine that adapts to change, anticipates opportunities, and delivers exceptional value to customers while driving sustainable growth and profitability.
If you’re ready to adopt the capabilities that enable true supply chain orchestration, learn more about Kinaxis Maestro.
