The shift to self-healing supply chains
Intro: As disruption becomes the norm, supply chain leaders should be building digital systems that evolve with the industry, or risk watching competitors pull ahead with AI-powered agility.:
Evidence of disruption surrounds the sector. The Panama Canal, a critical artery of global trade, now operates at reduced capacity due to dropping water levels, forcing vessels to reroute halfway around the world at considerable expense and delay. Geopolitical tensions continue to disrupt traditional supply routes and impact trade stability. Meanwhile, digital technology is expanding at a rate many organisations are struggling to keep up with or implement strategically.
Steven Timberlake, Vice President of Sales for Northern Europe at Infios, speaks to Focus and paints a vivid picture of the challenges facing supply chain leaders today.
"We are not going to live in a world that is any more certain than it currently is," he states. "Disruption and uncertainty are prerequisites that organisations are starting to incorporate into their supply chain strategies."
Steven says the rush to adopt AI is exposing fundamental weaknesses in data infrastructure. "Businesses that haven't got the fundamental building blocks in place like clean master data won't be able to adopt any form of new technology in a meaningful way," he warns.
Infios’s modular approach to supply chain execution reflects a broader industry trend away from monolithic systems that require complete replacement. Instead, organisations are increasingly seeking solutions that can be deployed incrementally, integrated with existing infrastructure, and scaled as needed.
It's this flexibility that Steven says is becoming non-negotiable in an era where business models are in flux. As an example, he raises two comparable businesses selling similar products and delivering comparable customer experiences – but only one was successful in driving future growth.
“The successful organisation understood that their supply chain was at the centre of their business model, and because they'd invested in highly adaptable solutions, they didn't have to rip out the whole system. They could just reconfigure it to be more competitive and drive that growth.”
For executives wondering where to invest, Steven says the answer lies in flexible systems that can accommodate business models which don’t exist yet. “We're going to get to a future where your customer-facing AI platforms actually have integrated shopping as well as fulfilment capabilities on the backend,” he suggests, pointing to entirely new e-commerce channels emerging from AI platforms in the future.
Looking ahead to next year, Steven believes that intelligent supply chain execution technology will advance at unprecedented rates. “We're going to see increasingly large leaps in this type of technology,” he notes. "We could be looking at jobs and talent that are required in some of these spaces that we haven't even defined yet as an industry, or as a society."
At the heart of this transformation lies agentic AI – autonomous systems capable of making real-time decisions with minimal human intervention. Steven describes emerging applications: AI systems that reroute delivery fleets when roads close unexpectedly, or warehouse management systems with AI-driven scenario planning capabilities that can serve up operational options for decision-makers – whether they’re oriented around adjusting labour schedules, reconfiguring storage zones or responding to demand surges – in the face of changing business conditions.
Supply chain technology which supports autonomous decision making will be instrumental in producing what Steven calls self-healing supply chains, capable of proactively responding to disruption. He says this vision of autonomous operations will unfold gradually, with organisations moving at different speeds based on their maturity and risk tolerance.
Some decisions – such as supply source diversification in response to geopolitical events – may remain human-led for the foreseeable future. But the trajectory is clear: supply chains are becoming increasingly intelligent and independent.
"Warehouse flexibility is evolving," he explains. "Can I position my goods in a warehouse two miles down the road on as-needs basis?" Some providers are already operating what he describes as an "Airbnb model" for warehousing. Short-term, on-demand space that allows businesses to place inventory strategically without long-term commitments.
He predicts increased diversification across supply chains, with suppliers positioning inventory closer to end customers. Meeting these expectations requires sophisticated order systems capable of identifying the closest fulfilment node and determining optimal routing in real-time. “It isn't whether disruption will occur, but whether businesses have built supply chains resilient enough to absorb it,” Steven emphasises.