Optilogic Blog Posts

Learn whether a POC is right for you, define success criteria, and discover efficient approaches for evaluating solutions with expert guidance.

Explore the top supply chain design blogs of the year, packed with actionable insights on taxes and duties, inventory policies, nearshoring, and more.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about “continuous supply chain design” from planning vendors. The problem is the technology they are touting is a parlor trick. Here’s how true continuous supply chain design works and how to take the first step.

Explore how to democratize supply chain design through user-friendly tools like Excel, empowering business users with domain knowledge to make informed decisions and effectively optimizing supply chain networks.

Discover the latest enhancements in Cosmic Frog, including Leapfrog AI, Ease of use features including Model Assistant and Help and Tips. Also an exciting feature update to Hopper Transportation Route Optimization.

Explore how taxes and duties influence supply chain design, affecting not only cost but also service levels and risk. Understand the intricate ways in which different tax regimes can shape logistical decisions and overall supply chain efficiency. Learn effective strategies for integrating tax considerations into your planning processes to optimize performance and enhance profitability.

This blog post discusses strategic preparedness for geopolitical disruptions, highlighting supply chain design and empowering decision-makers. Discover actionable insights and innovative solutions to enhance resilience and agility in your organization’s supply chain amidst global uncertainty.

Discover the scariest supply chain design problems that manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies are facing, and how you can vanquish them.

Discover how intelligent supply chain design enables executives to evaluate cost, service, risk, and sustainability trade-offs of changes to global supply chains. Explore case studies and strategies shaping the future of supply chains in Asia and around the world.

During an election year, uncertainty always seems to ramp up until a winner is declared. This year’s election is different from most. Hear from supply chain expert Don Hicks in this CCJ podcast.

Discover how these six innovative modeling tools within Cosmic Frog revolutionize supply chain design, driving efficiency and value in complex environments. Transform your operations, streamline processes, and enhance decision-making with our game-changing solutions.

The October 2024 product update introduces new features that enhance functionality, improve user experience, and drive productivity. Take a closer look at what’s new.

Supply chain simulation is the most granular modeling technique. This preferred method for service level analysis shows how business rules, policies, product requirements, etc. impact demand, manufacturing cycle times, staffing requirements, transportation lead times, and more. These insights can be instrumental for a multi-tiered supply chain’s inventory strategy.

Mid-market company supply chains grapple with many of the same challenges large companies face. Here’s why supply chain design is crucial to the future success of mid-market companies and how they can take advantage of the same technology and benefits as their Fortune 100 counterparts.

Discover six crucial tips for evaluating supply chain design solutions and ensure you select the best fit for your company. Learn about ease of integration, advanced analytics, customization, and expert support to optimize your supply chain strategy effectively.

Argon & Co. and Optilogic teamed up to help a life sciences client redefine their distribution strategy to adapt to manufacturing changes, reduce costs, and enhance customer service. This article explains how we approached the project and why we selected Optilogic Cosmic Frog as the supply chain design solution.

Discover the latest enhancements in Cosmic Frog, including data validation features, custom tables UX, resource library improvements, enhanced security, and seamless integration to streamline your workflow and improve user experience.

Developing internal competency for supply chain design and network optimization capabilities is at the core of not only supply chain success but also the success of your entire company.

How do you select a supply chain design provider? Explore key insights from Optilogic founder and CEO Don Hicks and Ryan Bischoff of C.H. Robinson.

2024 is a significant year for elections which could significantly impact trade policies. Here’s how to prepare your supply chain for 2024 elections and their impact on the global economy.

Explore how supply chain design tackles the pressing issue of global port congestion, delving into strategies, technologies, and innovations that optimize logistical pathways, mitigate disruptions, and ensure smooth operations in the face of evolving challenges.

Spring is here and at Optilogic our entire team is energized and excited to introduce loads of useful new features in our supply chain design solution to help designers do more in less time—and dare we say have more fun? 

If you’re searching for the best supply chain design optimization tools, review our list below to learn how the right supply chain design tool can make your planning more efficient and help you achieve your KPIs.

Inventory policies and rules play a critical role in your organization’s supply chain design. Getting these factors right is essential to customer service levels and cost efficiency. Here’s how and why to define inventory policies and rules for your business.

Learn how to use Cosmic Frog Sensitivity at Scale: Automatically create hundreds or thousands of sensitivity scenarios and rapidly analyze on Optilogic’s supply chain design platform to select the most resilient designs.

If you’re searching for alternatives to Coupa LLamasoft for supply chain design, review our list below to learn how the right supply chain design tool can optimize your network design and help you achieve your KPIs.

An increasing number of U.S. companies are evaluating how to move all or part of their supply chain out of China to increase resiliency. Here’s how to model your China supply chain exit strategy to reduce risk and improve service.

The Optilogic team is excited to share great new Cosmic Frog features for the new year, including usability improvements, new Resource Library templates and reference data, and much more.

Optilogic Cosmic Frog addresses your facility location questions and empowers you with the data and tools to make smart choices with greenfield analysis. Learn how Cosmic Frog helps you determine facility location in supply chain design.

When planning for new facilities or market expansion, reducing transportation expenses and emissions without sacrificing customer service is a tricky problem to solve. The obvious solution is through reducing the distance between you and your customers, but you can’t run an unlimited number of distribution centers.

Finding the balance between unlimited distribution centers and high transportation costs requires some serious math—how do you narrow down site options before you get into the optimization model? That’s where greenfield analysis comes in.

INSIGHT Software was just acquired by Optilogic. Here’s how INSIGHT pioneered some of the most critical capabilities in supply chain design today and left an indelible mark in the industry over its 40-year history.

US companies are more hesitant than ever when it comes to manufacturing in China. Ongoing trade tensions push many US companies to re-evaluate supply chains and diversify sourcing options to remain resilient in the face of China supply chain issues. In this post, we expose China supply chain risks and explain how to build a resilient supply chain that can withstand disruptions.

The automotive industry has experienced high volatility in recent years. The pandemic all but halted manufacturing across nearly every industry, including automotive. In 2024, the automotive industry is experiencing new trends shaping behaviors at every step along the supply chain.

This article explores trends in the automotive industry in 2024 and how companies can take advantage of these trends to see greater success.

What if Santa had Cosmic Frog transportation route optimization? See how Santa uses Cosmic Frog to optimize Christmas deliveries and learn how the model is built.

No matter how good your supply chain planning is, you can’t plan your way out of a bad supply chain design. With supply chain design software, you can step back and assess the full supply chain picture, ask “what if?” and test the limits, and shift your efficiency curve to a new level.

The Optilogic team has been hard at work to deliver a load of great new Cosmic Frog features, including transportation route optimization, Lightning Editor improvements, simplified navigation, new model templates, and more.

Every supply chain technology vendor is clamoring to tell you about their digital twin capability, but what is a “digital twin”? Here’s the real story on one of the industry’s most over-hyped and overused buzzwords.

Scary supply chains are haunting grown-up nightmares this time of year. Don’t be afraid…here are five of the scariest supply chain design problems and how you can solve them with the Cosmic Frog supply chain design solution to sleep peacefully again.

Optilogic’s CEO, Don Hicks appears on The Logistic Matters Podcast to discuss nearshoring in the global supply chain industry.

This article from Optilogic explores the intricacies of production capacity planning and why your organization should implement this strategy in your supply chain design.

Inventory drives revenue (and success) for your organization, and for many companies, inventory is the primary revenue stream. As a result, inventory management and planning must be a priority. Explore the best practices for inventory management.

Frogger Pond is the premier online destination for supply chain designers to share best practices, connect with peers, and contribute to thought leadership. We’re thrilled to announce that our platform is live and ready for you to explore. 

The Optilogic Frogger Pond community is live! It’s the premier online destination for supply chain designers to share questions, ideas, job postings, give product feedback, and more.

Sequential optimization is a powerful optimization technique used in supply chain modeling. It involves breaking down a multi-objective optimization problem into a series of single-objective sub-problems. Here’s how to use sequential optimization in Cosmic Frog.

Nearshoring isn’t just a buzzword. The pandemic highlighted a dire need for supply chain resilience across the board.  

While supply shortages, bottlenecks, and crazy-long lead times hurt, they painted a clear picture of what your supply chain needs going forward. For many, that picture looked a lot like the map of North America.

Your supply chain strategy is central to your success. Both supply chain design and supply chain planning fall within ‘supply chain management’. Both concepts, with differing focuses and objectives, are essential for the successful operation of a supply chain.  

An organization’s supply chain is foundational to day-to-day and long-term operations. Intentional and strategic supply chain design empowers businesses to understand how to operate most effectively, efficiently, and intentionally to hit target KPIs and meet various organizational goals.  

Your supply chain network design ensures your organization has defined, created, and optimized the ideal supply chain for your needs. Effective supply chains require intentional network design, and Optilogic’s platform empowers you to create and implement those smart supply chain designs.  

Optilogic Cosmic Frog is the fastest and best choice for supply chain network design within a simplified user interface. For skilled modelers and developers who want to create custom applications or tailored workflows to fit specific business problems, the Optilogic Atlas developer platform is the perfect solution.

Resiliency is critical to an effectively constructed and balanced supply chain. Scenario modeling empowers you to intentionally create supply chains that can withstand even the most disruptive events.

Your supply chain design center of excellence (COE) empowers your organization to hit its targets through balanced, sustainable, resilient supply chain design. Building your COE requires strategic intentionality to create a team that understands your organizational culture, goals, and potential. Here’s how to build a COE that drives success.

From personalized supply chain risk profiles and sequential optimization to automated cost-to-serve and easier model building from templates, read on to learn about the new capabilities available today for Optilogic users.

As your organization embarks upon capital expenditure (CapEx) planning, you want data-driven insights to guide your decision-making. This article from the Optilogic team explores capital expenditure planning for mergers and acquisitions and walks through various best practices to help you execute a CapEx plan that leads to long-term growth and success.

If your business has a physical supply chain, supply chain network design is central to your success. By understanding and optimizing supply chain network design, you positively impact every aspect of your business. Read on to learn the goals, benefits, and best practices of supply chain network design that will help your organization thrive.

It’s very rare that an organization or an individual has the exact same problem to solve as someone else. Often, we’ll find organizations using multiple software tools for specific business functions – and even then the solution isn’t perfect for them. Does this mean we should just settle for less-than-perfect solutions to our problems? Absolutely not. Imagine having the power to build a custom application within the same environment you’re modeling. That’s what we’re about at Optilogic.

Your supply chain design affects every aspect of your organization’s success. You can’t rely on antiquated systems to design supply chains that work in a modern market. Understanding the importance of supply chain network design empowers you to establish smart, resilient supply chains that grow with you and adapt to constant market fluctuations. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

In 2024 logistics and 3PL companies are up against significant challenges that threaten their sustainability. Here are six top challenges facing the logistics industry and how your company can respond to these challenges and proactively position itself for success.

Your supply chain design plays a crucial role in your greenhouse gas emission––and reduction. Optimizing your network design empowers you to reduce your carbon footprint without sacrificing quality, productivity, or profits.

Read on to learn how to prioritize sustainability in supply chain management and how Optilogic’s platform can help you create, prioritize, and implement green practices starting now.

Cost-to-serve is a critical practice in supply chain design that helps companies make more informed decisions about how to optimize their operations for maximum efficiency and profitability. A cost-to-serve analysis evaluates the total costs associated with serving a particular customer or segment.

Your business might be in the black, but that doesn’t mean all your customers are profitable. Customer segments can vary widely in profitability, which is why cost-to-serve analysis is so important. Understanding the cost distribution for your customer base can help you optimize your supply chain to prioritize the most profitable customers and products.

Traditional optimization-only approaches to inventory planning fall short in the face of protracted uncertainty. Here’s why simulation is the best inventory management technology you never knew you needed.

For consumer goods companies to adapt and thrive, leadership must adapt to industry trends. Here are trends the CPG industry faces in 2024 and how companies can evolve to meet new consumer demands.

While challenges are unavoidable, manufacturers can take proactive steps to embrace these challenges as opportunities for growth. This Optilogic blog explores the challenges the manufacturing industry faces in 2023 and how companies can overcome them to win their market.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global events like the war on Ukraine, it wasn’t long before the global supply chain as we knew it had nearly ground to a halt. Today, as we’ve emerged from the worst of it, we’ve learned some crucial lessons about how to design supply chains.

Recently, a series of crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstruction of the Suez Canal had a major impact on the global supply chain, resulting in disruptions such as temporary shortages, delayed deliveries, increased uncertainty, and higher costs for goods and services.

You understand the importance of looking at a myriad of scenarios as part of the supply chain decision-making process, but some of the terms technology vendors use nowadays can be confusing. Good examples are scenario modeling,
what if analysis, and simulation. 
What’s the difference between each approach?

It’s that time again—an opportunity to look back on the past 12 months and ahead to what the new year will bring. You don’t need to be a supply chain expert to know that we still have challenges ahead.

In anticipation of Christmas, we thought we’d have a bit of fun and build a Cosmic Frog supply chain design model to help Santa distribute gifts in the U.S., considering service (on-time gift delivery) and risk (to ensure reliability).

We’ve pulled together the top 11 Cosmic Frog FAQs that get into the nitty gritty of why Cosmic Frog is your new go-to supply chain design tool. Hop in and take a peek!

You’ve heard over and over again that supply chains must be agile and resilient. Every article, blog post, and podcast stresses the importance of mitigating risk and being able to quickly respond to the disruptions that today’s world continues to produce. It’s clear that Risk Management is a hot topic in supply chain management, but companies are often left scratching their heads on how to stay ahead of future risks instead of just reacting to disruptions that can be seen on the horizon.

Many companies are shifting to hyperscale cloud computing for its speed, reduced downtime losses, easier management, and more. Hyperscaling enables users to ask more what-if questions so that they can get more accurate answers, faster. That means more time to actually pinpoint the best strategy that fits your needs, in regards to financials, service, and risk.

While Retailers spend a lot of time building their outbound distribution network, elements of the supply chain like returns, repair, and recycled items are usually not on the radar of the supply chain team. Have you ever been able to return packaging to retailers so they can use the material again? Metrics like contribution to landfill, water resource usage per sku, CO2 contribution per sku, and return cost per sku are usually not top of mind for executives. It’s usually about revenue, new store sales, and margin.

For the last few years, the team at Optilogic has been busy rethinking the approach to Supply Chain Design. As most of the team has been working in this space for the past decade or two (or more for some of us), we’ve been seeing a need to shift how we model supply chains, what metrics are most important, and what technology to use to successfully deploy supply chain models, simulations and optimizations.

OptiCon 2022 was definitely one for the books. We discussed topics ranging from how technology innovation was born, sustained and how Supply Chain Design can be re-imagined by combining optimization, simulation, risk management, and cloud hyper-scaling. In case you missed it, here are a few key takeaways from our supply chain thought leadership conference.

A comprehensive Supply Chain Design process that combines optimization, simulation and risk assessment will help you understand the weak-links in your supply chain, and to quickly analyze alternatives when there are profound cost fluctuations or disruptions.

An effective supply chain structure (or architecture) enhances a network’s inherent ability to resist the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions. Because supply chains are generally large and complex, they have posed a challenge to effective planning and decision making, especially when unexpected disruptions occur. This challenge ushered in an era that leaned heavily on computers and complex software to provide decision support capabilities.

Before we can prepare for what’s next, we first need to understand the past. The importance of supply chains pre-dates us by as much as two and a half millennia! Ancient philosophers and tacticians (like Homer and Sun Tzu) wrote about “supplies” and “logistics” and how those impact military campaigns, political aspirations, and other outcomes.

By now, we’ve all either heard of or personally experienced the impact of the global chip shortage. But how did our automotive supply chain get to this distressed state? In the simplest of terms, what we’re seeing is the result of strong demand with essentially no supply. This concept is nothing new. In fact, supply chains can be specifically built to withstand shocks to the system. However, the pandemic was something that our supply chain simply wasn’t prepared for, and we’re still feeling its impact, two years later. Here’s what you need to know.

The day-to-day at Optilogic is constantly changing (and fun), and the way that users implement our software has continued to surprise and inspire us. In a recent project, we built out an application that combined both demand analytics and optimization for short and long term supply chain development.

Recently the Optilogic team has been running into projects that require simulation or a combination of simulations and advanced solving techniques to properly address customer questions about their supply chains. Here are our thoughts on why simulation is becoming more common as a modeling tool than in years past, and how it can make a major impact on any business.

I was listening to Jonathan Wright, Global Managing Partner for Supply Chain Consulting at IBM – discussing with Malcolm Gladwell on his podcast Managing supply chain volatility in the height of the shopping season the latest evolution of supply chain innovation spawned by the global pandemic. And it got me thinking…

Figuring out which Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) solver to use can be difficult. You may be thinking, do I really need to scale or can I get by with open-source solvers?

Science = art. Both are well crafted, full of meaning, and clean in design. And modeling is the perfect combination of art and science. It is both wildly creative and filled with patterns in nature. But what exactly is modeling?

We’re thrilled to announce that we have upgraded our platform and have partnered with Gurobi, the world’s fastest mathematical optimization solver on the market. By joining forces with Gurobi, the Optilogic platform now offers a complete end-to-end solution for high-fidelity modeling, optimization, and deployment.

Since the launch of Optilogic, we’re beyond excited to see the influx of new users and what they’ve been able to accomplish in our cloud-based platform. As optimizations continue to get more advanced, we’ve decided to assemble a core team to provide the support users will need to make the most awesome applications. Introducing Mark Outslay, Head of Professional Services at Optilogic. Mark has a 20 year career in supply chain technology and consulting. He works out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Modelers and engineers from around the world have formulated and coded their optimization and simulation models to solve some of the world’s most complicated problems. Whether you’re modeling the full supply chain of the world’s biggest grocery stores or the performance of a pro athlete, our world is getting better at presenting answers. However, modeling is a lot more nuanced than just knowing what you need to answer. How do we know if we’re asking the right questions? Are we optimizing for the right problem? How confident are we in the results of our optimizations?