Moving into 2025, Gartner is recommending Chief Supply Chain Officers make broader use of the so-called “stop, start, continue” approach, which is increasingly popular across functions and levels of an organization.
As the name indicates, the approach looks for decisions on what strategies and activities should be stopped, started and continued, analyzed with an objective mindset.
Applying the technique more broadly “can help CSCOs reveal some glaring opportunities and serious pitfalls,” says Gartner analyst Wade McDaniel in a recent blog post.
As a backdrop to such an exercise, McDaniel says that cost control became increasingly important in the latter half of 2024 and is expected to gain momentum in 2025.
“But we all know that supply chains don’t turn on a dime - and by that, I mean turn upward,” McDaniel writes, adding “Amidst all the focus on costs, supply chains must be made future-ready.
When it comes to things to stop doing, McDaniel encourages companies to look at activities that cause friction in the supply chain.
One example cited is forcing workers back to the office after several years of working from home.
“But once they’re in the office, they continue to have virtual meetings and use GenAI to craft their communications with their colleagues,” McDaniel says, adding that “We’re building corporate culture, but is it one that we want to scale and foster?”
Next, what to start? McDaniel says one important thing is to start thinking differently, and he notes that “The trick is to start thinking differently in our current roles, not by finding a change of venue.”
That includes thinking about how to prosper from supply chain disruptions, not just survive them. Some call this building an “anti-fragile” strategy,
“Flexibility should be seen as an investment, not just an insurance policy,” McDaniel adds, writing that “It's about making decisions with sufficient data rather than waiting for perfect data. Uncertainty should motivate teams, not be shrugged off or hidden.”
Finally, what to continue? McDaniel says for many companies that includes expanding use of – what else – AI.
Gartner research indicates that expectations on the use of AI in the supply chain need adjustment, as planning and forecasting, where adoption is happening, “are not GenAI’s strong suits.”
(See More Below)
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Most valuable from the whole blog is the graphic below, which provides a “heat map” of what processes are most suited for AI adoption:
“Most of us have already implemented our strategy and plans for 2025, but most of us also agree that the environment could quickly shift by the end of Q1,” McDaniel concludes, adding that using this Agile [stop, start, continue] framework on an ongoing basis has proven to be an effective way to adapt under shifting circumstances. But to be agile, we already need to be in motion.
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