Notes from building agents
What shipped, what we learned in the field, and how we think about running supply chain operations by exception.
From the FieldThe 4 Levels of automation & how to tell them apart
What gets marketed as AI, and what's running underneath, plus a tool to tell them apart.
ThinkingWhy your OTIF doesn't move
OTIF records that the plan missed. It does not record which conversation the miss started in, and the causes are settled with partners in exchanges that never reach your system of record.
ThinkingWhy the buffer keeps growing
Planners inflate lead times because they cannot see what is actually inbound. The buffer is a communication failure with a carrying cost, and reviewing the number once a year never touches the reason it is there.
ThinkingWhy email won
Email is not the problem to be eliminated. It is the only channel with full supplier coverage, and the cost sits in what a human has to do after the mail arrives.
ThinkingAsking your procurement data a question
The ten-clicks ritual is not procurement working as designed. It is an interface nobody has replaced yet, and the reason it survives is that nobody calls it a problem.