Gartner defines network design as the optimization of the location and function of supply, manufacturing and distribution networks in support of an overarching company strategy and customer requirements. Supply chain network design tools support the creation of network models with the application of analytics to determine the optimal supply chain design in a structured, scalable and repeatable way. Supply chain network design tools support the determination of recommendations about the structure of the supply chain network. This includes decisions about facility locations and size, transport lanes, and modes in the end-to-end supply chain. The scale of the changes being evaluated vary from small modifications, such as changing a mode of transport or swapping transportation lanes, to large-scale changes that involve opening/closing/repurposing several facilities in the network and the associated knock on impacts. The use of supply chain network design tools to support the decision-making process enables companies to review more potential configurations for the network than a manual process allows, supporting a complete, data-driven decision making process. These decisions are usually made in strategic and tactical time frames.
Gartner defines supply chain planning (SCP) solutions as platforms that provide technological support to enable a company to manage, link, align, collaborate and share its planning data across an extended supply chain. An SCP solution supports planning, ranging from demand planning through detailed supply-side response planning and from strategic planning through execution-level planning. It is the planning decision repository for a defined end-to-end supply chain. It is also the environment in which end-to-end-integrated supply chain decisions are managed. It establishes a single version of the truth for planning data and decisions, regardless of the underlying execution technology environment. Organizations use SCP solutions to improve their supply chain planning decisions and reach higher levels of maturity.
Gartner defines transportation management systems (TMSs) as software that supports multimodal planning and execution of the physical transport of goods across the supply chain. It allows a company to manage varying levels of transportation complexity across multiple transport modes and geographic regions. TMS solutions are utilized by companies of differing sizes, operational complexity, industries and geographic locations. TMS solutions are utilized to plan and execute the physical transport of goods across the supply chain. They provide a company with the ability to manage the entire transportation life cycle of an order or shipment. This includes: 1. Sourcing and procuring transportation capacity from third-party companies by supporting bid management and optimization. Intaking orders to provide a shipment plan, including order and shipment consolidation, mode selection, routes, and carrier selection. 2. Taking the shipment plan and enabling communications with carriers to facilitate execution against the plan. 3. Tracking and tracing the movements of shipments from pickup to final delivery. 4. Matching expected transportation charges against actual charges to manage discrepancies. 5. Making better transportation decisions by utilizing embedded analytics and reporting capabilities to measure key performance indicators, such as on-time performance, emissions calculations, and costs by customer, product line and location. TMS solutions enable a company to have tighter control of their transportation operations, optimize costs, improve efficiencies, and have improved visibility into the movement of goods.