Hi, welcome to ChainTech Brief.
I’ve worked in supply chain and operations for more than 12 years, and one thing that’s become obvious is how much the field now depends on technology.
Whether you work in procurement, manufacturing, planning, inventory, or logistics, there’s probably a system somewhere helping you track information, talk to suppliers, analyze data, or make decisions. That part isn’t new.
What’s different now is the pace. There’s always a new AI tool being announced, a startup raising money, an established company adding a capability, or one company buying another. It’s hard to keep up.
And even when you do hear about something new, you’re still left with questions. Does this actually solve a real problem? Where would it fit inside an existing supply chain? Who would actually use it, and is it worth paying attention to or mostly hype?
Those are the questions I find myself asking. ChainTech Brief is my way of working through them, forming my own opinions, and sharing what I learn.
Why I Started ChainTech Brief
There’s no shortage of supply chain technology news. Most coverage does a good job telling you what happened: a company raised funding, a product launched, an acquisition closed, a regulation was introduced.
But knowing what happened doesn’t tell you why it matters.
Say a company announces a new platform that promises better planning or lower costs. That sounds great, but what would a company actually need in place before it could work? Would the data be reliable enough? Would employees use it? Would it fit existing workflows, or force people to change how they work? And after all that, would the benefit be worth the cost and disruption?
Those questions are usually more interesting to me than the announcement itself.
The news still matters, and you need the facts before you can form an opinion. But it’s only the starting point. What I want to understand is what a development could actually mean for the people and companies working inside supply chains, and that’s the purpose of this publication.
I’m not trying to cover every story or become another breaking-news outlet. There’s too much happening for that, and not every announcement deserves a full article. Instead, I want to pick one development a week, slow it down, and take a real look at it.
Who ChainTech Brief Is For
This is mainly for people who work in or around supply chains and want to understand the technology changing the field.
If you work in procurement, sourcing, manufacturing, planning, inventory, logistics, analytics, or operations, what’s being introduced today could eventually affect how you do your job, what skills companies value, what information you have access to, and how decisions get made.
It’s also for people building supply chain technology. Founders, operators, product teams, and marketers usually understand their own product, but they also need to understand the environment it’s going into.
Supply chains can be messy. Data isn’t always clean. Different teams use different systems, and a tool often has to work across several departments before it delivers the value being promised. Sometimes the problem isn’t whether the technology works. It’s whether the organization is ready to use it.
Business and operational leaders responsible for evaluating technology, improving processes, managing risk, or deciding where to invest may find this useful too. The common thread is simple: understanding what’s changing and figuring out what actually deserves a closer look.
What You Can Expect Every Week
Each week I’ll pick one development in supply chain technology and look beyond the headline. It could be a new product, an acquisition, a funding round, a regulatory change, or a bigger shift happening across the market.
The topic will change week to week, but I’ll generally be digging into the same four things:
What happened — what was announced, and what background you need to understand it
Why it matters — whether it’s a meaningful development or just another announcement
Where it could fit — how it might actually work inside a supply chain, and what would make adoption easier or harder
What to watch next — what would show it’s gaining real traction
Some weeks I’ll write about AI or automation. Other weeks it’ll be procurement technology, planning systems, manufacturing, logistics, cybersecurity, funding, or M&A. I don’t want to force every story into the same conclusion, some technologies will turn out more promising than they first look, others will get plenty of attention without solving a problem companies actually care enough about.
The goal is to look at the available information, ask practical questions, and come to my own conclusion. When I come across a report, article, or podcast that adds something useful, I’ll pass that along too.
A Little About Me
I’m a supply chain and operations professional with more than 12 years of experience across consulting, healthcare, manufacturing, procurement, analytics, and process improvement.
My career hasn’t been limited to one corner of the supply chain but rather across the end-to-end supply chain. I’ve worked on spend analysis, sourcing, inventory, logistics, supplier relationships, cost reduction, and operational improvement.
I currently work at Vizient, supporting the supply chain operations of a large regional health system. Before that, I worked in supply chain and operations consulting at PwC and Deloitte, and in procurement and inventory management at Patton Electronics. I hold a Master of Science in Business with a supply chain focus from the University of Maryland, and I’m a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) and SCOR Professional.
Working in healthcare supply chain has given me a sharper sense of the gap between a technology sounding useful and actually being useful. A tool still has to work with the data you actually have. It has to fit the operation you actually run. The people expected to use it have to understand and trust it. That’s usually where good ideas run into trouble.
I’m not writing this because I have every answer. I don’t.
I’m writing it because I want to understand this part of the field better, and writing gives me a reason to slow down, research something properly, think through the implications, and explain what I actually believe. It also leaves me a record of how my thinking changes over time.
If I can get sharper on supply chain technology while helping other people make sense of it too, that’s a good use of my time.
Subscribe to ChainTech Brief
If this sounds useful, subscribe. Every week you’ll get one focused look at a development in supply chain technology: what happened, why it matters, where it could fit, and what to watch next.
If there’s a technology, company, or industry development you think deserves a closer look, reply or leave a comment. I may not get to every suggestion, but I’ll read them, and some will turn into future editions.
Thanks for being here. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
ChainTech Brief is an independent publication. The views expressed here are my own and do not represent or imply endorsement by my current or former employers.