The challenge

Retail supply chains are becoming harder to manage, and harder to predict.

Leaders are making high-value decisions around automation, network redesign, and service transformation, often without a clear view of how those changes will perform across the wider system.

Kallikor needed evidence to quantify the scale of the problem and highlight why traditional decision-making approaches are no longer fit for increasingly complex supply chains.

The approach

Arlington Research surveyed 200 senior retail supply chain leaders across the UK and US to answer Kallikor’s questions.

The study explored how organisations make major operational decisions, the barriers slowing transformation, and the risks created by limited visibility across interconnected supply chains.

The findings were brought together in the Deciding in the Dark report, designed to challenge existing approaches to supply chain planning and decision-making.

The insight

Many organisations are making critical decisions without confidence in the outcome.

As supply chains become more interconnected, leaders are struggling to evaluate the wider operational impact of change. Strategic decisions may solve one issue while creating problems elsewhere in the network.

The research also revealed the growing role of reputational pressure in slowing decision-making. Leaders are being asked to defend major investments without the evidence needed to fully assess risk and performance.

The impact

The report highlights the growing gap between supply chain complexity and the tools used to manage it.

It provides retailers with a clearer understanding of why major initiatives fail to deliver as intended, and why more realistic, system-wide modelling is becoming increasingly important.

For Kallikor, the research strengthens its position as a provider of next-generation supply chain decision intelligence, backed by insight from senior industry leaders.

Read the report