Long Range Planning Models

BMS, like most other peers, is deploying advanced data and analytic capabilities to better understand and manage supply chain risks as the world navigates a period of heightened uncertainties eclipsed by geopolitical tensions and wars.

BMS’s chief digital and technology officer, Greg Meyers, indicated that the company is building long-range planning models to visualize the company’s manufacturing network over time to ensure “dual sourcing paths” for critical materials and products and to better understand the supply chain of direct suppliers and their direct suppliers.

The efforts also encompass exploring opportunities to apply publicly available data such as weather patterns, political conflicts, etc. to “predict potential bottlenecks and develop contingency plans,” added Meyers, a former group chief information and digital officer at Syngenta Group, a leader in regenerative agriculture.

The pandemic exposed huge weaknesses in global supply chain networks across sectors and the ongoing Hamas-Israel and Russia-Ukraine wars and their ripple effects have only added to the turbulence. Experts have in the past highlighted the exponential complexity of global supply chains, with most large organizations having little idea about who their top 10 critical tier 2 suppliers are.

Tier 2 firms are typically those that deal with a principal company's main direct suppliers. (Also see "The Golden Winged Warbler And Creating Pharma Supply Chain Immunity" - Pink Sheet, 27 October, 2020.)

Some big pharma players are estimated to have as many as 5,000 direct suppliers and each of these in turn may have up to 250 tier 2 suppliers of their own, resulting in more than a million different enterprises supporting an organization.

Pharma executives have acknowledged how even the smallest component from a tier 4 or 5 supplier could be the Achilles heel in an otherwise healthy global supply chain. (Also see "Merck & Co, Indian Firms On Tackling Supply Chain Risks And A Hijack" - Scrip, 26 February, 2021.)

BMS CDTO Meyers On Gen AI Use Cases, Long-Range Planning Models

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