Earlier this week, our team attended OptiCon Europe 2026 in London, where supply chain leaders, practitioners, technology experts and partners came together to explore the future of supply chain design and decision-making.
A central theme of the event was the shift from what-if to action.
Network modelling has traditionally been used as a strategic, one-off exercise. Increasingly, organisations are seeking to build a persistent capability that allows them to explore scenarios on demand, understand operational implications and rehearse how they might respond.
As supply chains become more complex and uncertainty continues to increase, the future is not only about developing strategy. It is about testing plausible scenarios, understanding trade-offs and connecting insight to faster operational decisions.
Moving beyond network modelling
The discussions highlighted how scenario planning is expanding beyond network and logistics analysis to support a much broader range of operational and supply chain decisions.
Connected models can help organisations understand the implications of change across sourcing, manufacturing, inventory, capacity, planning, logistics and portfolio strategy. This allows decision-makers to consider the end-to-end effects of each choice, rather than optimising one part of the supply chain in isolation.
During the event, our team shared how we are building applications on the Optilogic platform to support this shift. Our Scenario Lab application combines Optilogic’s optimisation engine and cloud computing capabilities with Argon & Co’s expertise in framing the right questions, preparing client data and creating interpretation layers that turn model outputs into actionable insight.
Building an effective scenario-planning capability
The conversations at OptiCon reinforced several important principles for organisations seeking to strengthen their scenario-planning capability:
- Move from what-if to action: Scenario modelling creates value when it enables decision-makers to compare options, understand their consequences and act with greater speed and confidence
- Build a reusable scenario capability: Rather than treating each modelling exercise as a separate project, organisations can create a persistent platform that supports decisions spanning cost, growth, resilience, sourcing, capacity and network design
- Combine technology with supply chain expertise: An optimisation engine is only part of the solution. Value also depends on asking the right questions, preparing and treating data effectively, and helping decision-makers interpret what the results mean
- Make insight available at the speed of the conversation: Interactive applications allow teams to explore scenarios, compare options and respond to questions as they emerge, rather than waiting for a separate analysis cycle
- Improve quality through transparency: Interactive scenario tools can make assumptions, caveats and trade-offs more visible. This builds confidence in the analysis and allows decision-makers to interrogate the results in greater detail
- Make modelling accessible to business owners: Applications and AI-enabled interfaces can make complex models easier to explore, widening access to insight and reducing reliance on a small team of specialist modellers
Create a shared decision environment
The next stage in supply chain modelling is not simply about developing more sophisticated network models or adding more features. It is about creating a shared decision environment that brings together richer insights, multiple functions and connected models.
This can help organisations understand end-to-end trade-offs, respond more effectively to uncertainty and move faster from insight to action.
A big thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the conversation.
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