Peter Budweiser explores the role of process intelligence in an era of economic uncertainty
Global tariffs and geopolitical disruptions have created uncertainty and threatened the stability of supply chains worldwide. Supply chain planning has traditionally assumed a fairly stable environment, but that ‘steady state’ is gone. With global trade policies shifting rapidly, business leaders face logistics bottlenecks, rising costs, and dilemmas over where to source from. So how can business leaders regain certainty? Process intelligence has an important role to play, helping to work out how much they are exposed to tariffs and adjust their sourcing strategies accordingly.
Process intelligence offers supply chain leaders the opportunity to untangle complex tariff issues by offering an overview of what really happens within the business and allowing them to simulate the effect of changes such as the implementation of tariffs. Traditional ERP platforms are linear, so they cannot capture the full complexity of a supply chain. Process intelligence, however, focuses on the real flow of information and product across the supply chain, capturing data from everything from Excel spreadsheets to internal systems, and revealing processes as they actually work by bridging the ‘gaps’ between departments, systems, and suppliers.
This technology can help supply chain leaders highlight routes that may be threatened and simulate exposure. This helps them to understand the impact of tariffs on spending and margins and thereby prioritize key materials or identify alternative suppliers. Paired with artificial intelligence (AI), process intelligence enables fast decision-making at a global scale, which is a key differentiator in an often-changing world.
Mitigating impact
Global supply chains can be very intricate, often involving hundreds or even thousands of people, orders, and Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). In tariff management, businesses may need to mobilize alternative suppliers quickly, for example by buying locally as opposed to importing. This can quickly become complicated, especially when products are assembled from parts from multiple vendors situated globally, like car manufacturers that have over time developed global networks through which thousands of different parts are sourced from around the world, to take one example. With tariffs applied, a company needs to swiftly find a way to keep supply flowing, while also calculating the impact on the cost of finished goods.
Process intelligence lets business leaders ‘control the controllables,’ homing in on what might be affected by tariffs and working with hypotheses about what might happen next. This helps not only to assess and predict vulnerabilities, but to mitigate the impact of rapid changes. Modern supply chains are global and interconnected, which means dealing with tariffs is even more complex. Process intelligence offers a shared platform where multiple stakeholders can work together to deal with disruptions, breaking down silos which historically meant that partners were making decisions based on different, incomplete sets of information. Using the data gleaned from process intelligence will empower partners to align on common goals and deal with tariff-related issues.
The AI difference
Today, three years ahead feels like long-term planning thanks to geopolitical disruptions affecting everything from material sourcing to shipping. To deal with this, companies need to connect and make sense of their data to make prompt decisions. To do so, the data offered by process mining is a foundation, but AI and machine learning have an important role to play in helping supply chain leaders make decisions quickly. 
Process mining, combined with AI, connects and makes sense of data across the supply chain in real time. Large Language Models are already enabling commodity purchasers to scan technical drawings, previous negotiations, and supplier information. Co-pilot apps are helping to reduce excess inventory by helping technicians find nearby warehouses with spare parts. Generative AI can offer human-like decision making even for complex supply chain decisions.
Why digital twins deliver
By acting as a living digital twin, process intelligence can help leaders contain costs and optimize cash. It can do this by offering instant assessments of tariff exposure and financial risk, zeroing in on materials, suppliers, and customers impacted by tariffs. This enables cross-functional teams from procurement, supply chain, and sales to come up with the right response.
Conventional ERP systems that store transactional data do not store data in a ‘common language’ which people and other IT systems (such as those for controlling contracts with customers or supply chain partners) can understand. Process intelligence offers clarity to untangle supply chains, leading to data-driven decision-making with the help of AI, and greater resilience across the organization. This means supply chain leaders can efficiently highlight problems such as at-risk materials that lack alternative suppliers and notify procurement teams to begin negotiations for alternative sourcing options.
Navigating the tariff era
Supply chain leaders need new tools to survive in a world of change. Process intelligence is key to delivering transparency and real-time visibility for businesses to adapt at pace. Using such technology to build a ‘digital twin’ of their supply chains, leaders can ensure procurement teams can work with other parts of the business and with partners to mitigate the effects of tariffs. Paired with AI, process intelligence offers a new way to navigate a world of constant disruption and still deliver.
Peter Budweiser
As General Manager Supply Chain at Celonis, Peter Budweiser leads the development of innovative supply chain applications, focusing on inventory management, procurement, order managements, and logistics. Leveraging the power of the Celonis Process Intelligence Graph, Peter is at the forefront of shaping the digital supply chain landscape.