Introduction to Supply Chain

Turn Uncertainty into an Advantage Most “introductions” start with forecasts, targets, and plans. This one starts with reality: supply chain is the business of making profitable choices when the future won’t sit still. Joannes Vermorel reframes the field as applied economics—mastering options under variability—and shows how to turn that stance into everyday practice. From purchasing to last mile, the author explains why single number forecasts and ritual meetings quietly misallocate capital, then offers a practical alternative: price trade offs in money, carry uncertainty explicitly, and let simple, auditable software place many small bets faster than committees can meet. When the system can’t trust itself, it stops—so people can fix the economics and resume with confidence. Rooted in seventeen years of hands on work across diverse industries, this is both a rethink and a field manual. It keeps what works, discards what doesn’t, and gives operators, students, and professors a common language for decisions—not dogma. You’ll learn how to: See your flow as a portfolio of options and grow flexibility without bloat. Replace point forecasts with probabilities that acknowledge spikes, delays, and rare events. Rank allocations by expected return and risk so local KPIs can’t hide global waste. Design auditable decision software that writes back safely to your systems. Escape spreadsheet traps through small, reversible experiments that compound week after week. Who it’s for: For specialists, this is a playbook to improve service quality and margin under real-world constraints. For students, it offers a lasting mental model that goes beyond classroom formulas. For professors, it provides a modern framework that connects theory directly to operating profit. Joannes Vermorel is the founder and CEO of Lokad. With a background in mathematics and computer science, he has spent nearly two decades helping companies turn uncertainty into profit through sharper decisions and smarter software. A former lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he writes and speaks extensively on supply chain, economics, and engineering. He also hosts LokadTV, where he regularly debates these topics with leading voices from academia and industry.