Innovative Industry Leaders Transforming Supply Chain Planning

Summary

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Supply Chain Now: Innovative Industry Leaders Transforming Supply Chain Planning

Episode Date: January 12, 2026
Host: Scott Lewton
Featured Guests: Philip Vervlim (OMP), Scott Barnard (Blue Crux)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Supply Chain Now brings listeners exclusive interviews with Philip Vervlim, Chief Commercial Officer at OMP, and Scott Barnard, Managing Director North America at Blue Crux—two leaders at the forefront of supply chain planning innovation. Broadcast from the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2025 in Denver, the conversations highlight how both companies are tackling contemporary supply chain challenges, fostering industry collaboration, and leveraging advanced technologies to deliver real, rapid value to clients.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. OMP’s Approach: Enabling Autonomous and Incremental Supply Chain Value

Guest: Philip Vervlim, OMP
Segment: [01:21]–[08:07]

• Evolution from Traditional to Modern Supply Chain Planning
  OMP's philosophy centers on enabling "unison planning," integrating strategic to operational processes (from sourcing to demand) in a unified solution, deeply connected to platforms like SAP.

  • Quote: “Our base, our core is to have that what we call unison planning… embedding all of the planning processes from strategic to operational and from sourcing to demand.” — Philip Vervlim [02:17]

• Customer-Centric Model: Rapid, Self-Funding Value Delivery
  Today’s clients want to see fast, concrete ROI, not just “AI buzz.” OMP focuses on agile, incremental value—where project savings from pilot phases are reinvested to fund further improvements.

  • Quote: “Companies want value quick. They want an incremental. They want it actually ideally in like a self funding way.” — Philip Vervlim [04:17]

• Innovation Focus: Deep Human-Machine Collaboration
  Philip references Gartner’s keynote about moving past surface automation ("routine jobs") to deeper, strategic human-machine collaboration with AI—addressing governance and explainability head-on.

  • Quote: “It was about how to go from the surface...to go to the deep sea and also go into that human machine collaboration, the governance around it and so forth.” — Philip Vervlim [05:01]

• Product Spotlight: Unison IQ
  Unison IQ stands on three pillars:

  1. Proprietary AI engines powering autonomous planning.
  2. Gen AI-based Unison Companion for rapid onboarding and productivity.
  3. Agentix, supporting explainability and scenario planning, and integrating external AI agents.
  • Quote: “Unison IQ is based on three pillars...AI engines, Unison companion...and the agentix side, really upskilling both organically the AI agents...” — Philip Vervlim [06:27]

• Notable Customer Collaboration
  OMP’s partnerships (e.g., with Kraft Heinz, AstraZeneca) are featured as proof points in achieving autonomous planning at scale.

• Contact & Connection
  Philip encourages listeners to reach out via LinkedIn or the OMP website for more resources and event information. [07:49]

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2. Blue Crux: Building Smarter, AI-Powered Value Chains

Guest: Scott Barnard, Blue Crux
Segment: [08:16]–[13:22]

• Business Mission & Services
  Blue Crux positions itself as a value chain consulting and technology firm, aiming to transform clients' operations into "AI powered value chains.” Services span across plan, source, make, and deliver, with a strong push for digitization.

  • Quote: “Our mission...[is] to help organizations transform their supply chains into smart, efficient in AI powered value chains.” — Scott Barnard [09:13]

• Challenges: Resiliency and Agility (Old and New)
  Scott underscores that the core challenges—resilience and agility—have persisted over the years but are now tackled with modern tools such as AI.

  • Quote: “It's all about that resiliency and agility… challenges that have been... we've been talking about for five, 10 years now.” — Scott Barnard [10:46]
  • On AI as a new challenge: “How are we adopting AI to speed up that and better inform that decision making process to make us even more resilient and…agile.” — Scott Barnard [11:07]

• Blue Crux Product Highlight: Axon Platform
  Axon, their analytics and decision intelligence platform, is driving measurable impact—one use case saved companies "hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory."

  • Quote: “We're literally helping organizations identify and save hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory. So it's immensely impactful if done intelligently...” — Scott Barnard [12:07]

• Emphasis on Human-Machine Partnership
  Echoing earlier sentiments, Scott stresses the importance of a "blend of a human and machine strategy" for effective supply chain transformation.

• Easy Reach
  Scott recommends connecting via LinkedIn or the Blue Crux website. [13:05]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Value-Centric Innovation
  “Not all the AI buzz, but it's really honing now on...deliver[ing] real value.” — Philip Vervlim [04:13]

• On Fearlessness in Innovation
  “It's to be fearless. Right. I remember like the big, big slogan, be fearless.” — Philip Vervlim [05:27]

• On Measurable ROI
  “That is ROI in spades.” — Scott Barnard [12:52]

• On Industry Collaboration
  Host Scott Lewton highlights OMP and Blue Crux’s decade-long partnership and collaborative innovation:
  “OMP and Blue Crux have become strategic partners...uniting forces for greater impact.” [00:57]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• OMP Interview Begins: [01:21]

  • OMP’s Vision and Product Scope: [02:05]
  • Self-Funding Value & Agile Implementation: [04:13]
  • Innovation and Human-AI Collaboration: [05:01]
  • Pillars of Unison IQ: [06:27]
  • Customer Success Stories: [07:25]
  • Contact Info for OMP: [07:49]

• Blue Crux Interview Begins: [08:16]

  • Company Mission & Breadth: [09:11]
  • Enduring and Emerging Challenges: [10:46]
  • AI and the Axon Platform: [11:44]
  • Axon's Impact: [12:07]
  • Contact Info for Blue Crux: [13:05]

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Conclusion & Call to Action

Host Scott Lewton wraps up by encouraging listeners to choose at least one actionable insight shared by Philip or Scott and apply it in their own organizations—“Deeds, not words.” He also mentions upcoming Gartner events in 2026 for further learning and networking.

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For Further Engagement

• Connect with Philip Vervlim (OMP): LinkedIn and OMP website
• Connect with Scott Barnard (Blue Crux): LinkedIn and Blue Crux website

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“Take one thing that Philip or Scott shared here today and put it into action. Deeds, not words. That's how we'll continue to drive innovation in global supply chain.” — Scott Lewton [14:14]

Transcript

[Supply Chain Now Host]

Welcome to Supply Chain now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time.

[Scott Lewton]

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton here with you on Supply Chain now. Welcome to today's show. In early December 2025, I enjoyed venturing out to Denver for the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit. We took in a number of terrific conversations and presentations, including my brief chats with the two industry leaders that we are featuring here on today's podcast. You're going to hear first from a great discussion I had with Philip Vervlim with omp. And secondly, I'm going to be sharing a chat I had with Scott Barnard with Blue Crux. Both Philip and Scott are doing big things in the industry as their firms continue to grow and expand while helping organizations innovate and find more success out in industry. In fact, OMP and Blue Crux have become strategic partners in supply chain optimization as their organizations have been collaborating for over 10 years, uniting forces for a greater impact. So let's tune in first to my chat with Philip Vervlesom with omp.

Phillip, it's great to connect with you once again here at Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2025 in Denver. You have been busy.

[Philip Vervlim]

It's been extremely busy. It's kind of like the last sprint of the year, but the busy sprint.

[Scott Lewton]

Well, plus where your booth is there, y' all got pole position.

[Scott Barnard]

Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

This is what I'm hearing.

[Philip Vervlim]

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Scott Lewton]

You've been talking and y' all work with a lot of movers, shakers across industry. I think you presented here this week. I heard great things about the case study y' all presented.

[Scott Barnard]

Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

And of course we've enjoyed our past conversations having your supply chain. Now, you always bring us the best of the best, so we appreciate that. But for the folks out there, the three folks, maybe four that don't know.

[Philip Vervlim]

Philip, don't know omp, there's still a few.

[Scott Lewton]

Tell us about what OMP does.

[Philip Vervlim]

Well, I think I can position it best based on what Thiago with Kraft Heinz presented yesterday because he's all about the drive to autonomous planning driven by a decision centric way of working, monitoring it. So we did, we delivered the platform, we deliver the expertise to drive real results, real solutions and getting our customers to that path. And I feel like a lot have changed, of course, but our base, our core is to have that what we call unison planning. The Solution suite that's embedding all of the planning processes from strategic to operational and from sourcing to demand. And having that in an embedded way with the SAP's. And so from a data point of view is key.

[Scott Lewton]

Yes, yes. Doing supply chain like it's 2055, not like it's 1985.

Right?

[Scott Barnard]

Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah, yeah. And your role OMP, Philip?

[Philip Vervlim]

I'm the Chief Commercial Officer and heading auto is also into new markets. So I'm commercially responsible for the global operations there. Also the liaison for the Gartner executives and the community as well, which we shape like we did two weeks ago at our conference in Miami, both towards our key customers, driving innovation, driving of course the industry growth.

[Scott Lewton]

And Philip, I've met few people that believe in the in person conversation and relationship and invest in that regularly.

[Philip Vervlim]

Oh yeah, like you do.

[Scott Lewton]

You, you live on a plane and there's everyone that knows you knows it. Huh?

[Philip Vervlim]

Well, it's. I wish there are electric planes, but. But no, I, I feel it's a, it's a value, especially in some of the new markets we're expanding into to build the right level of trust and be there with both our customers, potential customers, and our alliances as well.

[Scott Lewton]

That's right. You got to take time and invest that time and as we craft new ways of doing things.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

All right, so you've already kind of touched on this a little bit when you think of some of the old and new challenges the supply chain planning teams are faced with. What comes to mind?

[Philip Vervlim]

Well, I think the old challenge that hasn't necessarily changed, but that's key is of course delivering value. And we translated that in delivering real value. Right. So it's not just all the AI buzz, but it's really honing now on the zoning in on the real. But what has changed there is that companies want value quick. They want an incremental. They want it actually ideally in like a self funding way. Self funding ROI way. So having that more agile approach to deliver the value on a very quick way, that's one that comes together with our industry solution templates as well as the expertise that we bring. On the other hand, our theme for the conference two weeks ago was riding the real wave. And so that's really nicely aligned with our way of working and our future proofness as well. So one riding the real wave.

[Scott Barnard]

Right.

[Philip Vervlim]

So not all fluff out there.

[Scott Lewton]

Exactly.

[Philip Vervlim]

Investing in the right co innovation with our strategic customers and that syncs up well with. I don't know if you saw the keynote here. This week at Gartner. But it was about how to go from the surface and some of the routine jobs that of course are important to take over by gen AI and so forth, to go to the deep sea and also go into that human machine collaboration, the governance around it and so forth. And I feel that is in many of our innovation initiatives, the key to get there.

[Scott Lewton]

And you're doing it, you're doing it with your customers because as that keynote pointed out, to go deep.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yep.

[Scott Lewton]

You're finding some scary stuff.

[Scott Barnard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Philip Vervlim]

It's to be fearless. Right. I remember like the big, big slogan, be fearless.

[Scott Lewton]

That's the thing.

[Philip Vervlim]

Like we like customers to experiment and then take it from the experiment of the pilot to industrializing.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah. And one of the best things about the OMP approach is we're not talking about a two year implementation. Exactly. Year return on investment.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yes, yes.

[Scott Lewton]

We're talking, as Jake Barr said.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yeah.

[Scott Lewton]

Pointed out time and time again on some of our conversations, hey, take the savings and the winnings from the first pilot.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yep.

[Scott Lewton]

And apply that.

[Philip Vervlim]

Apply it. Exactly, exactly. That's the self funding part, right, Exactly. And so we worked out now a concept, we call it Unison Express to combine a quick start approach from an implementation point of view to drive value together with this industry solution template that's elevated a level higher as well.

[Scott Lewton]

So you're already reading my mind because I was going to ask you about some of the ways that OMP is helping to address old new challenges. Already covered some of those. Is there anything else you want to make sure we spike the football on?

[Philip Vervlim]

The one other element that I wanted to mention that we also emphasized quite heavily on during our conference two weeks ago is Unison iq. Unison IQ is based on three pillars. It's on what we call the AI engines that have been developed since a while and that we now see even more used in the autonomous planning. Second one is our Unison companion, the AI engine, the Gen AI engine to be able to really drive adoption, onboarding, faster onboarding and productivity. And then you have the agentix side, really upskilling both organically the AI agents, for example, explainability, scenario planning. And so as well as being able to combine that with the ecosystem of externally upskilled agents and putting it all.

[Scott Lewton]

Together, Philip, it's a powerful description of what you are doing. It's very succinct. Right. We could be here for several hours to talk about the impact. Yeah, exactly. Different industries you're driving change along with your customers in. But it's here. It's not lip Service, it's here. We got to jump on the opportunity now.

[Philip Vervlim]

Exactly, exactly. And that's why we like to bring the guys like Kraft Heinz out to showcase also how they invested same with AstraZeneca a few weeks ago.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah, that was a good one, right?

[Philip Vervlim]

Yes, yes.

[Scott Lewton]

Okay. So, Philip, again, I know you're on the move a lot, getting out, talking with customers and prospective customers, helping them achieve breakthrough moments and a lot more. But how can folks track you down if they want to be part of the OMP Express? I'm gonna call it.

[Scott Barnard]

Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Philip Vervlim]

So I would say there's two ways. One is I. I think I'm enough on LinkedIn. Is it easy to just DM me or. Or just put a posted there? So that's easy. And our website contains all of the information as well for. From the events that we're organizing ourselves that you can connect to, of course. And all the assets that we bring out.

[Scott Barnard]

So.

[Scott Lewton]

Yes. Love it. Philip, thanks so much.

[Philip Vervlim]

Thanks, man. All right.

[Scott Barnard]

Appreciate it.

[Scott Lewton]

All right, next up, let's tune in to my discussion out in Denver with Scott Barnard with Blue Crux.

Scott, we're here in Denver and the Gartner Supply chain Planning Summit 2025. It's been a gorgeous day and I've enjoyed the brisk weather out there in Denver. Things get some stay hot in Georgia, right?

[Scott Barnard]

Yeah.

[Scott Lewton]

You're not as big of a cold weather fan, is that right?

[Scott Barnard]

I'm not. I am not. I am a three season guy.

[Scott Lewton]

Three seasons. Okay, so let me guess. Fall, summer and spring.

[Scott Barnard]

Exactly.

[Scott Lewton]

Okay, I could deal with that too.

[Scott Barnard]

Colorado summers, I would love.

[Scott Lewton]

Oh, Colorado winners.

[Scott Barnard]

Not quite.

[Scott Lewton]

For the birds. All right, so let's talk supply chain. And I want to first start, you know, look, Blue Crocs is growing left and right globally. You got some great things going on here across United States. I've enjoyed our past conversations. I'm looking forward to your take takeaway around supply chain planning here today. But first off, for the three people out there that may be new to Blue Crux, tell us about what the company does and your role.

[Scott Barnard]

So Blue Crux is a value chain consulting and technology company. So what we're here to do is help organizations transform their supply chains into smart, efficient in AI powered value chains. That's our mission.

[Scott Lewton]

Love it.

[Scott Barnard]

We do that with a full suite of supply chain consulting services. So think, plan, source, make, deliver. All through that spectrum, we help companies with operational challenges, strategic planning, organizational planning, all the way down to digitization, helping them implement digital tools along the supply chain as well. And then we have our own purpose built internal digital tools that we bring to the industry. One is specifically for planning and scheduling in the pharmaceutical space and the other is an analytics and decision making platform.

[Scott Lewton]

Okay.

Quite a breadth of products and services. And your role with Blue Crux.

[Scott Barnard]

I am the managing director for North America for Blue Crux. So the US is my market and my, my focus and my passion.

[Scott Lewton]

Lots of growth opportunities, lots of innovation opportunities. And it sounds like based on what you just described, grew up in. A lot of companies find their own breakthrough moments in a wide variety of sectors. Okay. So one of my favorite phrases I say a lot anyone listens to our podcast is what's old is new again. Right. Because there's so much truth in that.

[Philip Vervlim]

Yeah.

[Scott Lewton]

Right. We take something from 50 years ago, slap a new label on it and. But it's not new. But with all that said, we think of old and timeless challenges when it comes to supply chain planning and some of the new challenges, new tweaks, twists to the craft. What comes to your mind?

[Scott Barnard]

When I think of some challenges that have been there for a while and companies have been striving for, it's all about that resiliency and agility. How am I getting more resilient in my supply chain? How am I getting more agile in my ability to adjust my supply chain, Those have been challenges that have been we've been talking about for five, 10 years now. That's right. In different ways. I think when I think of new, new challenges, it's AI. Right. So how are we adopting in that agility and resilience framework, how are we adopting AI to speed up that and better inform that decision making process to make us even more resilient and to make us more, even more agile.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah. Deliberately, in a targeted manner and with that like we've heard here all today, that effective blend of a human and machine strategy.

[Philip Vervlim]

Right.

[Scott Lewton]

Good stuff. All right, so let me ask you, this begs a question, especially based on your early response. Give me one good way that you, that really excites you that Blue Crux.

Is helping to tackle those challenges.

[Scott Barnard]

We do so much in, to tackle so many use cases on the process side that we can talk about. I think back to what's new, some of those new challenges. I think one new challenges exciting is again, how are we helping in that AI space? How are we helping with those adm, those, those analytics and decision making, decision intelligence platforms? So how we're doing that with our Axon platform I think is extremely exciting. We're going to be talking about that tomorrow morning here at the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit and really highlighting a fantastic use case where we're literally helping organizations identify and save hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory. So it's immensely impactful if done intelligently and if done correctly.

[Scott Lewton]

Wow, Scott, that's terrific.

And I should know this. I'm going to ask you again the name of that platform again.

[Scott Barnard]

Axon.

[Scott Lewton]

Axon. Yes, I said that, right?

[Philip Vervlim]

Correct.

[Scott Lewton]

Just pull that for me.

[Scott Barnard]

A, X, O, N. Oh, just like it sounds.

[Scott Lewton]

Exactly, Axon. Okay, well, I'm looking forward to checking out that session. And man, hundreds of millions of dollars that dog will hunt.

[Scott Barnard]

As they say in Georgia, that is ROI in spades. Yes.

[Scott Lewton]

Yeah. Outstanding. Okay, so Scott, I bet you're going to have some folks based on what you just dropped there. I want to connect with you, kind of pick your brain and what you are doing globally and here across the US how can folks track you down, Scott?

[Scott Barnard]

So track me down personally, it's super easy. I think LinkedIn is probably the easiest way to find me. Reach out Scott Barnett on LinkedIn. You can also go to the Blue crux page on LinkedIn, send us a message there. Or you can find us and reach out through our website as well.

[Scott Lewton]

And you know this is not a spelling quiz, but Blue Crux B L U E C R U x dot com. Correct. Okay, good stuff, Scott. I appreciate you spending some time with me today.

Okay everybody, good stuff there from Philip and Scott. Now on a side note, you may want to mark your calendars for these big 2026 events from the Gartner team. You can join us at Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in Orlando on May 4th, 5th and 6th, 2026. And the supply Chain Planning Summit returns to Denver on November 2nd and 3rd, 2026. You can learn more on both events and Many [e-mail] Folks, I hope you've enjoyed and learned from these conversations as much as I have. You can find many other conversations on our new website and at supply chain now.com specifically at the resource hub on our site. But you know your homework, right? Take one thing that Philip or Scott shared here today and put it into action. Deeds, not words. That's how we'll continue to to drive innovation in global supply chain. Now with all that said, this is Scott Luton here on behalf of of the Supply Chain now team challenging you to do good, give forward and be the change that's needed. And on that note, we'll see you next time. Right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.

[Supply Chain Now Host]

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