In supply chains, the definition of value is shifting. Szabolcs Balázs, SVP Retail and Wholesale Europe at ORTEC, argues that value is no longer just a financial number but a discipline — something organizations have to measure honestly, deliver consistently, and actively protect from quiet erosion over time.
Value is becoming multidimensional
Balázs does not start with cost savings. He starts with how value is defined, and he sees that changing. Traditional financial indicators — fewer kilometers per ton, more efficient routes, shorter planning time — still matter because they are directly measurable, but they capture only one dimension. Increasingly, companies also ask whether their people feel supported, whether the operation feels predictable rather than reactive, and whether customers consistently experience reliability. In retail he sees three priorities shaping any lasting partnership: optimization capabilities, the quality of support and services, and total cost of ownership (TCO), the full long-term cost of running a solution. Optimization delivers the measurable improvements, strong support keeps them stable as the business evolves, and TCO stops short-term gains from becoming long-term surprises.
The hard part: turning KPIs into financial impact
Defining value is the easy part. Delivering it consistently is where most organizations struggle. "We’re good at identifying value. Everyone can build a business case. The hard part is turning KPI movement into actual financial impact and maintaining that impact over time."
The gap is not a lack of expertise but a lack of sustained discipline once the initial project ends. Balázs uses a simple sequence to keep that discipline intact: start with a concrete project, link it to specific KPIs, monitor those KPIs closely as performance shifts, and only then translate the movement into financial outcomes. That translation depends on real transparency in cost structures — shared at the right time, not six months later — so small deviations can be corrected early, before they become structural losses.
Szabolcs Balázs
SVP Retail and Wholesale Europe - ORTEC
We’re good at identifying value. Everyone can build a business case. The hard part is turning KPI movement into actual financial impact and maintaining that impact over time.
Maturity, not size, sets the starting point
ORTEC's packaging — Essential, Premium, and Enterprise — is built around logistics maturity rather than company size. A global enterprise with low logistics maturity may be best served by the Essential package, while a small operator with strong processes and data discipline can benefit from Enterprise-level capabilities. "It’s like running a marathon. You don’t begin with 42 kilometers; you start with shorter distances and build endurance over time. Logistics maturity works the same way."
Matching capability to readiness protects return on investment, because high-end capabilities deployed in an environment not yet equipped for them tend to disappoint. Each tier deliberately combines software and consulting: the tools matter, but so does the knowledge that comes with them.
Value erosion is the quiet risk
The most underappreciated dynamic in supply chains, Balázs argues, is how value slips away. "Value erosion is invisible. It happens slowly, quietly, inside daily decisions. Great companies track their KPIs relentlessly and protect value like an asset."
Erosion is rarely dramatic. After a project ends, the initial focus settles, new challenges appear, and teams improvise to keep up. To counter this, ORTEC runs yearly operational reviews framed as forward-looking evaluations rather than audits — a roadmap, not a report card, showing where value is weakening and where processes no longer match reality. Some clients ask ORTEC's customer success teams to help hold specific KPIs at the agreed level, making it a shared responsibility. But the most powerful safeguard is the simplest: continuous improvement. Small, steady adjustments compound quickly when KPIs are monitored closely, and they protect value more reliably than occasional large transformations.
Szabolcs Balázs
SVP Retail and Wholesale Europe - ORTEC
Value erosion is invisible. It happens slowly, quietly, inside daily decisions. Great companies track their KPIs relentlessly and protect value like an asset.
What value looks like day to day
Value reads differently depending on where you sit. Executives think in targets and board commitments; planners and dispatch teams recognize value as a day with fewer surprises, KPIs that match real conditions, tools that reduce manual corrections rather than add work, and support that responds quickly during disruptions or seasonal peaks. Operational value comes from a planning environment that is stable, predictable, and supported, not one that depends on heroics to function.
Where AI accelerates value
AI is being woven into how value is measured and protected. ORTEC was built on operations research, itself a form of AI, and generative AI now extends that into the planning environment through assistants embedded in the control tower, the central view planners use to monitor operations. Instead of searching for which trucks are late or building dashboards to track KPI movements, planners ask the assistant and have exceptions surfaced automatically. The point is speed: correcting an issue two weeks earlier can protect months of value, and implementations that once took years are increasingly measured in months.
Balázs closes with the challenge he opened with: "Make sure you know where the value in your supply chain is coming from and where it is leaking. Knowing that gives you a clear advantage."
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