SCM and TMS: separating planning from execution

Responsibility boundary

SCM owns the feasible supply-chain plan while TMS executes its transportation scope; value appears when actuals and exceptions flow back into the next planning cycle.

What SCM decides

SCM reconciles demand, inventory, capacity, lead times and constraints. Its output is a feasible committed plan, not another report about the past.

• Demand and supply balance↗
• What-if scenarios before commitments↗
• Shared assumptions across sales, supply, production and logistics↗

What TMS executes

TMS receives the transportation scope of the plan and manages orders, trips, carriers, documents and execution economics.

• Assignment and dispatch↗
• Timeline and status control↗
• Documents, cost and proof of execution↗

How the loop closes

Execution actuals return to SCM as new signals. Control Tower isolates exceptions, an accountable owner decides, and replanning affects only the assumptions that changed.

• Demand and constraints↗
• Committed plan↗
• Execution and feedback↗

The human role

The system prepares options and consequences. People approve commitments, high-risk exceptions and rule changes; decision evidence remains auditable.

Architecture check

Five questions expose the gap between a polished plan and real operations.

• Every decision has a horizon and owner↗
• TMS receives an agreed transportation plan↗
• Exceptions change the forecast and next plan instead of ending in a report↗
• Every data element has a system of record and acceptable latency↗
• Plan, actual and exception reason share stable identifiers↗

Where to start

Choose one end-to-end scenario, such as confirmed demand to completed trip. Define the decision horizon, owners, input constraints, plan-quality criterion and events that trigger replanning.