Samir Saci

the Harvard Business Review called the data scientist “the sexiest job of the 21st century.” Every company suddenly wanted one. More than a decade later, the title everyone is chasing now is the Forward Deployed Engineer. This engineer is embedded inside a company’s operation to make AI models or optimisation algorithms actually work in their messy reality. Unfortunately, few operations are messier than a supply chain. I learned it the hard way when I became Supply Chain Data Scientist.

ran a national TV campaign for its best-selling apparel line. The demand planner updated the forecast on a Tuesday morning. But the supply team only found out eleven days later, in the monthly meeting! By then, the factory lead time had expired, and two outlet stores had empty shelves for the first week of the campaign. VP of Marketing: Tens of thousands of dollars in lost campaign revenue due to insufficient inventory! The marketing budget was spent. The traffic showed up. The product did not.