When Vincent Kemmer looks back just five years, the way Schlumberger designed its global logistics network feels almost old-fashioned. Network planning was rare—something done once a year, maybe every two. The focus was long-term: hubs, “centers of gravity,” and project-based greenfield studies. Fast forward to today, and the company now runs a rolling, dynamic process every six months, supported by a dedicated team of six who oversee about 50 projects annually.
From Static Maps to Moving Targets
The shift came from recognizing that supply chains can’t be frozen in time. “What was once a project has become continuous planning,” Kemmer explained. Instead of drawing fixed lines on a global map, the team now works with living models—networks that bend and flex when markets, risks, or customer demands change.
The scale is daunting: 5,000 international lanes, 1,700 commodities, and nearly 1,000 warehouses across 100 countries. A few billion dollars’ worth of spend is on the line, yet the expectation is agility. In other words, the company moved from playing chess with slow, deliberate moves to playing something closer to speed chess, where the board keeps changing.
Small Wins Built Big Change
What sparked the change wasn’t a sweeping transformation program but smaller, practical victories. One early success was shifting spare parts distribution from Houston to Dubai. “It was a tangible win,” Kemmer said. “People could see the cost and time savings immediately.”
These small demonstrations of value helped the team earn trust. Over time, leadership bought into the idea that dynamic network planning wasn’t just a technical exercise but a business advantage.
Tools, Data, and the Human Factor
The backbone of the new approach is digital modeling software—tools like Supply Chain Guru—that crunch numbers and simulate different scenarios. But the real breakthrough came from people who could bridge two worlds: business needs on one side, and digital modeling on the other.
“We’re not building perfect models,” Kemmer emphasized. “We’re building decision support.” That means taking inputs from SAP, supply plans, logistics lanes, and even real-time risk feeds—like COVID-era data that turned news headlines into quantifiable risk matrices.
New Priorities: Flexibility Over Perfection
Traditionally, network design was about cost optimization and fixed hubs. Today, other questions dominate. What’s the lead-time trade-off if we reroute through Singapore instead of Shanghai? How does risk stack up if we lean more on ocean freight instead of air?
The old mindset was to design for stability. Now, it’s about agility, scenario-based planning, and, as Kemmer put it, “failing fast.” The company would rather test and adapt quickly than overanalyze and miss the moment.
Lessons for the Wider Industry
For beneficial cargo owners, the lesson is clear: invest in people who can translate data into action. For logistics providers and carriers, it’s about more than offering rates—customers need insight into risk, lead-time trade-offs, and flexible alternatives.
In the end, Schlumberger’s journey shows that supply chains are less like highways set in concrete and more like rivers that shift with the season. The companies that thrive will be those ready to adjust course when the water rises.
Source: extract from an interview by Freightos
