From Blind Spots to Breakthroughs: What Agistix and Area Reveal About Supply Chain's Future

Now days, "supply chain visibility" is everywhere — but behind the buzz, industry veterans know the reality is far more complicated. Visibility isn't just about dashboards and data streams—it's about what companies do once they have the information. At The Supply Chainer, we've chronicled countless initiatives where visibility projects delivered impressive early metrics — only to falter when organizations lacked the muscle to act on the insights.

This week, two companies offered fresh, real-world examples of how visibility can genuinely move the needle when it's paired with action.

In a written response to The Supply Chainer's media request, Ashley Raleigh, a Marketing & Content Consultant for Agistix, detailed how real-world clients are using their tools to close critical visibility gaps. “Many Agistix customers rely on our platform to close visibility gaps that impact OTIF performance. For example, a leading biopharma company and a global software provider both maintain 95%+ OTIF rates by using Agistix’s automated status updates and proactive exception notifications,” Raleigh explained. Agistix’s approach isn't flashy, but it's grounded in operational rigor. Rather than just surfacing data, the platform integrates proactive alerts and real-time exception handling, empowering logistics teams to act before disruptions snowball into missed deliveries. It's a reminder that "visibility" is only valuable if it comes hand-in-hand with accountability and fast decision-making.

Meanwhile, Aera Technology, responding to The Supply Chainer's inquiry, showcased how decision intelligence is redefining the rules altogether. According to Fred Laluyaux, CEO of Aera Technology, “Inventory optimization is just one critical area where Aera is helping companies improve supply chain performance. From the start, we designed Aera as an always-on decision intelligence agent to continually accelerate and optimize enterprise decision-making at scale and unlock new value. Today, decision intelligence is a must-have and Aera is at the forefront — fueling amazing innovation and measurable outcomes for progressive leaders.”

Fred Laluyaux, CEO of Aera Technology

One example stood out: A global beverage leader used Aera Decision Cloud to dynamically redistribute aging stock, minimize spoilage, and align inventory with real-time demand signals—unlocking millions of dollars in working capital. Another client, a technology manufacturer, reportedly reduced inventory management costs by 50% and solved tens of thousands of shortages each week by automating decision-making.

Unlike the buzzwords tossed around so easily in supply chain tech, these examples demonstrate something rarer: visibility and intelligence technologies that deliver actual, verifiable operational improvements—not just promises.

At The Supply Chainer, we've seen too many examples where technology investments outpaced organizational readiness. Agistix and Aera, however, are showing what happens when visibility tools are designed to drive action—and when companies are willing to operationalize those insights at every level of the business.

As retailers and logistics leaders continue chasing the elusive "real-time supply chain," the lesson is increasingly clear: it's not just about seeing more. It's about acting smarter, faster, and with total organizational alignment. This broader push for smarter supply chain management echoes points made last week by David Gonzalez, Vice President Analyst at Gartner Supply Chain. In his statement to The Supply Chainer, Gonzalez warned that by 2030, e-commerce and consumer electronics companies will be spending twice as much on managing returns and reverse logistics as they do on outbound deliveries. His call for enterprises to build dedicated reverse logistics strategies reinforces the urgency of not just seeing supply chain problems, but systematically solving them.