Capability

Supply Chain & Logistics

We help shippers, carriers, and 3PLs design their networks and build the planning capability to run them, from long-range strategy to daily execution across fulfillment, transportation, inventory, and the last mile.

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Chris Rallis Managing Principal, Supply Chain & Logistics

Where we help

From network design to the planning that runs it.

We model and design end-to-end networks so leaders can make confident capital and capacity decisions. Then we build the planning processes, teams, and cadences that keep the operation on plan through growth and peak.

Typical outcomes: lower cost to serve, reliable service through peak, and a planning team that sees risks months ahead.

What we do

Network design and optimization. Modeling where facilities, sortation, and capacity should sit to balance cost, coverage, and speed, and testing growth scenarios before capital is committed.
Capacity and inventory planning across horizons. Long-, mid- and short-term plans for sites, sortation, inventory, routes, and labor, connected so each horizon informs the next.
Planning organizations and cadences. Standing up planning teams, processes, and review rhythms that turn forecasts into decisions and hold execution to plan.
Peak readiness. Building peak plans months ahead, stress-testing them, and setting risk triggers before volume arrives.
Transportation and carrier mix. Carrier selection and cost-to-serve modeling that balances cost, speed, and coverage.
Fulfillment, first and last mile. B2B and B2C fulfillment, pickup and delivery operations designed for density and reliability, including new programs such as same-day delivery.

Problems this capability solves

Supply chain work rarely stands alone.

It most often supports these four client needs, and is frequently combined with operations, data, and leadership work.

Scale

Scale Complex Operations

Plan network capacity, facility locations, and delivery models ahead of growth, so expansion doesn’t outpace execution.

How we help Improve Performance

Improve Operational Performance

Lower cost-to-serve and improve service through better transportation, carrier, inventory, and planning decisions.

How we help Transform

Execute Complex Transformation

Carry strategic network decisions through operating-system design and implementation, not just a recommendation.

How we help Build Capability

Build Sustainable Capability

Leave behind models, planning processes, and scorecards your team can run and extend on its own.

How we help

How we apply our model

From network strategy to an operation that runs it.

Set DirectionDefine the network
Clarify where capacity should sit, how to balance cost, coverage, and speed, and which growth and service scenarios the network must support.
Build SystemsDesign how it runs
Build the models, planning processes, carrier mix, and metrics that turn the network strategy into an executable operating plan.
Execute & SustainMake it stick
Pilot, implement, and measure, then put scorecards and review cadences in place so your team keeps improving the network after we leave.

Representative engagements

Recent supply chain work.

Client names are kept confidential.

Phased sortation automation for a growing parcel carrier

Client need: Scale Complex Operations: A growth-stage parcel carrier needed to know how rising volume would flow through its hub network and where automation would pay off.
Capabilities: Supply Chain & Logistics, Operations & Manufacturing
What we built: Forecast demand by customer profile, geography, and population density, modeled the impact on each sortation hub, and built a phased automation roadmap with the client’s automation vendors and integrators.
Outcome: An approved, phased automation roadmap across multiple hubs, double the labor efficiency on the most complex sortation tasks, and automation decisions aligned across upstream and downstream hubs.

Lane strategy: when direct beats consolidation

Client need: Improve Operational Performance: A growing eCommerce business needed to balance lane consolidation against faster delivery as its network expanded.
Capabilities: Supply Chain & Logistics, Data, Analytics & AI Enablement
What we built: A lane-level decision model combining short- and mid-term forecasts with speed, cost, and conversion sensitivity, tested against daily volume swings so decisions held up in real operating conditions.
Outcome: A clear rule for when a direct lane earns its cost, better use of the existing network, and fewer unnecessary facility touches.

Peak labor planning for a national last-mile network

Client need: Improve Operational Performance: A national last-mile delivery network was hiring heavily for peak and carrying excess labor once demand fell.
Capabilities: Supply Chain & Logistics, Operations & Manufacturing
What we built: A flexible labor planning method that separated drivers by work pattern and tenure and used overtime deliberately during peak. Hourly cost rose, but there was less new-hire training and less excess labor after peak.
Outcome: Peak-season driver labor costs down more than 20%, better delivery performance from shifting volume to experienced drivers, and repeatable levers for the next peak.

Capability leader

Led by a network and planning leader who scaled delivery networks at Amazon.

Chris Rallis

Managing Principal, Supply Chain & Logistics

Chris brings more than a decade of experience designing parcel and last-mile networks and building the planning teams that run them. At Amazon, he owned network design strategy for Amazon Shipping in North America and led capacity planning for the North America last-mile network.

Before Cade Ops, at Amazon:

Built last-mile carrier selection optimization models that cut cost per package by 34%, saving $8.4M a year.
Launched an automated conditional capacity system that reduced capacity-related shipping defects by 84%.
Used carrier benchmarking to drive network design changes that improved delivery speed by 15%.

Chris’s full profile

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