McKesson used an OR scenario model, freeing over $1B of committed capital.

McKesson runs a huge, complex pharmaceutical supply chain where policy choices are hard to see and expensive to reverse.

The usual answer is to improve each supply-chain function separately. IBM Research instead built the Supply Chain Scenario Modeler, a tool that optimises the distribution network, supply flow, inventory and transportation policies together.

The critical move was wiring the OR models to a bank of quantified impacts, including a structured data model that links results directly to a profit-and-loss statement by product category, so executives could see the dollars behind a policy choice.

Since the work began in 2009, McKesson's Pharmaceutical division reduced its committed capital by more than $1 billion, and the modeling spawned a roadmap of further improvement projects.