If the wild ebbs and flows of global container demand the past three years showed anything, it’s that upheaval in transportation networks are a symptom, not the disease, of upstream planning inefficiency and downstream congestion. Looking upstream is especially instructive, and the pandemic seemed to instigate a renewed focus on an area of global supply chains that’s not exactly new: purchase order management. What changed in this cycle? Over the last two decades, containerized supply chains became so reliable that PO management receded into the background. But transit times and freight costs got so out of whack during the pandemic, that the ordering and planning phases merited more attention than they had been getting. And thus, there’s a renewed focus on the first mile of global logistics. In this session, a shipper, a software provider, and a 3PL that focus intensely on how POs connect to downstream supply chains will discuss how and why PO management has re-emerged as a focus area, and where things go from here.