KPMG: the supply chain leaders of 2026 are “data-informed.” Most businesses aren’t even data-collected.

KPMG’s 2026 supply chain outlook identifies the defining trait of supply chain leaders this year: data-informed decision-making. Not data-collected. Not data-reported. Data-informed — meaning the data actually changes what people do.

That distinction matters more than it sounds.

What this means for your operations

Most businesses that have started measuring things — energy use, waste, costs, supplier performance — have data sitting somewhere. In a spreadsheet. In an invoice folder. In someone’s head.

But having data and using data are completely different things.

Data-collected means: “We track our energy use.”

Data-informed means: “We saw energy per unit spike on Line 3 last Tuesday, found a chiller malfunction, fixed it, and our cost-per-unit dropped back by Thursday.”

The first is a record. The second is a feedback loop. And the difference between the two is where compounding happens.

A record tells you what happened. A feedback loop tells you what happened, triggers a response, and makes the next cycle better. Over time, the business that runs on feedback loops pulls further ahead every quarter — not because they made one big change, but because every small decision feeds the next one.

That’s what Stack 5 is about. Not a dramatic transformation. A system that learns from its own data and improves as it operates.

The tactic

Identify one decision you made this month on instinct. Then figure out what data would have made it better.

Examples:

• “We repriced Product A because costs felt higher.” — What data? Actual cost-per-unit trend over the last 6 months. Was the price increase the right amount, or did you overshoot?
• “We switched to a new packaging supplier because they were cheaper.” — What data? Total cost including defect rate, lead time reliability, and hidden fees. Was it actually cheaper?
• “We cut the night shift because demand felt soft.” — What data? Output-per-shift compared to energy-per-shift. Was the night shift actually the least efficient, or just the least visible?

Pick one. Identify the data gap. Set up the tracking — even if it’s manual — so that next month, you have the number instead of the feeling.

That’s one turn of the compounding loop. Do it twelve times and you have a business that’s measurably better at decisions than it was a year ago. Your competitors, who are still running on instinct, won’t understand why you keep pulling ahead.

The free tool

The Compounding Loop Tracker is a one-page template for logging instinct-based decisions and converting them into data-informed ones. Each row captures: the decision, the instinct behind it, the data that was missing, and the tracking you set up. Over time, this becomes your proof that the system is working. This finds the gap. The Modern Ops Program closes it.