Chain Reaction is Sourcing Journal’s discussion series with industry executives to get their take on today’s logistics challenges and learn about ways their company is working to keep the flow of goods moving. Here, Aaron Geiger, director of accounts at Ortec Americas, discusses how the Atlanta-based software development company leverages cutting-edge technologies and data-driven insights to address complex challenges, ultimately helping businesses optimize their resources, reduce costs and drive sustainable growth.
Name: Aaron Geiger
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Title: Director of accounts
Company: Ortec
What is Ortec?
Ortec is a leading provider of advanced analytics and optimization solutions, dedicated to helping organizations enhance their operational efficiency and decision-making processes.
What industries do you primarily serve?
Ortec primarily serves industries including food and beverage, retail, energy, manufacturing and transportation and logistics.
Which industry do you think has the most to teach fashion about improving their supply chain logistics?
I believe the food service distribution industry has the most to teach fashion about improving supply chain logistics. Food service deals with highly perishable goods, fluctuating demand and tight delivery windows, which demands real-time adaptability and predictive analytics to minimize waste and ensure freshness. Fashion could learn from this by adopting similar proactive strategies—like artificial intelligence (AI)-driven route optimization and zone engineering—to handle seasonal variability, reduce lead times and enhance responsiveness to trends, ultimately making their supply chains more resilient and efficient.
What are the main things brands and retailers could do right now that would immediately improve logistics?
Investing in advanced route optimization software to reduce empty miles and fuel consumption and…implementing real-time visibility tools for better tracking. They should stop relying on manual planning or outdated spreadsheets, which lead to inefficiencies, and instead shift to automated, data-driven decision-making. Additionally, fostering closer collaboration with carriers through shared platforms would help align expectations and reduce delays.
What areas of logistics aren’t receiving the industry attention they deserve?
AI-driven zone planning and intelligent delivery network design deserve more attention. While route optimization gets a lot of focus, zone engineering—using analytics to dynamically balance territories, simulate changes and optimize schedules—is often overlooked. This area is crucial for handling complex, urban delivery environments and fluctuating demand, yet many companies still use static zoning, leading to imbalances in workload and higher costs. Greater adoption could unlock significant efficiencies in last-mile logistics.
When it comes to creating efficiencies, there are quick wins and longer plays. What are a few things your company is doing to help its partners succeed on both fronts?
For quick wins, Ortec provides route and load optimization tools that immediately reduce fleet mileage and boost truck utilization, delivering fast return on investment (ROI) through fuel savings.
For longer plays, we’re implementing real-time control tower solutions that integrate live monitoring with predictive analytics, helping partners build adaptive operations over time. Additionally, our AI zone engineering tools enable simulations for strategic network redesign, supporting sustained improvements in service reliability and cost management. AI can be leveraged to continually refine and enhance operational data, including drive times, stop durations and customer-specific time windows.
By learning from actual performance and historical patterns, the technology becomes increasingly accurate and adaptive over time. This ongoing improvement reduces the organization’s dependency on manual inputs from customers, account managers and sales teams, creating a more autonomous and data-driven process.
What is your company doing to make the movement of goods more sustainable?
Ortec is committed to sustainability through our optimization software, which minimizes fuel consumption and emissions by optimizing routes, loads and vehicle utilization—potentially reducing CO2 output for partners. Our control tower solutions help predict and mitigate disruptions that could lead to inefficient, high-emission detours. These efforts align with broader goals of greener supply chains.
What is the one thing brands and retailers could be doing to make better use of technology to improve logistics?
The one thing brands and retailers could do is adopt integrated control tower technology with real-time visibility and AI analytics. This shifts operations from reactive firefighting to proactive decision-making, allowing them to anticipate disruptions, optimize resources on the fly and align logistics with dynamic market conditions for greater efficiency and reliability.
Are you optimistic about the state of supply chains in the next few years?
Yes, I’m optimistic. With advancements in AI, optimization and real-time data integration, supply chains are poised to become more adaptive and resilient. Companies embracing proactive technologies like those from Ortec will not only navigate current challenges but thrive, leading to more efficient, sustainable and customer-centric operations.
