Best-of-Breed Versus Platform: The Supply Chain Architecture Debate

Series connection: The first three articles described the operating requirement: connected planning, adaptive execution, and intervention-oriented visibility. This installment addresses the technology-design question—where broad platforms create coherence, where specialists create advantage, and how a hybrid architecture can avoid application sprawl. Part 5 closes the series by translating that architecture into a modernization program.
The debate between best-of-breed applications and int