Over the past five years, supply chain disruption has been relentless, causing many companies to rethink how they handle ongoing delays and uncertainty. Few companies have undertaken a transformation as profound as Qualcomm, a multinational corporation that designs and develops semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology.
At the heart of that transformation is Brent Wilson, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain Operations, who joined the tech giant when supply chain volatility was at its peak. Speaking at Kinexions, the flagship supply chain conference hosted by Kinaxis in Austin, Texas, Wilson shares Qualcomm’s transformation story.
A full change in thinking
“When I joined Qualcomm,” Wilson explains, “they had lost control of the supply chain. There was no confidence in being able to promise orders to customers, and there was no real connection between the many parts needed to build a working product.” During the chaos of COVID, that was a wake-up call for the business.
Tasked with rebuilding the entire supply chain, Wilson implemented a comprehensive sales and operations planning (S&OP) process powered by Kinaxis Maestro, a process that went beyond software implementation; Qualcomm required an organisational and cultural shift.
“Up to that point, supply chain was seen as the supply chain team’s job,” Wilson explains. “We made a conscious effort to get everyone involved to get them to understand the process. This meant every department was going to have a say in what the data should be. And I think that really alleviated some of the fears.”
That shift in mindset allowed the entire business to see the supply chain as a shared responsibility. But what truly accelerated Qualcomm’s evolution was the technological backbone of Kinaxis Maestro.
Real-time impact
“The power of Maestro is its concurrency,” Wilson says. “The visibility allows us to have conversations around what might happen at the leading edge. In some cases, it allows us to change where we might point a particular design or take a softer approach into a market.”
Qualcomm’s business has evolved dramatically in recent years. Once focused almost exclusively on handsets, the company now operates in diverse markets including automotive, compute, XR (extended reality), and hyperscale servers. These sectors operate at different speeds, with different expectations and constraints. “Having better control of our supply chain means we can enter these markets flawlessly,” Wilson explains. “We can service the customers at a very high level from the very first day we start shipping, all in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”
Maestro enables Qualcomm to model what-if scenarios, evaluate long-term constraints (some as far out as three years), and even make early calls about where to push or pull investment. Wilson details: “We’ve had cases where we planned to go hard into a market, but the data showed a constraint coming years down the line, so we changed strategy. That kind of foresight was unheard of at Qualcomm before Maestro.”
Letting the results speak
Wilson’s metrics for measuring success might be simple, but that doesn’t make them easy to achieve. The first is response time — how quickly the company can commit to a customer order. The second is accuracy — how reliably they hit that first committed delivery date. “When we started tracking the metrics before the planning system, we were at 65%. Now we’re over 95%,” Wilson says.
Those gains are not only operational but also strategic. For many, supply chain disruption has become the norm. The organisations able to respond quickly and reliably have a distinct competitive advantage. Wilson believes that’s exactly what Maestro has unlocked.
People-powered transformation
While technology has been central to the change, Wilson points out that tools alone aren’t enough. “You can have the best systems in the world,” he says, “but if your people aren’t behind it, it won’t work.” To that end, Wilson and his team invested heavily in alignment. They mapped out roles and responsibilities, built transparency into data-sharing, and emphasised the principle of one source of truth. That meant breaking down silos and agreeing on common data sources, even when the data didn’t originate within Wilson’s team.
“There were fears,” he admits. “People thought this new process would take control away. You see, you have to convince people that this is going to be better for the corporation. I always say supply chain is a team sport, so it’s important to make sure everyone understands their role.”
Kinaxis became a strategic partner in Qualcomm’s transformation. Maestro’s ability to unify planning across time horizons and business functions made it the right fit for a company with Qualcomm’s complexity.
Making Kinexions
At Kinexions, Wilson finds true value in the network. “The presentations are great,” he says, “but the real value is found in the peer connections. It’s good to hear how others are implementing Maestro at different stages and to get some references from what people are going through.”
Kinexions isn’t just a stage for Kinaxis to show off its AI-driven platform. It’s a gathering of supply chain professionals all facing similar pressures: geopolitical volatility, inflation, talent shortages, and the increasing demand for agility. Wilson sees opportunity in all of it, especially when it comes to technology. He says, “The things that are being introduced with AI are really exciting, and I think we’re just tapping into the potential of what that can be.”
For Qualcomm, the transformation is ongoing, but there’s a clear trajectory that goes beyond the supply chain team. The whole organisation approach provides greater visibility, greater agility, and a deeper understanding of how supply chain touches every corner of the business.
- Collaboration & Optimization
- Together in Events
